Popular Science Monthly/Volume 22/April 1883/Literary Notices

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LITERARY NOTICES.

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES. No. XLIII.

The Science of Politics. By Sheldon Amos, M.A., author of "The Science of Law," etc., late Professor of Jurisprudence in University College, London. Pp. 490. Price, $1.75.

It is doubtful if any book could be offered to the American public of which they would be so little able to judge what it might be about, as a treatise on "the science of politics." It would rather be expected that the writer would choose some such title to give respectability and character to new political theories of his own, and it would at any rate be anticipated that the work would be largely of a visionary and speculative nature. Yet no such expectation would have been justified in the present instance. Professor Amos has given to the world an instructive and valuable contribution to the important subject which he has felt it incumbent upon him to undertake. It is first of all a moderate, judicious treatise, indulging in no extreme or extravagant views, and imbued throughout with the true scientific spirit. Professor Amos has this claim, which is probably an advantage in the treatment of his subject: he is not a man trained in the field of physical science who has felt that he had a mission to carry physical methods of study over into the political region to open a new dispensation of political philosophy. On the contrary, he is an erudite student of history, law, and civil institutions, and has made jurisprudence and the working of political constitutions a matter of life-long and critical investigation. His preparation has been in the general field which furnishes the subject-matter of his book, and he has come to the large conception of a science of politics through inquiry into the relations of political phenomena. From this consideration, his work will have a weight and a practical character which no amount of preparation in the special sciences could have given it. We are of opinion that Mr. Spencer's "Development of Political Institutions," dealing strictly with the subject from the point of view of historic evolution, is probably a more valuable contribution toward the organization of a political science than this work of Professor Amos, and yet it may not be so well adapted to interest general readers in the claims and grounds of this new subject. At all events, Professor Amos's book is better suited to the state of mind of politicians, who, being generally of the class of lawyers, will be more familiar with his data and the questions he discusses than they would be with the rigorous inquiries into the genesis of political ideas worked out by an analysis of primitive society. The plan of the work before us may be best gathered from a statement of the topics dealt with in its successive chapters. These are: I. "Nature and Limits of the Science of Politics." II. "Political Terms." III. "Political Reasoning." IV. "The Geographical Area of Modern Politics." V. "The Primary Elements of Political Life and Action." VI. "Constitutions." VII. "Local Government." VIII. "The Government of Dependencies." IX. "Foreign Relations." X. "The Province of Government." XL. "Revolutions in States." XII. "Right and Wrong in Politics."

Obviously the first implication of science is of laws or principles of a general nature, or that are universal in their operation. A science of politics, therefore, if there be such a thing, must deal with political phenomena in their most comprehensive forms, or as exemplified under wide diversities of constitution. It will be seen from the titles above enumerated that the range of discussion in the present volume is broad, and deals with all the chief fundamental problems relating to the policy of government. Under the forms of diverse institutions, Professor Amos seeks to trace the tendencies and influences that are at work for good or for evil, and by which the value of the accompanying forms must be judged. The book, in the nature of things, can not be as spicy as a treatise on local politics, appealing to the bias and prejudice of patriotic feeling, but just for this reason its influence will be salutary and wholesome. We greatly need that catholicity of view in dealing with political subjects which it is the object of science to illustrate and enforce.

Description of Houghton Farm by H. E. A.; with experiments on Indian Corn, 1880-81, by Manly Miles, Director of Experiments. With a Summary of the Experiments with Wheat for Forty Years at Rothamsted. Cambridge: Printed at the Riverside Press. Pp. 75.

Experimental scientific agriculture—anything truly entitled to the name—is perhaps one of the most difficult things that a man can undertake. Experimental science, anyhow earnestly pursued, is the hardest kind of work. Mere experiments are, of course, easy enough, and it is easy to parade their results and talk about new discoveries, of which people generally know nothing. But to make experimental investigations tributary to any real advance of knowledge, to get new and valuable results which will stand, or to give greater precision and trustworthiness to accepted conclusions, is as far as possible from easy, and is, indeed, so difficult as to be but rarely attained. It is quite a mistake to suppose that laboratories grind out new truth with the regularity of a flouring-mill. Elaborate experiments may go on for years, and nothing come of them worth preserving. It is exactly this difficulty in getting it that makes scientific truth so precious. It is like diamond-digging, only the "finds" are much less frequent, and infinitely more valuable.

