Methods of Research in Microscopical Anatomy and Embryology. By Charles Otis Whitman. Boston: S. E. Cassino & Co. Pp. 255. Price, $3.
The aim of this work is to supply in a measure a need which has been created by the rapid development of the methods of microscopical anatomy and embryology within the last few years. The contents of the volume have been arranged in two parts the first embracing methods of a more general nature, such as preservative fluids, dyes, macerating fluids, fixatives, mounting media, the microtome with its appurtenances, methods of imbedding, etc.; and the second including special applications of embryological, anatomical, and histological methods. Under the head of "embryological methods" are given, besides accounts of objects of study, notes on such points as the times, places, and best methods of collecting, breeding-habits, food, and other items of information that may aid the student in making a choice of material and controlling its supply. The part on special methods is designed to meet the wants of the beginner as well as of the more advanced student.
Report on Forestry (Department of Agriculture). Prepared by Nathaniel H. Egleston. Vol. IV. 1884. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 421.
This report is compiled from the replies to the circulars of inquiry which have been sent out to various parts of the country, asking for information respecting different points in the condition of the forests and the consumption of wood. The facts thus gathered are arranged in the shape of special reports by agents of the department, as on the collection, preservation, and planting of seeds or young trees in the prairie States; the condition of forests, timber-culture, etc., in the Southern and Western States; on the kinds and quantity of timber used for railroad-ties (from facts furnished by two hundred and eighty-three railroad companies); on the decrease of woodlands in Ohio; on the forest condition and lumber and wood trade of certain States; on the growth, etc., of trees; on the forests of Washington Territory; and on the production of maple-sugar in the United States and Canada.
The German Verb-Drill. By Adolphe Dreyspring. New York: D, Appleton & Co. Pp. 276.
Professor Dreyspring is the author of the "Cumulative Method" of teaching German, which he illustrates by the motto—Repetitio mater studiorum—"repetition the mother of studies." The purpose of this work is to present the mechanism of the colloquial and written languages in a series of exercises on the verbs, always lively and varied, yet subject to a well-ordered system. The author selects this part of speech as the central object of the exercises, because he believes that the office of none other is more complex, more important, and more useful in ministering to the power and intelligibility of expression. It is also the part of speech which in German as in other languages goes through more inflections and raises more difficulties in construction than any other; so that whoever masters the verb has little difficulty with anything else. The verb-drill takes the form of a lively conversation between the teacher and the class, in which a single verb being selected for the day's lesson, it is passed along in its inflections and with its combinations. The plan appears to us, looking at it from without, adapted to facilitate the study of language and make it more interesting, while it is also fundamental and thorough.
Lectures on the Principle of House-Drainage. By J. Pickering Putnam, Architect. Boston: Ticknor & Co. Pp. 125. A Guide to Sanitary House-Inspection. By William Paul Gerhard, C. E. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 145. Price, $1.25.
The "Lectures" of the former volume were delivered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before the Suffolk District Medical Society and the Boston Society of Architects. Their scope is chiefly the presentation of the principles on which the drainage appliances of houses should be constructed and arranged, with criticisms of existing appliances and arrangements. The author has himself devised some new appliances, the qualities of which he describes, but always with an honest notice to the reader that he is talking about his own work, A foreign and independent judgment of the
