Popular Science Monthly/Volume 28/December 1885/Literary Notices
A Text-Book of Nursing. For the Use of Training-Schools, Families, and Private Students. By Clara S. Weeks, Graduate of the New York Hospital Training-School; Superintendent of Training-School for Nurses, Paterson, New Jersey. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 396. Price, $1.
Miss Weeks's "Text-Book" will be recognized as a marked advance in the literature of the subject which it considers. Nursing as a practical art grounded in scientific principles, and an important adjunct of the medical profession with its own schools, belongs among the useful hygienic improvements of the last few years. In its early stages, as was most natural, its class-books were crude and imperfect. There has been a very valuable literature pertaining to nursing, but it has chiefly consisted of "Notes," "Essays," "Fragments," and imperfectly compiled rules and suggestions which, however useful and indispensable, have fallen much short of the requirements of systematic study. There was room here, and urgent need for something better, which the author of this book, moved by her own unsatisfactory experiences as a student, has now effectively supplied. She has given us a volume conformed to the established habits of school-study, complete in its treatment of the several subjects with which the intelligent nurse should be familiar, well illustrated, with copious questions for class-exercise and review, and a full glossary of technical terms. Her contribution is certain to prove helpful in the work of education, and she may be congratulated on having done an excellent service in helping on the progress of her profession.
But the usefulness of the "Text-Book" will not be confined to the limits of the Training-Schools for Nurses. It is of far wider application, and should find place in every family. It is full of information, to which every woman who cares for the vital interests of her household should have access. Clearly, popularly, and attractively written, it can be understood by everybody, and women who never expect to go into the nursing business professionally will be much better prepared to meet the emergencies and responsibilities of domestic life—to deal with the sickness that is at some time inevitable—by reading and familiarizing themselves with much of the instructive contents of this work. A good deal in it is, of course, only for the regular nurse; but there is enough of general application, and even of almost every-day utility in household experience, to justify us in commending it cordially to all thoughtful mothers as one of the books that they should have always at hand.
The Study of Political Economy: Hints to Students and Teachers. By J. Laurence Laughlin, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy in Harvard University. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 153. Price, $1.
Professor Laughlin in this useful little book aims to present the claims of the subject upon those engaged in education, to show its disciplinary value, and to give important hints and suggestions as to how it may be mo?t successfully pursued. Notwithstanding all the discussion there has been as to whether political economy is a true science or not, or as to the validity or relative superiority of its different methods, the subject is one which engages wide attention and is of foremost interest and importance. It deals with what is going on and must continue to go on in society under good or bad guidance, and where knowledge is certainly better than ignorance. The author has therefore done an excellent and necessary thing in showing students how they can best proceed in informing themselves on political economy, whether they wish merely to get an acquaintance with its rudiments or to master the subject. He gives the list of a teacher's library selected from English, French, and German author?, which can not fail to prove useful.
Philosophic Series. By James McCosh, D. D., LL. D. Nos. I to VIII, 50 to 70 page pamphlets. New York; Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, 50 cents each.
It was a very happy conception of the able President of Princeton College and distinguished metaphysician. Dr. McCosh, to take up the most urgent and interesting philosophical questions of the time, and treat them in the popular way here adopted. There can be no doubt that philosophical speculation has a good deal about it that is progressive. As long as thinkers shut themselves up to such pure metaphysical elaborations as they can carry on in the restricted sphere of consciousness, the resulting movement will be round and round rather than an advance or ascent; but, when they seize the conception of philosophy in its broader aspects, and connect it with those large questions of Nature and life which have come into such prominence in recent times, a distinctively forward movement is the result. When such great new principles as the conservation of energy or the law of development are projected into the philosophical field, and their import is recognized by the speculative mind, onward movements which can be regarded as nothing less than a new departure are the inevitable consequence. Dr. McCosh is not the narrow type of man to blink or to belittle the significance of these mighty ideas which have been forced upon philosophy by modern science; he not only meets them, but he welcomes them as priceless contributions to knowledge, to be perhaps yet further interpreted and qualified, but, neither to be feared nor resisted. Aside from his mastery of general philosophical subjects, and his familiarity as a scholar with the history of speculation, his knowledge of science and his sympathy with it, and his thorough aquaintance with the critical issues which have become prominent in the thought of this generation, especially qualify Dr. McCosh to give instructivenesa to such a series of essays as he has here undertaken.
