# Popular Science Monthly/Volume 39/May 1891/Literary Notices

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A Handbook of Descriptive and Practical Astronomy. By George F. Chambers, F. R. A. S. Fourth edition. New York: Macmillan & Co. (Three volumes.) Pp. 676, 558, 384. Price, $14.
For a quarter of a century Chambers's Handbook of Descriptive and Practical Astronomy has been in the hands of all English-speaking astronomers, and has maintained its ground as a valuable book of reference and an interesting summary of astronomical knowledge. In the fourth edition, now issued, the author has divided the work into three separate volumes, treating respectively of The Sun, Planets, and Comets; Instruments and Practical Astronomy; and The Starry Heavens. Each volume has its own independent index and paging. The author's reason for splitting up this well-known book is that so much expansion was required in order to bring it up to date that a single volume of convenient size could no longer contain the matter.
Three or four features of the work may be at once pointed out as especially useful and interesting to amateur astronomers. These are the catalogues of comets and the historical account of eclipses of the sun in the first volume; the elaborate description of telescopes and other instruments used by the astronomer, and the account of chronological astronomy in the second volume; and the photometric catalogue of naked-eye stars in the concluding volume. The compact chronological sketch of astronomy in tabular form, given in the second volume, may also be mentioned as very convenient for reference. This could have been made far more satisfactory, however, if the author had taken the trouble to insert, in all cases, the Christian as well as the surnames of the many astronomers included in his lists.
The whole work is, of course, a compilation, drawn from every available source, and, on account of the somewhat heterogeneous nature of much of the material of which it is composed, lacking in that perfect unity of composition which, when present, gives an irresistible charm to a book. But the author probably had no thought of writing a work that should attain great popularity among mere readers. His intention was to furnish, as his title implies, a handbook or guide-book of astronomy, rich in information and as complete as possible in the matter of reference. The bottoms of his pages are, indeed, filled with a great variety of references to authorities, which can not fail to prove very useful to the student. He has also drawn his illustrations from many sources—German, French, Italian, and American, as well as English—and has only left it to be wished that he had included some of the photographs that have within the past few years thrown such a flood of light upon ​celestial phenomena. The old pictures of spiral nebulæ are hardly worth retaining, except for the purpose of comparison, when such photographs as those of Mr. Roberts, the Henry Brothers, and others are obtainable. An interesting feature of the illustrations retained from the preceding editions is the series of pictures of double and multiple stars. These are of material assistance to the amateur in observations of close doubles whose components can barely be separated by the highest powers of the telescope. In this edition the stars in the picture of that wonderful vari-colored cluster which Sir John Herschel discovered near Kappa Crucis, and which he compared to a casket of many-hued gems, have been represented of their proper colors, and the effect is both pleasing and instructive.
The catalogues of binary and multiple stars, and of variable, red, and temporary stars, add much to the usefulness of the volume devoted to the starry heavens.
We are acquainted with no book that contains so much practical information for the amateur about the instruments of the astronomer, their construction, and the methods of mounting and using them, as does the second volume of Mr. Chambers's work. This information ranges from the magnifying powers of different forms of eyepieces and the proper adjustment of objectglasses to the construction of observatories and the discussion of the best methods of adjusting and mounting telescopes, transit instruments, astronomical clocks, and so on. There is a great variety of practical hints and directions for the guidance of the amateur in the actual work of observation.
In view of the great development of popular interest in astronomy which the past ten years have witnessed, such a work as this must find a rapidly increasing circle of readers; and the author was probably wise in enlarging its scope, in the face of the great increase of cost involved in the change from one volume to three.
Ninth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1887-'88. J. W. Powell, Director. Washington. Pp. 717, quarto.
