The A, B, C, of Finance. By Simon Newcomb, LL. D. New York: Harper & Brothers. Pp. 115. Price, 25 cents.
Prof. Newcomb is an astronomer, and of course mostly interested in the stars, but he finds time to give a portion of his attention to the affairs of his country, and he, moreover, makes a contribution where it is most needed. It is in the field of finance that the nation now needs the greatest help, and we agree with Prof. Newcomb that the popular instruction at present most urgently demanded is in the A, B, C, of financial science. In the miniature form of "Harper's Half-Hour Series" the author has brought out a succession of chapters on "Labor," "Capital," "Wages," "Value," the "Different Kinds of Money," "Public Faith," and the "Lessons of History," which are written in a clear, simple, instructive, and most convincing manner. Such nimble little pocketbooks, pointedly summing up these large subjects, are wanted by the people, and are capable of doing more efficient service than larger books.
Robinson Crusoe's Money: or, The Remarkable Financial Fortunes and Misfortunes of a Remote Island Community. By David A. Wells. New York: Harper & Brothers. Pp. 118. Price, 50 cents.
In this small volume Mr. Wells inculcates the lessons of political economy through a sort of allegorical artifice, in which commercial and financial truths and absurdities are brought out in a dramatic way that is both amusing and instructive. Many who would not like a dry, didactic treatise on economics would be pleasantly beguiled by Mr. Wells's imaginary narration, while the characteristic illustrations, by Nast, will serve to help on both the fun and the logic of the text.
A New Treatise on Steam-Engineering, Physical Properties of Permanent Gases, and of Different Kinds of Vapor. By John W. Nystrom, C. E. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 188. Price, $1.50.
This book consists of numerous tables, data, and information, which appear to the author to be wanting in the profession, and which have not heretofore been published. Among the topics are horse-power of steam-boilers, chimneys, combustion, properties of fuel, smoke-burning, water-gauges, safety-valves, radiation, steam-boiler explosion, strength of steam-boilers, compression and expansion of air, properties of water and steam, and various other subjects of interest to engineers. The author rejects no less than thirty-eight terms or phrases that have grown up, and come into modern use in mechanical science.
Public Health Reports and Papers. Vol. III. Presented at the Meetings of the American Public Health Association in the Years 1875-1876. New York: Hurd & Houghton. Pp. 241. Price, 4.
Among the most important volumes issued from our press are the reports of the American Public Health Association. They comprise papers on a variety of important topics, connected with the health of the community, by our most eminent sanitarians; and they will be generally found valuable as summing up, and stating in a clear and readable form, the results of long study and well-directed investigation. Among so excellent an array of articles as the present volume furnishes, it seems invidious to discriminate, and in especially commending the papers of Dr. Austin Flint, on "Food in its Relations to Personal and Public Health;" of Prof. Washburn, on "Expert Testimony and the Public Service of Experts;" and of Mr. Charlton Lewis, on "The Influence of Civilization on the Duration of Life," we do not for a moment imply that the other discussions of the volume, all of them on important subjects, are not of equal interest and ability. This series of reports should be found in the libraries of all who take interest in the vital subject of personal and public hygiene.
From Prof. C. V. Riley we have received a reprint of five papers contributed by him to the "Transactions" of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences; their titles are as follows: "Larval Characters and Habits of the Blister Beetles belonging to the Genera Macrobasis and Epicauta;" "On a Remarkable New Genus in Meloidæ;" "Notes on Megathymus yuccæ;" "Remarks on Pronuba yuccasella;" "Differences between Anisopteryx pometaria (Harr.) and Anisopteryx æscularia (W.-V.)."
