Popular Science Monthly/Volume 30/November 1886/Literary Notices
Aristocracy in England. By Adam Badeau. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1886. Pp. 306. Price, $1.25.
There was need of such a volume (especially in this country) as that which General Badeau has here prepared. The truth is, that our national independence and the birth of the Great Republic consisted in little else than a formal repudiation of the British aristocratical system—monarchy and nobility; so that it can hardly be expected that the American people would be very impartial judges of the merits of a system we have got rid of under such circumstances. Our general idea is, that the English aristocracy is a worn-out, worthless, useless, ridiculous, and tyrannical system that is destined to disappear in a very few years. But American contempt for English aristocracy hardly equals American ignorance of it.
General Badeau recognized that there was wanting a book that should give an intelligible account of the aristocratic side of English life by explaining the parts and general working of the scheme. He desired to make the American reader understand the facts in such a way as to avoid injurious prejudice and favor an intelligent judgment. His subject is by no means a trivial or frivolous one. Aristocracy is a phase of society in some of its forms universal; and the English aristocracy is the best-preserved and most perfect and powerful in the world.
The author of this volume is a thorough-going democrat in the sense that he is no believer in aristocracy, and condemns it of course unsparingly; but he is unbiased enough to give a trustworthy account of its mechanism and workings. For this he seems to have very well prepared himself. Besides wide reading and special study of its various elements, he has had a dozen years' direct observation and experience of it in the diplomatic service.
It is the care with which he has availed himself of these opportunities that gives, perhaps, the most attractive feature to his book; he is full of anecdotes, incidents, brief personal sketches, and vivid delineations of the working of the various social parts in the aristocratic life. General Badeau has not attempted a philosophical book. While his volume is full of instructive lessons, he runs into no deep disquisition, and has struck the happy medium that will make it entertaining to all readers. The subject is not only a fascinating one, but a most important one, and, if we may venture to say so, a good deal more important than would appear from General Badeau's treatment of it. The author confines himself, in accordance with his plan, to descriptive details of the social operations that English aristocracy involves, and this probably prevented him from dealing with some of the remoter influences of the aristocratic policy. But the problem of the influence of aristocratical organizations in England on the whole subject of education for several centuries, and at the present time, is one of the most pregnant that the student of modern mental development has to deal with. General Badeau's book is an excellent introduction to this subject, but the author does not enter upon it.
The Jugurthine War of C. Sallustius Crispus. Edited, etc., by Charles George Herbermann. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 272. Price, $1.12.
The editor has aimed, in preparing this volume, to assist the student, as far as possible, with all the resources of modern scholarship; and, in compiling the notes, he has endeavored to omit nothing in the way of historical illustration that can aid the learner to obtain a fuller and clearer insight into the meaning and spirit of the author. The text of Jordan, which is in the best repute in German and English schools, has been adopted, while archaisms and variations in spelling are avoided, as only likely to perplex students. Besides the notes, an introduction giving the life of Sallust, observations on his style and syntax, and historical information respecting the kingdom of Numidia and the Jugurthine war, has been added; and a convenient vocabulary saves the necessity of encumbering one's self with a separate dictionary.
A History of Education. By F. V. N. Painter. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 335. Price, $1.50.