In reviewing the work of the many divisions of the Geological Survey during its ninth year, the director states that topographical surveys covering 52,062 square miles have been made by the Division of Geography. The largest areas were surveyed in Missouri, New Mexico, Virginia, Texas, and Arkansas. In Massachusetts, the survey undertaken in co-operation with the State authorities was completed. The examination of the swamp and marsh lands along the Atlantic coast south of New York was continued. These lands, "deleterious to health in their natural condition, an obstacle in the way of approach to the sea, repellent to the settler, to agriculture, and to manufactures, they yet hold out the hope of highly productive utilization through the judicious application of capital." Investigations were carried on also in many other localities, and much laboratory and office work was done. The director gives sketches of the life-work of four prominent members of the survey whose deaths occurred during the year, namely, F. V. Hayden, R. D. Irving, James Stevenson, and Thomas Hampson. Reports from the several chiefs of divisions give the details of the work in their several departments. Of the papers accompanying the director's report, the most extended one is on the Charleston earthquake of August 31, 1886, by Captain Clarence E. Dutton. The chief result obtained from this study is a close approximation to the rate at which an earthquake wave moves, and this is found to coincide with the theoretical rate. Although severe labor was expended for many months in an attempt to obtain some information respecting the cause of earthquakes, the data yielded nothing on this point. The monograph is introduced by accounts of the earthquake by three residents of Charleston who experienced it. One of these, by Mr. Carl McKinley, of the News and Courier, was prepared for the annual report of the city government. Dr. G. E. Manigault, of the Charleston College, was selected to prepare an account especially for this record, and the third was written by Mr. F. R. Fisher. The following chapters embrace detailed studies of the local effects of the earthquake and of the epicentral tracts, a summary view of the effects throughout the country, a computation of the depths of the foci, and discussions of the isoseismals, the speed of propagation through the ground of the principal vibrations, and the ​nature of wave-motion through solid bodies. Two epicentrums were found—one near Woodstock, about sixteen miles northwest of Charleston, the other almost due west of the city and about thirteen miles distant. In the investigation of the tracts around these points Captain Dutton gives high praise to the labors of Mr. Earle Sloan, of Charleston. The paper occupies three hundred and twenty-eight pages, and is copiously illustrated with views of ruined buildings, displaced tracks on the railroads, fissures and craterlets in various places, and with maps and diagrams. Prof. N. S. Shaler contributes to this volume a report on The Geology of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, comprising the general structure of the district, its superficial geology, the structure and nature of the bed-rocks, and the relations of the region to the anticlinal axis of which it forms a part. This paper also is fully illustrated. There is an account of the Formation of Travertine and Siliceous Sinter by the Vegetation of Hot Springs, prepared by Walter H. Weed, which is illustrated with many views of the springs in the Yellowstone National Park. The volume includes also a report On the Geology and Physiography of a Portion of Northwestern Colorado and Adjacent Parts of Utah and Wyoming, by Charles A. White, containing maps and diagrams.
English Prose: Its Elements, History, and Usage. By John Earle, Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 530. Price, $3.50.
To [[Category:]]give a brief though incomplete characterization of this work, it may be called a book on rhetoric, but it is deeper and broader than such a description would imply. The first chapter deals with choice of expression, giving parallel lists of words of Anglo-Saxon, of French, and of classical origin, and pointing out the principles which should guide a writer in using one or another of these synonyms in a given place. Some of the higher grammatical considerations are next discussed, after which the author passes to the bearing3 of philology on the writing of English prose. These chapters, with a short one on "mechanical appliances"—i. e., capitals and punctuation marks make up what the author calls the analytic portion of the treatise. The subject is next treated synthetically in five chapters. The first two of these deal with the leading characteristics of prose diction—elevation, lucidity, variety, novelty, and figure being enumerated under this head. Separate chapters are devoted to idiom and to euphony, and a discussion of style closes this portion of the volume. A brief history of English prose follows. This history is divided into three periods: the first extends from the eighth century to what the author calls the first culmination of English prose in the tenth, and the second ends in the fifteenth century. A closing chapter, entitled The Pen of a Ready Writer, is a good sample of the whole book. Under this head the author affirms that "it is not an easy matter to write English prose that is worth reading." A great number of rules, directions, and cautions are to be considered, he says; but the mind of the writer should not be burdened with a consciousness of these rules at the time of writing. Next after rudimentary grammar and the reading of good authors, philology is the preparation required for writing English. The writer should strive to gain command of the wealth of the English vocabulary. As to classical training, he takes the ground that it is excellent for some purposes, but not for forming an English style. He recommends a study of the English prose of the tenth century, and notes with approval a tendency of current writers to select their leading words from the true mother tongue. The severe drill in choosing words which is enforced by the writing of poetry is a good preparation for writing prose. The volume has an index to quotations, but no general index.
