# Popular Science Monthly/Volume 41/June 1892/Literary Notices

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Moral Teachings of Science. By Arabella B. Buckley (Mrs. Fisher). New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 122. Price, 15 cents.
Science has been many times accused of having no tendency toward morality, and, in fact, of exerting an opposite influence by releasing men from some restraints that formerly held them to the path of virtue. It is true that the adherents of science have not yet been able to construct a complete system of ethics, based on the evolution philosophy, but their position has been that of a builder who is jeered at because his house has no roof before he has had time to raise its walls in the face of the hindrances thrown in his way by his critics. The old conception of the universe is a growth of tens of centuries; must the new be thoroughly worked out in a single generation? However, scientists have no disposition to shirk the ethical problem, and now that they have achieved a suitable vantage-ground are already beginning to develop a solution of it. The present volume is designed to show in a simple manner that science does tend to produce moral conduct, and how its moral teachings are to be looked for. The author affirms at the outset that acquaintance with scientific truth can not give us false guidance with respect to conduct. If selfishness is not the universal law of progress, she says, "we need have no fear that the study of natural laws will mislead us into believing it. With our limited knowledge we may often be perplexed, but so long as we do not overstrain the facts we shall not be confounded. If it be true that the instincts which lead us to be just and merciful, honest and unselfish, pure and affectionate, to fear moral degradation, and to aspire to nobleness of character, are inherent in the very laws of our being, then we shall find the gradual development of these qualities in the groundwork of living nature. In a word, we shall find evidence that high moral duties are not true merely because all religions have taught them, but that all religions have taught them because they are true."
The author admits no question as to the existence of God, but declares that his "ultimate nature and attributes" "must ​transcend our utmost efforts of intuition or imagination." Yet, she continues, "we can not surely fail to recognize that partial manifestations of that nature are taking place within and around us at every moment of our lives." Science has revealed how the First Cause proceeds in the creation of a particular kind of plant or animal; it has shown, as no other testimony has been able to show, that "his ways are not as our ways," and that he is "without variableness or shadow of turning," and it has made men feel that every right or wrong act is sure to have its proper recompense. The presence of pain and strife in the world has long been a mystery. The great scientific doctrine of natural selection first gave a clew to their usefulness.
In both the animal and the vegetable kingdoms the author points out that species and individuals that satisfy the conditions of their surroundings flourish, while those that behave differently perish. From this she draws the lesson that in order to attain the highest life of which he is capable, man must adapt his conduct to the will of the Author of all things, as expressed in the laws of the universe. Although one's conduct is largely influenced by heredity, this is no excuse for resigning one's self to a downward course. From the very beginning of animal life we see a power of choice developing together with consciousness, and out of this power springs responsibility. The success and the enjoyment achieved by disregarding moral laws are only a short-lived success, and an imperfect enjoyment.
The question of immortality Mrs. Fisher deems a profound and difficult one. Regarding it as intimately connected with all higher morality, she feels obliged to state her conviction upon it, which is that "our moral nature and the conclusions of science, even apart from religious belief, all point to a continuation of individual existence beyond the few short years we pass in this world."
The reasons that she gives in support of this opinion are not, however, as clearly teachings of science as are those which she finds as a basis of moral conduct. The chief argument is that persons who suffer inherited disadvantages in this life ought to have compensation. Thus it will be seen that the book accepts the main principles of religious ethics, and supplies reasons for obeying moral laws in addition to those which the most enlightened religions contain. Its influence on the adult or the young reader can not fail to be elevating, and it should prove to be a valuable textbook for the teaching of pure ethics.
Principles and Practice of Plumbing. By S. Stevens Hellyer. London: George Bell & Sons, 1892. Pp. 294. Price, $1.25.
This is one of the Technological Handbooks issued by the London publishers, George Bell & Sons, and edited by Sir H. Trueman Wood, Secretary of the Society of Arts. It appears to cover the subject quite completely though briefly, and contains much information that the householder would find it advantageous to know, though it is addressed primarily to the plumber. The contents of the volume range from a consideration of the metallurgy of lead and tin to the proper fixing in place of the various apparatus which it is the business of the plumber to know about.
The Elements of Politics. By Henry Sidgwick. London and New York: Macmillan & Co., 1891. Pp. 632. Price, $4.
