Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/140

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130
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

properly distributed throughout the cropping season, to make agriculture reasonably certain without the aid of irrigation; and the people of the country believe that the hot and dry winds have more to do with shortages of crops than lack of rainfall. The capacity of the surface streams being limited (the Arkansas and South Platte are already made to give up most of their water before leaving Colorado), a valuable other resource for irrigation is derived from the use of the subterranean or "undersheet" water, with which the sand and gravel deposits in the river valleys of considerable width and unknown depth are charged. Much of this is obtained by means of open subflow ditches. In other cases it has to be pumped. In regions where this is not available, the people must depend upon deep wells of limited capacity, the storage and immediate use of storm waters, and the flow of artesian wells.

The Journal of the College of Science of the Imperial University of Japan, Vol. IV, Part I—published by a committee of four professors, three of whom are Japanese—contains seven articles on subjects of biology and physiology, all by Japanese writers. All are distinguished by great merit, but are of too technical a character to be susceptible of detailed notice in a popular journal. Prof. K. Mitsukari offers a study on the embryology of the turtle, in which many notable features hitherto overlooked are presented. Mr. Kamakichi Kishinonge describes the pulmonary lamellæ of certain genera of spiders and their development, which he suggests may be from some aquatic arthropod, as limulus. Mr. A. Oka describes a new species of fresh-water polyzoa. A new fungus enemy of the mulberry tree is described by Mr. Nobujiro Tanaka. The Irritability of the Stigma is shown by Mr. M. Miyoshi to have a relation to cross-fertilization. A paper by Mr. Masamaro Inaba on the Development of Suprarenal Bodies in the Mouse contains much of interest to physiologists. All these papers are abundantly illustrated in the highest style of lithographic art, with colors.

In his lecture on Les Progès de l'Anthropologie (Paris, De Saye & Son, printers), the Marquis de Nadaillac endeavors to refute the theory of evolution. It is no slight testimony to the solid foundation on which that theory has been established in our modern philosophy that so learned and earnest a writer has not been able to add one to the arguments which English students met and answered long ago.

Two studies of general interest in the American Journal of Psychology for April are those of Dr. E. W. Scripture on Arithmetical Prodigies and Mr. Ilerbert Nichols on the Psychology of Time. In his paper on Arithmetical Prodigies, Dr. Scripture first gives an account of the persons themselves, with a bibliography of the subject; and afterward undertakes to make such a psychological analysis of their powers as will help in the comprehension of them, and furnish hints to the practical instructor in arithmetic.

The most important paper in Part XVIII of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research is that of Mrs. Henry Sidgwick on the Evidences for Clairvoyance. Other curious studies are those of Baron von Schrenck-Notzing on Thought-transference; Mr. Thomas Barkworth on Automatic Writing; and M. Léon Marrilier on Apparitions of the Virgin in the Dordogne. Prof. William James's Principles of Physiology is reviewed at length by F. W. H. Myers. London.

Dr. William W. Parker, of Richmond, Va., endeavors, in a paper on Instinct in Animals and Intelligence in Man contrasted, to show that there can be no comparison between the two, but that the matter is one of contrasts and antitheses: that in the animal, intelligence is limited; in man unlimited; that man's highest qualities or perceptions have no existence even in embryo in animals; and that "not one, not a thousand, links can bridge the chasm between the intelligence of animals and the intelligence of man."

Insects and Insecticides, a practical manual concerning noxious insects and the methods of preventing injuries, is designed by the author, Clarence M. Weed, who is also his publisher (Hanover, N. H.), for the use of the farmer, fruit-grower, floriculturist, and housekeeper. It has been prepared to furnish these persons with a concise account of the more important injurious insects with which they have to contend, together with a summary of the latest knowledge concerning