Biological Lectures delivered at the Marine Biological Laboratory of Wood's Holl. Boston: Ginn & Co. Pp. 250.
All but two of the ten lectures in this volume were delivered during the summer of 1890. They are published as a contribution to educational literature, and as a means of making known the needs and possibilities of biological work to the patrons of the laboratory and to the general public. One important purpose of this course of lectures was, as stated by Prof. C. O. Whitman in the preface, "to bring specialists ​into mutually helpful and stimulating relations with one another." This is necessary, he says, because as specialization advances the mutual dependence of specialists increases, and isolation in work becomes more and more unendurable. The first lecture is by Prof. Whitman, on Specialization and Organization, in the course of which he states that a national marine biological station with a strong endowment is the great desideratum of American biology The second lecture, on The Naturalist's Occupation, is also by Prof. Whitman, and the others are Some Problems of Annelid Morphology, by E. B. Wilson; The Gastrsea Theory and its Successors, by J. P. McMurrich; Weismann and Maupas on the Origin of Death, by Edwin G. Gardiner; Evolution and Heredity, by Henry F. Osborn; The Relationships of the Sea-Spiders, by T. H. Morgan; On Caryokinesis, by S. Watase; The Ear of Man: its Past, Present, and Future, by Howard Ayres; The Study of Ocean Temperatures and Currents, by William Libber, Jr. The lectures are rather popular in character, and some of them are illustrated with diagrams.
Second Annual Report on the Statistics of Railways in the United States to the Interstate Commerce Commission, for the Year ending June 30, 1889. By Henry C. Adams. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 566.
The railway mileage of the United States at the date of making the report was 157,758·83 miles, of which 149,948·66 miles were covered by reports to the commission. The largest mileage is in Illinois, 9,829·48 miles, and the smallest in the District of Columbia, 30·57 miles, but the District has the most railroad to the square mile and Nevada the least. The gauges of tracks are being rapidly accommodated to two standards. The standard gauge, from four feet eight and a half inches to four feet nine inches, inclusive, is used by 1,371 roads, representing 93·3 per cent of the total mileage, and the three-foot narrow gauge by 234 companies, representing six per cent of the total mileage. This shows ninety-nine per cent of the whole as conformed to these two gauges. Of the 25,665 passenger-cars in use, 23,348 are fitted with automatic couplers and 23,546 with automatic brakes; but the freight-cars are not so well provided, so that out of a total equipment of 1,097,591 engines and cars only 80,510 are fitted with automatic couplers and 128,159 with automatic brakes. As compared with foreign railway administration, the number of men employed per mile of line is remarkably small. The record of accidents to men employed "shows in a startling manner the dangerous nature of railway employment"; and a comparison in the matter with England "is greatly to the discredit of the United States." Information is given respecting the organization of property for operation, on the relations of the roads in a system to one another, the capitalization of railway property, earnings and expenses, and the merits and defects of railway statistics. Complications introduced by construction accounts, express companies, outside freight lines and car companies, and private and corporative ownership of rolling-stock make it difficult to obtain complete statistics; but, as far as the work of the railway companies proper is concerned, a fairly satisfactory exhibit is made. The tables in the appendixes give, of detailed information for the year: Classification of railways and mileage, amount of railway capital, earnings and income, general expenditures, payments on railway capital, and summary of financial operations of operating roads.
Grammar and Language. By E. de L. Starck. Boston: W. B. Clarke & Carruth. Pp. 185. Price, $2.50.
