First Annual Report of the Board of Health of Detroit. 1882. Detroit, Michigan: O. W. Wight, Health-Officer.
The report appears in the form of a "frank, earnest discourse to citizens on subjects of sanitary importance at home," rather than of a scientific discussion of hygienic concerns. Among the subjects considered are the board's system of dealing with contagious and infectious diseases; the preventive management of small-pox; the sewerage and house-drainage system of Detroit; the question of slaughtering in the city; the administrative method in the case of the abatement of nuisances; the purity of the ice-supply; the milk-supply; the "smoke nuisance"; and the water-supply. Other equally important subjects are reserved for future reports.
Van Nostrand's Science Series, Nos. 59, 60, and 61. Railroad Economics, by S. W. Robinson, C. E.; Strength of Wrought-Iron Bridges, same author; Potable Water and the Relative Efficiency of Different Methods of detecting Impurities, by Charles Watson Folkard. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 131, 175, 138. Price, 50 cents each.
Mr. Robinson's "Railroad Economics" is the fruit of an official tour of inspection under the direction of the State Commissioner of Railways, over the railroads of Ohio, and is intended to bring out such facts observed, and call attention to such features of practice, as shall assist in the attainment by railroads of a uniform standard of excellence. The second work, which has also been prepared in connection with the State railway inspection service of Ohio, furnishes practical formulas for beams, struts, columns, and semi-columns, as calculated by the author in the performance of his work of examining bridges for strength and trustworthiness. The formulas are not otherwise generally accessible in published form. Mr Folkard's "Potable Water" is the substance of an essay originally presented to the British Institution of Civil Engineers, and considers the various ways in which water becomes contaminated; the methods employed to detect and determine the extent of contamination, and their value; the bearing of the results of biological and microscopical research on the question, and the adequacy or inadequacy of proposed remedial measures.
Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club. Transactions No. 3. Ottawa, Canada. (W. Hague Harrington, Secretary-Treasurer.) Pp. 66, with Two Plates.
The record is for the year ending March 21, 1882. The club has one hundred and fifteen members. Four excursions were held during the summer; a conversazione was given on the 6th of January, and a lecture on the "Capabilities of the Prairie Lands of the Northwest, as shown by their Flora and Fauna," was delivered by Professor Macoun, on the 7th of April. Reports of the geological, botanical, entomological, ornithological and oölogical, and conchological branches are included among the Transactions, with papers on the "Geology of the Ottawa Palæozoic Basin," "Pine Life," "The Utica Slate," and other subjects.
Report of the Board of Commissioners of the Ninth Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, 1881. (J. R. Murdoch, Secretary, Cincinnati.)
The Ninth Exposition is believed to have far exceeded in completeness and novelty all that preceded it. The departments of Art, Horticulture, and Natural History, were full of interest and attractiveness, and the expert tests of machinery, a new feature, added greatly to the attractions of that department.
The American Citizen's Manual. Part I. Edited by Worthington C. Ford. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 146. Price, $1.
This is the fifth of Messrs. Putnam's series of hand-books on "Questions of the Day." It gives plain statements for the information and guidance of citizens, on the nature, distribution, and functions of our governments, national, State, and local, the electoral system, and the regulations surrounding the exercise of the franchise and the verification of the results, and the character of our civil-service administration. The present condition of civil-service abuse and the need of reform are clearly shown under the last head. A succeeding volume will more fully consider the functions of government.
