lected articles, more particularly those of especial interest to the Dominion. In the present number we find a history of the journal of which this is a continuation; an account of "The Royal Society of Canada"; a paper by Professor Dawson on "Rhizocarps in the Palæozoic Period;" a description by the Rev. Émile Petitot of "the Athabasca District of the Canadian Northwest Territory"; and shorter papers.
"Shadows": Being a Familiar Presentation of Thoughts and Experiences in Spiritual Matters, with Illustrative Narratives. By John Wetherbee. Boston: Colby & Rich. Pp. 288.
The author's endeavor has been to give, in a series of chapters, each of which shall be a finished one of itself, the reasons, without particularly saying 60, why he is a spiritualist; or to make a familiar presentation of the subject of modern spiritualism to those whom it may concern, both among its exponents, and among that wider world who feel interested in the subject, "and wish it were true," and want the "bottom facts."
Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions to the United States. With Minor Papers. By Herbert B. Adams, Ph. D. Baltimore: N. Murray. Pp. 102. Price, 75 cents.
This essay constitutes the first number of the third series of "Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science"—a series which is to be devoted to American institutions and economics. Among the purposes the author endeavors to serve in publishing it is to "call attention to the territorial foundations of the American Union, and point out the fact that our public lands stand in the same fundamental relation to our national commonwealth as did common lands to the village republics of New England. The great West was the Folkland of the United States; it bound them together by economic interests when they would otherwise have fallen apart after the Revolution. To trace out the further constitutional influence of our public lands upon the development of these States, which have increased and multiplied within the national domain, as did New England parishes within the original limits of one town, this would be a contribution indeed to American institutional history." As bearing upon this point, the author outlines a wide and varied field of research, on which it is hoped laborers will soon be engaged, and parts of which are to be exploited in future numbers of this series. The "Minor Papers" include articles on "George Washington's Interest in Western Lands," the "Potomac Company," and a "National University."
Egypt and Babylon, from Sacred and Profane Sources. By George Rawlinson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 329. Price, $1.50.
The Bible abounds in references to Egypt and the Mesopotamian empires and their affairs. So long as we had to depend for our knowledge of those countries in ancient times from the statements, generally half informed and often erroneous, of the Greek historians, these references were obscure and difficult to verify. The progress of archaeological discovery has put a different face upon matters. Under its light the life and history of these extremely ancient empires have been revealed at many points with remarkable vividness and a precision which we have hardly yet attained concerning some contemporary people, and the references in the Bible have been, to a very large extent, endowed with an exact significance. It is hardly necessary to say that further elucidations on points that are still dark may be anticipated from continued researches. It has been Mr. Rawlinson's task to collect the references, separately for Egypt and for Babylon, in the Bible, taking them nearly in chronological order, and to compare them with the facts, as related in other histories, and as inscribed in contemporary records, on the monuments executed by the rulers and peoples of the empires to which the references are made.
Van Nostrand's Engineering Magazine. Vol. XXXI, July-December, 1884. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 524.
This publication has a place of its own. It appeals especially to engineers, and to persons who are interested in the construction of works beyond the sphere of ordinary builders, and in extensive applications of machinery; and its papers on subjects of
