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CHOICE Review

This is a quite thorough, accurate, and up-to-date account of the dauntingly vast area of contemporary scholarship about Newton-his life, his predecessors, his intellectual achievements, and his influence. Arranged alphabetically, from ``Aberration'' to ``Young, Thomas,'' are more than 500 entries, ranging in length from a short paragraph to an essay of almost 50 pages on Newton's Principia. (But why no entry on Henry Cavendish, who performed experiments designed to measure the density of the Earth, and in which terrestrial objects were first observed to exert gravitational forces on one another?) Gjertsen writes very well and takes refreshingly forthright stands on controversial issues. Where necessary, he supplies diagrams but, regrettably, there are no pictures (although there is a full entry on the ``Portraits, Medals, Busts and Statues'' of Newton). Whether it is dipped into at random, consulted as as reference work, or read straight through, the book is continuously absorbing and may be recommended to anyone, whether professional historian of science or undergraduate, who is interested in Newton; and, for those who wish to learn more about a given topic, there is an ample bibliography. (Note: a sprinkling of typographical errors and misspellings-especially of proper names-ought to be corrected in any future printings.)-R. Palter, Trinity College, Conn.