# Popular Science Monthly/Volume 15/October 1879/Literary Notices

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A Sketch of Dickinson College, Pennsylvania: Including the List of Trustees and Faculty from the Foundation, and a more Particular Account of the Scientific Department. By Charles F. Himes, Ph.D., Professor of Natural Science. Illustrated by Engravings and by Photographs executed in the Laboratory. Harrisburg: Lane S. Hart. Pp. 155. Price, $2.
This neat little history of Dickinson College, with its portraits of the founder and of its leading presidents, its admirable photographs of the college buildings, and its illustrations of historic relics in its laboratory, will be much prized by all who are interested in the institution, and is by no means without instructiveness to general readers who care about the progress of education. Dickinson College, located at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the beautiful Cumberland Valley, was founded in 1783, and named after John Dickinson, Governor of the State, who was active in its establishment, and made liberal donations to it. Dr. Benjamin Rush was also deeply interested in the institution from the beginning, and labored zealously for twenty-five years in various ways to promote its success. The college has had a successful career and a creditable history, and includes among its alumni a President of the United States, a Chief Justice, with many judges, senators, Cabinet officers, Congressmen, and professional men of high rank. Among the distinguished men who ​have occupied chairs in its Faculty may be mentioned Professor Henry D. Rogers; Professor Spencer F. Baird, now at the head of the Smithsonian Institution; and the celebrated Dr. Thomas Cooper, who subsequently became a judge and President of South Carolina College. Judge Cooper, as Professor Himes aptly remarks, was "one of the most remarkable products of the complexity of moral and intellectual forces of the closing quarter of the last century." He was a man of great erudition and independence, and a forcible writer. "A native of England, educated at Oxford, on terms of intimacy with Pitt, Burke, and other leading English statesmen, a resident of Paris during the four months of the Reign of Terror, and enjoying its excitement to the full, he was a radical in politics and a materialist in creed. A friend of Priestley, he shared with the latter his exile from his country, and enjoyed the use of his library and laboratory in Northumberland." Dr. Cooper was elected to the chair of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Dickinson College in 1811, and occupied it for four years. His introductory lecture on chemistry was remarkable for being one of the first scientific lectures published in the country. It was exhaustive, and displayed a wonderful range of information. The lecture itself filled one hundred pages, octavo, and its accompanying notes one hundred and thirty-five pages more. He purchased the telescope, air-gun, and burning-lens used by Dr. Priestley, which are carefully preserved in the college collection.
Professor Himes's account of the growth of the scientific department of the college is interesting as a chapter in the history of education. A revolution is there sketched which it is proposed to consummate in a century of collegiate experience. Although science was becoming active when the college was founded, yet scientific study as a part of education was in its infancy, while theology and cognate subjects were all-prevailing. The first question in regard to science, therefore, was, how it would affect religion. The first President was Dr. Nesbit, an able Scotch divine; and we are told that, on a visit to Governor Dickinson, an evening was spent in the discussion of the theological relations of science, in which Nesbit maintained that, "unless the grace of God produced a different effect, the more intimately men became acquainted with the works of nature, the less mindful were they of their great Author." Theology, therefore, led one way and science another; and yet, under the act of incorporation, of the forty members comprising the Board of Trustees more than one third were required to be clergymen; while every one of the fourteen presidents which the college has had has been a doctor of divinity. It is therefore to be expected that the college would favor the kind of learning that has proved of utility in the avocation of preaching. Important concessions have, however, been made in the direction of liberal studies. There is the ordinary four years' college course with its load of two dead languages, and which is probably much the same as it was a hundred years ago. But there is also a Latin scientific course from which half the dead weight has been unloaded, and so it is brought into three years. But the scientific spirit has made great progress, as is shown by the fact that the centennial of the institution in 1883 is to be crowned by the dedication of a new and elegant building devoted entirely to scientific purposes.
Die Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechtes. Von Dr. Adelrich Steinach. New York: The Author, 122 Allen Street. 1878. Pp. 681. Price, $2.50.