No formal review of the work is here practicable; we can only indicate his successive topics. No. I considers "Criteria of Diverse Kinds of Truth, as opposed to Agnosticism." No. II, "Energy: Efficient and Final Cause." No. Ill, "Development: What it can do, and what it can not do." No. IV, "Certitude, Providence, and Prayer." No. V, "Locke's Theory of Knowledge, with a Notice of Berkeley." No. VI, "Agnosticism of Hume and Huxley, with a Notice of the Scotch School." No. VII, "A Criticism of the Critical Philosophy." No. VIII, "Herbert Spencer's Philosophy as culminated in his Ethics."
President McCosh is a Doctor of Divinity, and the course of topics in this discussion shows that it has been prepared with reference to its theological bearings. But the controversial element is moderate in tone, and is subordinate to the expository element. We commend the pamphlets for the clearness and instructiveness of their teachings on philosophical questions, without being at all committed to the author's conclusions respecting theology or morality. On these points he seems often to betray the weakness of the thorough-going partisan of a dogmatic system.
Special Report of the State Inspector (Minnesota) of Oils on the Illuminating Quality of Oils. By Henry A. Castle. St. Paul. Pp. 24.
The inspector relates that frequent and numerous complaints came to him during 1884 of the inferior illuminating powers and other poor qualities of the kerosene-oils used in the State, lie sought explanations from the wholesale dealers and agents of the oil companies, but could not get satisfactory ones; and it was not till he had begun to take measures for enforcing the laws against selling adulterated or inferior goods, that proper notice was taken of his remonstrances. Then the agent of the Standard Oil Company made a confession presenting almost the identical statement made by Professor Peckham, in the June number of the "Monthly," of the deteriorated character of the burning-oils in common use and its causes; and we refer our readers to Professor Peckham's article for more specific information on the subject.
The Azoic System and its Proposed Subdivisions. By J. D. Whitney and M. E. Wadsworth. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoölogy. Pp. 250.
The authors review the whole literature of their subject, beginning with the reports of the Canadian and other British-American surveys, and following with those of the New England and Atlantic seaboard States, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and the Government surveys in the West, for the purpose of ascertaining the condition of the theory of the Azoic system. The reports examined concern the results of forty years of work. In a second part they give a resumé and general discussion of their review, the result of which is to lead them to the conclusion that "the geology of a large portion of this country, and especially that of Canada and New England, is in an almost hopeless state of confusion"; and "that our chances of having at some future time a clear understanding of the geological structure of Northeastern North America would be decidedly improved if all that has been written about it were struck out of existence." This condition of things is largely ascribed to the erroneous observations and theories of the Canada survey, "which to a large extent have been adopted and blindly followed on this side of the Dominion boundary." Finally, "the present director of the Canada survey appears to be sincerely endeavoring to base his work on better methods than those current under Logan's administration.
All who are interested in the solution of the difficult problems of Appalachian geology will sympathize with him in these efforts; for. . . that which is done in Canada will, if well done, be of great assistance to those working on the south side of the Dominion line."
The Grimké Sisters: Sarah and Angelina Grimké. The First American Women Advocates of Abolition and Women's Rights. By Catharine H. Birney. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Pp. 319. Price, $1.25.
The interesting characters to which this volume is devoted are now historic. The Grimké sisters have passed away, and the record of their remarkable careers will have a double interest: first, for those who knew, admired, and loved them; and, second, for all others who take interest in those great public events leading to the overthrow of slavery in this country, with which these ladies were early and long and intimately associated. Angelina and Sarah Grimké were gifted women of superior intellectual stamp and high moral aspirations, who gave their lives to the active promotion of various reforms with fearlessness, independence, and devoted purpose, to make the world better as far as lay in their power. They were both of a deeply religious cast of mind, and entered early into church relations in their native city of Charleston, South Carolina. But the perfunctory round of ordinary religious exercises could not satisfy them. Religion was in their blood, and the type of it was that of tragic earnestness. They were descended on the father's side from the Huguenots, and on that of the mother from the old Puritans, with whom religion was a stern reality. Possessing hearts sympathetic with the sufferings of their fellow-creatures, and heads endowed to discriminate the means of relief, they could not remain impassive in their Charleston environment. The subject of slavery, with which they had been, of course, long and painfully familiar, took hold of them as a matter of religious duty. They left the Episcopal Church because it seemed given over to worldliness, and was unmindful of its Christian obligations to the slave. Angelina joined the Presbyterians, in the hope of finding them more alive to their practical religious duties, and Sarah for the same reason, though still earlier, joined the Society of Friends. Both left Charleston and went to Philadelphia, where Angelina also became a Quaker. Hut after years of trial they withdrew also from the Friends' organization, for the same reason that it did not enter heartily into the rising movement for emancipation. Breaking away from all these restraints, they came out openly as Abolitionists, and devoted themselves with great zeal and efficiency to the propagation of antislavery views. They wrote much and forcibly, and at length took the field as speakers in Massachusetts with remarkable effect. They were both eminently qualified for this sphere of labor, but Angelina, the younger, had extraordinary accomplishments as an orator, and her lectures were attended by crowds of admiring listeners, although the appearance of women in the public lecture-field was at that time a novelty, and strenuously resisted by all conservative people.
