Original Researches in Mineralogy and Chemistry. By J. Lawrence Smith, Membre Correspondant de l'Institut de France (Académie des Sciences), etc. Printed for presentation only. Edited by J. B. Marvin, B. S., M. D. Pp. 630. Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton & Co.
The title of this work indicates the chief line of research pursued by the author of its papers in his long and active career as an original scientific inquirer. We printed in the "Monthly" for December, 18'74, an interesting sketch of his busy life, and an account of his more important investigations. He issued a volume of "Scientific Researches" in 1873, which contained the most valuable of his contributions up to that date. The present volume is a reprint with but very little editorial change of his principal papers published since that time. It is a valuable record of recent results in mineralogical chemistry; and especially with reference to meteorites, which was a prominent subject of study with Dr. Smith.
Poems of Sidney Lanier. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 246. Price, $2.50,
From "The Independent," "Scribner's," "Lippincott's," "Appletons'," and other magazines, these occasional poems have been collected by the widow of the poet Most of them are characterized by a tender sadness, as might be expected from a writer who had known more pain than Joy. "The Symphony" and "Psalm of the West" are of a more vigorous type, and a humorous vein appears in several dialect poems. The poems are preceded by a memorial sketch by William H. Ward, who rates Sidney Lanier as "much more than a clever artisan in rhyme and meter."
Man in the Tertiaries. By Edward S. Morse. Salem, Mass.: The Salem PressPp. 15.
This is the vice-presidential address delivered before the Anthropological Section of the American Association, over which the author presided at the last meeting of the Association in Philadelphia. It reviews the evidence in favor of the high antiquity of man on the earth. An abstract of the address was published in "The Popular Science Monthly" for December.
The Agricultural Grasses of the United States. By Dr. George Vasey. The Chemical Composition of American Grasses. By Clifford Richardson. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 144.
This report is a contribution toward answering the question whether we can not select, from our wild or native species of grass, such as may be cultivated in those parts of the country unprovided with suitable kinds. The native grasses of the Territories receive most attention, and some information concerning the herbage-crops in the Gulf States is given. A large number of grasses are described, and one hundred and twenty varieties are figured in full-page plates.
United States Publications: Monthly Catalogue. Vol. I, No. I, January, 1885. Washington, D. C: J. 11. Hickox. Pp. 22. Price, $2 per annum.
The Catalogue will include the titles of publications of every description printed by order of Congress, or of any of the departments of Government, during the month preceding the date of its issue.
The Story Hour. For Children and Youth. By Susan H. Wixon. New York: Truth-Seeker Company. Pp. 222.
A collection of articles, with elegant illustrations, from the youth's department of the New York "Truth-Seeker." It has been the author's aim to produce a book "that, while pleasing, will awaken healthy thought, and stimulate to right endeavor." It is claimed to be "pure in tone, entirely free from superstitious taint, and well calculated to broaden, brighten, and strengthen the growing mind."
Proceedings of the American Society of Microscopists. Seventh Annual Meeting, Rochester, N. Y., August, 1884. Buffalo: Bigelow Brothers. Pp. 300.
Several of the papers of the "Proceedings" are given in full, among them an account, by Dr. George E. Fell, of the discovery by the aid of the microscope of an interpolation in a written contract. The opening address of President Jacob D. Cox reviews a part of the work of Robert B. Tolls in the improvement of the microscope, and is followed by a memoir of Mr. Tolles, by George E. Blackham.