This treatise forms the second volume of a "System of Organic Evolution," but the first volume, "The Evolution of the Plant and Animal World," is not yet published. The author adopts the Darwinian (or evolutionist) point of view throughout, but, unlike most of the German followers of Mr. Darwin, he adheres to that school of philosophy which is opposed to materialism. The present installment of Dr. Steinach's work, "The Evolution of the Human Race," is marked by profound learning and no small degree of originality. We have not space to review it at length, and must content ourselves with briefly indicating its contents. It is divided into three parts, entitled—"I. Man in Space"; "II Man in Time"; and "III. The Evolution of Mind." In Part I. the author considers man in his relations to his environment, and strives to show how his mental and physical ​development is conditioned by the forces acting upon him from without. In Part II. we have chapters on the "Origin of the Human Race"; "Prehistoric Relics"; "Centers of Creation"; and "Dispersion of the Human Race." Finally, in Part III., the author treats of "The Development of the Psychic Faculties"; "The Development of Language"; and "The Development of Civilization." Under the last-named head are chapters on the development of religious and moral ideas, of social relations, and of scientific and industrial activities.
The Philosophy of Music. Being the Substance of a Course of Lectures delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in February and March, 1877. By William Pole, F. R. S., etc. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1879.
It is doubtful whether the musical public is in any degree aware of the revolutionizing contribution which contemporary scientific investigation is making to the theory of music, building a solid structure where before lay an interminable swamp of bad logic, fanciful speculation, and impossible metaphysics. Yet it was as long ago as 1863 that Helmholtz published his large epoch-making work ("The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music"). Mr. Ellis in 1875 furnished an excellent English translation, adding several learned appendices of his own; and James Sully, Grant Allen, and others have written brief expository chapters and essays on Helmholtz's theory. A few years ago a society was organized in London for the study and propagation of the new order that had come into the complexities of musical theory. Mr. William Spottiswoode was president. It was at the invitation of Mr. Spottiswoode, as secretary of the Royal Society, that Mr. William Pole delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain the lectures on "The Philosophy of Music," which now appear in the book of that title.
This work for the first time places before the non-scientific reader a full, well proportioned, and easily followed exposition of the new illumination which has fallen upon speculative music. This is a most important task, and to have performed it so well as Mr. Pole has done is a merit almost equal to that of original investigation. For the subject is burdened with a mass of historical and technical minutiae that required the most careful sifting out of the non-essential; then came the task of leading the uninitiated reader to entirely new conceptions, and of eradicating or directly inverting many old and long-established ones. Altogether a more trying subject for the expository art could not have been found, and it is not too much to say that the musical reader may find in these twenty-one orderly chapters something beyond their subject matter, viz., an excellent illustration of the systematizing and clarifying influence that scientific methods may have upon mental activity.
The author, preparing the way with a chapter on elementary acoustics, states the phenomena of overtones, and then shows their action in determining the tone-character or timbre of the various musical instruments. These overtones also constitute the natural basis for the scales, for melody, tonality, and harmony—in so far as these have a natural basis. For æsthetical influences, local, individual, and transitory, have played the largest part in giving to music its present form. The problem is to determine the parts played, on the one hand, by physical or physiological principles, on the other by æsthetical requirements, in that artistic growth which has from the simple Greek tetrachord developed modern music in all its complexity.
As to the origin of the diatonic scale, following Helmholtz always, the author believes the octave and its primary division into fifth and fourth to have arisen from the natural structure of a musical sound, which by its overtones embraces these three intervals. The octave, with its fifth and fourth, admitted of seven different divisions, the seven Greek modes. From these the requirements of early ecclesiastical music eliminated two modes, leaving five. The coming of harmony, under Palestrina, removed three more modes, unsuitable because of their paucity in concords; and the remaining two survive as our modern major and minor. This gradual change, a genuine ​survival of the fittest, is made admirably clear by the graphical method of plotting the scale on paper; using the logarithms of the intervals for magnitudes. By the same method the complexities of the chromatic scale and of equal temperament are made easily comprehensible to careful reading.