Slavery is now gone, and a new generation has come upon the stage which knows little of the intensity of the struggle which led to its extinction, and the furious and maddened resistance encountered by its assailants; but in the records of that experience the names of the Grimké sisters will ever have an honorable and permanent place. Of their various efforts in other directions of social reform, their personalities, and their interesting private lives, we can not here speak, but must refer the reader to the memorial volume, which has been executed with fidelity and discriminating fairness by a loving friend. It will be sincerely welcomed by all who knew them, and will be found full of instructive interest by all who have an appreciation of strong, elevated, and heroic character.
State Agricultural Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass. Second Annual Report. 1884. C. A. Goessmann, Director. Pp. 166.
The varied contents of this report, and the fullness with which the experiments are described, testify to a year of busy work. Among the subjects of the experiments were commercial fertilizers, the specific action of different forms of potassa, the effect of fertilizers on fruit-trees, various leguminous forage-plants, injurious insects, the vitality of seeds, ensilage, foods, analyses of milk, testing of drinking-waters, feeding-experiments with milch-cows and pigs, etc.
Placer Mines and Mining-Ditches. By Albert Williams, Jr. Pp. 64.
This monograph was prepared to form a part of the census report on the statistics and technology of the precious metals. Placer mines, according to the author's statement, have the advantages of being usually more accessible and nearer to thickly settled and agricultural districts than the quartz mining districts, and of not requiring so large an amount of material for their working as quartz mines. The secondary nature of the gravel deposits in which they occur implies an average lower altitude than that of the quartz veins, from which they are derived by erosion. It is a fact that they occur at all altitudes up to 10,000 feet, the elevation of the placer in Alma township. Park County, Colorado. The average height of those mentioned in this report is more than 3,400 feet above the sea-level, while the average height of those in California, beach-sands excepted, is 2,600 feet. The total nominal capital of thirty-six placer mines is $35,115,000, or an average of $975,117 each, while the average par value of their shares is about $14.68. The placer mines being largely worked by the hydraulic method, the question of water-supply is an important one with them, and extensive ditching-works have been executed to secure water. Mr. Williams has reports of 10,783 miles of ditch-lines, which have a maximum capacity of 7,560,000 gallons per twenty-four hours, which cost for plant, excluding cost of water-rights, $27,066,942, and are maintained at an annual expense of $637,280.
The Influence of the Proprietors in Founding the State of New Jersey. By Austin Scott. Baltimore: N. Murray. Pp. 26.
This is a study in the Johns Hopkins University Historical Series, by the Professor of History in Rutgers College, of the course of the development of the fundamental institutions of New Jersey from the régime laid down by the original proprietors.
Natural Co-ordination as evinced in Organic Evolution. A Paper read by William Fraser, M. D., before the British Association for the Advancement of Science at its Montreal Meeting, September 1, 1884. New Glasgow, Nova Scotia: George W. Chisholm.
It it would be too much to say that Dr. Fraser, in this philosophical essay, has solved the supreme question of the nature of that governing power by which an evolving universe works out its highest results, it is not too much to say that he has made a reasonable and a valuable contribution toward such a solution. We can not here give his closely knit argument, but must be content with indicating the ground taken. He begins by remarking that "matter and force constitute the present scientific basis of the natural universe; but as unco-ordinated entities they might remain forever inoperative." This idea is so illustrated and enforced as to bring out the necessity of affirming a presiding directive and co-ordinating principle as a part of the order and constitution of Nature, and without which development is a wholly inexplicable process. Dr. Eraser's statement of the case of evolution as against special creation, and in the variety of its proofs, is thus admirably summarized:
From studying the question under other aspects, some observers have been induced to adopt an opposite view, and to conclude that all actual diversities were potentially Inherent in matter and energy at their original creation and disposition, and have been spontaneously evolved through natural causes, without any supernatural interference.