But, if in each of the sciences, with perfected equipments of research and a comparatively narrow field, it is so hard to add anything new to the stock of knowledge, how much more difficult must it be when the attack is made upon a whole group of mutually dependent sciences! The farm, taken as an arena of experiment, is itself a congeries of laboratories. The phenomena involved are physical, chemical, geological, meteorological, and broadly biological—that is, embracing the economy of vegetal and animal life, from mildews to fruit-orchards, from insects to vertebrates. To know the nature of the soil, the nature of the air, the nature of fertilizers, the nature of plants and animals of all kinds, so as to study them in their vital connections by experimental processes that shall bring out valuable and lasting results, is hence, as we have said, one of the most formidable of tasks.

In the first place, there will arise all the difficulties encountered in the pursuit of the special sciences, with the disadvantage that the means of investigation are very rarely so perfect. But the peculiar and most formidable difficulty of agricultural science arises from the fact that the farm is itself a grand laboratory of nature, which imposes its own conditions of inquiry. And the first of these conditions is, that Nature must be taken at her own pace. Her processes go on at their own rates, and can not be much forced. The natural changes involved in agricultural effects proceed slowly, and the experimenter must conform his plans to this fact. The changes of soil, the action of fertilizers, the improvement of crops, the culture of stock, involve slowly accumulating results, require time, and, in addition to knowledge and skill on the part of the investigator, he must also have patience and perseverance, remembering that the fruits of his efforts belong to the future. Agricultural science, if honest, can not strike for immediate results; that scientific farming which demands something to display promptly, like prize-cattle and prize crops, or that seeks to astonish the neighborhood, is a sham, and only brings an excellent thing into unmerited disgrace. This is what must be, and what is shown by abundant experience. The farm establishments started by rich men for the promotion of agricultural science, and which have come to nothing, may be counted by hundreds. On the contrary, the one which has a world-wide reputation for having made the largest contribution to agricultural progress is working by a system which requires a long series of years to develop its results. The Rothamsted farm of Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert has been forty years in getting under way, and its most important results are still matters of hope and belong to the future. This is in accordance with the spirit and requirements of true scientific agriculture.

We have been led to these remarks by an examination of the pamphlet before us, which reports the initial steps of a new American attempt at scientific agriculture. Six hundred acres of Orange County land, named Houghton Farm, and owned by a wealthy manufacturer, Mr. Lawson Valentine, have been devoted by him to "a long cherished plan for doing something toward the progress of American agriculture." The proprietor resolved that to attain this object he would constitute "a scientific department devoted to agricultural investigation and experiment, and that such department be of the highest order"; and that "the farm operations be carried on in accordance with the best-known methods and under the best possible organization and management, with a view of educating and enlightening others by furnishing valuable examples and results in practical agriculture." A good deal of hard thinking and difficult work was here laid out for somebody, and very naturally Mr. Valentine, a business man, cast about for able help in carrying on his enterprise. He had the good fortune to secure the services of Dr. Manly Miles, of the Michigan Agricultural College, a man well prepared for original agricultural investigations, to take the direction of the farm experiments. It was proposed to attempt for Indian corn in this country what had been done for wheat by Lawes and Gilbert in England—that is, to carry its cultivation through a course of years on assigned plots of ground, for the purpose of determining the quality and quantity of the product with different fertilizers, different modes of treatment, etc. The pamphlet before us contains Dr. Miles's report on the work of 1880-'81. This report lays down the method to be pursued, and embodies the first results. It indicates the plans of drainage adopted, gives the previous history of the plots of ground, describes the selection of seed, and gives the carefully tabulated results from unmanured plots, plots treated with farm-yard manure, and a considerable number of the most important artificial fertilizers. The mechanical operations of culture arc carefully described, the peculiarities of the season recorded, and there is a minute description of the precautions taken to determine accurately the quantitative results of the matured crops. The main results, of course, assume a tabular numerical form, but Dr. Miles has also introduced very successfully the graphic method of conveying generalizations and comparisons to the eye by means of diagrams. There are all the indications in this report of intelligent, conscientious, painstaking, and persevering work. The document is undoubtedly valuable for the positive information it contains, although from the nature of the case the first results of such a trial-scries of experiments must have the lowest value of any terms of the series. Single experiments in agriculture are worth but little, and only become valuable as they are verified. Time and continued research are indispensable for the elimination of error.

