second part of the book, gives directions for making experiments illustrative of the principal laws of physics, as the equilibrium of forces, motion, acoustics, light, magnetism, heat, etc. The work appears to be very well adapted to meet the wants of the reader for whom it is intended.
Current Discussion: A Collection from the Chief English Essays of Questions of the Time. Edited by Edward L. Burlingame. Vol. II., Questions of Belief. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 360. Price, $1.50.
The first volume of this new series of reprinted contemporary discussion was devoted to international politics, and very naturally gave special prominence to the treatment of the Oriental question which has latterly excited so much attention. It consisted of a judicious selection of the most important papers that have appeared in the English reviews by distinguished writers on the various aspects of Eastern politics. The second volume, devoted to what the editor terms, somewhat vaguely, "Questions of Belief," is occupied with radical speculations in theology, most of the space being taken up by the Symposiums from the Nineteenth Century that have appeared in The Popular Science Supplement. There is an article on "The Course of Modern Thought," by G. H. Lewes; one on "The Condition and Prospects of the Church of England," by Thomas Hughes; and the paper of W. H. Mallock entitled "Is Life worth living?" Nothing needs to be said in commendation of these able discussions, and they are brought out in a neat and attractive shape by the publishers.
Ferns of Kentucky. By J. Williamson. Louisville: J. P. Morton & Co. Pp. 154. $2.
The collector of ferns in Kentucky will find in this neat little volume a guide to the principal localities in which the different kinds occur, and a key for determining the different species which he meets in his rambles. The volume further contains hints on the cultivation of ferns, and on the proper method of drying and preserving them. Sixty full-page etchings and six woodcuts serve to illustrate the ferns of Kentucky.
Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, F. V. Hayden, Geologist-in Charge. Vol. IV., No. I. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 311.
The memoirs contained in this number of the Bulletin are all on zoölogical subjects, viz.: "The Ornithology of the Lower Rio Grande of Texas;" "Fishes from the Cretaceous and Tertiary, west of the Mississippi;" three papers on "Tineina;" "Noctuidæ, chiefly from California;" "The North American Species of Alpheus;" "Mammals of Fort Sisseton, Dakota;" "American Herodiones;" "Butterflies from Southern Utah;" "Herpetology of Dakota and Montana;" "Consolidation of the Hoofs in the Virginian Deer;" "A Breed of Solid Hoofed Pigs;" "Prof. Owen on the Pythonomorpha."
Manual of the Apiary. By A. J. Cook, Professor of Entomology in the Michigan State Agricultural College. Chicago: T. G. Newman & Son. Pp. 286. Price, cloth, $1.25; paper, $1.
A large edition of this "Manual" having been sold within two years of its first publication, Prof. Cook was encouraged to revise the work and make it more complete in both its scientific and practical aspects. The result is a handsome volume, elegantly illustrated, and containing all the information needed by those who desire to keep bees. We have received, from the same author, a pamphlet on "The Hessian Fly," giving its natural history and habits, and describing the methods of protecting the wheat-plants against its ravages.
Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States. By David Starr Jordan, Ph. D., M. D. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co. 1878. Price, $2.50.
It speaks well for this book, and for the growing activity in natural history studies, that it has grown to become so useful an apparatus in its own line. It is barely four years since that novel brochure appeared of Jordan and Van Vleck, "A Popular Key to the Birds, Reptiles, Batrachians, and Fishes, of the Northern United States, east of the Mississippi River." Soon came as an outgrowth the "Manual of the Verte-