After briefly considering the questions of time and form (Chapter XIII.) the structure of music (Part III.) is taken up. What use is made of the scales whose origin is traced in Part II.? What is due to natural laws, what to aesthetical influences? The position taken with regard to melody does not seem as strong as it might be. "The earliest forms of music probably arose out of the natural inflections of the voice in speaking." This is Spencer's theory. It is not mentioned that Darwin combats this, placing the origin of melody in the love-songs of man's early ancestors, before speech began; or that Helmholtz attributes the expressiveness of melody to its motion, which translates into vocal ordinates, as it were, the varying intensities of the emotions. It is shown in the "American Naturalist" (April, 1879, "Animal Music," etc.) that if the overtone structure of sounds has impressed itself upon the internal ear, the most easy progression of a melody will be along the intervals existing between overtones, viz., octaves, fifths, fourths, etc. This offers a much more natural basis for melody and scale origin than the theory of Helmholtz, repeated by Mr. Pole, according to which a certain connection is established between notes, an octave, a fifth, etc., apart by the. mind's recognition of their possessing common overtones. This is a psychological, not a physiological basis.
In treating harmony, the natural element, viz., the rough beating of dissonant tones, is given due emphasis, and the dominance of aesthetical arbitrariness over this natural element fully shown. The fallacy of the argumentum, ad aurem, so much used by theoretical musicians, is exposed. In the simplest elements of music the ear has no doubt been the guide, but the appeal to the ear is often carried too far. "We approve certain things not because there is any natural propriety in them, but because we have been accustomed to them, and have been taught to consider them right," and vice versa with our disapprovals. Chapter XVIII. greatly simplifies thorough bass by analyzing all the chords into their binary components, and investigating the harmonic character of these; not assuming in the usual way that every chord must have one root, but accepting Rameau's more rational view that there may be two. The last three chapters comprise harmonic progressions and counterpoint simply treated, and a good summary of the whole book.
The only improvements that could be wished are that the radical importance of the physical basis had been more firmly insisted upon, for, whatever may be the after changes, this basis permeates and controls everywhere; and that the aesthetic influence had not been made to seem so entirely an incalculable matter of chance. This influence has laws of its own, and has been quite successfully investigated by James Sully in the two chapters of his "Sensation and Intuition" entitled "The Aspects of Beauty in Musical Form," and "The Nature and Limits of Musical Expression." These chapters, written in a most quiet and unassuming way, are rich in penetrating analysis made in full sympathy with the artistic side of music, yet with all the exactness and fertility of the scientific method. A brief showing of their trend would have enriched Mr. Pole's work, and have made his treatment more complete.
Laboratory Teaching; or, Progressive Exercises in Practical Chemistry. By Charles Loudon Bloxam, Professor of Chemistry in King's College, London; in the Department of Artillery Studies, Woolwich; and in the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Fourth edition, with Eighty-nine Illustrations. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. Pp. 261. Price, $1.75.
The name of Professor Bloxam is the best assurance of the merit of this volume. The book does not presuppose any knowledge of chemistry on the part of the pupil, and does not enter into any theoretical speculations. It dispenses with the use of all costly apparatus and chemicals, and is divided into separate exercises or lessons with examples for practice to facilitate the instruction of large classes. The method of instruction followed has been adopted by ​the author after twenty-three years' experience as a teacher in the laboratory, by which, as he says, he has been led to conclude that a knowledge of analytical chemistry, or the power of discovering the nature of unknown substances, is the first and often the only requirement of the great majority of learners, and that independently of the technical value of such knowledge, its acquisition forms a most valuable part of education by cultivating the powers of observation, and affording excellent examples of the application of logical reasoning in practical work.
Analysis of the Urine, with Special Reference to the Diseases of the Genito-Urinary Organs. By K. B. Hofmann, Professor in the University of Gratz, and R. Ultzmann, Docent in the University of Vienna. Translated by T. Barton Brune, A. M., M. D., Resident Physician, Maryland University Hospital, and H. Holbrook Curtis, Ph. B. With numerous Colored Plates. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1819. Pp. 269. Price, $2.