Having learned the apparent potency of natural means and methods in producing all past physical changes, they feel constrained to recognize these as fully adequate to sustain tho whole sum of terrestrial activity, including the processes and products of organization; deeming it more credible that the total system of development, in common with all other material objects and events, should form an essential and interdependent part of the more comprehensive scheme of Nature, than that each distinct species should have its source in a miraculous act of creation.
Observing, under varying artificial conditions, tho occasional production of several acknowledged varieties from a common stock, and the perpetuation of such only as can provisionally conform with the conventional requirements of their situations, they infer that species originated and have been transmitted in a similar way, but carried further and established more firmly, either in consequence of more powerful impulses or of greater time and opportunities afforded.
They also find that all the species of the same genus, inhabiting adjacent and intercommunicable areas, have closer structural relationships than those of more remote and mutually isolated regions, and that any differences which exist in the former case are superficial, as if the later divergences had rarely and but slightly affected their fundamental characters.
Fossils also are generally found more nearly allied to the fauna and flora of their own particular territory than to those of distant provinces; and in the later deposits more so than in those of earlier strata.
Paleontological arrangements likewise Indicate a gradual advance from generalized to specialized forms, from the simple earliest structures up to the relatively complex types of the present age.
Embryological development also shows a general progress from the indefinite to the definite; all organic germs at their origin being scarcely distinguishable from one another; the earlier foetal stages of many different classes of animals being almost parallel; and in the higher orders, their later phases being attended by a gradually decreasing number of companions, till man, the highest vertebrate, at length alone acquires distinctively human features. Besides, underneath certain diversities of surface, which constitute specific morphological distinctions, there is often a fundamental unity; the arms of a man. the flippers of a whale, the fore-legs of a horse, and the wings of a bird being constructed on essentially tho same general pattern, though differing greatly in special details, as if a common ancestral organ had become differently modified in each particular case, in subordination to, and in conformity with, correlated conditions.
Rudimentary structures often show the potency of heredity in preserving parts long after they have ceased to be serviceable; and occasionally they represent the transition to some more complete and permanent advantageous acquirement.
In general, the more invariable and radical organic structures are diffused among much larger aggregates than are less permanent and less important ones.
The spinal column, which pertains to the whole vertebrate sub-kingdom, holds tolerably constant specific characteristics within the same class, whereas the dermal appendages not only manifest much diversity in different species, but often display considerable difference even in members of the same variety.
All these complex and diversified relations are considered indicative of community of origin, with subsequent adaptive modifications.
Certainly geographical distribution, geological succession, morphology, embryology, classification, and many other peculiarities of organization, such as its fundamental unity of composition, but more especially the fact, so far as has yet been proved, of the derivation of all observed individuals from more or less similar parent stocks, constitute a remarkable collection of accumulating and converging lines of evidence in favor of the doctrine of specific organic descent.
These proofs, however, are merely circumstantial; the relation of this problem to human experience being such as to render it incapable of demonstration; still, the gravest objection to the theory of organic transmutation is the difficulty of understanding how matters could have been so constituted and arranged that from simple and indefinite beginnings such wonderfully complex and determinate results could have been obtained. Natural selection does not account for the origin of specific characters, but merely explains how, out of numerous so-called spontaneous variations, such only can be preserved as are in sufficient harmony with their environments.
And, while changing incidence of conditions is undoubtedly instrumental in determining organic sequences, it is important to ascertain what is the nature of the factors engaged, and how they cooperate in the evolution and establishment of distinct specific characters.The main conception of Dr. Fraser's thesis may be gathered from the following passages:
As man, by factitiously arranging the means at his disposal in accordance with his needs and tastes, institutes systems of artificial co-ordination, so the spontaneous adjustment of organic activities, in subjection to, and in conformity with, prevailing correlated tendencies and requirements, constitutes a principle of natural co-ordination. In the elaboration and establishment of specific organic results, this principle fulfills the two distinct though complemental offices of a directive and a selective function; the former determining each temporary step in the process, the latter deciding which out of many courses will be permanently or successively adopted.