This is the second volume of the "International Education Series," which D. Appleton & Co. have projected, to be prepared under the editorial supervision of W. T. Harris, to provide works of a useful and practical character for the libraries of teachers and school managers, and text-books in normal classes. The author is Professor of Modern Languages and Literature in Roanoke College, Virginia; and the preparation of this history was suggested by him while examining the German works on the subject in the library of the University of Bonn, in view of the poverty of our literature in educational history. In it he views the history of education from the point of the philosophy of history, or history of civilization, and traces it in its relations with the social, political, and religious conditions of each country. The system of education in each nation is regarded as conformed to its religion, art, social customs, and form of government, but most of all, generally, to its religion. Hence, a new phase of civilization, giving new ideals in these domains, demands a new system of education. The systems that have prevailed from the remotest past down to the present time have been modified by all the changing conditions of national life to which they have been conformed, and have been molded in sympathy with the ideas which were dominant in the races among which they have been applied. Following the subject in its chronological and logical relations, attention is first called to the Oriental countries, in which are included China, India, Persia, Palestine, and Egypt. In these lands, the individual counts for nothing; and education does not aim to develop a perfect man or woman, but to prepare its subjects for their place in the established order of things. Subjection to authority is the principle on which most stress is laid, while the source of the all-controlling authority may vary in the different countries. Quite different were the ideas in the classical nations, Greece and Rome, where the individual was brought into prominence: education was made the subject of careful thought and was controlled by higher principles; enlarged views of its nature were promulgated; and beautiful results were obtained as exhibited in the physical and intellectual life of the people. With the Christian dispensation came a new era in history, and education was profoundly affected and placed on a new and immovable foundation. The history of Christian education in Europe and America is naturally divided into two periods—the period before the Reformation and the period after the Reformation. The story of the latter period is largely occupied with the struggle between the "humanist" and the "naturalist" or modern tendencies, which has continued and is still going on in our own day. Finally, under the heading of "Education in the Nineteenth Century" are reviewed the systems of Pestalozzi and Froebel, and contemporary education in Germany, France, England, and the United States.
The Depression in Trade and the Wages of Labor. By Uriel H. Crocker. Boston: W. B. Clarke & Carruth. Pp. 31.
Mr. Crocker is the author of the pamphlet entitled "Excessive Saving a Cause of Commercial Distress," which was noticed in the "Monthly" several months ago. In the present pamphlet he continues the discussion of the subject, and endeavors to give his views a practical direction. Reviewing the various theories that have been advanced to account for the present supposed hard times—when the "suffering" working-men are rejoicing to put themselves in idleness—he plants himself upon that which ascribes the depression to over-production. "We have," he says, "increased production by bending all our energies in that direction, aided all the while by the immense increase in the effective power of the machinery of production and distribution, and by the fact that years of labor spent in the creation of that machinery have brought us to a time when we are prepared fully to enjoy its use. On the other hand, we have done comparatively little for the increase of consumption. The possibility of such increase by the poor has been enlarged but little, while the inclination of the rich therefor has been greatly restricted. Under such circumstances, what wonder that production has run ahead of consumption—what wonder that general over-production, as an actual existing fact, has finally been reached?" His views of the means of remedying the conditions he depicts are quite as indefinite as those of most of the writers who have given attention to the subject. After dismissing several suggestions as remedies to be avoided rather than sought for, he falls back upon strikes and boycotts, but can not conceal an apprehension that they too—as they have done—will prove to have the action of a boomerang.
Astronomy by Observation. By {sc. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 90. Price, §1.
By observation mankind learned all the astronomy it knows, and came to the theories it holds as correct. By observation, Miss Bowen believes, pupils in schools can to-day be best taught to learn the phenomena of the heavenly bodies, and be guided to the deduction of the principles on which they depend. A brief article on "Astronomy in High Schools," which the author published in the "Monthly" of January, 1882, describing her experiences with her pupils in the method of observation, will furnish the key to this book, which has grown out of these experiments. "My object," she then says, "has been to gain for my pupils from this study, not merely knowledge, but all the mental discipline it could afford. In order to accomplish this, I have made it an invariable principle to make them do all the observing, all the thinking, possible. They have watched the heavenly bodies to discover their appearance and motions, and then I led them on to discuss the causes. It has been genuine inductive study, so far as it has gone. My own work seemed very simple; but it occasioned me a great deal of observation, thought, and study. I have simply kept them on the track." This book is intended to aid other teachers in the performance of that duty, and to help the pupil too. In it, an efficient, easy, well-tried plan for teaching the constellations is described, the use of which will obviate the necessity of a teacher doing work out of school-hours, by enabling students to become independent observers; careful directions are given when, how, and where to find the heavenly bodies; and their motions are described in the order in which they can be seen by an observer, and in familiar language. Thus the student is excited to thought. He is prompted to see for himself, and then can not avoid the inquiry what it all means. In order that his inquiries may take the right direction, facts are in the book stated first, and theory is given afterward, as a deduction from the facts. The selection of subjects for the student's thinking is a little different from that of other school astronomies. The general principle governing it is to make the student understand what he can see. Miss Bowen has also sought to make her book of use to those instructors who have little or no practical knowledge of the science, but who would improve if the text-book were a guide to observation, and to the increasing class of young people out of school who would study the stars for themselves if they had suitable leading.