This book is defined in the sub-title as An Attempt at the Introduction of Logic into Grammar. The attempt is intended to be applied no further than to the seven languages with which the author is acquainted, among which the three groups of the IndoEuropean family the Teutonic, the Slavic, and the Romance—are represented. The author believes that he discovers a general principle underlying linguistic phenomena. Grammar has, he affirms, been studied too much from the pedagogical side of the question, while the scientific side has been left out. It has been a drawback in the study of foreign languages that each one is presented to the student disconnected from his mother tongue or any other. On the other hand, the principles of general grammar, in ​crowning the study of the mother tongue, ought to lay a foundation for foreign languages. It results from the investigation of the principles of classification, that as speaking is nothing but a thinking aloud, it is the man's mind and the outside world as seen by him, but not the use of words, that ought to supply us with the principles. As the same classes of words exist in the different languages, a uniformity may be supposed in the building up of the framework of the sentence. It is sought to establish this as the mere skeleton of the syntactical unit, while each language is left free as to the details of the agreement, government, and order of the words, as far as this is necessary for the manifestation of its individuality and automatism. With this point in view, the theory of the single sentence is sketched in its principal outlines, as it is exhibited by the seven languages. The forms and inflections are then considered. These investigations elicit the fact that language satisfies the requirements of objectivity and subjectivity, both in the formation of its words and in the subsequent changes of their terminations, and thus makes them fit to play their part in the sentence and give needed expression to the variety of thoughts, volitions, and emotions. Yet notwithstanding the objective and subjective world are the same for all, each language has developed different forms for certain classes of words, and other modifications out of which its individuality and idiomatism are developed. Hence there are different structures and orders of words, and these are the subject of the fourth and last chapter of the book.
New York. By Theodore Roosevelt. Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 232, with Maps. Price, $1.25.
This volume belongs to the "Historic Towns" series. The author confesses to having been tempted to make a more voluminous history than was adapted to the place and purpose of the book, but he has kept within bounds, and has made a presentment which is brief and altogether attractive. It has been his aim, less to collect new facts than to draw from the storehouse of facts already collected "those which were of real importance in New York history, and to show their true meaning and their relations to one another, to sketch the workings of the town's life, social, commercial, and political, with their sharp transformations and contrasts, and to trace the causes which gradually changed a little Dutch trading hamlet into a huge American city. I have also striven to make clear the logical sequence and continuity of these events; to outline the steps by which the city gradually obtained a free political life, and to give proper prominence to the remarkable and everrecurring revolutions of the make-up of our mixed ethnic population." The author emphasizes the importance of learning to think less of the original nationality of our citizens and more of cultivating a feeling of "broad, radical, and intense Americanism"—looking to the quality of the citizenship rather than to the racial derivation of the citizen. Some of our best citizens are of foreign birth, and some of our worst are of American; and, as was the case with the last four mayors of New York, political lines can not be drawn between them that will not throw a foreigner and an American on one side and a foreigner and an American on the other. It is the man, not the nationality, that we must look to.
Hegel's Logic. By William T. Harris, LL. D. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. Pp. 403. Price, $1.50.
This volume is the eighth in the series of German philosophical classics published by the house of Griggs & Co., and the third in the series representative of Hegel. The treatise of which it is a critical exposition is defined in the second title as a book on the Genesis of the Categories of the Mind. Prof. Harris's studies of this philosophy began in 1858 with Kant's Critique. But in 1883, when he had promised to prepare this volume, he found himself likely to place before the public an immature work, and to attack what he could not verify with his present insight; so he thought it proper to give himself seven years more of special preparation. His discovery in 1873 of the substantial identity of the East-Indian doctrines—that the differences of systems were superficial, and that the First Principle presupposed and even explicitly stated by the Sanskrit writers was everywhere the same; the principle of Pure Being as the negative ​unit of all things—revealed to him Hegel's deep discernment, which, in the dawn of Oriental study, had enabled him to penetrate the true essence of Hindoo thought. Hegel himself has not deduced the logical consequences of his system in the matter of the relation of Nature to the Absolute Idea; and the divergence of his system from the true Absolute Idea is explained by the author in many places. But the wrong explanation of the use of Nature does not vitiate Hegel's theory of human life and of the Christian Church. The inference of a particular species of pantheism from this defect in interpreting the Absolute Idea is regarded as a new criticism of the system of Hegel, of the truth of which Dr. Harris is confident. The interpretation given of the doctrine of reflection, the result of many years of study, is considered the key to Hegel's dialectic, "if anything may be called a 'key' to it"; and the attention of students is called to it in the hope "that a new and fruitful road to Hegel's deeper thoughts may be opened by studying that portion of the Logic which expounds the relation of 'determining reflection' to 'external reflection.'"
