comply with some demand. A brief, comprehensive record of the progress in the applications of electricity and of events illustrating it, during 1882, adds value to the work. Classified indexes are provided, and reference is further facilitated by differences in the coloring of the leaf-edges of the several departments.
Recherches sur la Structure de quelques diatomées contenues dans le "Cementstein" du Jutland (Researches on the Structure of some Diatoms contained in the "Cementstein" of Jutland). By MM. W. Prinz and E. Van Ermengen. Brussels: A. Manceaux. Pp. 74, with Four Plates.
A record of a minute and careful examination of the curious organic structures designated, of particular interest to microscopists and students of the Diatomacæ. The authors claim, moreover, a kind of educational interest and utility for studies of the class to which this one belongs, because acquaintance with the exact forms of the varied and delicate designs that adorn the siliceous envelopes of the microscopic algae facilitates the interpretation of similar images that appear in other microscopic investigations, and furnishes a safeguard against the causes of error and illusions to which microscopists are exposed from the presentation of figures under their instruments which do not conform to the reality.
Geological Survey of Alabama. Report for 1881 and 1882. By Eugene Allen Smith, Ph. D., State Geologist. Montgomery, Alabama: W. D. Brown & Co. Pp. 614, with Maps.
The present volume of the reports is devoted chiefly to an account of the agricultural features of the State. The author was commissioned to prepare the cotton report of Alabama in connection with the tenth census, and by joining the two works has been able to make both more complete than he could have made either separately. Special attention is given to the descriptions of the soils, as to the State and by counties, of timber-trees and other plants, and to cotton production. Excellent graphic, colored maps are inserted, showing the soils, the rainfall and temperature by the seasons and by the year, and the percentages of land in different parts of the State cultivated in cotton.
First Annual Report on the Injurious and other Insects of the State of New York. By J. A. Lintner, State Entomologist. Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co. Pp. 383.
Dr. Lintner has given a large amount of information on the subject of his report. Beginning with an exposition of the importance of entomological study, he considers the extent of insect depredations and the losses from them, particularly in the United States, the immense number of insects, and the necessity, for the sake of contending with them, of acquiring knowledge of their habits. He then reviews the progress that has been made in economic entomology, estimates the value of the various insecticides that have been introduced and of other remedies for and preventives of insect depredations, after which he furnishes descriptions and life-histories of the more injurious insects. Among the preventives of insect depredations suggested by Dr. Lintner is one which we believe is new: it depends upon the theory that insects are attracted to the plants they infest by the odor, and consists in the use of some substance by which that odor may be overcome or neutralized.
Hints on the Drainage and Sewerage of Dwellings. By William Paul Gerhard, Civil Engineer. New York: William T. Comstock, 6 Astor Place. 1884. Pp. 302. Price, $2.50.
This little work has grown out of a series of articles contributed by the author, under the signature "Hippocrates," to the periodical "Building." Its object is to give an account of the usual condition in which plumbing-work done years ago, and some quite recently done, may be found, and to give suggestions on the proper manner of doing the work. A valuable report on "Filth Diseases and their Prevention," by medical officer John Simon, of Great Britain, and other works on dwelling-house sanitation are referred to to fortify conclusions. The book is frequently illustrated with examples of bad work to be avoided and of good work to be patterned after.
The Trichiniasis Question.—D. Appleton & Co., of New York, will publish shortly a work on "The Relation of Animal Diseases to the Public Health, and their