A Farmer's View of a Protective Tariff. By Isaac W. Griscom. Woodbury, N. J.: Published by the author. Pp. 53.
It would be hard to find in the literature of political economy an author who has written about the protective tariff with a clearer head than this "farmer." The basis of his thesis is that, agriculture having been recognized on all sides as by far the most important business interest in the nation, it has followed that one of the main arguments in favor of maintaining a protective tariff has been, that it would aid agriculture by creating increased home consumption with steady and remunerative prices for the farmer's products. "This looks very well, to be sure, as a theory, but, after twenty years' experience, the agriculturist finds himself getting no more (a good deal less, in fact) for his products than before the civil war; and, with his necessary expenses very much greater than then, he naturally begins to wonder if there was not something wrong in the original calculation." Mr. Griscom then proceeds to show that there was something wrong there, and wherein it lay.
The Rear-Guard of the Revolution. By Edmund Kirke. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 317. Price, $1.50.
This work presents a chapter in American history of which not so much is known as ought to be, but which, if the view the author takes of it is correct, is of exceeding importance. It embodies the history of three of the pioneers of the central region of the United States, who, "clad in buck-skin hunting-shirts and leading inconsiderable forces to battle in the depths of a far-away forest, not only planted civilization beyond the Alleghanies, but exerted a most important influence in shaping the destinies of this country." They were John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, and James Robertson, "all of them characters worthy of the most heroic ages, and so exactly adapted to the work which had to be done that the conclusion is irresistible that they were, like Lincoln and Washington, 'providential men.' . . . Their slender forces trod silently the Western solitudes, and their greatest battles were insignificant skirmishes, never reported beyond the mountains; but their deeds were pregnant with consequences that will be felt along the coming centuries." These ascriptions are justified, in the author's mind, by the conclusion at which he has arrived from his studies, that two of the men thrice saved the country by thwarting the British plan to envelop and crush the Southern colonies, and by turning the tide of the Revolution at King's Mountain; and that after the Revolution the three, acting together, frustrated the design of Spain to dismember and weaken the Union by causing the erection of a separate republic in the country between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. The materials for the history were gathered principally from old settlers of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. The present volume does not tell the whole of the story, but is to be supplemented by a second, in which events will be brought down to the deaths of Sevier and Robertson.
Insects affecting the Orange. By H. G. Hubbard. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 220, with Plates.
Mr. Hubbard was employed as a special agent of the Entomological Division of the Agricultural Bureau, in Florida, and devoted his time for nearly four years in studying the insects that affect the orange, and in practical experiments to counteract their injuries. "It is but uttering a deserved compliment," Dr. Riley remarks, "to say that the practical results of his labors have been most satisfactory, and mark an important era in the history of orange-growing in the United States." The trees of the citrus family are particularly subject to the disastrous ravages of various species of scale insects, which not infrequently thwart all effort to raise a grove. It is to these that the present report is chiefly devoted, and to their control that the greatest efforts were made. The practical object—that of helping the orange-grower in the warfare which must be waged with insect foes—has been held foremost in the preparation of the report; but scientific information and more complete descriptions are given, or referred to, for those who want fuller or technical information.
Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club. Transactions No. 6. Ottawa, Canada. Pp. 130, with Plates.
The club is now incorporated, and returned, for 1884—'85, 168 members. Of the year's collections, mention is made of 920 plants, 208 species of shells, 198 of birds, 48 of fishes, and 1,004 of insects. It is suggested in one of the special reports, recommending the local study of natural history, that "were local societies, instead of wandering aimlessly among the paths of natural science, to devote themselves to this work, . . . there would soon be accumulated a fund of information more perfect and complete than by any other method. The inaugural address of President H. Beaumont Small points out to the members the fields of investigation which they may find in the several orders of the animal kingdom. It is followed by papers on "The Canadian Otter," by Mr. W. P. Lett; "The Minerals of the Ottawa District," by Mr. C. W. Willimott; "Terrestrial Mollusca of Ottawa," by Mr. F. R. Latchford; "Wheat, with Especial Reference to that grown in the Ottawa District," by Mr. William Scott; "Our Saw-Flies and Horn-Tails," by Mr. W. H. Harrington; "Our Trenton Fossils," by Mr. W. R. Billings; "The Geology and Paleontology of Ottawa," by Mr. H. M. Ami; Reports of the Paleontological, Botanical, Conchological, Entomological, Ornithological, and Zoölogical Branches; and an Abstract of Meteorological Statistics, by Mr. A. McGill.
Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (Archives of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro). Vol. VI. Rio de Janeiro. Pp. 560, with numerous Plates. Conférence faite au Muséum National, en Présence de LL. MM. Impériales (Lecture delivered at the National Museum, in the Presence of their Imperial Majesties). By Dr. Ladislau Netto. Rio de Janeiro. Pp. 28.
The volume of the "Archivos" relates to the ethnology, anthropology, and archæology of Brazil. Among the papers it contains are "Contributions to the Ethnology of the Valley of the Amazons," by C. F. Hartt; "The Man of Sambaquis, a Contribution to the Anthropology of Brazil," by Dr. J. B. de Lacerda; "New Craneometrical Studies on the Botocudos," by Dr. J. R. Peixotto; and "Investigations upon Brazilian Archæology," by Dr. Ladisláu Netto. These papers are richly illustrated with colored and monochrome plates, and engravings inserted in the text. Of particular interest is a series of plates of comparative symbolical characters, which show the similarity of the symbols for corresponding objects in the Márajo (of Brazil), Mexican, Chinese, Egyptian, and Indian writings. The lecture of Dr. Netto, who is Director-General of the National Museum, presents a summary in the French language of the results of archæology in Brazil, and is devoted largely to the explanation of the principal features of the papers contained in the "Archivos."
Lorenz Alma-Tadema: His Life and Works. By Georg Ebers. New York: William S. Gottsberger. Pp. 94, with Thirteen Plates.
Alma-Tadema—a Frisian by birth—is one of the foremost of English painters, and an artist whose style—except as he may have had imitators—is unique. His favorite themes are the severe classical and mediæval. Dr. Ebers is his close friend, and has undertaken to present this review of his life and works under the impulse of the thought that "he who knew him so well as a man also understood him as an artist, and would probably be able to give a faithful picture of his life." The illustrations are representations of some of the artist's most famous works.
Lettre à Monsieur Ernest Renan à propos de l'Inscription Phenicienne Apocryphe (Letter to M. Ernest Renan respecting the Apocryphal Phœnician Inscription). By Dr. Ladislau Netto. Rio de Janeiro. Pp. 35, with Plates.
In 1872 Dr. Netto submitted to the Historical, Geographical, and Ethnographical Institute of Brazil a pretended Phœnician inscription which was said, by one Joaquin Alves da Costa, to have been found by his slaves on one of his estates. It was afterward ascertained, and Dr. Netto was convinced of the fact, that the inscription was false. In this letter, addressed to M. Renan as "one of the most illustrious Orientalists of modern times," the author explains his relations to the matter, for which he has been subjected to unfavorable criticism, but which appear to have been entirely honest.
Kidnapped. By Robert Louis Stevenson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 324. Price, $1.
This story—of the Highlands and the Highland life of Scotland at a period when the land was tormented by contentions—sets forth the adventures of David Balfour in the year 1751; "how he was kidnapped and cast away; his sufferings in a desert isle; his journey in the wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he suffered at the hands of his uncle." The author is known as a story-teller of vigor and dramatic force, and as vivid in description; and the picture on the cover, of a Highlander jumping over a waterfall, promises exciting times to the reader.
Fourth Report of the United States Entomological Commission. By Charles V. Riley. Washington: Government Printing-office. Pp. 147, with Maps and Plates.