It is gratifying to note the various indications of progress in popular journalism. While, as all can see, it is steadily advancing toward such lofty literary ideals as are exemplified by the writings of Macaulay and Froude, there is also encouraging promise that it is aspiring to a more elevated standard of purity and ethical taste. Especially when we observe a newspaper struggling and tempted, yet scorning all sordid considerations in the inflexible determination to maintain an exalted moral tone, so as never to wound the delicate sensibilities of its most fastidious readers, we are led to entertain glowing anticipations of the future of the American press. Our present enthusiasm is kindled by the refusal of the "New York Herald" to insert in its columns an advertisement of the book which bears the above title. But we can admire where it is impossible to imitate.
The importance of this subject has always been acknowledged in the medical profession. Hippocrates (400 b. c.) directed attention to the character of the renal excretion, and its changes of color, clearness, and its sediments, in connection with diseased conditions of the body; and he even endeavored to demonstrate the influence of various foods and drinks upon its constitution. The Arabian Avicenna (a. d. 1000) called attention to the fact that different external circumstances, as fasting, wakefulness, over-exertion, and strong emotions have an influence upon the character of the urine. Actuarius, in the thirteenth century, advanced the knowledge of the subject so far that it became an object of satire with poets and painters. Bellini (1675) investigated the proportion of solid constituents to the contained water. Willis discovered sugar in the urine, and Brandt obtained phosphorus from it. Rouelle discovered urea (1773). In 1770 Cotugno found pus in it; and in 1798 Cruikshank declared the relation of this condition to dropsy. In 1827 Bright proved the connection between kidney-disease and albuminuria; and Rayers's researches (1841) laid the foundation of our present knowledge of kidney-diseases. Since that time many observers have turned their attention to the subject; while the great advances of chemical, microscopical, and physical science have told effectively upon this branch of investigation. The urine indicates, at least very nearly, by its qualitative and quantitative changes the variation in tissue life, and it thus affords invaluable tests of the presence of disease; while its analysis, so far as it interests the practicing physician, can be made with simple apparatus. This volume, concise in form, and full of practical hints and valuable suggestions regarding both analysis and diagnosis, supplies a need that has been long felt by American students and physicians; while its merit is well attested by the fact that it appeared in three languages during the year of its publication.
A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (a. d. 1450-1879). By Eminent Writers, English and Foreign. With Illustrations and Woodcuts. Edited by George Grove, D. C. L. Part VII. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 128. Price $1.25.
Another installment has come of this entertaining serial, filled with the art, science, history, biography, criticism, and miscellaneous erudition of music. The work is being faithfully executed, and keeps up its excellent character.
An Introduction to the Practice of Commercial Organic Analysis: Being a Treatise on the Properties, Proximate Analytical Examination, and Modes of Assaying the Various Organic Chemicals and Preparations employed in the Arts, Manufactures, Medicine, etc. With Concise Methods for the Detection and Determination of their Impurities, Adulterations, and Products of Decomposition. By Alfred H. Allen, F. C. S., Lecturer on Chemistry at the Sheffield School of Medicine, Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland, Public Analyst for the West Riding of Yorkshire, the Northern Division of Derbyshire, and the Boroughs of Sheffield, Chesterfield, Barnsley, etc. Vol. I. Cyanogen Compounds, Alcohols and their Derivatives, Phenols, Acids, etc. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. Pp. 360. Price, $3.50.
This useful volume is the first part of an ample treatise which will be carried out if the reception of the present portion justifies the compilation of the second volume. The author has been moved to its preparation by a conviction of the palpable deficiency in this branch of chemical literature. While manuals of inorganic analysis abound, books on organic analysis, the author avers, are chiefly conspicuous by their absence. He says: "It is a lamentable fact that while our young chemists are taught to execute ultimate organic analyses and to ring the changes on the everlasting chloro, bromo, and nitro derivatives of bodies of the aromatic series, the course of instruction in many of our leading laboratories does not include even qualitative tests for such everyday substances as alcohol, chloroform, glycerine, carbolic acid, and quinine. As a natural consequence of this neglect, the methods for the proximate analysis of organic mixtures and for the assay of commercial organic products are in a far more backward state than is justified by the great inherent difficulties of this branch of analysis.