In a dependent evolving system, with abundant accommodation, provisions, and protection, it might remain a matter of indifference what number and kind of forms were produced, as all would alike be preserved, each phase being simply a resultant of the interaction between inward efforts and outward restraints, without the intervention of any subsequent eliminating process. Here the principle of co-ordination could only have directive scope; but, in a circumscribed area with limited supplies and liability to invasion, as soon as the rate of production exceeds the means of support, co-ordination will assume a selective rôle, submitting the various competitors for the different accessible situations to prescribed tests, accepting only such as conform with the required standards, and rigorously rejecting all relatively unsuitable or incompetent ones.
Organization seems to have been planned and conducted according to some such method and design; its potentialities, when properly supplemented, constituting an incalculable fund of transmutable and genetic energies, affording the principle of co-ordination enormous resources whereon to operate, so as to render possible the realization of results practically inconceivable.Population by Ages, United States, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. By W. S. Landsberg. Baltimore, Md. Pp. 30. Price, 10 cents.
The author believes that the distribution of a population according to the ages of the individuals is not fortuitous, but is the result of the influences which all the circumstances of a people's life exert upon its existence, naturally conditioned by births and deaths. In the light of this view he discusses the lessons to be drawn from the vital statistics of the United States and the three cities named.
The Minting of Gold and Silver. By Albert Williams, Jr. Pp. 24.
This paper was prepared to form a part of the census report. Without attempting an exhaustive treatise on modern practice in minting, Mr. Williams reports upon the processes employed in the mints at Carson, Nevada, and San Francisco, California.
The Modification of Plants by Climate. By A. A. Crozier. Ann Arbor, Mich. Pp. 35. Price, 25 cents.
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor of the State of New York, for the Year 1884. Charles F. Peck, Commissioner. Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co. Pp. 521.
The attention of the Bureau during the year included in the report was directed chiefly to the investigation of the prevalence of child-labor in the manufactories of the State, in which, in spite of adverse circumstances growing out of the defects of the law under which the inquiries were conducted, and of the difficulty of getting employers to give information, a great many valuable statistics and much important testimony have been collected. The facts relate to the employment of children; its influence upon their physical development; the opportunity afforded in connection therewith for moral and educational training; and its relation to the social, commercial, and industrial prosperity of the State. A considerable portion of the report is devoted to the subject of compulsory education, the importance of securing the enforcement of the law prescribing it, and the means of accomplishing it. An article on "Hygiene of Occupation," by Dr. Roger S. Tracy, of New York, is also included in the report. In the appendix are given a report on Pullman, Illinois; the memoranda of a committee visit to the houses of cotton-mill operatives in Fall River, Massachusetts; the labor laws of New York; and extracts from the labor legislation of other States and of England.
A B C Book. By Francis A. March. Boston: Ginn & Co. 20 cents.
First Book in Phonetic Reading. Second Book. Third Book. Fourth Book. Fifth, or Transition Book. By Isaac Pitman. New York. Fowler & Wells Co. The set, 26 cents.
An article in the September number of the "Monthly" having caused some inquiry for phonetic primers, a number of these books are here noticed. They have the common object of making easy the first part of the process of learning to read by removing the difficulties of silent letters, and letters with several powers, to a later stage. The authors make the claim, and support it by abundant evidence, that children learn to read books in phonetic spelling, and then master the ordinary print, in less time than is commonly spent on the ordinary print alone. It is claimed, further, that in learning to read by the phonetic method the child's reasoning powers are stimulated, while if taught in the old way it forms at the outset a habit of dependence on the teacher which impedes all future progress. Some of these books recognize thirty-six, the others forty or forty-one, simple sounds in the English language, besides four or five diphthongs; and, as the common alphabet contains only twenty-three effective letters, it is variously extended by new letters and digraphs. Longley uses seventeen new letters; Pitman thirteen, with digraphs for the diphthongs; Vickroy eleven, with eight digraphs; while Mrs. Burnz uses but three, depending largely on familiar digraphs. Dr. Vickroy's reader has on the title-page a note, signed by Professor March as president of the Spelling Reform Association, in which he cordially recommends the book. As Mr. Pitman's books are published in England, the pronunciation which they represent differs slightly from American usage. Thus the vowel sound in lair is not distinguished from that in layer; been is represented as rhyming with seen, etc. Pitman and Longley use the continental vowel-scale, Mrs. Burnz the English, while March and Vickroy skillfully avoid conflict with either. Mrs. Burnz retains duplicate ways of representing several sounds, and a few other irregularities of the old spelling, claiming as compensation that her spelling departs less from the common mode than any other, and hence that a person whose education went no further than the phonetic stage could spell a letter so that it would not fail to be understood by any one who went through the spelling-book in the old-fashioned way. Dr. Leigh's "Pronouncing Orthography" retains the common form of every word, but silent letters are printed in hair-line type, and the significant letters are so modified that it is always plain what sound they stand for. Ten or a dozen primers and readers by various authors have been published in Leigh's pronouncing editions. Professor March uses Dr. Leigh's types for nine single letters and five digraphs in his "A B C Book." Words containing silent letters are postponed to a later stage. A part of his general method is to have the pupils begin to write with the first lesson, but this may be omitted if the teacher prefers. The transition from any of the primers mentioned above to common print is said to be easy, but, if it seems desirable to keep the pupils longer on the phonetic print, second readers or other supplementary matter can be had in most of the systems for this purpose.
