The Popular Health Almanac, for 1877. Edited by Frederick Hoffmann. New-York: E. Steiger. Pp. 40. Price, 10 cents.
This is a valuable and most useful compilation of applied health-knowledge, such as should be found in every family. The first number was issued last year, and was so well appreciated that it is followed by another this year, and we hope the series will be continued. One of its most important features is to expose the traffic in patent medicines, and, to show their fraud and worthlessness, the chemical composition of many popular nostrums is given. We fully agree with the following estimate of this almanac, given by Dr. Elisha Harris: "Accept my thanks and very hearty congratulations for the admirable little manual which you have justly entitled 'Popular Health Almanac.' It certainly is the most acceptable and well-arranged compilation for public instruction on sanitary matters I ever saw; indeed, it is far more and better than a compilation, so happily has Dr. Hoffmann studied and crystallized the limits and substance of sanitary knowledge in the modest and beautiful little Health Mentor which, in all particulars, has been so wonderfully well designed and executed that thousands of families will sincerely thank its editor and publisher."
The First Fonakigrafik Teacher: A Guide to a Practical Acquaintance with the Literary Style of the Art of Phonachygraphy. An Improved Substitute for Long-Hand Script, etc., etc. Amherst, Mass., U. S. A.: John Brown Smith, Author and Publisher. Pp. 24. Price, 25 cents.
For such a humble little print as this the pretensions are very lofty, as it aims to make a revolution in the future modes of printing and writing. Following out the idea that "to save time is to lengthen life," the author remarks: "The saving of time in acquiring an education would be almost one-half if fonakigrafi (?) was exclusively used for both print and script, thus doing away with the absurdity of having half a dozen different alphabets for print and script as in use at present." Mr. Smith will, however, probably have to rack his brain again before he can invent a system that will completely set aside Pitman and his imitators or improvers. Undoubtedly, improvements will be made in the art of short-hand writing, but what direction they will take is not determined by this tract.
Matter and Force: A Course of Lectures on Physics. By J. K. Macomber. Ames, Iowa: Agricultural Steam-print. Pp. 95.
During the past few years Prof. Macomber has delivered the contents of this book, as a series of nine lectures, to his classes in Natural Philosophy. They are adapted to persons who have completed the elementary study of physics, and include the more recent views respecting matter and force. He treats, among other subjects, of "Potential Energy," and the "Correlation of Vital and Physical Forces," and gives the modern speculations in regard to the "Sun as a Centre of Force," with its relation to the existence of the solar system.
The Surface-Drainage of the Metropolitan District. By C. W. Folsom, C. E., of Cambridge. Boston: Wright & Potter, State Printers.
Mr. Folsom discussed this subject in the "Seventh Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health," but its importance has warranted its separate publication. He does not attempt to treat surface-drainage exhaustively, but rather suggests its necessity, and the diseases to which its neglect gives rise, pointing out the particular districts in the neighborhood of Boston which are in greatest need of treatment.
The Essential Piety of Modern Science. A Sermon. By John W. Chadwick, Minister of the Second Unitarian Society in Brooklyn. For sale by Charles P. Somerby, 139 Eighth Street, N. Y.
Mr. Chadwick read this sermon or address before the National Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches, held at Saratoga in September. He shows a decided liking for modern scientific tendencies, and believes that there is that in scientific thought which directly fosters all those sentiments which are the life-blood of religion.