No one can carefully examine this report without recognizing that the experiments were intelligently planned and thoroughly executed as far as they went, giving promise that by rigorously carrying out the system adopted still more valuable results will be attained. We have been informed that, when Dr. Miles undertook the work, he did so under the explicit condition that he should have charge of the experiments for at least a period of ten years, that time being indispensable to achieve anything worthy the name of a contribution to agricultural science. Yet, after a year of preparation, and two seasons of systematic work, presto, the director of experiments at Houghton Farm is found installed as professor in the Agricultural College at Amherst, Massachusetts. What there was about these initiative experiments on Indian corn which Mr. Valentine found unsatisfactory does not appear in the document before us; but we have heard that the director of experiments was complained of as "slow." This is probably because striking results did not come out fast enough to suit the enterprising proprietor; but, if so, it docs not augur well for the usefulness of Houghton Farm. That highest order of progressive agriculture which is really to educate a community is not accompanied by monthly displays of sky-rockets. A "fast" director of experiments may astonish the natives with his performances, but cautious deliberation is one of the first conditions of scientific success. Quickstep, hurrah-boys scientific agriculture, which demands that there must be something to show by a week from next Saturday that will make a rattle in the newspapers is quite too-too to be of much value to anybody. No doubt your enterprising American is not going to dawdle forever over miserable trifles, but for that simple reason not much is to be expected of him in the way of the substantial advancement of science.

Anatomical Technology, as applied to the Domestic Cat: An Introduction to Human, Veterinary, and Comparative Anatomy. With Illustrations. By Burt G. Wilder, B. S., M. D., and Simon H. Gage, B. S. New York and Chicago: A. S. Barnes & Co. Pp. 575. Price, $4.50.

This book is intended as a guide to students in their early dissection-work. The experience of the authors has led them to choose the cat for the subject to be treated, as being the mammal most nearly resembling the human species, which is readily obtainable, and of convenient size to dissect and preserve. They begin at the beginning, and give full directions in regard to weights and measures, terminology, notetaking, instruments and their care, killing the animal, etc., and throughout the book the methods of dissecting and preserving the several parts are fully detailed. The book does not aim to describe all the muscles, veins, nerves, etc., of the animal, and it gives a large proportion of space to the viscera. The illustrations are numerous, and where possible the technical names are printed upon the several parts. There are numerous lists and tables, and many references to other publications, which afford collateral reading. While this is a work adapted to a physiological laboratory, where, no doubt, it has been prepared, yet it will be of service to many who are denied the opportunities of such an institution. It will be a very useful book for young students at home, who propose to pursue the medical profession. Like all other manipulation, the earlier dissection is practiced the better, and certainly the earlier the student gets an outline knowledge of practical anatomy by his own examination of anatomical structures, the greater will be his advantage when he comes to the crowded and multifarious studies of the medical college.

Experimental Physiology, with an Address on Unveiling the Statue of William Harvey. By Richard Owen, C. B., M. D., F. R. S., etc. London: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 216. Price, 5 shillings.