This report relates to the cotton-worm, concerning which it embodies the final report, with a chapter on the boll-worm. The investigation of the cotton-worm was begun in 1878, and continued during four years; and the results of it, according to the showing here given, have been fruitful. The history of the subject and the various matters relating to the worm, its depredations, and the treatment of the pest, are gone into with considerable elaboration. In the successive chapters of the report are considered the natural history of the insect; its past marked appearances and the remedies proposed, chronologically arranged; the distribution and anatomy of the Aletia; the cotton belt, its characteristics and peculiarities; the influence of soil, weather, etc., upon the first appearance of the worms and their increase and destructiveness; the natural enemies of the insect; means of destroying the worm; machinery and mechanical devices adapted to that purpose; the literature of the subject; insects liable to be confounded with the true cotton-worm; and the boll-worm.
The Mystery of Pain. By James Hinton, M. D. Boston: Cupples, Upham, & Co. Pp. 120.
From the introduction to this book by Dr. J. R. Nichols, we learn that its author was for many years a sufferer from despondency, and a victim to much mental and physical pain, and was also a deeply religious man. He himself employs, to illustrate the reason of pain, the supposition of an island, the climate of which is so unhealthy that the inhabitants are constant sufferers from rheumatism, so that walking would be painful to them. They would call walking an evil. "But in this their thought would be false. They would be feeling a good thing painful because they did not understand their own condition. And if it could be explained to them that the cause of their pain was not anything bad in walking, but only their own disease, that itself would be a gain to them. . . . Now, this is the idea I have tried to explain in this little book; namely, that things which we have inevitably called evil may yet be truly good. My thought was that all which we feel as painful is really giving something that our fellows are better for, even though we can not trace it; and that giving is not an evil thing, but good, a natural delight and good of man; and that we feel it painful because our life is marred." To quote from Dr. Nichols again, the cure for pain which Dr. Hinton suggests "rests on a religious basis; and hence has no meaning or significance to those destitute of religious faith."
Observations on Volcanic Eruptions and Earthquakes in Iceland within Historic Times. Translated and condensed by George H. Boehmer. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 46.
This paper has been prepared in connection with the Smithsonian Report for 1885, and is abridged from a larger paper by Th. Thoroddsen. Although the volcanoes and hot springs of Iceland are treated of in a work written at about the middle of the thirteenth century, in which some superstitious ideas are advanced as to their origin, and an eruption is recorded in the present paper which took place about A.D. 900, the geology of Iceland was not thoroughly studied till the beginning of this century, and is still little known. The active volcanoes of Iceland are described as in eight groups of from one to five volcanoes each. Within historic times, eruptions have occurred at about twenty different places. Among the large volcanoes, Hecla occupies the first place, with twenty-one eruptions; while others follow, with twelve or thirteen, ten, six, and one each. The largest numbers of eruptions took place in the fourteenth century (thirteen), and in the eighteenth century (fourteen). The earthquakes have been in direct connection with the eruptions. A copious bibliography is appended to the paper.
Cassell's National Library. Edited by Professor Henry Morley. New York: Cassell & Co. Thirty-five weekly volumes to date, averaging 192 pages each. Price, 10 cents each.
This library gives more for the money—meaning by more, actual value rather than quantity—than any other popular series that is published. It gives in clear, open type, suitable to all eyes that can read at all, and in a shape convenient for the pocket, selections from the best literature of all ages, and particularly from English literature, in works that are complete in themselves. The books have all been named in our monthly acknowledgments of "Publications received," and it is hardly necessary to say more of them particularly than to refer to the titles and authors as there given. In the list are represented by their best works such writers as Silvio Pellico, Lord Byron, Benjamin Franklin, Izaak Walton, Plutarch, Herodotus, Lord Bacon, Horace Walpole, Dean Swift, Sir Walter Scott, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Sir John de Manndeville, Shakespeare, and other authors whose names are fixed in the world's literature, but whose works are not easily got in as accessible form as that in which they are here presented.
Historical Society of Southern California. Los Angeles, January, 1886. Pp. 43.
