Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/437

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LITERARY NOTICES.
421

A Catalogue of Chemical Periodicals. By H. Carrington Bolton, Ph. D., Professor of Chemistry, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. Reprint from Annals New York Academy of Sciences. 1885. Pp. 58, 8vo.

This bibliography contains the titles of the chief chemical periodicals of all countries, from the rise of this literature to the end of 1884. The titles number 182, and eight languages occur; the arrangement is strictly alphabetical by the first word; cross references are freely introduced, from the editors' names to the journals published by them, and from the chemical societies to their publications. Bibliographical details are quite full; the different titles borne by a periodical at different periods are arranged in chronological order under the first or earliest title. At the end of the paper is a geographical index, arranged by countries and cities.

The material for this bibliography has been drawn for the most part from a larger "Catalogue of Scientific and Technical Periodicals—1665-1882," by the same author. The larger comprises, we understand, over 5,000 titles, and forms a volume of nearly 800 pages; it will be published by the Smithsonian Institution in a few weeks.

The present catalogue will be useful to chemists, and especially to librarians.

Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington. Vol. VII. 1884. Washington, D. C.: Judd & Detweiler. Pp. 135.

This volume contains the minutes of the society and of its mathematical section for 1884. The society continues to show a vigorous growth. The total number of members enrolled, from the beginning in 1871, is 292. Thirty-five new members were added during the year, and the present number of active members is 173. The annual address of the president, James C. Welling, delivered December 6, 1884, was on "The Atomic Philosophy, Physical and Metaphysical." The "Minutes" include, besides this address in full, abstracts of the papers read at the stated meetings of the society, among which we notice, as of current general interest, Mr. Russell's on "The Existing Glaciers of the High Sierra of California," Mr. Kerr's on "The Mica-Mines of North Carolina," Mr. Russell's on the "Volcanic Dust of the Great Basin," Mr. Dall's on the "Volcanic Sand that fell at Unalaska in 1883," with Mr. Diller's on the composition of that dust; and Mr. Dutton's on "The Volcanoes and Lava-Fields of New Mexico."

How should I pronounce? Or, the Art of Correct Pronunciation. By William Henry P. Phyfe. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 305. Price, $1.25.

The author assumes that the subject of English pronunciation has not, as yet, had its main facts and principles clearly and concisely presented; and that, among existing books, none consider the question embraced in the title of the present one in its broadest sense, and endeavor to give it an intelligent and satisfactory answer. His effort has been to supply this lack; to furnish the reasons for the directions given, and to indicate the means of becoming proficient in the very important art. After an introductory chapter presenting general views and principles, the topics are considered of the physical nature of sound, the nature and use of the vocal organs, articulate sounds, the sounds of the English language, alphabets, and the English alphabet. The last topic is followed by complete lists of the various sounds for which each letter in the English alphabet stands, and of the various symbols used for each elementary sound, which are claimed to be the fullest that have ever appeared. Then come rules and suggestions for becoming proficient in English pronunciation and the indication of the correct pronunciations, according to both Webster and Worcester, of more than one thousand words that are frequently mispronounced. Proper names are considered in another chapter, and a bibliography of the subject is given in an appendix.

The Lenapé Stone: or, the Indian and the Mammoth. By H. C. Mercer. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 95. Price, $1.25.

In 1872 a young farmer in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, turned up in plowing a "queer" stone, which he took home and threw into a box with his other "Indian curiosities." It was a piece of a broken "gorget-stone," on which could be discerned