Popular Science Monthly/Volume 28/November 1885/Literary Notices
Modern Science and Modern Thought. By S. Laing, Esq., M.P. London: Chapman & Hall; Philadelphia: Lippincott. Pp. 320. Price, $4.
Both the plan of this book and the manner of its execution will give it a strong claim upon many readers. The first six chapters, comprising more than half the volume, are devoted to summing up the large results of modern science, in so far as they have given rise to new views of nature and the universe. The first chapter, under the title of "Space," states the striking facts that have been disclosed in later times concerning the magnitude and order of celestial phenomena. It tells of the revolution of human ideas, on a great scale, which has been wrought by astronomy. Chapter II takes up the conception of "Time," as disclosed in the revelations of modern geology, and the grand course of changes that have been brought about in vast periods, with a summary of its vital bearings on man's conception of the world. In the next chapter, under the title "Matter," an account is given of the constitution of nature in its physical and chemical elements, as shown by the spectroscope and illustrated by the universal law of the conservation of energy and the views that have been arrived at concerning the birth and death of worlds, Mr. Laing then gives a chapter to the subject of "Life," which is descriptive of the views now entertained of its course of development upon earth, and the biological laws which have been established in recent times. He next takes up the subject of the "Antiquity of Man," and gives a very clear statement of the evidence, from which it is inferred that the human race is far older than was formerly supposed. Tins subject is pursued still further in Chapter VII, on "Man's Place in Nature." The doctrine of evolution is broadly assumed, and man and civilization are treated as its products. In this first portion of his work Mr. Laing undertakes no more than to give a popular statement of the great facts and theories on these several subjects, which we owe to science, with no attempt to propound views of his own. His work is excellently done. The presentation is kept in due proportion, is trustworthy, and is very clearly and instructively written. We know of no other so valuable a summary of what science has accomplished in subverting old opinions, and substituting a new and higher order of knowledge.
Part II is devoted to "Modern Thought," and here the author takes independent ground, and, ceasing to follow authority, becomes responsible for his own opinions. His object now is to trace the consequences of those great revolutions of ideas which we owe to science, as they affect philosophical and religious opinion and current conceptions of common and practical life. He maintains that the great body of traditional thought has been variously but profoundly disturbed by modern scientific enlightenment. Especially are old creeds and philosophies undermined and shattered by scientific progress, and "the endeavor to show how much of religion can be saved from the shipwreck of theology has been the main object of the second part" of this work. Supernaturalism is rejected without reservation, and it is elaborately argued that Christian miracles have no better support than the alleged miracles of other religious systems. It is the view of the author that, only as the deeply implanted errors of superstition are eradicated, will it be possible to gain the great advantages to mankind which must ultimately come from the immense modern extensions of scientific truth. Mr. Laing handles these topics with entire freedom, but with great sincerity, and closes his preface by remarking, "I can only say that I have endeavored to treat these subjects in a reverential spirit, and that the conclusions arrived at are the result of a conscientious and dispassionate endeavor to arrive at 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.'"
Prehistoric Fishing in Europe and North America. By Charles Rau, Washington: The Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 342.
In the débris left by the cave-men of Europe are found small bone implements, pointed at both ends, whose use can not be definitely stated. The Indians of Washington Territory use similar implements for catching fish and birds by tying a line round the middle and baiting them, and this fact suggests that the European implements may have been used as bait-holders in like manner. Other relics of the palæolithic fishermen described by Dr. Rau are barbed harpoon-heads of reindeer-horn and pieces of horn and bone, bearing scratches which, with more or less effort, can be accepted as designed to represent fish and fishing scenes. To the neolithic period belong the relics of the Swiss lake-villages. Among them are fish-hooks and harpoon-heads of bone and horn, fragments of nets, and certain perforated stone disks, which may have served as line or net sinkers. Similar implements have been found at other places in Europe. Fish hooks of bronze also have been found on the sites of the lake-villages. Dr. Hau gives figures of about thirty bronze hooks. They vary much in form and size; a part only are barbed, but nearly all are bent over at the top to form an eye for the attachment of the line.
