number of the pages in the work up to 1,856. The author hopes to begin the publication of a sixth and carefully revised edition of the whole book early in the autumn. We would suggest that he add an index to the forthcoming edition.
Muter's Manual of Analytical Chemistry, several previous editions of which we have noticed, now appears, revised by an American editor, Dr. Claude C. Hamilton. This revision is based on the fourth English edition. The editor has made only such changes as were required to adapt the book to the United States Pharmacopœia except in the chapter on urine analysis, which has been enlarged, and to which cuts of microscopic sediments and other illustrations have been added. The chapter on water analysis has been altered to correspond with Wanklyn's methods, as those are most generally used in America. Several other processes have been added, such as estimation of chloral hydrate, of fat in milk, etc., and various minor changes in arrangement have been made in the interest of convenience in using the treatise.
A volume of Elementary Lessons in Heat, Light, and Sound has been prepared by Prof. D. E. Jones (Macmillan, 70 cents). It is an experimental book, intended for beginners, and aims to bring out "one of the chief advantages of science as an educational subject—the training in the habit of observation, and of learning from things at first hand." In the methods of reasoning, as well as in the choice of words and subject matter, the author has endeavored to be as simple and clear as possible. He has also repeatedly tried and modified each experiment so as to present it in a simple form, and avoid the more usual causes of failure. The book is illustrated.
Part III of the Short Course of Experiments in Physical Measurements, by Harold Whiting (D. C. Heath & Co., $1.20), deals with principles and methods. About half of its three hundred pages are devoted to some fifty tables, and notes on their arrangement and use. This material is preceded by ten chapters, in some of which such matters as Observation and Error, and Reduction of Results are treated, while the others deal respectively with the several departments of physics.
A pamphlet is before us entitled The Universe and its Evolution, being a translated abridgment of a five-volume work in Hebrew, by S. J. Silberstein. The author denies the law of gravitation, and asserts that Kepler's laws not only are not explained by it, but furnish evidence against it. He brings forward many arguments to show that the planets could not have been projected from the sun into their present orbits. He maintains, further, that they could not continue their revolutions indefinitely, for the attraction of the sun would draw them in upon that body, unless, as he affirms, motion begets motion. In another chapter some of Spinoza's ideas of God are combated, and the author then unfolds his conception of the universe. He considers the source of all to be the Absolute Intellect, whose offspring, the absolute essence, brought the atoms into existence, and the atoms are controlled by a force that he calls "centrality." This force resides in the center of every body, and maintains the character of the body. Several other physical laws are laid down, and the larger work is referred to for a full statement in regard to them. The author apparently has not considered the modern nebular theory.
The revision of The Chemical Analysis of Iron (Lippincott, $4) that has just been made by the author, Andrew A. Blair, has consisted in the correction of mistakes that were apparent in the first edition, and the adding of matter called for by the advance in analytical chemistry during the past three years. The Table of Atomic Weights has been revised, and the Table of Factors has been changed to correspond to the new values.
A report on The Pediculi and Mallophaga affecting Man and the Lower Animals, by Prof. Herbert Osborn, has been issued as a bulletin of the Department of Agriculture. It describes the various kinds of lice found on man, the monkey, dog, goat, ox, hog, horse, the rodents, poultry, and various other animals, giving illustrations of forty-three species.
A pamphlet made up of Original Communications of the Zymotechnic Institute has been published by the director, Mr. J. E. Siebel (242 Burling Street, Chicago). The papers are reports of scientific investigations into a variety of matters connected with the brewing industry, such as the composition of the
