Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/439

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SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
423

nation of the cause of astigmatism, a clearer statement of the nature of space perception and the law of direction, a new mode of locating in space the visual representative of the blind spot, a brief account of "visual purple" and its probable function, and a much fuller exposition of color perception and color blindness. There is little change in Part II. Part III, where Professor Le Conte's own views are especially set forth, as been carefully gone over and verified. There have also been added a chapter on the form of phantom planes under certain conditions, and a final chapter on the evolution of the eye. Illustrations and diagrams are numerous. For a full notice of the original volume our readers are referred to the June issue of 1881.

The Sixth Annual Report of the Tennessee Bureau of Labor Statistics and Mines for 1896 calls especial attention to the growth of Tennessee as a mining and industrial State. It is shown that her mineral production was never before so large; that there has been a marked improvement in the condition of the mining properties; and that, notwithstanding the large increase in output, the number of accidents has been markedly decreased. Among the special articles we find the following titles: The Manufacture of Coke; Pig-iron Industry in 1896; Zinc, Lead, and Copper; the Phosphate Industry; and the Petroleum Field of Tennessee.

Part II of The Report of the Alabama State Geologist has recently reached us. It describes the so-called Coosa Valley region. Part I treating of the Tennessee Valley region. The topographic, geologic, and economic features are all considered. The geology of this section is especially difficult, because of the number of formations involved and their complexity of structure. The large economic interests here, however, make the study one of great value. The volume contains an interesting and instructive map of structure sections through various portions of the State.

Crime and Criminals (Chicago: W. T. Keener Co., $1) is substantially a reproduction of a series of articles contributed by the author, J. Sandersen Christison, under the title of Jail Types, to a Chicago journal. They are given in book form in response to the favorable notices they receive. They consist of sketches—life histories with characterizations of individual criminals, with photographic profile and full-face portraits. The author suggests that those who read them may find much to reflect upon in the line of duty as members of society at large. The delinquents are regarded, from the psychological point of view, as belonging to the three classes of the insane, the moral paretic, and criminals proper.

In The Science of Speech (Washington: The Volta Bureau) Alexander Melville Bell offers an explanation of all the actions of the mouth and the vocal organs which produce speech. While in the system of visible speech the elements of language are exhibited in symbols, by which some beginners may be deterred, in the present work the same elements are described without symbols, with the formation of the sounds expressed in the nomenclature. Hence the author styles it a species of shorthand for the mechanism of utterance.

The sixth volume of the Report of the Iowa Geological Survey (Samuel Calvin, State Geologist) includes the reports on Lead and Zinc Deposits, by A. G. Leonard; The Sioux Quartzite and Certain Associated Rocks, by S. W. Beyer; the Artesian Wells of Iowa, by W. H. Norton; and the Relations of the Wisconsin and Kansas Drift Sheets in Central Iowa, and Related Phenomena, by H. Foster Bain. The lead and zinc deposits extend along the Mississippi River for nearly eighty miles, in the counties of Dubuque, Clayton, and Allamakee. Mr. Norton's paper on Artesian Wells is a full and elaborate study of the subject.

The Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Volume XVI, for 1896 (John J. Brice, Commissioner), contains a report, by Barton W. Everman, upon Salmon Investigations in the Headwaters of the Columbia River, in the State of Idaho, in 1895, together with notes upon the fishes observed in that State in 1894 and 1895; and papers on the Artificial Propagation of the Rainbow Trout, by George A. Beagle; The Russian Fur Sea Islands, by Leonhard Stejneger; The Artificial Propagation of Salmon on the Pacific Coast of the United States, with Notes on the Natural History of the Quinal Salmon,