"Having in my own practice as a consulting chemist repeatedly felt the need of a convenient hand-book containing all reliable information respecting the methods of assaying and analyzing organic substances in common use, I presume that others will have suffered similar experiences, and hence that a work on' the subject will 'supply a want which has long been felt.'
"In the arrangement of the subject-matter I have ignored the more obscure relationships, and have preferred grouping the bodies treated of in a manner which it is hoped will be found convenient for practical reference, though such an arrangement has necessitated some inconsistencies."
The Relations of Mind and Brain. By Henry Calderwood LL. D., Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 455. Price, $4.
In the progress of modern psychology the organic side, or corporeal conditions of mind, has been brought into constantly increasing prominence, until now it is no longer denied that cerebral physiology is, if not a foundation, at least an essential part of mental science. But the necessity of having to mix up cells, fibers, blood capillaries, and protoplasmic pulp with subtile and refined mental operations, has been looked upon with great repugnance by the old-school metaphysicians. It has virtually divided them into two parties, one of which raises the cry of "Materialism!" and will have nothing to do with the new heresies; while the other accepts the situation, and is only anxious that the new views are not pushed too far. Among these more rational devotees of mental philosophy is Professor Calderwood, who, approaching the subject from the metaphysical side, has entered into the general inquiry of the physiological relations of the human mind. He thus explains the purpose of his book: "The object of the present work is to ascertain what theory of mental life is warranted on strictly scientific evidence. The order followed is to consider—1. The latest results of anatomical and physiological research as to the structure and functions of the brain; 2. The facts in human life unaccounted for by anatomical and physiological science, and requiring to be assigned to a higher nature. On the side of mental philosophy it must be recognized that analysis of consciousness can not be regarded as affording a complete survey of the facts of personal life. On the other hand, it is clear that the known facts connected with cerebral action do not include familiar phases of mental activity. If we allow ourselves to be engrossed with physiological investigations as to brain, we restrict our attention to a single class of ​facts, and become unable to take a view of human life as a totality. The whole range of evidence must be traversed if we are to secure an harmonious representation of the constitution of human nature." The book has not been produced in the pure spirit of science, but under a bias, and to sustain a foregone conclusion; yet the work is done with ability, and will be useful.
The Round Trip by Way of Panama, through California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. By John Codman. New York: Putnam's Sons. 1879. Pp. 331. Price, $1.50.
This is a truly valuable book of travel. The author is a keen observer of man and of nature; and, moreover, he is a skilled literary artist. He sees with his own eyes, and not through the eyes of a guidebook writer, and he carefully eschews the commonplace. He writes of the railroads, commerce, agriculture, mining, scenery, and populations of the great States and Territories visited on the "Round Trip."
Lectures on the History of England. By M. J. Guest. London: Macmillan. 1879. Pp. 598, with Maps. Price, $1.75.
The author offers in his preface an apology for adding to the already over-large number of "Histories of England." Having to deliver lectures to men and women (working people, presumably) on English history, he found, on beginning to prepare his lessons, "no one book which was not either too learned, too copious, too trivial, or too condensed." Plainly, then, there was still room for one history more. Special indebtedness is acknowledged to Green's "History of the English People."
A Complete Scientific Grammar of the English Language. By W. Colegrove. New York: The Authors' Publishing Co. 1879. Pp. 362.
In the preface to this book it is said that "at present English grammar is in the same condition in which Copernicus found astronomy." The author appears to be pretty confident that his work has established the "reign of law" in this chaos, and that henceforth grammar is to rank as a "science" in the strictest sense of that term.
Free Religious Association. Proceedings at the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Free Religious Association, held in Boston, May 29 and 30, 1879. Boston: Free Religious Association. Pp. 79. Price, 25 cts.