The advancement of the healing art by means of experimental research is the subject of which this little volume treats, and which also forms the theme of the address that is prefixed to it. In England vivisection has been closely restricted by act of Parliament, and a society exists whose aim is to entirely suppress the practice. Dr. Owen demonstrates the unreasonableness of the supersensitive members of this society, by showing how immensely the physician's power of relieving human suffering has been extended by the knowledge gained by Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, by Hunter, and by later experimenters, through vivisection. He mentions aneurismal and intra-abdominal tumors, fevers, and nervous diseases as among the disorders for which vivisection has suggested means of successful treatment. Among the lesser ills he mentions the pain in teeth that have been filled, and states that a method of devitalizing the tooth-pulp was discovered through experiments on three dogs. "As many millions of human beings have been and will be, in the present generation, relieved through Dr. Arkövy's vivisections from sufferings equal to, perhaps greater and much more prolonged than, those which were endured in behoof of those millions by three dogs. Add to these millions the generations of the so-relieved in time to come."

Physics, and Occult Qualities. By William B. Taylor. Washington: Judd & Detweiler, Printers. Pp. 50.

This is the retiring president's address, delivered before the Philosophical Society of Washington on the 2d of December last. Its subject is really an examination of the dynamic and kinematic theories of force, and its tendency is to disprove the sufficiency of the kinematic theory to explain the phenomena for which it endeavors to account. The conclusion, which is expressed with several variations of phrase, is reached, after a course of very close reasoning, that, "do what we will, we can not escape. . . the certainty of conviction that the ultimate must in the nature of things be forever the unintelligible, the inexplicable, the inscrutable; that (paradoxical as it may sound) no explanation can be accounted final until it has been pursued backward to the unexplainable."

Barometric Hypsometry and Reduction of the Barometer to Sea-level. Washington: Government Printing Office. Pp. 47.

This publication is part third under the head of "Methods and Results" of the Meteorological Researches of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. The first part explains the theory of barometric hypsometry employed in the survey, which is based on the improvement and correction of Laplace's formula for the determination of altitudes, with the inclusion of minute terms which had never been taken into account in former investigations; and the second chapter describes the practical applications of the theory. The whole is followed by a series of hypsometrical tables.

The Eleventh Commandment: A Romance. By Anton Giulio Barrili. From the Italian by Clara Bell. Revised and corrected in the United States. New York: William S. Gottsberger.

The Convent of San Bruno, in the Apennines, is the scene of the chief events related in this romance. It was occupied by fourteen bachelors, who had become brethren through sorrow. They were mostly men of science, in the prime of life. There was a physician, an archaeologist, a librarian, an historian, an astronomer, a chemist, and so on. The prior, an attractive gentleman, of about five-and-thirty, was something of a philosopher. He is described as "not more than half a solemn personage, and he wore his long, snuff-colored frock with a jaunty air and an easy grace." This new order of friars, without the religious purpose and devoted to study, formed a little world of its own, free from the worries of the great world that come to it through the affections and ambitions. To learn for what reasons, and in what way, a lovely young woman disguised herself and gained admittance to the brotherhood, and for an account of all the consequences that followed, the reader is referred to the translation, which was made expressly for the publisher.

Signal-Service Tables of Rain-fall and Temperature compared with CropProduction. By H. H. C. Dunwoody, Acting Signal Officer. Washington: Office of the Chief Signal Officer. Pp. 15.

Tables are given by months and by seasons for the years 1875 to 1882, inclusive, for ten distinct divisions of the United States, showing the excess or deficiency of rain-fall and in temperature; by years of the average yield per acre of the principal crops; and statements of the year of the largest yield of each of the crops, for the several divisions. The student is left to draw his own conclusions as to the connection between rain-fall and temperature and the yield of the crop. Only one conclusion is given. It is by Professor Davidson, of the Coast Survey in California, that each inch of rain-fall in San Francisco promised a yield of one million bushels of wheat in the State.

A Study, with Critical and Explanatory Notes, of Alfred Tennyson's Poem of "The Princess." By S. E. Dawson. Montreal: Dawson Brothers. Pp. 120.

