Abstract of Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, D. C., with the Annual Address of the President, for the First Year, ending January, 1880, and for the Second Year, ending January IS, 1881. Prepared by J. W. Powell. Washington. Pp. 150.
The President's address reviews the work of the Society during two years, and describes generally the papers that were read, according to the particular department of anthropological science to which they severally relate. The papers for the most part concern American subjects, and are founded on original observations. The summaries contain much that endows the subject with interest and is adapted to stimulate continued investigations.
Thoughts on Agricultural Education. By E. Lewis Sturtevant, M. D., South Framingham, Massachusetts. Pp. 19.
Dr. Sturtevant explains in an address the purpose and scheme of an agricultural college. In the discussion following the address, a minute of which is published with it, the teaching of agriculture in the common schools and the relative importance to farmers of instruction in advanced arithmetic and agricultural chemistry are considered.
The Nature of Vibration in Extended Media and the Polarization of Sound. By S. W. Robinson, Professor of Physics and Mathematics, Ohio State University.
This is mainly an argument, based upon experiments made by the author in effecting the polarization of sound, to show that the phenomena of polarization of light, heretofore supposed to be due to transversal vibrations, can be explained on the basis of longitudinal vibrations alone. This done, no reason is left for assuming that the waves of light differ in character from other waves which are the result of longitudinal vibrations. The experiments and their results are described in detail.
History of the Christian Religion to the Year 200. By Charles B. Waite, A. M. Chicago: C. Y. Waite & Co. Pp. 455. Price, $2.50.
This work is the result of years of laborious study, in which the author professes to have consulted all the writings of the first two centuries, and the works of the fathers of the Church, "in the interest of no church, creed, or dogma," but for his own satisfaction. In it he discusses the origin and history of all the gospels, those which are called apocryphal, forty in number, as well as those which have become canonical, and has compared three of the most famous of the apocryphal gospels in parallel passages with the canonical records. He adds sketches of nearly a hundred Christian writers of the first two centuries, with notices of their works, and a history of Christian doctrine for the same period, and declares his conclusions as to what is genuine.
A Practical Treatise on Nervous Exhaustion (Neurosthenia); its Symptoms, Nature, Sequences, Treatment. By George M. Beard, M. D. Second and revised edition. New York: William Wood & Co. 1880. Pp. 198. Price, $1.75.
Nervous exhaustion, according to Dr. Beard, is more common in this country than any other form of nervous disease, and, with other forms toward which it tends, constitutes a family of functional disorders that are of comparatively recent development, and that especially abound in the northern and eastern part of the United States. The author gives, in this volume, the result of the study and experience of his entire professional life on the subject. He describes the symptoms of the disease, showing their relations and interdependence, distinguishing them from the of ten closely resembling symptoms of other diseases, and discusses the complex developments and manifestations of the malady, its pathology, treatment, and hygiene. The consideration of the causes of the disorder is left for another volume.
On Philadelphite. By Henry Carvill Lewis. Reprinted from the "Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences," of Philadelphia. 1879 Pp. 16.
Extinct Cats of North America. 1880. Pp. 25. Some New Batrachia and Reptilia from the Permian Beds of Texas, etc. 1881. Pp. 45. The Systematic Arrangement of the Order Perissodactyla. 1881. Pp. 26. Second Contribution to the History of the Vertebrata of the Permian Formation of Texas. 1881. Figures. By Professor E. D. Cope.
The Bolometer. By Professor S. P. Langley.
