nence is given to accounts of injurious insects, in regard to which, besides the matter here furnished, references are made to descriptive works and reports for fuller information. Some changes are made in classification. Believing that some of the lower orders, such as the "Orthoptera" and "Pseudo-neuroptera" are heterogeneous, unnatural groups, which ought to be broken up into distinct orders, sixteen orders instead of eight are formed. Considering that there are probably about a million species, this number is thought not to be too many. The general principles and descriptions are followed by particular accounts of insects injurious to agriculture, with prescriptions of remedies against them, and information on collecting and rearing insects, dissecting, preserving, and microscopic mounting, and a bibliography—"The Entomologist's Library."
Old and New Astronomy. By Richard A. Proctor. London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co. In twelve monthly parts. Pp. 64, with two Plates each. Price, 2s. 6d. each.
The first five parts of this work have been received. It was the design of the author to make it the great work of his life—the one, as he himself has said, for which all the treatises on astronomy that he had hitherto produced, and also his astronomical essays and lectures, were preparatory. The chief object of it is to present in popular yet scientifically sound form "those views of the heavenly bodies which are included in what, in his last poem, Tennyson calls the 'New Astronomy'"; the life-histories of worlds and suns, studies of the planets as illustrating the stages of our own earth's life, and of the record of the earth as illustrating the life-histories of the planets; of the sun as the one star we can examine, and thus as telling us all we know in detail about the nature of other suns, and of the stars as illustrating the life of the solar system. There are also presented points of detail in which the astronomy of to-day differs from the astronomy of a quarter of a century ago—relating, among other things, to the structure of the galaxy, the sun's condition and surroundings, the condition of the various orders of bodies attending on the sun, the recognition of the moon as presenting the history of our earth's past as well as future life, and comets and meteors. Fuller explanations than the old ones are given of the tides and the precession of the equinoxes. The illustrations are of prime excellence, and a large number of them original. We are not aware whether the author had completed his work; but, even if he has left it unfinished, that which is already published may be regarded as a valuable addition to astronomical literature, and as giving the "latest news" on the subject.
Vierteljahresschrift über die Fortschritte auf def Gebiete der Chemie der Nahrungs-und Genussmittel (Quarterly Review of Progress in the Chemistry of Foods and Condiments). Edited by Drs. A. Hilger, J. König, R. Kayser, and E. Sell. Vol. II. 1887. Berlin: Julius Springer. New York: B. Westermann & Co. Pp. 692. Price, 14 marks.
The contents of this periodical, of which we have here the four numbers of the year stitched into one, hardly need any other description than the title. It is compactly filled with reports, analyses, receipts, statistics, and other matter related to the subject, given under such headings as "Meat," "Peptone and Meat Preparations," "Milk," "Oils," "Sugars," "Spices," "Fermentation-Phenomena," "Water and Water-Provision," "Preserves and Preserving Media," "Useful Articles," "Methods of Analysis," "Microscopic Investigations," "Laws," "Literature," and others of similar character. Only facts receive attention.
A Sketch of the Germanic Constitution, from Early Times to the Dissolution of the Empire. By Samuel Epes Turner, Ph. D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 185. Price, $1.25.
Though concerning only the political changes achieved by a particular people among the European powers, the history of the Germanic Constitution at all epochs of its development is of general interest—in early times, because of the contributions which the Germanic stock made to the blood, language, laws, and customs of the various states; in later times, because of the controversies and wars that turned around German pretensions, and of the lead taken by Germany in the Reformation; and in the present, because of the prominence that is ac-