The substance of this essay was originally prepared as a paper to be read in a small social-literary society; and it is now published, with notes, as a sort of provocative, to induce the production of other monographs on Tennyson's works. A note on the lines—

"When the man wants weight. the woman takes it up,
And topples down the scales"—

furnishes a little information respecting the way that the females of certain species of birds are said to have of taking up masculine traits when their males lay them down.

Text-Book of Geology. By Archibald Geikie, LL. D., F. R. S. With Illustrations. London: Macmillan & Co. 1882. Pp. 971. Price, $7.50.

This last and largest work of the distinguished Scotch professor will be a welcome addition to the small list of really valuable text-books on geology. Although on this side of the Atlantic it will not take the place of our American manual as a textbook, it will be widely read by those who, whether geologists or not, take an interest in the past history and present composition of our globe. The treatment is such as will interest the general reader, and enable him to acquire a good grasp of the general principles of the science without tiring him with detail. The author's article on "Geology" which appeared in the "Encyclopædia Britannica" in 1879 forms the basis which has since been expanded into the treatise before us.

The volume is divided into seven books, of unequal length, devoted respectively to "The Cosmical Aspects of Geology"; "The Materials of the Earth's Substance: Dynamical Geology"; "Structural Geology, or, the Architecture of the Earth's Crust"; "Paleontological Geology"; "Stratigraphical Geology"; and "Physiographical Geology." Under the first of these heads, which will be for the general reader the most interesting of all, the various theories that have been advanced to account for the alterations of climate and the occurrence at intervals of cold cycles are discussed. The chapter closes with an interesting abstract of Dr. James Croll's researches upon the physical causes on which climate depends. In the next chapter, that on geognosy, the probable condition of the interior of the earth is considered, the author favoring the view that "the substance of the earth's interior is probably at the melting-point proper for the pressure at each depth." The age of the earth and the measures of geological time are next discussed. This chapter contains a brief description of the rock-forming minerals, as also the macroscopic and microscopic characters of rocks, and a classification and description of the more important kinds of rocks, with the methods used in determining them.

The processes of change at present in progress upon the earth are very fully considered in the third chapter, that on dynamical geology, which covers nearly three hundred pages. This forms one of the most interesting and instructive features of the book, and will be widely read. The short chapter on paleontological geology is far from being dry or uninteresting, containing as it does a description of the conditions essential for the entombment of organic remains on land and sea, their preservation in mineral masses, the relative value of such remains, and their uses in geology. This is a most essential preliminary for a correct understanding of the following chapter, on stratification. Nearly one third of the volume is devoted to a description of the various strata, with illustrations of the principal fossils found in each, and concluding with the flint implements of the recent or human period.

Being designed as a text book for use in Britain, local examples are chosen for illustration, but the author is fully alive to the fact that America furnishes many unequaled illustrations of some of the most important facts of geology. For his frontispiece he selects the plateau and canons of the Colorado, the drawing being a reduction of one made by Mr. W. H. Holmes, and several cuts are introduced into the body of the work representing views in Colorado, Idaho, and Montana. In his preface he says: "Comparatively few of us have any adequate conception of the simplicity and grandeur of the examples by which the principles of the science have been enforced on the other side of the Atlantic." And further on he says: "If the student is led to study with interest the work of our brethren across the Atlantic, and to join in my hearty regard for it and for them, another important section of my task will have been fulfilled. And, if, in perusing these pages, he should find in them any stimulus to explore nature for himself, to wander with the enthusiasm of a true geologist over the length and breadth of his own country, and, where opportunity offers, to extend his experience and widen his sympathies by exploring the rocks of other lands, the remaining and chief part of my aim would be attained."

Geology is such a progressive science that we are not surprised to find much new matter which has never before been fully presented in any systematic treatise, and, to those who wish to keep abreast with the times and with the latest views of geologists on all important questions, we can recommend a perusal of Professor Geikie's work, the value of which to the student is greatly enhanced by his copious references to authorities and works consulted.

Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College. Volume XIII. Part I. Micrometric Measurements. Cambridge, Massachusetts: John Wilson & Son. Pp. 204.

The work tabulated in this volume was done with the equatorial telescope of fifteen inches aperture, from 1866 to the close of 1881, under the direction of Professors Winlock and Pickering, the successive directors of the observatory, and includes observations of double stars, nebula?, the satellites of Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Mars, the asteroids, comets, and occultations. Micrometric determinations of position, except in the cases of small stars near the equator and in and near the nebula of Orion, the results of which have appeared in former volumes, have formed only a small part of the work done with the large telescope; and the present volume records chiefly the miscellaneous micrometric work that has been accumulated during the intervals of other investigations.

Quintus Claudius: A Romance of Imperial Rome. By Ernst Eckstein. From the German by Clara Bell. New York: William S. Gottsberger. 2 vols., pp. 313, 303. Price, $1.75.

This is an attempt to reproduce in a lifelike form, and with the interest of a romance, the manners and moods of a past age. With reference to the particular era selected, the period of imperial Rome at the close of the first century, the author observes that it bears, in its whole aspect, a stronger resemblance to the nineteenth century than perhaps any other epoch before the Reformation; and that hardly another period "has ever been equally full of the stirring conflict of purely human interest, and of dramatic contrasts in thought, feeling, and purpose." The numerous allusions to peculiar features of the time are explained in foot-notes.

Traits of Representative Men. By George W. Bungay. New York: Fowler & Wells. Pp. 286.

This, says the author, is not a book of biography, but of pen and pencil pictures of men of the time who have distinguished themselves in their respective callings, from which the young may derive lessons that will be of service to them. Among the thirty-five men whose biographies are given, with their portraits, politics, literature, the clergy, finance, and art are represented, but science not at all.


PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Authors and others, sending papers and monographs for notice, will please specify, for general information, where they can be procured.

The Manual Training School of Washington University, St. Louis, 1882-1863. C. M. Woodward, Secretary. Pp. 45.

Admission of Women to Universities. By W. Le Conte Stevens. New York: S. W. Green's Sons. Pp. 6.

The Foundation Principle of Education by the State. By Samuel Barnet. Boston: New England Publishing Company. Pp. 11.

Annual Report of the School Committee of the City of Gloucester, Massachusetts. M L. Hawley, Superintendent. Pp. 66.

Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Annual Report, 1882. S. W. Johnson, New Haven, Director. Pp. 114.

Zoölogical Society of Cincinnati, Annual Report, 1882. Frank J. Thompson, Superintendent. Pp. 16.

Pitcher Plants. By Joseph H. James. Pp. 11.

The Storage of Electricity. By Henry Greer, New York Agent, College of Electrical Engineering, 122 East Twenty-sixth Street. Pp. 64.

Buffalo Naturalists' Field Club Bulletin; Vol. I, Nos. 1 and 2. Buffalo, New York: George Wardwell. Pp. 48. Bi-monthly. $1 a year.

Nature of Electricity and Cosmie. By Raald Arentz. Hartford, Connecticut: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co. Pp. 24.

Value of the "Nearctic" as one of the Primary Zoölogical Regions. By Professor Angelo Heilprin. Philadelphia. Pp. 20.

Observations of the Transit of Venus, 1882, at the Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton. By Professsor David P. Todd, of Amherst College. Pp. 8.

State Museum of Natural History, and Completion of the Palæontology of New York. (Legislative Document) Albany. Pp. 28.

Alcohol a Factor of Human Progress. By William Sharpe, M. D. London: David Bogue; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 14. Sixpence.

Esmarch, Antisepsis, and Bacillus. By William Hunt, M. D. Philadelphia. Pp. 22.

Scrofula and its Gland Diseases. By Frederick Treves. F.R.C.S. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea's Son & Co. Pp. 77. 10 cents.

The Prevention of Insanity. By Nathan Allen, M. D., Lowell, Massachusetts. Pp. 23.

