Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/437

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LITERARY NOTICES.
423

fluences which affect the Power of Voluntary Muscular Contractions, by Warren P. Lombard; The Influence of Temperature and of Endocardiac Pressure on the Heart, and particularly on the Action of the Vagus and Cardiac Sympathetic Nerves, by G. N. Stewart; and The Blood-Corpuscles of the Crustacea, together with a Suggestion as to the Origin of the Crustacean Fibrin Ferment, by W. B. Hardy. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Engraving Company. Price, 12s.; $5 a volume.

Humanity and Health is a monthly journal, of which we have received the first number, published by E. A. Jennings, M. D., at 18 Clinton Place, New York. It is devoted "to the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual health of mankind"; the just and humane treatment of all men, women, and children; the inculcation of charity, of judgment, and the spirit of forgiveness, to equal rights, the cause of the oppressed, and other objects pertaining to the welfare of mankind; and we observe that it has kind words for animals. Pp. 14. Price, 10 cents; $1 a year.

Part I, Volume XXVI, of Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, relates to the Preparation and Discussion of the Draper Catalogue, and is by Prof. E. C. Pickering. The Draper Catalogue is named from Dr. Henry Draper, who took in 1872 the first photograph of a star in which the characteristic lines are visible. The work, interrupted by his death in 1882, is now continued at the Harvard Observatory under the Henry Draper Memorial Fund which was established by his widow. The history and progress of the Memorial are described in the introduction to the present volume. The portion of Part I which follows this account gives a description and discussion of the Draper Catalogue and of the other work done with the Bache telescope from 1885 to 1889. Accounts of other divisions of the work are promised in Part H, which is yet to be published.

The second part of the twentieth volume of the Annals of the Observatory of Harvard College gives an account, by A. Lawrence Rotch, of the Observations made at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory in 1889—a history and description of the Observatory, with an account of its instrumental equipment and the methods of observation and reduction, having been previously given in Part I of the volume. To the tables of the year's observations are added appendixes containing observations at Boston and at Blue Hill during the five years 1886-1890, with a summary of the diurnal and annual periods at Blue Hill as shown by the tables.

The first number of the Engineering and Mining Journal for 1892 (January 2d) is the annual statistical number, and contains the Mineral Statistics for 1891. These statistics have been collected with great pains and at heavy expense, and are claimed to be the only statistics of the whole mineral industry published until the Government reports, which are not likely to appear for a year. We are further told that the highest and best known authorities in every part of the world have contributed, each in his specialty, to this record. Besides the official returns of nearly all the important minerals and metals, it gives statements of the sources of production, the occurrence of the minerals, the use and values of their products, and in many cases the stocks of metal on hand at the close of the year.

The Elementary Algebra of Dr. Charles Davies has for many years held a high place among mathematical text-books. It is so arranged as to conduct the pupil by easy and simple gradations from the arithmetical processes to the more abstract methods of analysis, and to be introductory to the best works of higher algebra. The new edition which the American Book Company now publish has been edited and brought up to date by Prof. J. H. Van Amringe, of Columbia College. Among its peculiar features are the expansion and simplification of the subject of factoring, with the greatest common divisor and least common multiple; the extension of evolution to embrace any root; and greater simplicity and thoroughness in the treatment of series and logarithms.

The volume Consumption; how to Prevent it and how to Live with it, has grown out of the preparation by the author, N. S. Davis, Jr., M. D., of a series of hygienic rules for his patients, with brief explanations of the effect of their execution. The author has faith in the power of hygiene, and expresses the belief that consumption could be reduced everywhere to very moderate limits if the bodies of children and growing youths were properly developed physically, and if the hygiene