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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Author. Pp. 309.—Some Notes on Chemical Jurisprudence. 200 West Broadway, New York. Pp. 24. 85 cents.

Index, The. Devoted to the Latest News and Gossip in the Field of Art and Letters. G. B. Rogers, Editor. Vol. I, No. 10. Cleveland and New York: The Hellman-Taylor Company. 50 cents a year.

Lee, Sidney, Editor. Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. LVII. Tom to Tytler. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 461. $3.25.

Luquer, L. M. Minerals in Rock Sections. The Practical Methods of Identifying Minerals in Rock Sections with the Microscope. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company. Pp. 117.

Marr, J. E. The Principles of Stratigraphical Geology. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 304. $1.60.

Martin, H. Newell. The Human Body. Fifth edition. Revised by G. W. Fitz. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 408. $1.20.

Mervan, Rencelof Ermagine. What is This? Copyrighted by G. Washington Price. Pp. 272.

Morehouse. G. W. The Wilderness of Worlds. The Evolution of Matter from Nebula to Man and Return. New York: Peter Eckler. Pp. 246.

Nichols, E. L., and Franklin, W S. The Elements of Physics, Vol I. Mechanics and Heat. New edition, revised, with additions. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 219. $1.50.

Ober, Frederick A. Puerto Rico and its Resources. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 282, with map.

Ratzel, Prof. Friedrich. The History of Mankind. By A. J. Butler. Introduction by E. B. Tyler. Vol. III. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 599, with maps. $4.

Reprints. Andrews, General C. C. Utilization of Our Waste Lands for Forestry Purposes. Pp. 10.—Bailey, Prof. E. H. S., Lawrence, Kan. The Proof of the Law of Similia (Homœopathic) from the Electro-Chemico Physiological Standpoint. Pp. 8.—Bangs, L. Bolton, New York. Illustrative Cases of Prostatitis. Pp. 24.—De Courcy, J. Osborne, East St. Louis, 111. Diseases of the Alimentary Canal, Ulcers, Malignant Sore Throat. Pp. 24—Gilbert, G. K., Washington Recent Earth Movements in the Great Lakes Region. Pp. 50.—Kakels, Sara W. Pregnancy in Women with Uterus Duplex.—Mayfield, R. N., New York. Catheters and Cystitis. Pp. 3.—Rotch, A. Lawrence. The Exploration of the Free Air by Means of Kites at Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts. Pp. 10.

Sladen, Douglas, Editor. Who's Who? 1899. An Annual Biographical Dictionary. Fifty-first year. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 1014. $1.75.

Smithsonian Institution. Adler, Cyrus, and Casanowicz, I. M. Exhibit of Biblical Antiquities at the Cotton States Exposition, Atlanta, Ga., 1895. Pp. 87, with plates.—Clark, Hubert L. The Feather Tracts of North American Grouse and Quail. Pp. 12, with plates.—Langley, S. P. Report of the Secretary for the Year ending June 30, 1898. Pp. 89.

Starr, Frederick. American Indians. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 227. 45 cents.

Stewart, Freeman. Shall we Grow the Sugar we Consume 1 Swarthmore, Pa.: R. S. Dare. 25 cents.

Thompson, Sylvanus P. Michael Faraday: His Life and Work. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 308. $1.25.

Whitaker, Herbert C. Elements of Trigonometry, with Tables. Philadelphia: Eldridge & Brother. Pp. 196.

Wilson, L. L. W. Nature Study in Elementary Schools. First Reader. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 253. 35 cents.



Fragments of Science.

Pre-Columbian Musical Instruments in America.—In a recent article in the Popular Science Monthly u(November, 1898), entitled Was Middle America Peopled from Asia? I insisted that if there had been any invasion, peaceful or otherwise, sufficient to have affected even in the slightest degree the arts, customs, and religious beliefs of middle America, then, associated with these influences, we should find traces of Asiatic utensils, implements, structures, such as sandals, weapons, pottery, wheels, plows, roofing tiles, etc.; in other words, just those objects most intimately associated with man. I especially considered the absence of stringed musical instruments and coincided with Dr. Otis T. Mason in the belief that there was no evidence of a pre-Columbian stringed musical device. This question has been variously discusssd and the following references bear on the subject: A short note in the American Antiquarian for January, 1897, by Dr. D. G. Brinton, entitled Native American Stringed Musical Instruments. The author frankly admits, however, that the cases cited may all have been borrowed from the whites or negroes. Mr. M. H. Saville in the American Anthropologist for August, 1897, described A Primitive Maya Musical Instrument, though he makes no pronounced statement of its pre-Columbian origin. Dr. Mason, in the American Anthropologist for November, 1897, discusses the question under the title Geographical Distribution of the Musical Bow, and in this paper says, "I have come to the conclusion that stringed musical instruments were not known to any of the aborigines of the western hemisphere before Columbus." In my paper I insisted that "had this simple musical device been known anciently in this country, it would have spread so widely that its pre--