Vaccination: Its Fallacies and Evils. By Robert A. Gunn, M. D. New York: Nickles Publishing Company. Pp. 38, 25 cents.

From Zone to Zone. A Prize Poem. By Frank D. Y. Carpenter. Pp. 22.

"The Journal of Physiology." Michael Foster, Editor, January, 1883. W. T. Sedgwick, Ph.B., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Pp. 42, with Plate. $5 a year.

The Treatment of Acute Eczema. By George II. Rohé, M.D. Baltimore, Md.: Office of Medical Chronicle. Pp. 7.

What shall we do for the Drunkard? By Orpheus Everts, M.D. Cincinnati, Ohio: Robert Clarke & Co. Pp. 51. Price, 50 cents.

Law Reform and the Future of the Legal Profession. By Charles C. Bonney. Chicago: Legal News Company. Pp. 28.

Sixteenth Annual Report, State Board of Charities, New York. Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co. Pp. 28.

Forest Protection and the Tariff on Lumber. Spirit of the Press. No publisher's name. Pp. 35.

Report on the Development of the Resources of Colorado. By Allen Smith, State Geologist, Denver, Colorado: Chain & Hardy. Pp. 159. 35 cents.

Kissena Nurseries, Flushing, New York, Catalogue of Ornamental Trees and Shrubs Parsons & Sons Company, limited. Pp. 88.

Forestry Bulletins, Census Office, Nos. 24 and 25. Amount of Tannin in the Bark of some of the Trees of the United States. Forests of West Virginia.

Archæological Institute of America. Bulletin, January, 1883. Pp. 40; Regulations, Officers, and List of Members. Pp. 14. E. H. Greenleaf, Secretary, Boston, Massachusetts.

Prehistoric Trephining and Cranial Amulets. By Robert Fletcher. United States Army. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 32, with Plates.

A Study of the Manuscript Troano. By Cyrus Thomas, Ph. D.: Introduction by D. G. Brinton, M.D. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 237.

The Battle of the Moy: or, How Ireland gained her Independence, 1892-1894. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Pp. 74.

Catalogue of Books published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York. Pp. 80.

The New-Englanders: A Comedy of the devolution. By E. M. Davidson. New York: Collins & Brother. Pp. 55. For private circulation.

A Handbook of Vertebrate Dissection. By H. Newell Martin. D.Sc., M.D., M.A., and William A. Moale, M.D. Part II. How to Dissect a Bird. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1883. Pp. 85. 60 cents.

The Unending Genesis. By H. M. Simmons. Chicago: The Colegrove Book Company. 1883. Pp. 111.

Astronomy Corrected. By H. B. Philbrook New York: John Polhemus. 1882. Pp. 54.

An Outline of Qualitative Analysis for Beginners. By John T. Stoddard, Ph. D., Northampton, Massachusetts. 1883. Pp. 55. 75 cents.

A Dictionary of Electricity. By Henry Greer, New York, Agent of the College of Electrical Engineering. 122 East Twenty-sixth Street. 1883. Pp. 192. $2.

Electro-Magnets. By T. H. Du Moncel. New York: D. Van Nostrand. 1883. Pp. 112. 50 cents.

A Word, Only a Word. By Georg Ebers. New York: William S. Gottsberger. 1883. Pp. 348.

A New Theory of the Origin of Species. By Benjamin G. Ferris. New York: Fowler & Wells. 1883. Pp. 278. $1.50.

Report upon the Triangulation of the United States Lake Survey. By Lieutenant-Colonel C. D. Comstock. Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1883. Pp. 922, with 30 Plates.

The Theories of Darwin and their Relation to Philosophy, Religion, and Morality. By Rudolf Schmid, with an introduction by the Duke of Argyll. Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co. 1883. Pp. 410. $2.

Notes on Evolution and Christianity. By J. T. Yorke. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1883. $1.50.

Astronomical paper prepared for the Use of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac under the Direction of Simon Newcomb, Ph.D., LL.D. Vol. I. Washington: Bureau of Navigation. 1882. Pp. 487.