Prof. Sidgwick has undertaken in this volume a general survey of the field of politics, with the object of determining what work a government may properly undertake to do, and what form of structure is best suited to the purpose. Holding to the individualistic view of social organization as contrasted with the socialistic, and seeking his sanctions in the main in the principle of individualism, he yet departs widely at times from the laisser-faire school of political thinkers. He rejects the strictly individualistic test of what things a government may properly attempt to do as being inadequate, and adopts instead the "general welfare," as the test of what things are permissible and what are not. From this point of view he is able to find adequate sanction for 6uch extensions of government activity as public education, the care and relief of the indigent, public hospitals, public parks, sanitary supervision, etc., and the carrying on of certain businesses that are semi-public in character, such as the transmission of mails and ​telegrams, and the supply of water and lighting in towns.
The scope of the author's inquiry in this branch of his subject may perhaps be best indicated by the following extract:
"The legislation of modern civilized communities, then, is, in the main, framed on an individualistic basis; and an important school of political thinkers are of opinion that the coercive interference of government should be strictly limited to the application of this principle. I propose, accordingly, in subsequent chapters, to trace in outline the chief characteristics of the system of law that would result from the consistent application of the individualistic principle to the actual conditions of human life in society. I shall then examine certain difficulties and doubts that arise when we attempt to work out such a consistent and exclusive individualistic system. I shall analyze the cases in which, in my judgment, it tends to be inadequate to produce the attainable maximum of social happiness; and I shall consider to what extent, and under what carefully defined limitations, it is expedient to allow the introduction of paternal and socialistic legislation, with a view to remedy these inadequacies."
In the branch of this subject relating to the structure of a government, Prof. Sidgwick is occupied with a discussion of what he esteems the most desirable relation between the three prime departments of a governmental structure the executive, legislative, and judicial. His discussion is well worth study, and abounds in suggestions of improvements in details as well as in principles of the more prominent features of modern governments.
The Horse. By William Henry Flower, Sc. D., Pres. Z. S., etc. Modern Science Series, No. II. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. xiv + 204. Price, $1.
Prof. Ball's instructive book on The Cause of an Ice Age, which opened the new popular scientific series, edited by Sir John Lubbock, is followed by the present volume, in which the structure of the most interesting of the domestic animals is described. The author begins by defining the horse's place in nature, as indicated by its ancestors, whose fossil remains have been found in considerable abundance, and by its relatives. In the second chapter the horse and its nearest existing relatives are described. These are the Perissodactyle ungulates comprising the three families, tapirs, rhinoceroses, and horses. Of these the tapirs retain more of the primitive characteristics of the common ancestors of the three families than either of the others. Of the tapirs there is but one genus. The rhinoceroses are grouped in three sections or genera the rhinoceros with one horn, the ceratorhinus and the atelodus, each with two. The horses (family Equidæ) comprise the horse proper, the asses, and the zebras. Although wild horses have been abundant in both America and Europe, the nearest approach to a wild horse existing anywhere at present is the tarpan of the steppes in southeastern Russia. The latter half of the volume is devoted to the structure of the horse, chiefly as bearing upon its mode of life, its evolution, and its relation to other animal forms. The bones of the head and neck and the dentition are fully described, and the chief characteristics of the lips, nostrils, and neck are pointed out. In describing the cervical ligament, which is attached like a stay-rope to the neck and to the fore part of the backbone, the author takes occasion to condemn the useless cruelty of the bearing-rein. The fourth and last chapter is devoted to the limbs, and contains an interesting comparison between the arrangement of the bones in the limbs of the horse and in those of man. Twenty-six figures illustrate the text.
Principles of Economics. By Alfred Marshall. Vol. I. Second edition. London and New York: Macmillan & Co., 1891. Pp. 770. Price, $3.
This well-known treatise of Prof. Marshall has undergone but slight changes in the present edition, the more important of which are pointed out by the author in his preface. The work is a general presentation of the science on the general lines laid down by the English economists, but there is to be traced in it the influence of more recent economic thought in modifying the treatment of many problems and altering the weight given to conditions and considerations not strictly economic. As Prof. Marshall points out, the ​older economists were disposed to view the science too largely from the point of view of the needs and actions of the "economic man" an ideal construction actuated only by economic motives, instead of those of the actual man, in the determination of whose economic action many motives enter besides those that are strictly economic. Paramount among these are the ethical forces, family affections, and other altruistic feelings, which in any given set of conditions are sufficiently uniform to produce conduct that may be predicted. The introduction of considerations of this kind as economic factors, while leaving the older conclusions substantially as they were, tends to give to them much less sharpness of outline, and presents economic laws more as statements of general tendencies than as a set of fixed and invariable conditions.