The "Free Religious Association" is one of the extreme reactions against the restrictive spirit of ecclesiasticism which is still dominant in modern society. That spirit has unquestionably declined in power with the rise and advance of scientific thought. Protestantism was a revolt against the tyranny of the older religious organizations. The liberal Christianity of our own century was, again, a revolt against the spiritual repressions of Protestantism. And now "free religion" carries on the liberating work still further by rebelling against the restrictions of liberal Christian theology. Something is gained to freedom of religious thought at each step, and the advance movement is ever engaged upon a whole some and necessary work. The "Free Religious Association" announces its objects to be, to promote the practical interests of pure religion, to increase fellowship in the spirit, and to encourage the scientific study of man's religious nature and history. It avows no creed, but leaves each individual member responsible for his own opinions alone, and declares that nothing in its constitution shall ever be construed as limiting membership by any test of speculative opinion or belief, or as interfering in any other way with that absolute freedom of thought and expression which is the natural right of every rational being.
It would seem to be impossible to go further in the declaration of religious freedom. Nothing remains to be gained on that score. Yet the Association does not at all admit that it is therefore out of business. It has important ethical objects to secure, and therefore plenty to do. In fact, free religion itself is held to be a means of attaining exalted moral ideals, and from this point of view it has before it endless occupation and a positive basis of union. Beliefs, views, doctrines now come in order, and there seems to be the necessity of something resembling a creed or declaration of convictions. The need of some groundwork, or platform, or avowal of doctrine that can furnish a common basis and give ​coherency and efficiency to the movement was well presented by Mr. Francis E. Abbott in his address, which contains the following passage:
"The first and greatest need of all is that of a commanding and systematic philosophy of morals, of religion, and of life. We have not got it yet. It is still to be made. We have only hopes of it—only glimpses of it. The first serious task before us is to elaborate that philosophy. We don't know yet the power of system. We have been taught to despise system. We have been taught that system runs to dogma, that dogma runs to death, and that if we are radicals, if we are free religionists, we must steer clear of system above all. Why, friends, is not the universe a system? Is not the solar system—that part of the universe in which we live—a system? Is not science a system, more and more, as it obeys its own ideal? Thought must be systematic or it is powerless; and free religion will be powerless until it has learned the great lesson of nature, and become systematic. That is what philosophy means. We must introduce order, harmony, unity, sublimity into our thoughts, or we shall try in vain to affect the world's life, from this platform or from any other. First of all, let us comprehend the one great need of free religion, the need of intellectual unity, order, and concentration in our thinking. When we have got that, when we have reduced our principles to system, then we shall have unsealed the fountain-head, as it were, of all noble enthusiasm and all mighty power in the world—and not till then."
Life and Work of Joseph Henry. By Frank L. Pope, Vice-President of the American Electrical Society, Member of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, etc., etc. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 31.
This pamphlet is reprinted from the "Journal of the American Electrical Society," and it is especially interesting and useful as giving a clear account of Professor Henry's electrical and electro-magnetic investigations. We want a more considerable work in relation to the career and influence of Professor Henry, but in the absence of such a volume this paper will prove most instructive.
National Education in Italy, France, Germany, England, and Wales, popularly considered. By C. W. Bennett, D. D., Professor of History, Syracuse University. (Originally published in the "Northern Christian Advocate.") Syracuse, N. Y. Pp. 28. Price, 15 cents.
To those who are unfamiliar with the state of European education this little monograph will be found worthy of attention. It is very brief, but gives a good general view of the subject, and may serve to dissipate some of the prejudices that have grown up in many minds against foreign educational systems under the patriotic notion that America leads the world in education.
Roman Catholicism in the United States. New York: The Authors' Publishing Co. 1879. Pp. 190.
The Authors' Publishing Company, in their announcement of this book, recommend it as compact of "fact and logic, pure, clear, and irresistible." The impartial reader, however, will find it in nothing different from the average of works of its class. Its dominant idea is that, unless we "do something," the Pope will soon be master of the situation in America, and all our free institutions will be suppressed. The book does not contain a single idea that has not been proclaimed already ten thousand times from the rostrum and in the anti-Popery press. A less passionate survey of the situation might have developed grounds for not despairing of the commonwealth. There is a spirit of skepticism abroad among the people which will not permit the reestablishment of ecclesiastical despotism, whether Protestant or Papal.
Etudes Synthétiques de Geologie expérimentale. Par A. Daubrèe. Première partie, pp. 478. With numerous Illustrations. Paris: Dunod. 1879.