A Manual of Weights and Measures, with Rules and Tables. By Oscar Oldberg. Third edition. Chicago: W. T. Keener. Pp. 250.
This book is intended to give complete information on the important subject indicated in its title. It contains the elements of metrology, the relations between metrological systems and arithmetical notation, a brief review of the development of weights and measures, the demands of practical medicine and pharmacy in the matter of subdivision of the units employed; the metric system, American and English weights and measures, the relations of weight to volume, specific weight, specific volume, the construction, use, and preservation of balances or scales, weights and measures, and of alcoholometers, urinometers, and other hydrometers, and extensive tables of equivalents. The laws of the United States, as far as any exist relating to weights and measures, are included. The applications of weights and measures to prescribing and dispensing, and to the construction of formulas for liquid preparations, have received attention. The rules and tables for reduction from one system to another are the most complete that we have seen. The present (the third) edition has been revised, and is believed by the author to be free from errors.
Lake Bonneville. By Grove Karl Gilbert. Monographs of the United States Geological Survey, Vol. I. Washington. Pp. 438, quarto.
One of the most famous geographical features of prehistoric America is Lake Bonneville. The bed of this great body of water, nearly equal to that of Lake Huron in extent, occupied the northwestern part of what is now the Territory of Utah. It has left several sets of clearly marked shorelines, which have been carefully studied. The Great Salt Lake now occupies about one tenth of the ancient bed, and some smaller existing lakes were included in it. The time of Lake Bonneville was the Quaternary era, or, as the present author prefers to call it, the Pleistocene period. One of the first large works begun by the Geological Survey, under the directorship of Clarence King, was an investigation of the Pleistocene lakes. A volume was to be devoted to the description of Lake Bonneville, and all general discussions were to be deferred until many lakes had been studied. The extension of the field of the survey over the whole United States led to the abandonment of this undertaking, and hence such generalizations as were permitted by the material gathered have been included in the present volume. After an introductory chapter the author takes up the general topographic features of lake shores, pointing out those formed by waves, shore currents, and inflowing streams, and describing the character of an adolescent and of a mature coast. He then applies these principles to the shores of Lake Bonneville. The Bonneville shoreline proper is about 1,000 feet above Great Salt Lake; 375 feet lower is a strongly marked shore-line, called the Provo, made after the lake had shrunken considerably from its greatest extent, and between these two elevations are intermediate shore-lines due to fluctuations of the water surface before the greatest extent was reached. An account is then given of the outlet formed at the north end of Lake Bonneville, where 375 feet of alluvium was quickly cut through, ​lowering the water to the Provo level. A chapter is devoted to the lake sediments found within the Bonneville shore-line, after which a connected history of the Bonneville basin is given, and a parallel is drawn between this and the history of Lake Lahontan. The relation of volcanic eruption to the lake history is treated separately, as is also the effect of movements of the earth's crust in deforming the shore-lines. The volume ends with a discussion of the Equus fauna, which is not found within the limits of Lake Bonneville, but which is connected with the lacustrine history introduced into an earlier chapter. There is an appendix on Altitudes and their Determination, by Albert L. Webster, and two on geodetic problems connected with the ancient lake, by R. S. Woodward. The volume is liberally illustrated with full-page, double-page, and many smaller views, maps, diagrams, etc., many of the maps being colored, and there is a folded map of the lake, about three feet by two, which is also printed in colors.
A Historical Geography of The British Colonies. By C. P. Lucas. Vol. II. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press; New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 343. Price, $1.90.