The book is well printed and bound and of convenient size, and is provided with marginal notes indicating the subject-matter. An appendix concerned with the application of mathematics to economic problems, and an index complete the volume.
Manual of Chemical Technology. By Rudolf von Wagner. Translated and edited by William Crookes, F. R. S. From the thirteenth enlarged German edition as remodeled by Dr. Ferdinand Fischer. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 24 + 968. Price, $7.50.
So great have been the changes in the chemical treatment of materials in the various industries since the author's last edition of this work appeared that the present edition is practically a new book. The eleventh edition was completed by Wagner shortly before his death in 1880. The twelfth edition, which was issued in 1886, was edited by Dr. Fischer, who cut out the matter that had become obsolete, and inserted references to recent improvements in the processes treated, but made no extensive changes. In the present edition the work has been wholly remodeled; the alphabetical arrangement of the subject-matter has been replaced by a classified grouping; new subjects have been introduced, the latest developments in old subjects have been inserted, and about half the six hundred illustrations are new.
Since fuel is indispensable in every department of technology, it is first considered, over one hundred pages being given to this subject and lighting. Both the preparation and use of heating and lighting materials are considered. The greater part of this section is new matter. In Section II, Metallurgy, a new subdivision on potassium and sodium is inserted. Section III is devoted to Chemical Manufacturing Industry, including the production of sulphur, sulphuric acid, soda, explosives, ammonia, salts of the metals, etc. New topics in this section are water, manures, and thermo-chemistry. Section IV, on the Organic Chemical Manufactures, has been written entirely anew. This chapter includes alcohols and ethers, organic acids, benzol colors and other organic coloring matters, etc. The fifth section is devoted to glass, earthenware, cement, and mortar; the sixth deals with Articles of Food and Consumption; and the seventh with the Chemical Technology of Fibers, while the eighth is a miscellaneous group, comprising the products of hides, bones, and fats, the essential oils, resins, and the preservation of wood. Thermometric, hydrometric, and other tables are appended to the volume. The translation has been carefully edited by Prof. Crookes, with the omission of some passages of merely local application and the insertion of notes and bibliographical references, making the version much more valuable to English readers than a simple translation would have been.
The Working and Management of an English Railway. By George Findlay, General Manager of the London and Northwestern Railway. New York: Macmillan & Co., 1891. Pp. 354. Price, $1.50.
In this small volume of three hundred odd pages Mr. Findlay has detailed the working and management of one of the great English railways—the London and Northwestern. His description includes the financial and business as well as the mechanical operations of the road. What strikes the reader of these pages the most forcibly is the thoroughness with which all the details of operation have been worked out, and the care exercised over these details to assure the perfect operation of the road at all times. To this end the road is placed under the most detailed supervision, as well as being provided with the various modern appliances ​which experience has shown are essential to safety. It is, of course, operated under the block system, without which the operation of any great railroad with its multifarious traffic can not be safe. To listen to the excuses often made by railroad officials for not adopting this system, one would get the idea that it is in some way complex and intricate and not easy of application to railway operation under all circumstances. It is, however, simplicity itself. It does not consist in any necessary forms of appliance, but is simply a method of operating. Mr. Findlay describes some simple forms of indicators used on the London and Northwestern, but any form of indicator may be used. The block system consists simply in dividing a road into a number of sections and allowing but one train at a time in either direction in any given section. To apply it to a road requires only the erection of proper signals and suitable means for operating them, and knowing their condition by the operators stationed along the line at the entrance of every block division. It is a matter of no small wonder that the officials of any considerable road should resist the introduction of so simple a method of insuring safety, and that any community should tolerate a railway service not operated in such a manner. The book is very readably written, and can be read with interest by the general public who have to make use of the railways, and with profit by not a few of our railway managers.
Diseases of the Urinary Apparatus. By J. W. S. Gouley, M. D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. xiii + 342. Price, $1.50.
