halogens. Passing to special preparations, the author gives directions for thirteen reactions in the aliphatic series, forty-two in the aromatic, and one example each with a substance in the pyridine and quinoline series. Directions for preparing a few inorganic reagents are also given. The attention of the student is called to the significance of each reaction described, so that his knowledge shall be something more than empirical. The volume is illustrated with eighty-two cuts of apparatus.
"I sometimes wonder whuther it's bein’ good thet makes some folks infidils, er whuther it's bein' infidils thet makes some folks so good," remarks one of the characters in The Reason Why and in the association of these ideas strikes the keynote of the story. In his preface the author, Ernest E. Russell says, "There was a time when such a story as I have tried to write would have helped me," and in an unquestionably genuine desire to help others he makes his story a vehicle for the reasons that lead many thoughtful men and women to reject the Christian religion. These reasons are quite fully stated, chapters and parts of chapters being devoted to the inherent probability or improbability of the Scriptures, the action of early councils of the Church in forming the canon and the creeds, the Arian "heresy," the Nestorian "heresy," the return to Augustine in the Reformation, miracles, possession by evil spirits, and kindred topics. Several minor matters are touched upon in passing, such as the beneficial influence of industry, the wreck of happiness likely to follow the marriage of persons having opposite religious beliefs when one has the proselyting spirit, the rightfulness of doing to a human being what we regard as an act of mercy to a brute, namely, shortening the suffering that precedes death, etc. The thread of story is sufficient to give coherence to the book, while the characters, who are country people of a generation ago and educated young persons of rural origin, are excellently portrayed. Thoughtful persons who have drifted away from early religious teaching will enjoy and profit by The Reason Why. (The author, 13 Astor Place, New York.)
Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. New Hampshire College: The Army Worm.—New York Station: Effects of Drought upon Milk Production; Feeding Experiments with Laying Hens; Report of Analysis of Commercial Fertilizers for the Spring of 1806; The Real Value of "Natural plant Food."—United States Department: Washed Soils: how to Prevent and Reclaim them; The Peach-Tree Borer; The Principal Household Insects of the United States.—Climate and Crop Service, Reports for September and October, 1896.
Archer, William. Fridtiof Nansen, 1861-1893. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 402.
Beal, W. J. Grasses of North America. Vol. II. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 106. $5.
Boas, Franz. Songs of the Kivakintl Indians. Pp. 9 (quarto).
Bolles, Albert S. The Elements of Commercial Law. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 344.
Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth (abridged edition for the use of colleges and high schools). New York: The Macmillan Co. Pp. 547. $1.75.
Bulletins, Catalogues, Proceedings, etc. Boston Society of Natural History: Proceedings of; Some Facts in regard to the Distribution of Certain Mammals in New England and Northern New York: A New Occurrence of Carboniferous Fossils in the Narragansett Basin; On the Fracture System of Joints; An Important Addition to the Fauna of Massachusetts; The Jura of Texas; The Beach Mouse of Muskeget Island; Conditions and Effects of the Expulsion of Gases from the Earth; On the Larvæ of the Higher Bombyces; Proceedings of the Annual Meeting, May, 1896.—International Arbitration, Report of the Second Annual Meeting of the Lake Mohonk Conference on.—Smithsonian Institution: Notes on the Vampire Bat.—T-square Club of Philadelphia: Nineteenth Annual Report, Season 1895–’96—United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries: Report upon Salmon; Investigations in the Head Waters of the Columbia River in Idaho, and Notes upon Fishes observed in that State.—United States Geological Survey: Some Analogies in the Lower Cretaceous of Europe and America.—United States National Museum: Proceedings of; Description of a New Species of Bat of the genus Glossoiphaga.—Washburn, F. L.: The Eastern Oyster on the Oregon Coast (a preliminary report to the State Fish and Game Commissioner).
Cambridge Natural History, The. Edited by S. F. Harmer and A. E. Shipley. Vol. II. Flatworms and Mesozoa, by F. W. Gamble; Nemertines, by Miss L. Sheldon; Threadworms and Sagitta, by A. E. Shipley; Rotifers, by Marcus Hartog; Polychaet Worms, by W. Blaxland Benham; Earthworms and Leeches, by F. E. Beddard; Gephyrea and Phoronis, by A. E. Shipley. Polyzoa, by S. F. Harmer. New York: The Macmillan Co. Pp. 560. $3.50.
Hawley, Thomas D. Infallible Logic. A Visible and Automatic System of Reasoning. Lansing, Mich.: Robert Smith Printing Co. Pp. 659.
Holden, Edward S. Mountain Observations in America and Europe. (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 1035) Pp. 77.
Hunting. (The Out-of-door Library.) New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 327. $1.50.
Keller, I. First Year in German. New York: American Book Co. Pp 290.
Labor, Tenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of, 1894. Pp. 1909.
Leary, Luke. The Flirt to Death. New York: J. S. Ogilvie. Pp. 128.
Lewis, H. Edwin. The Philosophy of Sex. Burlington, Vt.: The Vermont Medical Publishing Co. Pp. 51. 35 cents.
