Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/584

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
564
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with the character of the laboratory-work, and who have not access to the reserve stores. In the various departments of ethnology and industrial art, for instance, the wealth of the museum is exceedingly great, but, until cases have been built and labels printed, it is impossible properly to display it."But the museum is expected, as this work advances, to improve rapidly in attractiveness to the visitor and general student, and in convenience to the investigator and special student. Besides the general report and review of the year's work in the scientific departments by the assistant director, the special reports of the curators and acting curators of the twenty sections and departments are given: a bibliography of the museum, a list of accessions for the year, and special papers, having much interest, on "Throwing Sticks" and "Basket Work of the North American Aborigines," by Professor Otis T. Mason; "Eskimo Bows," by John Murdock; "A Spotted Dolphin" and "The Florida Muskrat," by Frederick W. True; and "The West Indian Seal," by Frederick W. True and F. A. Lucas.

Analysis of the Urine, with Special References to the Diseases of the Genito-Urinary Organs. By Professors Hofman and Ultzmann. Translated by T. B. Brune, M. D., and H. H. Curtis, M. D. Second edition. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 310. Price, $2.

The favor with which this work has been received in medical circles is attested by the fact that it appeared in three languages during the year of its publication. The present issue is the second edition of the English translation, and contains some additions by the pen of the translators. While the book does not pretend to be an exhaustive treatise on the diseases of the genito-urinary organs, it brings all that is essential for the student and the practitioner. Some of the subjects treated of in the different chapters into which the text is divided, are: the histology of the urinary organs, the urine, reagents and apparatus for the approximative determination of the urine constituents, general diagnosis, diagnosis of the diseases of the urinary apparatus.

Great attention and care are of course paid to the different chemical methods of testing and analyzing the urine and its constituents, and the directions are so clearly given that by attentive study and observance of these the student can speedily become proficient in the execution of analyses and in the interpretation of the results obtained.

Eight colored plates, finely finished, are added to this volume. These are not given in the German edition, but are taken from another work, by the same author, on the "Sediments of the Urine." These drawings are to serve as aids in the microscopic examination of the urine deposits, for the microscope bears a part fully as important as chemical analysis in investigations of this kind.

Oils and Varnishes. Edited by James Cameron, F. I. C. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 376. Price, $2.50.

This book, one in a series of technological hand-books, contains essentially the matter given in Cooley's "Cyclopædia" and supplemented from the latest publications. It is intended for all interested in and working with varnishes and oils, and contains a great deal of practical information. After an introductory chapter on the chemistry of oils, the animal, vegetable, and mineral oils are successively considered at length and in detail. Under the head of "Testing Oils" the different physical and chemical tests are given that can be advantageously employed; the latter tests embrace methods for both qualitative and quantitative determinations. Separate chapters are allotted to "Resins and Varnishes," and "Testing Resins." The appendix furnishes some interesting tables of prices in England of oils, tallows, essential oils, resins, and varnishes, and statistics of the quantities and values of oils there imported for some years past.

Through a Microscope. By Samuel Wells, Mary Treat, and Frederick Le Roy Sargent. Chicago and Boston: The Interstate Publishing Company. 16mo. Pp. 126. Price, 60 cents.

This little hand-book is one of a series which is designed to make young readers acquainted with and interested in the elements of natural science. The enlistment of three authors for the preparation of so