Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/435

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LITERARY NOTICES.
421

accuracy attainable by each method of leveling.

No. 92.—Petroleum: Its Production and Use. By Boverton Redwood, F.I.C, F.C.S. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 210. Price, 50 cents.

The material of this volume is abridged from a series of Cantor lectures given before the Society of Arts, London, and originally published in the journal of the society. The parts omitted are such as were deemed of no interest to American readers. Almost every topic relating to petroleum has been considered, beginning with the kinds of rocks in which petroleum is found, in the United States and in the Baku district, and taking up in succession the chemistry of petroleum, the construction of wells, methods of transporting crude petroleum, the manufacture of commercial products and their transportation, methods of testing oils and paraffine in considerable detail, followed by a sketch of the progress of invention in oil-lamps.

Massage as a Mode of Treatment. By William Murrell, M. D. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 100. Price, $1.25.

The attention which has been given recently to massage, in medical books and journals, has excited a demand for a more general introduction of that method of treatment, and for operators. But much ignorance still prevails upon the subject, both among those who require massage and among those who offer themselves as operators. It is too important a matter to be trifled with, and the remedy is too beneficial a one to be neglected when it is practicable to secure its proper application. Hence this little book, telling exactly what massage is, and how it should be applied, and how the operator should be qualified, fills a felt want. It gives the history of massage; an account of the method of performing it, describing particularly the Von Mosengeilian system as practiced in Holland and Germany; chapters on "The Masseur and the Masseuse" (male and female operators) and "The Physiological Action of Massage"; and indications as to the class of cases in which it is most likely to do good. On the last point the author says: "The ignorant rabble of course thinks that it will cure everything, but as a matter of fact its sphere of action is very limited. If carried out under the direction of a scientific physician, who has had experience in this mode of treatment, it yields excellent results; but if allowed to drift into the hands of an ignorant empiric, it soon degenerates into the most arrant quackery."

Profit-Sharing. By N. O. Nelson. St. Louis, Mo. Pp. 40.

This pamphlet is a collection of articles which were written by the author on different occasions, but always by request, holding up the plan of giving to workmen an equitable share in the profits of the business as the true solution of the so-called "labor question." Force is given to the arguments by the fact that the system which the author advocates has been introduced into the manufacturing establishment with which he is connected, and is in successful operation there. Two of the papers are devoted to accounts of the introduction and workings of the plan.

Proceedings of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association, February, 1886. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 90.

This is published as one of the "Circulars of Information" of the Bureau of Education. More than sixty superintendents and persons actively interested in education attended the meeting. Among the topics considered in papers read and in discussions were, "The Duties of County Superintendents," "Reading Circles for Teachers," "Co-education of the Races," "Educational Statistics," "The Educational and Religious Interests of the Colored People of the South," "Forestry in Education," "Language-Work," "Growth and Benefits of Reading Circles," and "City Superintendence."

The Labor-Value Fallacy. By M. L. Scudder, Jr. Chicago: The Patriots' League. Pp. 112. Price, 10 cents.

This pamphlet is the first of a series to be published by the "Patriots' League"—an association of conservative citizens whose purpose is to combat socialist heresies and