"Journal of Social Science," containing the Transactions of the American Association, December, 1882. Saratoga Papers of 1882. Boston: A. Williams & Co. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 164. $1.
The present number of the "Journal" contains, besides the opening address of the President of the Association, Professor Francis Wayland, and the report of the General Secretary, the papers read at the meeting in the Health and the Social Economy Departments. Among the papers in the former department we notice especially those of Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, on "The Health Care of Households, with Especial Reference to House Drainage"; of Dr. D. F. Lincoln, on "The Health of Boys' Boarding Schools"; of Dr. E. M. Mosher, on "The Health of Criminal Women"; and of Dr. A. N. Blodgett, on "The Management of Chronic Inebriates and Insane Drunkards." Two papers in the Social Economy Department, those of Mrs. Robinson on "Early Factory Life in New England" and Lucy Larcom on "American Factory Life," depict a condition of life and, intelligence among factory-operatives, and relations between employers and employed, which Americans were once proud of, and foreigners admired, but which have now—thanks largely to the protective policy—become things of the past, and which we can hardly hope to enjoy again.
On the Value of the "Nearctic," as one of the Primary Zoölogical Regions. By Professor Angelo Heilprin. Philadelphia. Pp. 20.
The "Nearctic," in Messrs. Sclater and Wallace's classification, corresponds with the North American zoölogical region, as distinguished from the Palæarctic or EurAsian, and the Neotropical, or South American, regions. The question under discussion is "whether the Nearctic region should be kept separate, or whether it should form part of the Palæarctic or of the Neotropical regions." Eminent authorities differ on the subject. Professor Heilprin makes an examination, by families, genera, and species, of the mammalia, birds, reptiles, and partially the butterflies and mollusca of the three regions, inquiring how many of each are common to the Nearctic and one of the two others, and to which of the two; and concludes "that, by the community of its mammalian, batrachian, and reptilian characters, the Nearctic fauna. . . is shown to be of a distinctively Old World type, and to be indissolubly linked to the Palæarctic (of which it forms only a lateral extension)." The conclusion is further illustrated by the mollusca and the butterflies.
Department of Agriculture: Report of the Entomologist for the Year ending June 30, 1882. By Charles V. Riley, M. A., Ph. D. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 168, with Twenty Plates.
The present report, which necessarily covers only a small part of the work actually done in the entomologist's office, is devoted to some of the more important observations and experiments of a practical nature on such subjects as the cultivation of pyrethrum and its use as an insecticide, silk-culture, the cotton-worm, the chinch bug, the army-worm, the insects affecting the orange and those affecting rice, some new depredators on corn, and various miscellaneous insects that attracted more than usual attention during the year. The large number of letters, asking for information, received at the office, has led to the preparation of bulletins on special subjects to be sent out. Such bulletins are ready on the Northern army-worm, the boll-or corn-worm, and canker-worms, and others are in preparation on cabbage-insects and the chinch bug. Three special reports, which will be more bulky, are in preparation—a bibliography of economic entomology, and reports on the insects affecting the orange-tree, and forest-tree insects.
Bulletin of the Buffalo Naturalists' Field Club. Vol. I. Nos. 1 and 2. Charles Linden, President; George S. Wardwell, Corresponding Secretary. Buffalo, N. Y.: W. W. Hicks, Printer. Bimonthly. Pp. 48. Price, $1 a year.
The club was organized in 1880, and has shown great vitality and enlisted much interest. Being in a condition to establish a periodical of its own, and that seeming desirable, it has originated the "Bulletin," the plan of which is to publish brief summaries of general papers read at the winter meetings of the club, short original papers, or