Zoölogic Whist and Zoönomia. By Hyland C. Kirk. New York: McLoughlin Brothers. 104 Cards. Price, $1.
An attempt is made in these cards to combine amusement, as it is sought in playing whist, with instruction in the principles of a science. The cards, on which the classification of animals is graphically represented, are arranged in two packs of fifty-two cards each, one including the vertebrates, the other the invertebrates. Each pack is divided into four suits, representing the classes and thirteen orders. The rank of the orders being fixed according to numbers printed on the cards, the game is played as whist is played. The game of zoönomia is played with all the cards, or a smaller number, and is in effect an exercise on the qualities of the orders of animals represented upon them.
The Tehuantepec Ship-Railway. By E. L. Corthell, Civil Engineer. Pp. 32, with Plates.
This is the substance of an address that was delivered before the Franklin Institute in December last, in which the plan of the railway as projected by Captain Eads is explained, and its feasibility and the prospective advantages to be derived from carrying it out arc considered.
Papers or the American Historical Association. Volume I, No. 1: Report of Organization and Proceedings. Pp. 44. No. 2: Studies in General History and the History of Civilization. By Andrew D. White. Pp. 28. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Price, 50 cents each.
The American Historical Association was organized at Saratoga in September, 1884, with Andrew D. White as president, and Herbert B. Adams, of Cornell University, as secretary, for the promotion of historical studies, and has registered already, for a society so new, a large list of members. It will publish original contributions to history in the form of serial monographs, each complete in itself, bearing its own title, pagination, and price; but the monographs will be also numbered in the order of their publication, and paged continuously with the series, for the annual volume. They are sent to members of the Association who pay their annual fee of three dollars, and to other persons for four dollars a volume. The address of President White is a forcible presentation of the value of historical studies, and suggests ways in which they may be made most efficient.
Efficiency and Duration of Incandescent Electric Lamps. Report of Committee, Franklin Institute of Pennsylvania. Pp. 127.
A special committee was appointed by the Board of Managers of the Franklin Institute in November, 1884, to conduct examinations and make tests of the efficiency and life-duration of incandescent lamps. It having prepared a code of conditions to which all competitors were expected to conform, Weston, Edison, Woodhouse and Rawson, Stanley-Thompson, and White lamps were entered, for competition or for comparative examination. The history of the testing, its incidents, and its results, are recorded in detail in the report.
Transactions of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Annual Meetings ok the Kansas Academy of Science (1883, 1884). E. A. Popenoe, Manhattan, Secretary. Pp. 145.
The Kansas Academy is evidently a working body. This volume of the "Transactions" contains notices or abstracts of forty-nine papers and reports read at the two meetings, all of them of much local and some of considerable general interest. We specially notice the two presidential addresses. The first, by retiring President Dr. A. H. Thompson, is concerning the "Origin and History of the Academy," and gives a rapid review of the growth of scientific work in Kansas, and of the transactions of the fifteen previous annual meetings of the society. The other address, by Dr. R. J. Brown, is a discussion of the question, "Is a Geological Survey of the State a Necessity?" and presents summaries of the benefits that have accrued from their surveys in other States in which such works have been prosecuted.
