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LITERARY NOTICES.
133

The Chemistry of Saké-Brewing. By R. W. Atkinson, B. Sc. (Lond.), Professor of Analytical and Applied Chemistry in Tokio Daigaku. Tokio, Japan: Published by the University. Pp. 73.

Saké is the beer of Japan, and is made from rice by processes similar in principle to those by which our beer is made from our grains, and which are described in their details in the course of this work. The Japanese brewers, it appears, discovered, three hundred years ago, a process for preserving their beer by heating it, thus anticipating a part of Pasteur's great discovery, but did not have the art of putting the heated liquor in perfectly pure germ-proof vessels, so that they omitted, after all, the most essential feature of Pasteur's process. It is only by repeated heatings, whereby its quality is injured, that they are able to keep their beer for a very considerable length of time. We learn, from the introduction to this work, that the annual consumption of saké in Japan is equivalent to about six gallons per head of the population. If the saké were diluted twice, so as to be of about the same strength as English beer, the consumption, twelve gallons a head, would be but little more than one third the consumption of beer in England, thirty-four gallons a head. "The brewing of saké is, therefore, of relatively less importance than that of beer in England, and this is doubtless to be ascribed to the enormous consumption of tea, which serves at all times, in summer and in winter, as the national beverage."

Information relative to the Construction and Maintenance of Time-Balls. Prepared under the Direction of General W. B. Hazen, Chief Signal-Officer of the Army. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 31, with Three Plates.

Frequent inquiry having been made at the Signal-Service office for information relative to the erection of time-balls, or other accurate time-signals, the general officer of the service addressed a letter of inquiry to the observers connected with the bureau who employed the balls, concerning the method of their construction and their operative machinery. The present circular of information is compiled from the replies to his inquiries.


PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Programme of the Thirty-first Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Montreal, August 23, 1882. Montreal: Published by the Local Committee. Pp. 215.

Address of Edward Atkinson at the opening of the Second Annual Fair of the New England Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Institute, in Boston, September 6, 1882. Boston: Franklin Press. 1882. Pp. 32.

The Growth of Children. By George W. Peckham. Reprint from Sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health. Wisconsin. Pp. 46.

The International Time System. By Professor John K. Rees. From "Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences." Pp. 10.

Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Astronomical Society, together with the Report of the Director of the Dearborn Observatory. 1882. Chicago: Knight & Leonard. Pp. 56. Illustrated.

Extracts from an Old History of Louisiana. Translated. Pp. 19. Illustrated. Also, On the Transmission and Transformation of Nervous Diseases through Heredity. By Thomas Layton, M. D. Reprints from New Orleans "Medical and Surgical Journal." 1882. Pp. 22.

"The Modern Stenographic Journal." Vol. I, No. 1. Monthly. Buffalo, New York, September, 1882. Pp. 12. $2 a year.

Stricture of the Rectum. By Robert Newman, M. D. Reprint from New England "Medical Monthly." 1882. Pp. 7.

New Check List of North American Moths. By Professor A. R. Grote. New York. 1882. Pp. 73.

The Alphabet of the Future. By George H. Paul. 1882. Pp. 12.

Sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Wisconsin. 1881. Madison, Wisconsin. 1882. Pp. 230.

The House-Fly considered in Relation to Poison Germ. By Thomas Taylor, M. D. 1862. Pp. 6.

Report of the Board of Commissioners of the Ninth Cincinnati Industrial Exposition. 1881. Pp. 314.

Report on the Character of Six Hundred Tornadoes. By Sergeant J. P. Finley. Washington. 1882. Pp. 19. With Plates.

Explosive and Dangerous Dusts. By Professor T. W. Tobin, Ph. D. Milwaukee. 1882. Pp. 14.

Dime Question Books. No. II. Literature. Pp. 35. No. III. Physiology. Pp. 37. No. IV. Theory and Practice of Teaching. Pp. 37. No. VI. United States History and Civil Government. Pp. 32. 10 cents each. Also, The New Education, by Professor Meiklejohn. Pp. 35; and A Small Tractate of Education, by John Milton. Pp. 26. 15 cents each. Syracuse, New York: C. W. Bardeen & Co.

On the Age of the Tejon Rocks of California and the Occurrence of Ammonitic Remains in Tertiary Deposits. By Angelo Heilprin. From the "Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia," July, 1882. Pp. 20.

Contributions from the Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania. No. XX. Contributions to Mineralogy. By F. A. Genth. 1882. Pp. 24.

Historical Sketch of Greene Township. Hamilton County, Ohio. By C. Reemelin. Cincinnati: Robert Clark & Co. 1882. Pp. 33.

Nervous Control, or Equilibration. By James T. Searcy. M. D. From "Transactions of the Alabama Medical Association." 1882. Pp. 24.