R. W. Wood. Physical Optics. The Macmillan Company, New York. 1921, pp. XVII + 706.

The new edition of this excellent textbook on physical optics is, unfortunately, a stereotype reprint of the 1911 edition. The subtitle on the title page reads “new and revised edition,” but this inscription, too, has been mechanically reprinted from the 1911 edition.

If in the preface to the second edition the author notes that the rapid development of physical optics from 1905 to 1911 made substantial additions necessary in almost every chapter of the book, then all the more should this have been expected in the 1921 edition. The old edition, in many of its parts, is far from being so canonical that it could be issued without changes. It is rather curious, for example, to read in a book published in 1921 the chapter “Electro-optics,” in which not a word is said about the principal phenomenon in this field—the Stark effect.

The new edition has not even been proofread; thus, for example, on p. 300 there is still reported a method of working with Cornu’s polarimeter that is known to be incorrect. The French translation of Wood’s textbook (1912) is considerably fuller and more complete than the new American edition.

S. Vavilov.