Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/580

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564
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in vertical columns; and in horizontal red lines within the columns the lives of the persons whose names the lines respectively bear, with arrowheads pointing out the years of their birth and death. The chart is otherwise arranged in three grand divisions, viz., literature, thought, discovery, invention, etc.; second, fine arts; and, third, music; while prominent movements and events marking the progress in each division are duly and plainly noticed. Attached to the chart is an index, by the aid of which each name recorded may be easily found.

A series of seventy-two Normal Temperature Charts, by Decade, for the United States and the Dominion of Canada, compiled by Mr. A. J. Henry, and published by the Signal Department under General Greely, comprises reductions of observations from about sixty stations, selected so as to represent the entire area of the country. These charts, it is observed, have become a necessary aid in the work of the Forest Division, and have been published in the expectation that they will also become valuable adjuncts in the duties of local observers, with reference to forecasting the weather and furnishing information; as well as to observers charged with the preparation of weekly or monthly crop bulletins.

Prof. Adolphe Dreyspring's method of teaching the French and German languages is conformed to the maxim Repetitio mater studiorum, or the rule of constant repetition. He uses only a limited vocabulary and enlarges it slowly; and exercises the pupil in all possible changes in the use and order of these words, and in a great variety of adaptations. Then he tries to make his lessons interesting and amusing by casting them in the form of a story, and illustrating them with pictures which, while pleasing to the eye, suggest the translation. The French Reader, on the Cumulative Method, is intended to follow the Easy Lessons in French, as a first attempt at more extended reading. In it the pupil will find a vocabulary familiar from the Easy Lessons, to which much has been added that is new. The book recites the story of Rodolph and Coco the chimpanzee, which has been composed with considerable knowledge of what children like, and is adapted to instruct them and amuse them at once. (American Book Company.)

A Report on the Higginsville Sheet, Lafayette County, is the first of a series of similar reports which are to be issued by the Geological Survey of Missouri, Arthur Winslow, State Geologist, containing the results of detailed examination in the respective areas. The localities selected for such work are those which are of prominent economic importance or of great geological and scientific interest. The form of publication is novel, and is intended to bring forward the map and section sheet as the prominent features, subordinating the report to them. Hence, the form of the modern small map sheet is adopted, with a scale of an inch to the mile, each map representing a quarter of a degree on each side, or one sixteenth of a square degree. The map is geological and topographical, and is accompanied with a section sheet containing cross-sections of profiles and underground structure and numbered columnar sections showing details of geological formations.

Truth in Fiction, by Paul Carus (Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago), includes Twelve Tales with a Moral, or rather allegories, for only the first one, The Chief's Daughter, is a real story, and in that the allegorical significance is as prominent as are the incidents. The lesson taught by it is that while we may throw away ordinances and ceremonies, we need not forget the principles and the truths which they cover, and which they are intended to symbolize or suggest. In the second story, After the Distribution of the Type, the doctrine is suggested that, while the man passes away, his work, that which he taught and gave to mankind, lives on eternally; and in that the real immortality. In like manner the particular forms of doctrine and philosophy which Mr. Carus upholds are presented, and agnostic principles are defended, or those features which he regards as absurd are satirized, in the other stories



PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations, Bulletins. Iowa, Massachusetts: Analysis of Commercial Fertilizers. Ohio: Bulletin and Eleventh Annual Report.

Agriculture, United States Department of. North American Fauna of the Death Valley Expedition. Pp. 394. With Plates.

Bishop, Cortlandt F. History of Elections in the American Colonies. New York: Columbia College. Pp. 297