The second part of the memoir treats of American aboriginal fishing, and is based on the materials contained in the archaeological division of the National Museum, of which division Dr. Rau has charge. Some of the hooks of aboriginal manufacture are similar in general form to ordinary modern fish-hooks, but only one regularly barbed specimen is known to the author. It was found in Madison County, New York, and is thought to have been made since 1600, and in imitation of the hooks brought to this country by Europeans. The hooks of bone and shell found in California are peculiar. The curved point approaches so closely to the shank that some persons have doubted their ever being used as fishing implements. It would probably be impossible to hook fish with hooks of this shape, but just such hooks have been brought from Pacific islands by travelers, who report that the natives are very successful with them in taking fish that bolt the hook instead of nibbling at it. No bait is used, as the hook itself looks somewhat like a worm. Twenty-eight dart-heads of bone and horn are here figured, most of which the author believes were armatures for fishing implements. Twenty of them have barbs on one side only, while the others are barbed on both sides. Several dart-heads of copper, each of which has a single barb, are in the collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. A large number of grooved, notched, or perforated stones have been found, which must have been used as sinkers for fish-lines and nets. Similar stones are used as sinkers by both Indian and white fishermen to-day. Two specimens of copper sinkers have come within the knowledge of the author. Stone carvings and pottery representing fishes have also been found in this country. The evidence that the American aborigines used mollusks as food is abundant; great heaps of oyster, clam, mussel, and other shells are found along our sea-coasts and river-banks. Intermingled with these shells are bones of various animals, implements, fragments of pottery, and vestiges of fireplaces. Dr. Rau appends to this memoir fifty-eight pages of extracts from various writings of the last four centuries, in which reference is made to aboriginal fishing in North America, and some notices of fishing implements and fish representations discovered south of Mexico. The text is illustrated by four hundred and five figures.
Town Geology: The Lesson of the Philadelphia Rocks. Studies of Nature along the Highways and among the Byways of a Metropolitan Town. By Angelo Heilprin, Professor of Invertebrate Paleontology at, and Curator-in-charge of, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Published by the Author. Academy of Natural Sciences, 1885. Pp. 152, with Seven Plates.
Not only from the simple to the complex, and from the concrete to the abstract, but from the immediate to the remote, lie the true directions of mental movement in the growth of knowledge and in rational study. To begin where there is much familiarity, some knowledge, and more or less curiosity and interest, and pass on to that which is remoter and deeper, is the true method. But, strange to say, the reverse method is that usually pursued. Instead of starting with the known and building upon it, the custom is to begin with the distant and unknown, and often, indeed, stay there so long that the knowledge acquired in many cases never becomes a reality at all. Geology, particularly, is liable to be pursued in this way, general ideas being accumulated from the books, with little application to facts within the limit of common experience. The present volume is an admirable exemplification of the true method of geological study. The author takes up the facts with which all Philadelphians are familiar, and in which they may be therefore assumed to have a certain degree of interest, and connects them in a very simple and instructive way with the great body of geological truths in which these facts find their explanation. The rock systems in the Philadelphia neighborhood arc described, together with the changes which have led to the present condition of things, and the accompanying succession of life as disclosed by fossil relics. "White-Marble Steps and Window facings," "Brown-stone Fronts and Jersey Mud," "Philadelphia Brick and Cobblestone," are the familiar texts used by the author to interpret the wonderful workings of Nature in the immeasurable past, and which, through long chains of causes and effects, have given rise to the present order of things. The work is admirably done, and the studious citizens of the Quaker metropolis owe their best thanks to the young geologist who has performed the task. It would be a good thing if we could have something of the kind in New York.
Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1884. Montreal: Dawson Brothers.
This second volume, issued by the Royal Society of Canada, comes to us with its united departments of literature and science, in French or English, as the language of the contributor may be. Of the scientific memoirs only need we here speak; they are varied and excellent. Dr. George Lawson, Professor of Botany at Dalhousie College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, gives a revision of the Canadian Ranunculaceæ, in confirmation and extension of a monograph published in 1870. During fifteen years he has given direction to the observation of this important order by botanists afield throughout the wide provinces and territories of the Dominion. Direction of this kind gives value to much of what might otherwise be but disconnected observation. Dr. Lawson's memoir, though extensive, is incomplete in certain groups to which he directs the attention of Canadian botanists.
Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, of Montreal, president of the society, presents a review of the much controverted Taconic question in geology, and shows ground for believing that the newest member of the great series of pre-Cambrian, crystalline, stratified rocks is what is called Lower Taconic, or Taconian, and is widely distributed over North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Hunt has arrived at his conclusions from protracted study in America and Europe.
From the same eminent geologist we have a paper on the "Origin of Crystalline Rocks." He approaches the great problem of the origin of such rocks as granite and gneiss, and after a discussion of the Neptunian, igneous, and the metamorphic schools, rejects them all as untenable, in favor of what he calls the crenitic hypothesis, and claims it as a legitimate development of the Neptunism of Werner. This hypothesis supposes the existence of a primary Plutonic stratum, the outer layer of the original aqueous globe, which, more or less modified by the subsequent penetration of water, has been the direct source of eruptive rocks like basalt and dolerite, and at the same time has furnished indirectly and by aqueous solution the elements of all granitic and gneissic rocks. This radical and far-reaching hypothesis will doubtless command the attention of chemists and geologists the world over.
Other papers of interest, on topics chemical, zoölogical, and physical, evidence the activity of original research among men of science in Canada.
The Copper-bearing Rocks of Lake Superior. By Roland Duer Irving. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 464, with Twenty-nine Plates.
Contributions to the Knowledge of the Older Mesozoic Flora of Virginia. By William Morris Fontaine. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 144, with Fifty-seven Plates.
The Mesozoic beds of Virginia are all situated east of the Blue Ridge, and most of them are found within the terrain of the crystalline Azoic rocks. The beds are divided into two classes, which appear to have but little in common with one another. The older Mesozoic beds, which furnished the plants described in this book, are of freshwater or brackish-water deposit, and often contain coals. The younger formations also contain plants, but of a totally different character from that of the plants of the older Mesozoic. The most important of all the beds passes about ten miles west of Richmond, and is about thirty miles long and six broad. It contains nearly all the coal and yields nearly all the plants found in the formation. Besides the plants found in these beds, and for the sake of comparison with them, plates and descriptions are given from Emmons's work of plants from the older Mesozoic strata of North Carolina, most of which, however, coming from strata above the coal, are supposed to be of a somewhat later age than the Virginia plants.
The Q. P. Index for 1884. Fourth annual issue. Bangor: Q. P. Index. Pp. 57. Price, $1.
In this issue, which forms No. 17 of the Q. P. series, the numbers for 1884 of fifty periodicals, and of the United States consular reports and education circulars, are indexed. The list includes all the important American literary magazines and reviews, most of the British literary magazines which have a circulation in this country, and about a dozen German periodicals. The "Revue de Belgique" is included, but not the "Revue des Deux Mondes." Since the British reviews were indexed in No. 16, they do not appear in this issue. When one realizes that about seventy-five thousand pages are indexed in these fifty-seven pages, it becomes evident that Mr. Griswold has brought the art of abbreviating to a wonderful state of efficiency. He is also a spelling reformer who has the courage of his convictions, for he writes "forein," "welth," "tarif," "primitiv," "fotografy," "iland," etc.
Commercial Organic Analysis. By Alfred H. Allen, F. I. C, F. C. S. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Vol I. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 470. Price, $4.50.
The edition of this work now publishing is to appear in three volumes instead of two, as in the first edition. A new arrangement of the subject-matter has been adopted, so that each volume may treat more especially of kindred products. The volume now presented is devoted chiefly to the consideration of bodies of the fatty series and of vegetable origin, and includes chapters on the alcohols, ethers, and other neutral derivatives of the alcohols, sugars, starch and its isomers, and vegetable acids. In revising this volume, the author has made considerable changes and additions in order to bring the information contained up to the latest possible date, so that very few pages remain as they stood in the first edition. He promises as thorough treatment of the rest of the work.
Insomnia; and other Disorders of Sleep, By Henry M. Lyman, M. D. Chicago: W. T. Keener. Pp. 239. Price, $1.50.