The Theory of Political Economy. By W. S. Jevons. Second edition, revised and enlarged. London: Macmillan. 1879. Pp. 315. $3.50.
Hygiene and Public Health. Edited by A. H. Buck, M. D. Two vols. New York: W. Wood & Co. 1879. Pp. 792 and 657.
The Silk Goods of America: Recent Improvements and Advances of Silk Manufacture in the United States. By W. C. Wyckoff. New York: Van Nostrand. 1879. Pp. 120. $1.50.
Scientific Lectures. By Sir John Lubbock. London: Macmillan. 1879. Pp. 196. $2.50.
Preliminary Investigation of the Properties of ​the Tin-Copper Alloys. R. H. Thurston, Chairman of Committee. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 582.
Primitive Manners and Customs. By J. A. Farrer. New York: Holt & Co. 1879. Pp. 345.
History of the English Language. By T. R. Lounsbury. Same publishers. 1879. Pp. 381. $1.
History of American Politics. By A. Johnston. Same publishers. 1879. Pp. 284.
Science Lectures at South Kensington. Vol. II. London: Macmillan. 1879. Pp. 410. $1.75.
Easy Lessons in Popular Science. By J. Monteith. New York: Barnes & Co. 1879. Pp. 255, with Illustrations. $1.
A Defense of Philosophic Doubt. By A. J. Balfour. London: Macmillan. 1879. Pp. 363. $3.50.
Summer-Savory, gleaned from Rural Nooks. By B F. Taylor. Chicago: Griggs & Co. 1879. Pp. 212. $1.
The Science of the Bible. By M. Woolley, M.D. Chicago: The Author. 1879. Pp. 613. $4.00.
Elementary Lessons on Sound. By Dr. W. H. Stone. London: Macmillan. 1879. Pp. 203. 80 cents.
Sequel to "Essays." By C. E. Townsend. New York: Somerby. 1879. Pp. 161.
School Cookery Book. By C. E. G. Wright. London: Macmillan. 1879. Pp. 158. 35 cents.
"Journal of the American Chemical Society." Vol. I., No. 6. Pp. 80.
Remarkable Groups in the Lower Spectrum. By S. P. Langley. Pp. 14, with Plates.
Temperature of the Sun. By the same. From "Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences." Pp. 8.
Wonders of Light and Color. By E. D. Babbitt. With Illustrations. New York: Babbitt & Co. 1879. Pp. 40. 25 cents.
A Few Well-established Facts in Connection with Squint. By J. J. Chisolm, M.D. Baltimore, Maryland, "Medical Journal" print. 1879. Pp. 15.
Vowel Theories. By A. G. Bell. From "American Journal of Otology." 1879. Pp. 20.
How Infant Mortality may be lessened. Madison, Wisconsin: Atwood print. Pp. 8. 1879.
Emotional Prodigality. By Dr. C. F. Taylor. Philadelphia: S. S. White. 1879. Pp. 16.
Career of Jesus Christ. By Dr. M. Woolley. Streator, Illinois: The Author. Pp. 53. 30 cents.
Examination of the Color-Sense of 3,040 Colored Children. By Dr. S. W. Burnett. Pp. 9.
Responsibility of the Partially Insane. By Dr. T. L. Wright. Pp. 15.
Recession of the Falls of St. Anthony. By N. H. Winchell. From "Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society." 1878. Pp. 16.
On the Word God. By. Dr. M. Woolley. Streator, Illinois: "Free Press" print. 1878. Pp. 22. 10 cents.
Hints toward a National Culture for Young Americans. By S. S. Boyce. New York: Steiger. 1879. Pp. 67.
Chlor-stannic Acid. By J. W. Mallet. From "Journal of the Chemical Society." 1879. Pp. 3.
The Progressive Attributes of Inanimate Matter. By Dr. A. J. Howe. Pp. 8. Autopsy of an Elephant. By the same. Pp. 8.
Sanitary Condition of Montreal. By F. P. Mackelcan. Montreal: Lovell Co. print. 1879 Pp. 41.