The Hoosier Naturalist. Vol. I, No. 1, August, 1885. A. C. Jones and R. B. Trouslot, Editors and Publishers, Valparaiso, Ind. (Monthly.) Pp. 8. Price, 60 cents a year.
The editors claim to have in Valparaiso a rare combination of facilities to encourage the publication of a scientific journal, including a large normal school, with classes in zoölogy, geology, and botany, the Museum of the American Institute, of which one of them is custodian; and surroundings of excellent collecting-grounds. Such enterprises as this are evidence of a living love for science, and help to stimulate and extend it.
Aims and Methods of the Teaching of Physics. By Professor Charles K. Wead. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 158.
The author of this paper was commissioned by the Commissioner of Education to draw up a set of inquiries respecting the teaching of physics, send them to teachers, and collate and discuss the answers which should be received. The questions related to various points respecting the expediency of the teaching, the prominence and extent that should be given to it, and the method in which it should be done. Answers were received from seventy-two teachers in normal and secondary schools and colleges and universities, and other persons experienced in educational work, and are here given and reviewed. To these is added information from other countries. This is followed by an attempt to discover that consistent scheme of physics study which is favored by the majority of the contributors.
Wintering Bees. By A. J. Gook. Agricultural College of Michigan. Pp. 6.
Impounding the Nile Floods. London: The Bedford Press. Pp. 6, with Map.
Pittsburg and Western Pennsylvania. Issued by the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce. Pp. 128. With Map.
Something about Natural Gas. By George U. Thurston. Pittsburg. Pp. 32.
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. Lecture Programme. 1885-'86.
Insanity of the Past, pp. 8; Report on Cerebro-Spinal Pathology, pp. 18; Forty Years of Cerebro-Spinal Pathology, pp. 16. All by Dr. Daniel Clark. Toronto, Ont.
American Economic Association. Constitution, etc. Richard T. Ely, Secretary, Baltimore, Md. Pp. 16.
The Climatic Treatment of Phthisis. By Harold Williams, M. D. Pp. 19.
Diana. New York: Burnz & Co. Pp. 56.
Sensory Aphasia. By Morton Prince, M. D. Boston. Pp. 14.
Studies from the Biological Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore: N. Murray. Pp. 24. Price, 30 cents a number. $8 a volume.
Moral and Material Progress contrasted. By Lester F. Ward. Washington: Judd & Detweiler. Pp. 16.
Syllabus of the Instruction in Biology. By Delos Fail. Albion, Mich. Pp. 24.
United States Government Publications. Monthly Catalogues, Nos. 7 and 8. Washington: J. H. Hickox. Pp. 20 each.
Juarez and Cesar Cantú. Refutation of Charges preferred by the Italian Historian. Official edition. Mexico: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 55.
Remarkables protubérances solaires (Remarkable Solar Protuberances), pp. 3; La planète Saturne en 1885 (The Planet Saturn In 1885), pp. 8; Observation dune essaim de corpuscules noirs passant devant le soleil (Observation of a Swarm of Black Corpuscles passing in Front of the Sun), pp. 8; Murs énigmatiques observés à la surface de la lune (Enigmatical Walls observed on the Surface of the Moon), pp. 4; Sur la structure intime de l'enveloppe solaire( On the Intimate Structure of the Solar Envelope), pp. 29. With Plates. All by E. L. Trouvelot. Paris.
Distribution of the Reserve Material of Plants in Relation to Disease. By D. P. Penhallow. Pp. 10.
The Preparatory Schools and the Modern Language Equivalent for the Greek. By Charles E. Fay, Tufts College. Pp. 10.
Addresses at the Complimentary Dinner to Benjamin Apthorp Gould. Lynn, Mass.: Thomas P. Nichols. Pp. 40.
The Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California. By David P. Todd. Pp 24.
Extensions of Certain Theorems of Clifford and of Cayley in the Geometry of N Dimensions. By E. H. Moore, Jr. Pp. 8.
Main Drainage and Water Supply of Chicago. Report of Committee of Citizens' Association. J. C. Ambler, Secretary. Pp. 32.
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Aim and Method of the Rōmaji Kai, or Roman Alphabet Association of Japan. Tokio: Imperial Printing-office. Pp. 28.
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Twenty Years with the Insane. By Daniel Putnam. Detroit: John MacFarlane. Pp. 175. 75 cents.
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