Predominant importance is given in this book to the American colonies, in which British colonization began, and which are the most extensive; and they are historically, statistically, and comparatively presented in tables and diagrams. A distinction is drawn between the North American and the West Indian colonies, while the Bermudas and the Falkland Islands lie outside of both. The North American colonies, though they include islands, are continental; while the West Indian, though they extend to the continent, are, on the whole, a collection of island dependencies. In Canada and Newfoundland the drawbacks to colonization have been ice and snow; in the West Indies they have been tropical heat and hurricanes. In the Northern colonies nearly all the inhabitants are of European origin; in the West Indies blacks predominate. There are other historical as well as racial distinctions, but one point the two groups have in common: "They are settlements, and not mere dependencies. The heat of the West Indies has not prevented the British race from colonizing the islands, and, though the negro race has long been greatly superior in numbers to the white, the history of an island like Barbados shows that even in the tropics the connection between Great Britain and America has been that of permanent settlement rather than of passing trade or foreign rule." The Bermudas, the West Indian colonies, those of the South American coast, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia are described, historically and geographically, and the descriptions are illustrated by good though small maps.
The relative merits of the incandescent electrical light and some other lights that are suggested are discussed by Prof. E. L. Nichols, of Cornell University, on The Artificial Light of the Future. The author finds that there are limitations to the life and usefulness of the incandescent light and of the arc light that are not likely to be overcome. Inquiring for a better light, he finds that of magnesium superior in quality and efficiency to any other as yet known. It affords, weight for weight, thirty times the light obtained from gas, with the development of much less heat, and gives the nearest approach to sunlight in whiteness; while in illuminating power each unit of it must be regarded as the equivalent of rather more than 1·25 units of gaslight. It has a quality believed to be the same as that named by Prof. Wiedemann luminescence, an effect, akin to phosphorescence, fluorescence, etc., of a different class of molecular vibrations from those which cause incandescence, to which importance is attached, enabling it to radiate light without heat. A similar quality belongs to the oxide of zinc, the properties of which as an illuminating substance are also studied.
From Wm. Paul Gerhard, consulting engineer for sanitary works, three monograph pamphlets are received, the nature and value of which are indicated by their titles. They are Architecture and Sanitation, in which the advantages of employing a sanitary engineer for building-work related to his sphere are insisted upon; Notes on Gaslighting and Gas-fitting, which abounds in practical suggestions; and the Disposal of Sewage of Isolated Country Houses, a matter ​that is too often neglected or ignorantly attended to.
A paper on Faith-Healing in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, read before the American Folk-lore Society by Charles F. Cox, is intended to draw a parallel between the superstitious modes of cure and practices of the period named and the faith-cures, etc., of the present, and to show that the latter are what are called, in the theory of evolution, survivals. Illustrations are drawn from the career of Paracelsus, the weapon-salve of Robert Fludd, and the sympathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby. The influence of suggestion is supposed to have played a considerable part in such success as the charlatans practicing these cures may have had. The author avows the belief that cures have been, and are nowadays, effected by the methods employed by the different species of faith-healers, and explains them on the theories expounded by Dr. W. B. Carpenter, or as cases of hypnotism.
The Rules and the Application of Reichert's Hæmometer, an instrument designed to ascertain the amount of hæmoglobin in either a diseased or a normal condition of the blood, are described by Frederick Gaertner, M. D., in a paper which was read before the iron City Microscopical Society, Pittsburg.
Vol. XXIII of Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, of which Part I is published, is devoted to the Discussion of Observations made with the Meridian Photometer during the Years 1882-1888, by Edward C. Pickering and Oliver C. Wendell. The first parts of the investigation of which the continuation is recorded have appeared in a previous volume, and a third volume will be required to contain the whole. A larger instrument than those with which the earlier observations were made, but like it, was applied in the present series to fainter stars. The observations relate principally to stars north of declination -40°. The work having been done at Cambridge, the instrument has been sent to Peru, for observation of the Southern stars. The details of this series will be published in another volume. A careful description is given of the instrument and the method of using it.
