Thayer, William R. The Best Elizabethan Plays. Boston: Ginn & Co. Pp. 611. $1.40.
Thompson, Robert Ellis, D. D. The Life of George H. Stuart, written by Himself. Philadelphia: J. M. Stoddart & Co. Pp. 333, with Portrait.
Tolstoi, Count Leo. The Kreutzer Sonata. Boston: Benjamin R. Tucker. Pp. 143.
Ward, Lester F. The Course of Biological Evolution. Washington: Biological Society. Pp. 33.
Whiting, Harold. Experiments in Physical Measurement Cambridge: John Wilson & Son. Pp. 278.
Winslow. Arthur, State Geologist. Geological Survey of Missouri. Bulletin No. 1. Jefferson City. Pp. 85.
Zoe, a Biological Journal. Monthly. Vol. I, No. 2. San Francisco. Pp. 32, with Plate. 20 cents; $2 a year.
Zurcher, Rev. George, Buffalo Plains, N. Y. Handcuffs for Alcoholism, Pp. 132. 25 cents.
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
Geological Survey-Work in Minnesota.—The law of 1872, under which the Geological Survey of Minnesota was instituted, was intended, according to Prof. N. H. Winchell, to place the survey in close connection with the State University; and the professorship of Geology and Mineralogy in the university was maintained for six years at the expense of the survey fund. From it the museum of the university has obtained the nucleuses of growing geological, zoölogical, and archæological collections. The survey was supported by legislative appropriations till the revenue from the sale of salt-springs lands supplied their place. The economic side of the enterprise has been kept in mind constantly, though it has not been conspicuous. "The annual reports embody common facts, and description cast in a semi-scientific mold. They are addressed primarily to a home constituency, in order to show them the utility of the work of the survey. As the survey becomes grounded in the good-will of our own citizen?, it is strengthened for doing more advanced work, and at the same time finds a constituency that is ready to welcome more strictly scientific publications." Among the most important results of the work of the survey have been the saving of the salt-springs lands from being devoured by speculative enterprises; dissuading citizens, by the publication of correct information on the subject, from making fruitless searches for coal; calling attention to the economic resources of the State; and showing the people how to secure cheaply a supply of pure water for domestic purposes. The scientific results, while not including any great new discoveries, have been numerous, and all have a place in the elucidation of geological theory. The unfinished work of the survey lies in the northern part of the State, and, embracing the crystalline rocks and the various questions of economic and technical geology that pertain to them, is the most important as well as the most difficult and costly part of its work.
Summer Courses at Harvard.—The courses of summer instruction at Harvard University will include four courses in chemistry (general elementary chemistry, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, and organic chemistry); courses in experimental physics and botany, geology (elementary and advanced); topography, French, German, and physical training; and courses at the medical school. A general course of lectures on methods of instruction will be given in addition by teachers in the several departments represented by the schools, open free to all members of the summer schools. Persons are admitted as special students in the university who desire to pursue for a year or more the study of some particular subject; and who, having received a high-school or academy training, wish to follow for one or more years a course of liberal study preparatory to some profession or to the walks of active life. The summer courses will open on different days between June 30th and July 9th, inclusive.
Nature's Earth-Carving.—As the tools used by Nature in carving the earth, Dr. Archibald Geikie enumerates air, rain, rivers, springs, and frost. , Exposure to the air changes the hardest rocks. Cracks form in them which receive the rain and are enlarged by freezing in winter, to increase the effect of the next season's rain in washing away the surface. No rock wears away faster than white marble, the destruction of which is speeded by the carbonic acid in the air. The waste in a century sometimes amounts to a third of an inch in thickness. The more compact kinds of sandstone endure better, and in tombstones still, after the lapse of two centuries, show marks of the chisel. Sandstones, however, usually con-