This book discusses in a clear and readable style one of the severest afflictions to which man is liable. In the discussion the author covers an even wider ground than is indicated in his title, and considers all the phenomena of sleep, both normal and troubled, lie begins with a full chapter on "The Nature and Cause of Sleep," which is followed by the consideration of the immediate subject of the treatise—insomnia, or wakefulness, the remedies for it and the treatment of it in particular diseases; and after this are given chapters on "Dreams," "Somnambulism," and "Artificial Somnambulism, or Hypnotism."
List of Tests (Reagents). By Hans M. Wilder. New York: P. W. Bedford. Pp. 88. Price, 1.
Descriptive America. A Geographical and Industrial Monthly Magazine; L. P. Brockett, Editor. Pp. 32. Price, $5 a year; 50 cents a number.
Each number of this publication is devoted to a particular State. The number before us, which is marked Vol. I, No. 6, is given to Georgia. It includes a fine map of the State, a list of cities, towns, villages, and stations, an editorial article on international exhibitions, and chapters describing the State in general and relating to cotton and rice culture, lands, population, immigration, education, the representative men, the religious condition, government, finances, debt, and taxation and history of the State, with a statistical table of counties. Several of these articles are furnished by men distinguished or representative in the special fields to which the papers respectively relate.
Van Nostrand's Science Series. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Price, 50 cents each.
No. 73. Symbolic Algebra; or, The Algebra of Algebraic Numbers. By Professor William Cain. Pp. 131. The object of this essay is the discussion of negative quantities of algebra, with the purpose of finding a logically developed system that shall include such quantities as special cases. The volume also includes some critical notes on the methods of reasoning employed in geometry.
No. 74. Testing-Machines: Their History, Construction, and Use. By Arthur V. Abbott. Pp. 190. Mr. Abbott has been engaged for several years in developing and applying methods of testing the strength of materials, and in this book explains such of his most successful methods as seem likely to be generally useful and interesting.
No. 75. Recent Progress in Dynamo-Electric Machines. By Professor Silvanius P. Thompson. Pp. 113. This is a reprint of lectures delivered before the English Society of Arts on the subject indicated in the title, which were supplementary to a previous series of lectures on the theory of the dynamo and its functions as a mechanical motor.
No. 77. Stadia-Surveying. By Arthur Winslow. Pp. 148. This hand-book contains a complete exposition of the theory of stadia measurements, with directions for its application in the field. Tables for the reduction of observations are added which the author has used in the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, and with them the trigonometrical four-place tables.
No. 78. The Steam-Engine Indicator. By William Barnet Le Van. Pp. 169. In this book the indicator and its object are described; its construction and action are explained; and the method of calculating the horse-power of engines is illustrated. An endeavor has also been made to explain the most important parts of the theory and action of steam, and to show the modes of working engines that have been found to be most advantageous.
No. 79. The Figure of the Earth. By Frank G. Roberts, C. E. Pp. 95. In this book the historical data in connection with the figure of the earth are presented, and the important mathematical principles for the deduction of it upon the spheroidal hypothesis arc arranged in a compact form.
No. 80. Healthy Foundations for Houses. By Glenn Brown. Pp. 143. This is a reprint of a serial paper published in the "Sanitary Engineer" during 1884, with fifty one illustrations from drawings made for the articles by the author.
Maps of the Dominion of Canada. Telegraph and Signal Service. Sir Hector L. Langevin, Minister of Public Works. In sheets.
These maps are intended to be full, and are very handsomely executed. The group now under notice contains two sheets of the Eastern section, two of the West-Central section, two of the Western or Pacific coast section, with a Mercator chart of telegraphic lines and electric-cable connections throughout the world; and a map on a spherical projection showing the world's submarine cables and principal telegraph lines.
Notes from the Physiological Laboratory OF the University of Pennsylvania. Edited by N. A. Randolph and Samuel G. Dixon. Philadelphia. Pp. 88.
