A Junior Course of Practical Zoölogy. By A. Milnes Marshall, M.D., F. R. S., assisted by C. Herbert Hurst. London: Smith, Elder & Co. For sale by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. Pp. xxiv-440.
This book is a laboratory manual designed as a guide to a practical acquaintance with the elements of animal morphology. In almost all cases the descriptions of animals are so arranged that the whole dissection can be performed on a single specimen. Strict uniformity of treatment has not been specially aimed at; thus the more difficult portions of the subject are treated at considerable length, while systems of subordinate educational value, such as the muscular, occupy little space. Few illustrations have been introduced lest the student should give too little attention to the drawings which he must make from his own dissections. The animals selected for description are amœba, and three other protozoa, hydra, liver-fluke, leech, earthworm, fresh-water mussel, edible snail, crayfish, cockroach, lancelet, dog-fish, rabbit, fowl, and pigeon.
Sanitary Examinations of Water, Air, and Food. By Cornelius B. Fox, M. D., F. R. C. P., London. With 110 Illustrations. Second edition. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 563. Price, $4.
The reliability of Dr. Fox's sanitary work led to the expansion of his pamphlet on "Water Analysis" into a volume containing sections on examinations of air and food, in 1878, and has now brought this volume to a second edition. The chief new features of this edition are the extension of water and air examination in the direction of those biological methods that have been introduced of late years, and that are deemed by German and French sanitarians as important as the chemical analysis. Recently devised improvements in the examination of milk are also recorded.
Due North: or Glimpses of Scandinavia and Russia. By Maturin M. Ballou. Boston: Ticknor & Co. Pp. 373.
The author visited Copenhagen and Elsinore, in Denmark, traveled over much of Sweden and Norway, saw the midnight sun, had a glimpse of Finland, visited St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Nijni-Novgorod, and spent a few days in Poland. His sketches of all these parts include accounts of scenery, buildings, people, customs, sites having historical interest or interesting by personal association, and observations on moral, social, political, and religious conditions. His view of the Czar and his government is decidedly more favorable than those which we are accustomed to hear expressed.
The True Doctrine of Orbits: An Original Treatise on Central Forces. By H. G. Rush, of New Danville, Pennsylvania. Pp. 133.
The author endeavors, by mathematical demonstrations, to prove that the orbits of the planets, and even of the comets, are not elliptical, as the Newtonian astronomy supposes, but circular.
Report of the Proceedings of the American Historical Association. Third Annual Meeting, April 27-29, 1886. Herbert B. Adams, Secretary. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 104. Price, $1.
The membership of the Association has grown since its organization in September, 1884, from forty to four hundred and twenty-two members, seventy-eight of whom are life-members. The third meeting was held in Washington, and the discussions included such topics as the capture of Washington in 1814, and the campaigns of our late war, besides many others of a more general character, and some bearing upon what used to be called the philosophy of history. Among the achievements claimed for this meeting are the friendly reunion of military historians from the North and from the South; the peaceful discussion of the campaigns before Washington, and in the Valley of Virginia; the historical representation of the new South and the Northwest, as well as of the Northern States and Canada; the treatment of almost every branch of our American history; the meeting of the youngest historians with the very oldest—Mr. Bancroft; the mingling of representatives from various historical schools; and the presence of Congressmen and visitors from different parts of the Union. "It was a veritable national convention, in the political center of the United States, for the furtherance of American history and of history in America."
