scriptions—are suggestive as to what the facts may have been, rather than satisfying as to what they were; and the gaps between them are so numerous and so wide as to make a complete restoration of the history still impracticable. Hence wide differences of opinion as to many of the essential features still prevail among those who are equally entitled to be regarded as authorities. Yet great advances have been made in the study, and a large number of the more important facts have been made certain. They are almost enough to give us the clew to the course of the history from the beginning. These facts the authors have sifted from the conjectures and speculations and discussions of controverted points with which the literature respecting ancient Egypt is encumbered, and have presented them in their order, and with reference to their bearing; and they have thus given, in a readable shape, a notion of what is actually known on the subject.
The Story of the Normans. Told chiefly in Relation to the Conquest of England. BySarah Orne Jewett. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 373. Price, $1.50.
This is one of the volumes of the happily conceived "Story of the Nations" series, and the one, perhaps, of those which have been published, that possesses the most immediate interest to American readers, as telling of a people through whom, in more than one sense, we partly derive our ancestry and our institutions. The story is presented in the attractive form of a running narrative, in which, while the history is faithfully adhered to and presented in its connection, scope is given for the full play of the romantic features and lively incidents which appear to be inseparable from our conceptions of Norman history, feudalism, and the life of the middle ages.
The Annual Index to Periodicals for 1886. Bangor, Me.: Q. P. Index, Publisher. Pp. 27.
This is the sixth annual issue of this Index and the second in the series of "Cumulative Indexes." It furnishes a complete index for the year to more than twenty-seven periodicals. By a system of notation which, odd as it looks at first, is easily learned and proves to be simple when learned, articles are referred to their authors and authors to their articles, and both to the precise issues of the several magazines in which they appear. Another set of symbols indicates the precise character of the several articles, The whole is put into so compact a shape that the present thin volume contains sixteen hundred and eighty-eight separate entries.
First Book of Chemistry: A Course of Simple Experiments for Beginners at Home and in Primary Schools. By Mary Shaw Brewster. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 144. Price, 77 cents.
To make the educational influence of the study of chemistry available for young pupils is the object of this little hand-book. In the words of the preface, "It aims to stimulate in the beginner, by the natural method of observation and experiment, a desire to know about every-day phenomena—to lead him to question for himself, and then to answer his own inquiry, not by appealing to book or teacher, but by reference to the facts presented." Generally the pupil is told only how to proceed, and is left to discover the results of experiments by his own observation. Only those experiments are employed whose bearings can be readily comprehended, and which can be performed with utensils and materials found in the homes and stores of any village. But little of chemical theory or nomenclature has been introduced. The pupil is first led to observe the difference between a mixture and a chemical compound, and is further made acquainted with chemical affinity, solution, crystallization, precipitation, filtration, and other fundamental ideas and processes. Then, after a presentation of the properties of acids, bases and salts, the common elements are taken up separately. The book is illustrated, and contains lists of apparatus and materials needed for experiments.
Report of the Ladies' Health Protective Association of New York. 1885-86. Mrs. M. J. Herbert, Secretary. Pp. 15.
The Association was organized in November, 1884, for the purpose of dealing with some of the "east-side nuisances" of