N. W. Ayer & Son's American Newspaper Annual, 1886. Philadelphia: N. W. Ayer & Son. Pp. 750. Price, $3.
The publishers have taken great pains to make this work complete and correct up to the day of going to press. It contains a fully descriptive list of newspapers and periodicals in the United States and Canada, arranged by States in geographical sections, and by towns in alphabetical order; another list, descriptive as to distinctive features and circulation, of newspapers inserting advertisements, arranged in States by counties; a third list, of class and professional publications, and publications in foreign languages. From these lists may also be obtained other information about newspapers; and in connection with them there is given a description, with statistical information, accounts of manufacturing enterprises, and political notes, respecting each county. Finally, the book contains an alphabetical list of cities, towns, and villages in the United States having a population of five thousand and upward.
How to Drain a House: Practical Information for Householders. By George E. Waring, Jr., M. Inst. C. E. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 222, with Twenty Illustrations. Price, $1.25.
Colonel Waring has given long and attentive study to the matter of house-drainage, and as a result he has views of his own upon the subject which will be found stated in the present volume. Not by any means that the book has been written merely to promulgate his own notions; it has been prepared because, in the author's opinion, it will prove the best and safest guide in a field of practice of vital importance, and still far from settled in its methods. The author holds that there has been unquestionably a steady improvement in recent years in dealing with the difficult problems of the disposal of household waste; each step, however imperfect in itself, being better than the condition of things which preceded it. Such, indeed, have been the progress made and the success achieved as greatly to strengthen the expectation that an ideally perfect system of house-drainage may soon become an accomplished and accepted fact. Meantime improvement is along various lines of trial, with a certain inevitable rivalship of views and devices. Colonel Waring does not, however, in the present volume attempt to give an account of the various ideas and contrivances, however excellent they may be, that have now come into use; but having studied them all, and had large experience of the subject, he has fixed upon his own methods, and devotes his work to an exposition of them.
We have read the book carefully through, and have found it unusually interesting and instructive. The preliminary remarks on house-drainage and health are impressive and decisive, and the explanation of principles and the description of plans and construction arc full, clear, and perfectly intelligible. The book abounds in common-sense suggestions, and is certain to prove valuable to all house-constructors and housekeepers who are seeking correct information upon the subject.
Ballooning: A Concise Sketch of its History and Principles. By G. May. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 96, with One Plate.
The author believes that, though practical aerial navigation has so far been found unattainable, the pursuit of it has resulted in something, though it be little, to facilitate art and scientific progress. In this work, besides reviewing the history of ballooning, be seeks to ascertain and define the obstacles which interfere with its active progress, the mechanical means necessary to surmount them, and the natural power by which those means are to be put in operation; and to point out certain regulations and restrictions by which they must be governed in their application.
The Lock-Jaw of Infants (Trismus Nascentium). Its History, Cause, Prevention, and Cure. By J. V. Hartigan. M. D. New York: Bermingham & Co. Pp. 123.
The disease in question is often fatal during the first month of infantile growth, but doctors have not been able to ascertain or agree upon its cause. The author maintains a theory which was advanced by Dr. J. Marion Sims some thirty years ago, but never received attention—that it is occasioned by mechanical pressure of the occipital or parietal bones on the brain. Malthus and his Work. By James Bonar. London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 432. Price, $4.
No author is more talked about, when questions of political economy or social science are under consideration, than Malthus; no dogma than what is called the Malthusian theory. But, according to the view of the author of this book, very few of those who have so much to say about the man and his doctrines know what they really are. "Malthus," he says, "was the best abused man of the age"; and the temper and abundance of the abuse that has been launched against him "amount to a demonstration" that his opponents are in the wrong, or that his logic is too sound for them. The points at issue were fully enough discussed in his own time between Malthus and his adversaries, "and no one who fairly considers the extent of the discussion, and the ability of the disputants, can fail to believe that we have, in the records of this controversy, ample materials for forming our own judgment on the whole question. . . . Such a privilege is seldom used. The world has no time to consult authorities, though it likes them to be within reach of consultation. When an author becomes an authority, he too often ceases to be read, and his doctrines, like current coin, arc worn by use till they lose the clear image and superscription of the issuer. In this way an author's name may come to suggest, not his own book, but the current version of his doctrines," and this is seldom a wholly fair one. Such, Mr. Bonar seems to think, has been the case with Malthus; and the purpose of the present volume is to give an exact account of his life, his teachings, and the object and character of his book.
