unnecessary details. Chapter I is an earnest plea for the education of girls in this vital subject of the quality of food; II considers water, tea, coffee, and cocoa; III, cereal foods; IV, milk, butter, and cheese; V, sugar; VI, canned fruits and meats; VII, condiments; VIII, perishable foods and the means for preserving them; IX, other materials used in cooking; X, principles of diet. Mrs. Richards regards scientific housekeeping as "the duty of the rich and the salvation of the poor." She tells of a young woman who lived and flourished "on corn-meal, cooked in various ways, for a whole year, with only a dinner every Sunday at a friend's house. She kept well and hearty on a peck of Indian-meal a month; so that her whole living cost only about ten dollars a year, as she prepared it herself." Twenty hours a week spent in making pies, cakes, and puddings, at a cost of five dollars, when an equivalent in fruit for dessert can be had for three dollars, with fuel and service saved as well as time, is given as one of the instances of thoughtless waste in which current household management abounds. The excellent works put forth by Mrs. Richards and her example of a life devoted to high practical ends must help on the time when housekeepers will respect their calling, become intelligent and interested in it, and then we may hope that their best thought will be devoted to its improvement.
Bulletin of the Scientific Laboratories of Denison University, Granville, Ohio. Edited by Professor C. L. Herrick. Pp. 136, with Plates and Tables. Price, $1.25.
The editor, assuming that every well conducted institution of learning should form a recognized center of scientific activity, the "Bulletin" is intended to represent the life of the college in its scientific departments. It contains papers, most of them well and clearly illustrated, on the "Osteology of the Evening Grossbeak"; "Metamorphoses of Phyllopod Crustacea"; "Superposed Buds"; "Limicole, or Mudliving Crustacea"; "Rotifers of America, with Descriptions of a New Genus and Several New Species"; "The Clinton Group of Ohio, with Descriptions of New Species"; "A Compend of Laboratory Manipulation," presenting in concise form the methods which have proved to be of greatest service; a condensed translation of Eugene Hussak's tables for the determination of rock-forming minerals; and a brief account of the natural history department of the university.
Food Consumption. By Carroll D. Wright.—Chemical Analysis and Treatment. By Professor W. O. Atwater. Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Company. Pp. 90.
This is the part of the report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics that relates to the quantities, costs, and nutrients of food materials. The investigation to which it relates was undertaken in the conviction that much money is wasted in the purchase of food that is lacking in the elements of nutrition, and that the incomes of working-men might be made far more effective if their food were provided in accordance with the results of scientific research. To aid in determining this point, a number of schedules of dietaries, giving qualities and costs of food of people of limited incomes were collected, and the constituents subjected to analysis. The results of the analyses are here presented in a comparative form, as between the constituents themselves, and as compared with other dietaries and recognized standards.
Hand-Book of Plant Dissection. By J. C. Arthur, M. Sc, Botanist to the New York Agricultural Experiment-Station; Charles R. Barnes, Professor of Botany in Purdue University; and John M. Coulter, Ph. D., Professor of Botany in Wabash College, Editors of the "Botanical Gazette." New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1866.
By the method of this book, plants are first subjected to "gross anatomy," as it is called, or observation, with the aid only of a hand-lens; and then, passing to "minute anatomy," every part is subjected to the compound microscope. The apparatus, reagents, and materials required, have been made as few as possible, and the directions for their use are so clear and intelligible, that they must have been derived from actual and extended experience in giving this form of instruction. The subjects selected for study are common plants, to be found
