Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/728

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stand to the substances that produce them; in a word, that the mind is a property of the organized body." Mind is no more a mystery than matter, except that its phenomena being more complex, we possess as yet much less knowledge of them than we do of many of the simpler phenomena of Nature.

The Report of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1889 to 1891 contains, besides the summary of the work of the commission and its different stations, reports by Richard Rathbun of the Inquiry respecting Food Fishes and the Fishing Grounds, and by Hugh M. Smith regarding the Methods and Statistics of the Fisheries; and, in the Appendices, reports, by Z. L. Tanner, on the Investigations of the Steamer Albatross; by C. T. Townsend, on the Oyster Resources and Oyster Fishery of the Pacific Coast of the United States; and by C. H. Stevenson, on the Coast Fisheries of Texas; with papers on the Sparoid Fishes of America and Europe, by D. S. Jordan and Bertt Fisher; Fish Entozoa from Yellowstone Park, by Edward Linton; and Ernst Haeckel's Plankton Studies on the Importance and Constitution of the Pelagic Fauna and Flora (translated by G. W. Field).

A pamphlet by Mr. Alexis A. Julien, entitled Notes of Research on the New York Obelisk, contains, under the significant title of Misfortunes of an Obelisk, a history of the obelisk in Central Park from the time it was quarried at Syene till it was brought and erected in its present position; together with a Study of the New York Obelisk as a Decayed Bowlder. The author regards the obelisk as liable to rapid decay in our damp and variable climate, and his chief object appears to be to discover the best means of arresting its disintegration. He approves of the paraffin treatment that has been applied to it, but believes, and seeks to demonstrate, that it was originally gilded; and that if again covered with gold it will be restored to its first estate and be most effectually protected against further deterioration.

From Romeyn Hitchcock, Chicago, 111., we have of his contributions to the United States National Museum The Ainos of Yezo, Japan—one of the most satisfactory and valuable works on the subject that has appeared; The Ancient Pit Dwellers of Yezo, Japan; Shinto, or the Mythology of the Japanese; The Ancient Burial Mounds of Japan; and Some Ancient Relics in Japan.

The first paper, and the one occupying the most space, in the Archivos do Museo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (Archives of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro), is by Dr. Emilio Augusto Goldi, On a Disease of the Coffee Tree in the State of Rio de Janeiro, which is produced by a nematoid worm, Meloidogne exigua. Dr. Fritz Müller describes the metamorphoses of Trichodactylus, a fresh-water crustacean, and furnishes besides papers on Janira exul, an isopod crustacean of the State of Santa Cattarina, and two shrimps—Atyoida potimirum and Palæmon potiuna; and Dr. Hermann von Shering contributes a description and anatomy of Peltella.

The Journal of Morphology, under the editorial conduct of Prof. C. O. Whitman and Mr. Edward Phelps Allis, Jr., continues to furnish the best results of the most careful researches in the branch to which it is devoted. No. 2 of Vol. VIII (May, 1893) contains the second part of Prof. J. S. Kingley's study of The Embryology of Limulus; The Habits and Development of the Newt, by Edwin O. Jordan; The Formation of the Medullary Groove in the Elasmobranchs, by William A. Lucy; Biological Changes in the Spleen of the Frog, by Alice L. Gaule; Histogenesis of the Retina in Amblystoma and Necturus, by F. Mall; and Homology of the Centrosome, by S. Watasé. All these articles are suitably illustrated in the plates.

No. 2 of Vol. I of the Contributions to the Botanical Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania is devoted to a Botanical and Economic Study of Maize, by John W. Harshberger. The botanical account, under which are included gross anatomy, histology, bibliography, synonyms, and name, is followed by a discussion of the origin of maize, with evidences afforded by meteorology, botany, archæology, ethnology, philology, and history; after which its geographical distribution, chemistry, agriculture, physiology, utility, and future are considered.

The paper of Mr. William Trelease, of the Missouri Botanic Garden, St. Louis, on The Sugar Maples, with a Winter Synopsis of all North American Maples, is devoted, first, to the identification and description of the varieties which are known in different parts of