Criticism of the substance of this treatise must be left to that very small minority of the medical profession who are familiar with the latest contributions, made in Europe and in this country, to the author's special branch of their science. It is enough to say on this subject that Dr. Gouley has here brought into one small volume everything which the well-educated practitioner, who is not yet a specialist, needs, to set him on a level with the foremost specialist in urinary surgery and medication—except experience. The physician of a scientific habit of inquiry will find it a most stimulating book; full, indeed, of the facts of observation and practice, but with each fact set forth, not as an isolated fragment of knowledge, but as an essential part of an organic system of truth. At the same time the spirit of inquiry pervades the whole. The student of the subject is taken into partnership with the teacher in the great work of advancing the boundaries of knowledge. The dogmatism which claims finality and universality for its own formulas is excluded; and every acquisition is made a stepping-stone in the way to new discovery. One hardly knows, in ending the perusal of these pages, whether the writer is most to be congratulated as the representative of the generation of reformers, who have reconstructed this important branch of medical science and placed it on a lasting basis, or as the harbinger of their successors, who will surely, by following out the same methods to far greater results, add immeasurably to its power to serve mankind.
It is rather our province to speak of the literary form of the work, which certainly deserves special notice. Technical treatises, in every line of professional learning, are so often marked by everything that is forbidding in style that it is a rare privilege to meet with one which can be treated as literature. Of course, no such work is designed for popular reading; and this one, in particular, is addressed only to students of special education and high intelligence. But its special merit is that it is perfectly adapted to its end. There is no waste of words, no tedious repetition, no looseness of statement) no parade of impertinent learning, no obtrusion of personality. Concise in style, precise in definition, clear in reasoning, orderly and progressive in arrangement, and with an accuracy and care in terminology almost without precedent, it leads on from the elements of the subject to the very border lines of contemporary knowledge in a steady march, which offers a model in plan to all who would teach subjects of difficulty. We trust that it will receive from the profession a welcome which will be an object-lesson to many medical writers; for it would be easy to name many whose books, while containing information of great value, would be doubled in usefulness, though halved in size, if rewritten after the fashion of this admirable multum in parvo.
Travels among the Great Andes of the Equator. By Edward Whymper. With a Supplementary Appendix, bound separately. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. xxvi + 456, and xxvi+147. Price, $6.
Whether regarded as a book of travel or as a record of scientific exploration, Mr. Whymper's production has eminent claims to attention. The chief object of his expedition was to investigate the physiological effects of the diminished air pressure at high altitudes. That some disturbance of the bodily functions is caused by ascending to great elevations had been established by the testimony of "multitudes of persons of diverse conditions—by cultured men of science down to illiterate peasants. . . . Nausea and vomiting; headaches of a most severe character; feverishness, hæmorrhages, lassitude, depression, and weakness; and an indescribable feeling of illness—have been repeatedly mentioned as occurring at great elevations, and have only been cured by descending into lower zones. To these maladies the term mountain sickness is now commonly applied." While such effects have been felt by persons who have slowly climbed mountains to heights of fourteen thousand to fifteen thousand feet, balloonists have often risen within an hour to much greater heights without such inconvenience. This fact gives reason to believe that symptoms produced by fatigue have been attributed often to rarefaction of the air. Accordingly, in his Andean explorations, Mr. Whymper took especial care to eliminate the effects of fatigue from his observations.
The scene of his operations was that part of the chain of the Andes crossing the Republic of Ecuador, and among the mountains climbed were Cotopaxi, on the summit of which a night was spent, and Chimborazo twice, the summit being reached only in the second ascent. Many less noted peaks also were scaled. Besides making the observations which were his chief care, Mr. Whymper determined the altitudes and the relative positions of the chief mountains of Ecuador, made comparisons of boiling-points and aneroid readings with the readings of the mercurial barometer, and made botanical, lithological, zoological (chiefly entomological), and archaeological collections. As stated in the introduction, he concerned himself "neither with commerce nor politics, nor with the natives and their curious ways." Yet the incidents of the expedition, which are plentiful and are recounted with much vividness and humor, tell not a little about the "curious ways" of Ecuadorian bipeds and quadrupeds, likewise of hexapods and centipedes. The baggage-mules were inexhaustible mines of original sin, and the insects in the lower regions were everywhere. One full-page plate crowded with figures of flying and creeping things is described by the author as "selections from my bed-fellows at Guayaquil." The volume is copiously illustrated with carefully drawn and engraved pictures, many of them from the author's photographs. The meteorological observations are appended to the main volume. In the supplementary volume Mr. Whymper's zoological collections are described, with illustrations. They include a goodly number of species which were new to science.
The Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine, John Fryer, LL. D., editor, is now in its sixth volume. Its purpose is to convey to intelligent Chinese a knowledge of the principles and progress of Western science and art. It contains, quarterly, one hundred pages of matter, printed in the best Chinese style, liberally illustrated, relating to subjects of practical as well as theoretical interest. In the number before us such subjects are treated as photography, the art of living long, sugar-making, therapeutics, pressing, drawing, shearing, and stamping machinery, electricity, materia medica, ice-making machinery, the manufacture of lucifer matches, dual consciousness, electric railroads, Edison's kinetograph, and mathematical problems. Presbyterian Mission Press, Shanghai; Ralph Waggoner, 10 Spruce Street, New York. Price, $1 a year.
Dr. John Aulde, acting upon the belief that with the better knowledge of the physiological action of drugs large doses are not needed to produce desired clinical effects, has prepared The Pocket Pharmacy—a book intended both for practical use and as a plea for small doses, to be administered in accordance with physiological deductions. We are learning, he holds, instead of the gross manifestations of disease, to regard more closely the derangement of cell function on ​which they depend. Having acquired this knowledge by studying the pathological changes occurring in disease, we endeavor to discover remedies which, by their known physiological actions, would be calculated to arrest or counteract those changes. This leads to the study of the effect of medication on the diseased cell, and logically to the conclusion that small doses are to be preferred. The present work is the outgrowth of personal experience in practice, and it is adapted to use with the pocket case. It contains a list of remedies, with the diseases to which they are suited, and a therapeutic index of diseases with reference to the remedies prescribed for them. (D. Appleton & Co., publishers.)
A hand-book on Chemical Calculations (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 60 cents) has been prepared by Mr. R. Lloyd Whiteley, to supply a need for a work giving, besides a fair selection of problems, a concise and yet explicit account of the methods of solving them. It is intended to form a part of the course of teaching or study suitable to the chemical student who wishes to prepare himself for whatever duties in his line he may be called upon to perform, and is also an aid to examinations. A short summary of chemical facts or processes is given before explaining methods; and the explanations concern methods of calculating the results of specific gravity determinations, of analyses of all kinds, and of atomic and molecular weight determinations, and are brought up to date. The author is a laboratory teacher and a lecturer on certain special branches of chemistry, and brings the results of his experience and of his intercourse with students to aid in his work. Prof. F. Clowes furnishes the preface.
A translation of Dr. Walther Hempel’s Methods of Gas Analysis, made by Prof. L. M. Dennis, of Cornell University, is published by Macmillan & Co. It has been the purpose of the author, omitting the complete description of known methods, which would make the book too bulky for a laboratory guide, to describe his own researches and the construction of apparatus, and all the operations which are involved in the analysis of gases with his apparatus. The apparatus devised by Pettersson has been described because a wholly new principle in the measurement of gases is there brought into use In the translation, which has been made with the personal co-operation of Prof. Hempel, the chapter upon the determination of the heating power of fuel has been largely rewritten, with the introduction of new cuts of the latest forms of apparatus, the chapter upon the analysis of illuminating gas has been changed, and a new method for the determination of the hydrocarbon vapors has been inserted. Price, $1.90.
In the treatise of R. Lovett and C. Davison on The Elements of Plane Trigonometry, the subject is divided into three parts, dealing, respectively, with arithmetical, real algebraical, and complex quantity. Such an arrangement appears to the authors to be a natural one, and has the advantage of introducing the new names and formulae that belong to the subject before the student encounters the difficulty of the application cf signs to denote the sense and direction of lines. The work differs mainly from those most generally read in the extent to which the treatment adopted by Prof. De Morgan, the influence of whose writings appears throughout it, has been followed. Abundant examples for exercise have been collected from university and other examination papers. Published by Macmillan & Co. Price, $1.60
A book on the Essentials of Physics has been added to the series of Saunders's Question Compends (W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia), by Dr. Frederick J. Brockney. It has been prepared especially for students of medicine, and is intended to be a compromise between such books as Ganot's, which is found too large to be used as a text-book, and some elementary books on the subject which do not contain all that is necessary for the student to know. The questions are classified as On Matter and its Properties—Solids, Liquids, and Gases; On Heat; On Light; On Sound; and On Magnetism and Electricity. Price, $1.