We do not find anywhere in this report a line from which we may form a conception of the age of the society. Lists of officers for 1885 and 1886 are given, from which we are assured that it is at least about two years old; but it would be interesting to know more exactly how long it has been at work encouraging the study of the history of that district of romantic story in which its peculiar field lies. The address of the retiring president informs us that it enjoys a credit balance which it is hoped may be the beginning of a building fund, and that its monthly meetings are regularly held and attended with lively and interesting discussions. The retiring president, Mr. John Mansfield, recommended a division of the society into sections, embracing various branches of scientific research and history proper, and the admission of the teachers and pupils of the Normal and High Schools to its privileges. These recommendations are approved and made more definite by the new president, Mr. Isaac Kinley, who would also embrace art within the scope of the society's objects. Mr. Kinley urges energetic industry in the pursuit of the special historical work, while those who were not only the spectators but the makers of the history are still among them, and because the records are in a perishing condition. "The old Mission buildings are crumbling into soil, valuable old manuscripts are being gnawed into illegibility by the tooth of time." Besides the two presidents' addresses, the report contains papers on "California in the Eighteenth Century," as it was described by Father Francis Palon, founder of the Mission Dolores, by J. Adam; "The Glacial Period," by Professor Ira Moore; "Trap-door Spiders," by Miss Monks; and "North American Lakes," by Isaac Kinley.
A Study of Primitive Christianity. By Lewis G. Janes. Boston, 1886. Pp. 319. Price, $1.50.
This book is the fruit of many years of study, issuing in a series of lectures for the benefit of "The Association for Moral and Spiritual Education" connected with the Second Unitarian Church in the city of Brooklyn. The point of view is Unitarian as regards theological conceptions of the personality and mission of the Nazarene; but the author is a sincere lover of the character of Jesus, and disposed to do full justice to the influence and value of his teachings. Dr. Janes is evidently a thorough scholar, and one can not fail to be impressed with the care, the honesty, the faithfulness, the impartiality, the love of truth, the conservatism exhibited throughout this admirable volume. Quite irrespective of the author's conclusions upon special disputed points, no one can gainsay that his work is, in the language of the pastor of his church, who writes a preface, "a wonderfully clear and strong expression" of the facts which his study has determined; and that to this study he has brought "a singularly just and patient mind." We commend the book, not only to Unitarians, but to all who are willing to trace, or to see traced in a masterly manner the operation of natural causes, of race, politics, and social conditions generally, upon the rise and progress of Christianity.
It is not within our province to enter upon a critical discussion of either the theological or historical questions which this work involves; but it is very interesting to note the method which Dr. Janes pursues, and observe his theory of the development of the organized Christian system. He follows its course up to the point when it became the Roman state religion, and his conclusions are, that it "arose by a natural process of evolution out of pre-existing systems to complete the overthrow of the prevailing though effete polytheistic cultus, and to supplement the narrowness and partialism of the decaying ethnic religions by the principles of universalism and human brotherhood." The influences determining its various phases from the simple altruistic teaching of Jesus to the formidable political power which it came to wield in its union with the state are thoroughly studied and set forth effectively in the method of truly scientific exposition.
The author distinguishes sharply between the Jesus of the first three gospels, the "Triple Tradition," and the Jesus of the fourth. The "Triple Tradition," in his judgment, represents the man as he really was in life, "a simple, noble, manly personage, full of intense conviction and prophetic enthusiasm, who moves naturally and freely in his Hebrew environment." The fourth Gospel, however, presents the Great Exemplar with the incumbrances of the many myths of Aryan and Egyptian thought; and to separate the Christ of actual history from the legendary Christ, to whom have been attached these ancient myths of the East and of Egypt, is one of the main purposes of Dr. Janes's critical study. For instance, the great solar myth is indicated as the source of the narrated miracles of cure, of the doctrine of the Logos, and again of the final miracle of the resurrection.
The religion of the future, Dr. Janes believes to be, "the true religion of humanity," which was the simple, unalloyed teaching of Jesus of Nazareth—a very different thing from the Christianity triumphant which was exemplified in imperial Rome—"a compromise with pagan power and sacerdotalism, a hybrid product which the Nazarene would never have recognized as the child of his simple enthusiasm for righteousness, his devotion and self-abnegation, his suffering and agony, his poverty and supreme sacrifice." This religion of the "brotherhood of man," and with it the trustful acceptance of the beneficence of the order of Nature, is the rational fulfillment of Jesus's doctrine of the "fatherhood of God."
