Photo-Micrography. By A. Cowley Malley, F. R. M. S. Second edition. London: H. K. Lewis, 136 Gower Street, Pp. 166.
Drawing can not be wholly relied upon for the representation of minute microscopic objects, because of the difficulty of seeing such delicate things accurately, and of commanding the pencil to give a perfectly correct reproduction of what is seen. At the best, a drawing is apt to show evidence of preconceived notions of the structure in the mind of the observer. Photography, though not infallible, always accurately returns what is sent to the plate, and is almost universally true. In the present work, the author gives the methods he has himself adopted, and the most applicable parts of the methods used by others; and, by showing the facility of their application, he hopes to make photo-micrography more popular, and place it within the reach of all. In this second edition have been incorporated the advances that have been made in microscopy, and the more recent improvements in photography. Descriptions of the wet collodion and gelatino-bromide processes, and of the best methods of mounting and preparing microscopic objects for photomicrography, are given.
The Occult World. By A. P. Sinnett. Second American, from the fourth English edition, with the Author's Corrections and a New Preface. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 228. $1.25.
The readers of "The Popular Science Monthly" have already been informed, to some extent, respecting the doctrines of the theosophists, of which this may be considered one of the text-books. Among their beliefs is that in the existence among some privileged or specially instructed classes of persons of mysterious knowledge and power which are hidden from the mass of mankind, to which are referred and by which may be explained many wonderful things in ancient and modern lore, the reality of which appears supported by evidence we can not despise, but belief in which, so contrary are they to our ideas of nature, taxes the most credulous. The "science" which represents this knowledge and power has made some advances since the first edition of "The Occult World" was published, and its votaries believe that they have received additional confirmation of its reality. The new developments are given in the form of additional matter and notes, the original text of the book having been changed but little.
Russia under the Tzars. By Stepniak, author of "Underground Russia." New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 381. Price, $1.50. .
This book is divided into three parts. In Part I, "The Past," is shown how the original fundamental principle of the Russian Government was the sovereignty of the people, full, free, spontaneous, and indisputable in the highest possible degree, as it still is in the Mir, or the rural communes; and how Czarism gained a footing, and gradually crushed that sovereignty entirely out within the empire at large, and in all the great centers. Part II, "Dark Places," is made up of the relations of incidents in the lives of political suspects and their experiences with the police. In Part III "Administrative Exiles" are described, a number of features characterizing the despotism of the military and the police, and the measures of administrative repression which the Government is compelled to adopt in its struggles against the forces of human nature to which it has set itself in opposition.
Third Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1881, 1882. By J. W. Powell, Director. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 564, with Plates.
This volume contains the reports of progress for the year of the heads of the divisions of the survey, and six monographs on special features of the survey. The administrative reports are, that of Mr. Clarence King, prepared for him in his absence by Dr. Carl Barus, on the "Determinations of the Physical Constants of Rocks"; of Mr. Arnold Hague, on "Operations in the Division of the Pacific"; of Mr. C. K. Gilbert, of the "Division of the Great Basin, chiefly relating to the Survey of the Quaternary Lake Bonneville"; of Mr. T. C. Chamberlin, on the "Survey of the Glacial Moraine, from the North Border of Dakota to the Atlantic"; of Mr. S. F. Emmons, of the "Division of the Rocky Mountains"; of Mr. G.