Annual Report or the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1883. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 959.
This report contains much valuable information concerning scientific work and progress in various departments in this and other countries. One of its excellent features is its running summaries of the progress of investigations carried on by the members of Government surveys and expeditions, and by private persons in correspondence with the Institution, which cover a wide ground. A full account is given of the inauguration of the statue of Professor Henry, with the memorial address of Chief Justice Waite, the oration of President Noah Porter, and a representation of the statue. Among the special papers arc the accounts of progress during the year in the several departments of science, and a number of accounts of explorations of mounds and other anthropological work.
Cholera: its Origin, History, Causation, Symptoms, Lesions, Prevention, and Treatment. By Alfred Stillé, M. D. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co. Pp. 164.
The author has enjoyed the advantage of studying cholera in two epidemics, and has prepared this volume in view of the general newly awakened interest on the subject and the agitation of Dr. Koch's germ theory. While declining to accept the doctrine of Dr. Koch and his supporters as demonstrated, he seeks "to exhibit the specific nature of cholera by evidence drawn from its origin and mode of propagation; to disabuse the medical profession of the erroneous notion that the disease ever originates de novo; to maintain the necessity of quarantine, not in the literal but in the official sense of that word; to point out the channels through which cholera may be diffused; and to describe the measures which experience has sanctioned to prevent its dissemination and cure those who are attacked by it."
Silver-Lead Deposits of Eureka, Nevada. By Joseph Story Curtis. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 200.
From the year 1869 to 1883, Eureka district produced about $60,000,000 of gold and about 225,000 tons of lead. Owing to the fact that the deposits of this district have been more completely developed than any other of a similar character on the Pacific slope, they offer very full opportunities for the scientific investigation of formations of this class. The information on which this report is based was collected during field-work by the author in 1881 and 1682, and from the reports of Mr. George F. Becker's preliminary examination of the more important mines, and of Mr. Arnold Hague's survey of the geology of the district in 1880.
In the present report, Mr. Curtis gives a clear and systematically ordered description of the district, its geology, and the several mining locations, with their characteristic features. Among the topics particularly considered arc the surface geology, the structure, and the ores of Prospect Mountain and Ruby Hill, the ore deposits, the source and manner of deposition of the ores, the occurrence of water in the mines, the methods of mining and timbering, and of working the ores, an account of Adams Hill, and "the future of the Eureka district." We are pleased to observe that Mr. Curtis's work in this field has elicited warm commendation and high testimonials to its value from foreign experts: Herr V. Groddeck, Director of the Clausthal School of Mines, Austria, having studied the report "with the greatest interest," has expressed his appreciation of "the instruction and suggestions contained in it," and adds: "It is always wonderfully pleasing to me to see with what intensity and with what rich results your country pursues the study of ore deposits." Herr F. Posepny, Inspector of Mines for Austria, who has visited Eureka, and has drawn some interesting comparisons between its features and those of some of the Hungarian mines, characterizes this work as one which "is destined to play an important part in the technical literature of ore deposits. When I glance over what I know from actual inspection, and what I know through the literature of the ore deposits of your country, I am more and more convinced that North America will be the coming school for the study of ore deposits." Herr Posepny adds that he is much interested in the results of Mr. Curtis's examination of country rock for minute quantities of metals, as the subject has been taken up in his own country from a practical stand-point.
Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences. Vol. II., 1883. Washington: Government Printing Office. Pp. 202.
The present volume contains four memoirs, of which the most voluminous is the full account of the eclipse of the sun, of May, 1883, and of the United States Expedition to Caroline Island, in the South Pacific Ocean, to view it. Included in this memoir arc several special papers of considerable general interest, among which are the narrative of the voyage to Caroline Island and return, the history and general description of the island, various scientific and technical memoranda respecting it, its botany, zoölogy, and butterflies; and particular reports of eclipse observations by eleven associates of the expedition. The whole is attractively illustrated with maps and views of the island and its peculiar scenery, and representations of various features of the eclipse. The second memoir is Professor S. P. Langley's paper on the "Experimental Determination of Wavelengths in the Invisible Prismatic Spectrum"; the third is by Professor William H. Brewer, "On the Subsidence of Particles in Liquids"; and the fourth is the paper of Alexander Graham Bell "Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race," of which we have already given a brief abstract.