First Lessons in Zoölogy. By A. S. Packard. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 290. Price, $1.
In preparing this manual, the author has had in view the excellent plan, which has been adopted in some museums, of placing near the entrance "Epitome Collections," or a series of examples of the principal classes of the animal kingdom, so that the visitor may go into the main collection prepared with an idea of its logical arrangement. The book differs from the author's two other text-books in zoölogy in that it treats of still fewer examples or types; that fewer technical terms and names are used; that it seeks to lead the student from the facts to the principles, without tiring him with formal general statements; and that the subject as a whole is given in somewhat smaller compass—all being in the direction of better adaptation to elementary instruction. The importance of studying from specimens, fresh and alive, using the book as an aid to that study, and not relying upon it alone, is insisted upon; and the pupil is exhorted to go out, look at the animals where they live, and learn how they live.
Jordan, David S. List of the Fishes known from the Pacific Coast of Tropical America—and other Papers on Fishes, etc. From the Proceedings of the United States National Museum.
Observatory of Yale College. Reports for 1885-'86. Pp. 15.
The Buffalo Crematory. Buffalo, N. Y. Pp. 8.
Amherst College. Report on Physical Education and Hygiene. Pp. 16.
Newman. Robert, M. D., New York. Galvano-cautery in Diseases of the Prostate, Bladder, and Urethra. Pp. 13.
Morse, Edward S., Salem. Mass. Ancient and Modern Methods of Arrow Release. Pp. 56.
Boston Society of Natural History Proceedings, March, 1884, to February, 1886. Pp. 128.
Seven Hundred Album Verses. New York: J. S. Ogilvie & Co. Pp. 128. 15 cents.
Foster, Michael, and others. The Journal of Physiology. Vol VII, No. 4, Cambridge, England. Pp. 80. $5 a volume.
Valin, H. D., M. D. The American Journal of Biology. Vol. I, No. 1. Quarterly. Pp. 48. $1 a year.
American Society for Psychical Research. Proceedings. Vol. I, No. 2. Boston: Cupples, Upham & Co. Pp. 78. 40 cents.
Price, J. A. Powdered Anthracite and Gas Fuel. Scranton, Pa. Pp. 74.
Adams's Solar Camera, etc. Descriptive Circulars. Worcester, Mass. Pp. 24.
Amherst College Observatory. Report of the Director, David P. Todd. 1881-1885. Pp. 74.
Pickering, David C, Harvard College. A Plan for the Extension of Astronomical Research. Pp. 11. An Investigation in Stellar Photography. Pp. 52, with Plates.
United States Geological Survey. Bulletins. No. 27, Work done in the Division of Chemistry and Physics, pp. 80. No. 28, Gabbros and Associated Hornblende Rocks near Baltimore. Md. By G. H. Williams. Pp. 59. No. 29, Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the North American Jurassic. By Charles A. White. Pp. 24, with Plates.
Gray, S. M. Report on Sewers of Providence, R. I. Pp. 41, with Maps.
Cook, A. J. The Carpet Beetle. Agricultural College, Michigan. Pp. 7.
Griswold, W. M. A Directory of Authors. Bangor, Me.: Monthly Index Office. Pp. 16. 50 cents.
Pneumatic Differentiation. By Various Authors. Pp. 50.
United States Bureau of Statistics. Quarterly Report to June 80, 1886. Washington: Government Printing-office. Pp. 232.
Culley, John L. Treatise on Helicoidal Oblique Arches. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 125. 50 cents.
Cassell's National Library. No. 32, Voyages in Search of the Northwest Passage. From the Collection of Richard Hakluyt. No. 33, Diary of Samuel Pepys. 1660, 1661. No. 34, Milton's Earlier Poems. No. 35, The Sorrows of Werther. From the German of Goethe. Pp. 192 each. 10 cents each.
Bowen, Clarence Winthrop. Woodstock: An Historical Sketch. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 64.
Dreyspring. Adolphe. Easy Lessons in French according to the Cumulative Method. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 142. 70 cents.
Dawson. Sir William J. Hand-Book of Zoölogy. Montreal: Dawson Brothers. Pp. 304. $1.25.
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