Mr. David Denning's hand-book on The Art and Craft of Cabinet-making (Macmillan, $1.50) will be welcomed by amateurs and young craftsmen, and even experienced workmen may derive pleasure and profit from it. It relates to the construction of cabinet furniture, the use of tools, the formation of joints, etc., explaining the ordinary reliable methods of the workshop, but not exploiting ​novelties in style or processes. It marks the distinction between cabinet-making and joinery, and between cabinet-making and decoration; gives a review of the development of furniture, in which the tricks and deceits of a class of dealers in pretended antiques are exposed; and then furnishes practical information, with more than two hundred illustrations, concerning the various matters pertaining to cabinet-making—furniture woods, glue, nails, tools, wooden appliances made by the user, grinding and sharpening tools, joints, structural details, construction of parts, drawing, veneering, etc., and the construction of various articles.
Mr. J. Traill Taylor's manual on the Optics of Photography and Photographic Lenses (New York: Macmillan & Co., $1) is practical rather than theoretical, and is intended for the users of photographic lenses. It includes the substance of articles furnished to the photographic journals and photographic clubs of Great Britain. It furnishes brief accounts of the nature and properties of light, the principles on which the use of lenses is based, their defects and the means of remedying them, the different classes of lenses; the methods of preparing, mounting, fitting, and using them; and such other information as the photographer needs respecting them. The author distinguishes the optics of photography from that of the telescope or microscope by showing that the former takes cognizance of rays transmitted obliquely as well as axially, and brings both the chemical and visual rays to a focus on the same plane.
A book, small enough to be carried in the pocket and convenient for reference at any time, entitled American Citizenship and the Right of Suffrage in the United States, has been compiled by Taliesen Evans, and is published by him at Oakland, Cal. It comprises abstracts of national and State laws affecting citizenship and suffrage in the United States, and of such questions relating thereto as have from time to time been passed upon by the courts. The effort has been made to treat the subject in such a way as to make the presentation acceptable and instructive to the American student, and interesting and useful to persons of foreign birth who desire to become citizens and voters. It includes general reviews of the conditions of American citizenship and of the right of suffrage; literal quotations of the constitutional provisions of each of the States concerning the qualifications of voters; a chapter on the qualifications for holding office; and the Constitution of the United States.
The Rev. Emory Miller, D. D., LL. D., apparently endeavors, in a book on the Evolution of Love, to approach the deepest questions of divinity. Superstition, opinion, and discrimination, he says, are three epochal words, of which the first has had its day and the second its noon, while the sun of discrimination is dawning. Casting away superstition, refusing to be bound by opinions, the author tries, he says, honestly and by the method of discrimination, to seek the truth. In this spirit he discusses the Implication of Being as perceived, as conceived, and as conditioned, and finds perfection of Being in perfect love. He next discusses Creation, with the conclusion that it is an indulgence of love's eternal, altruistic spirit; finds the origin of evil in selfishness, and its solution in conditions within which it is held that provide for either its merciful remedy or its self-extinction. The last chapters relate to The Atoning Fact, The Revelation of Atoning Fact, and Eschatology, or the doctrine of "last things." Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. Price, $1.50.
The Bureau of Education has issued a Circular of Information on Sanitary Conditions for School-houses, the result of an extended study of this subject by Dr. Albert P. Marble, of Worcester, Mass. This monograph is concerned with practical devices for ventilation and heating, drainage and lighting. Appended to the body of the circular are papers on Ventilation of School-houses heated by Stoves, Hygienic Construction of the Bridgeport High-school Building, Worcester School Buildings, Plans and Specifications of School-houses prepared for the Wisconsin State Bureau of Education, and Designs for School-houses accepted by the Department of Public Instruction of the State of New York. The whole document is copipiously illustrated; the main portion has twenty-three figures in the text and seventy-one plates, showing heating apparatus, the arrangement of ventilating ducts, the course of heated air through rooms, sanitary closets, etc. The appendixes are accompanied by ​eighty illustrations, showing plans and views of school-houses, and arrangements for heating and ventilating.