Dinocerata. (United States Geological Survey, Vol. X.) By Othniel C. Marsh, in charge of the Division of Paleontology. Washington.
This monograph contains the full record of an extinct order of mammals, of which the author has made special studies. The only locality where remains of the Dinocerata have been found is an Eocene lake-basin in Wyoming, and there his first discoveries were made by Professor Marsh in 1870. The specimens collected in this and successive expeditions are now in the museum at Yale College, and represent more than two hundred individuals of the Dinocerata, besides the remains of many other vertebrata hitherto unknown. Seventy-five of these have portions of the skull preserved, and in more than twenty it is in good condition. Three genera have been established in this order: Dinocera, Marsh; Tinoceras, Marsh; and Uintatherium, Leidy. The skull of Dinoceras mirabile is long and narrow; it supports on the top three pairs of bony elevations or horn-cores, which form its most conspicuous feature, and suggested the name of the genus (δενός, terrible, and κέρς, a horn). There are no upper incisors; the canines in the male are enormously developed, forming sharp, trenchant, decurved tusks. The brain of the Dinocerata is especially remarkable for its diminutive size. From an extended comparison of the brain-cavities of Tertiary mammals, Professor Marsh has found that there was a gradual increase in the higher portion of the brain during this period, and that the brain of a mammal fitted for a long survival was proportionately larger than the average. The remains of Tinoceras are found in the same lake-basin, but at a higher level, and the evidence is clear that it was a later and more specialized form, Tinoceras ingens, as he stood in the flesh, was about six and a half feet in height to the top of the back, and about twelve feet long. His weight was probably at least six thousand pounds. Dinoceras mirabile was about one fifth smaller. In an appendix Professor Marsh gives a synopsis of Dinocerata, in which all the known species of the order, about thirty, are recognized, and a bibliography follows the synopsis. With the aim of making the illustrations tell the main story to anatomists, the author has incorporated in the volume fifty-six fine, large lithographic plates, and nearly two hundred original woodcuts, representing all the more important specimens of the Dinocerata now known, and including at least one figure of every species.
Paleontology of the Eureka District. By Charles Doolittle Walcott. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 298, with Twenty-four Plates.
In this report are presented the results of a careful survey of a district with a rich fauna, through thirty thousand feet of Palæozoic strata, representing the Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous rocks. It is regarded by Mr. Arnold Hague, geologist in charge of the district survey, as "the most important contribution yet made to the invertebrate paleontology of the basin ranges, and of great value in its bearings upon the geology of the Cordilleras."
The Manual of Phonography. By Benn Pitman and Jerome B. Howard. Cincinnati: Phonographic Institute. Pp. 144.
This is a revised edition of the "Manual" by Benn Pitman, the first edition of which appeared in 1855. While a number of new features appear in its pages which were not in its predecessor, the plan of presenting the system is essentially the same. Such changes and additions to the system, and such only, as are of real importance have been adopted.
Chemical Problems. By Dr. Karl Stammer. Translated by W. S. Hoskinson. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 111. Price, 75 cents.
A list of questions on the properties of the elements, chemical phenomena, and manipulation, to be answered by the student through experiment or by calculation from what he knows. The answers are given in the latter part of the book.
The Students' Manual of Exercises for translating into German. By A. Lodeman. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 87. Price, 50 cents.
The exercises in this volume have been prepared with the twofold purpose of furnishing to the student material for translating into German, and of assisting him in the analysis and translation of the more difficult illustrations in Brandt's "German Grammar," to which he is constantly referred. A full vocabulary, notes, references, and general suggestions arc provided.
Hydrogen Peroxide. By William B. Clarke, M. D. Indianapolis, Ind. Pp. 12.
The Evolution of Revelation. By James Morris Whiten, Ph. D. New York: G. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 34. 25 cents.
Recitations and Readings. New York: J. S. Ogilvie & Co. Pp. 126. 10 cents.
Voice in Singers. By Carl H. von Klein, M. D., Dayton. Ohio. Pp. 8.
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