impart. It presents chemistry as a philosophic system, and it deals with the facts of the science only so far as they illustrate this system. It is not intended in any respect to take the place of laboratory teaching, but solely to supplement it. Not until the student has become familiar with chemical phenomena, at least to some limited extent, is he prepared to study the science in a systematic way; but all who have this preparation will acquire most rapidly a general knowledge of the whole field when the subject is presented in a deductive form.
Report of the Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College. By Edward C. Pickering. Cambridge: University Press. Pp. 16.
This is the thirty-sixth annual report of the institution. Mention is made of. the improved position that has been given the Observatory for conducting researches by means of the subscription which was raised in 1878. Observations have been made on eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, the spectra of particular stars, the comets of 1881, variable stars, and the working of the instruments, and also photometric observations. Some interesting results have been derived from the observations on stellar spectra, one of them giving a hint toward a more rapid method of detecting variable stars, another suggesting analogies between the spectrum of a certain star and that of the great comet of 1881. Mr. Chandler, of the observatory staff, is engaged in collating, for comparison, the observations of stars of known or suspected variability.
The Palæolithic Implements of the Valley of the Delaware. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Ethnology. Pp. 25.
This publication contains communications which were made on the subject named in the title to the Boston Society of Natural History at one of its meetings, as follows: "Historical Sketch of the Discovery of the Implements," by C. C. Abbott; "A Comparison of them with Palæolithic Implements from Europe," by H. TV. Haynes; "On the Age of the Trenton Gravel," by G. F. Wright; "Statement relating to the Finding of an Implement in the Gravel," by Lucien Carr; and "On the Lithological Character of the Implements," by M. E. Wadsworth. Mr. F. TV. Putnam furnishes the concluding remarks, in which he describes the finding of three implements by himself and a companion, and adds, "Certainly the evidence that has been brought forward to-night will clear away all doubts as to the importance and reliability of Dr. Abbott's discoveries and investigations, which have proved the former existence of Palæolithic man in the valley of the Delaware."
Chemical and Physical Analysis of Milk, Condensed Milk, and Infants' Milk-Foods, with Special Regard to Hygiene and Sanitary Milk-Inspection. By Dr. Nicholas Gerber. Translated and edited by Dr. Hermann Endemann. Illustrated. New York. Pp. 101.
The author of this treatise has been engaged, scientifically and practically, in the dairy industry for several years, and is now manager of a milk-product company in the interior of the State of New York. Having often himself felt the need of a uniform method of analysis for milk and its products which would satisfy practical wants, and possess scientific accuracy, he has aimed to give in this volume a short and exact method for the examination of the various milks and milk-foods, expecting to follow it up with another volume on other milk-products and substances employed in the dairy industry. He claims superiority for his method over the methods known before 1877, in accuracy, in simplicity, and in cheapness and economy of time.
The Brain of the Cat. By Burt G. Wilder, M. D. Pp. 39, with Four Plates.
This paper, which was originally read before the American Philosophical Society, is the first of a series of contributions to the knowledge of the brain of the domestic cat, and is to be followed with a "Description of the Cerebral Fissures, together with their Synonymy." The author believes that the cat offers superior advantages over other easily accessible animals for preliminary anatomical work. He also proposes a revision of anatomical nomenclature, with a schedule of alterations for abbreviating and simplifying it, and making it more intelligible.