In Consumption and Liquids a theory of the prophylaxis and cure of consumption by suralimentation of liquid food is presented by W. H. Burt, M. D., of Chicago. The author believes that his remedy is not only the greatest of known prophylactics, but that it will arrest and cure pulmonary consumption; that, when used in the first and second stages of phthisis, it will enable the physician to cure more than fifty per cent of the patients that would have to die with the best methods known to medical science up to the present date; but, in the third or last stage, it will give only temporary relief. It should, however, always be combined with the best remedies known to medical science; and, with this in view, the author has added most of the practical remedies in medical literature, together with all the auxiliaries at the command of the physician. Hence his book contains chapters on the etiology and prophylaxis of the disease, the part that water occupies in the human body and its therapeutic value, fruit, and specific remedies. W. T. Keener, publisher, Chicago.
The Geological Survey of Missouri, Arthur Winslow, State Geologist, publishes in Bulletin No. 2 A Bibliography of the Geology of Missouri, compiled by F. A. Samson. The author has adopted a system of classification of books and papers into those which are products of individual investigation—with entire or with partial reference to Missouri; compilations from publications of original investigation; and incidental or dependent publications. To the first class belong reports of geological surveys, of the State Board of Internal Improvements, the Bureau of Statistics, the Smithsonian Institution, university and agricultural reports, etc., 472 titles; to the second class, compilations from those made for different offices and institutions and for various purposes, 162 titles; and to the third class, occurring in many ways and places, 167 titles. Of the publications of the State of Missouri there are 144 titles; of the United States Government, 65 titles; of other State surveys, 13 titles; and of miscellaneous publications, 579 titles. The dates of publication of these papers, by decades, show a regularly increasing interest in the subject. Bulletin No. 3 of the same office contains papers on the Clay, Stone, Lime, and Sand Industries of St. Louis City and County, by G. E. Ladd; and ​The Mineral Waters of Henry, St. Clair, Johnson, and Benton Counties, by A. E. Woodward.
The sixteen-page monthly journal, formerly called The Naturalist, now comes as The Kansas City Scientist, and as the organ of the Kansas City Academy of Sciences, with R. B. Trouslot as chief editor. It is filled with original papers, which in the present number (January, 1891) relate to owls—those of Chester County, Pa., and those of eastern Iowa—geological observations in Colorado; the movements of animals; and other matters of personal observation. Price, $1 a year.
The first of a series of three volumes under the general title Epochs of American History, has been published (Longmans, $1.25). This volume deals with The Colonies: 1492 to 1750, and the author is Reuben G. Thwaites, Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The editor of the series, Dr. A. B. Hart, of Harvard College, states that the purpose of these books is to "show the main causes for the foundation of the colonies, for the formation of the Union, and for the triumph of that Union over disintegrating tendencies. To make clear the development of ideas and institutions from epoch to epoch." Hence no attempt is made to include all the facts that would belong in a complete record. To aid readers who may wish to go into the details of narrative and social history, each chapter throughout the series is to be provided with a bibliography. Historical geography will receive especial attention. The present volume contains four maps, one showing the physical features of the United States, the other three showing how the country was divided among England, France, Spain, etc., at different periods. The author of the first volume, in mentioning some of the topics he has treated, says: "The social and economic condition of the people is described, and attention is paid to the political characteristics of the several colonies, both in the conduct of their local affairs and in their relations with each other and the mother-country... . Attention is called to the fact, generally overlooked, that the thirteen mainland colonies which revolted in 1776 were not all of the English colonial establishments in America; a chapter is devoted to a description of the several outlying sister colonies, showing wherein they differed from the thirteen, and why they did not join in the revolt." The matter of the volume is conveniently arranged, and is fully indexed.
Recognizing the interest which students of American history and politics must take in the study of federal government as being in effect a study of the principles underlying their own institutions, Prof. Albert Bushnell Hart has prepared for the series of Harvard Historical Monographs (Ginn & Co.) an Introduction to the Study of Federal Government. The development of the federal system is noticed as having been one of the most striking political tendencies of the last century, and has been exemplified on a considerable scale in Switzerland, Germany, England and Us colonies and dependencies, Canada, the South American states, and, pre-eminently, the United States. The present monograph gives, in its first part, an outline of the political history of the several confederations, beginning with the ancient Grecian and Italian leagues and closing with those of Latin America; and in the second part a parallel view of the four leading federal constitutions now in operation, in which each constitution is made to serve as a practical commentary on the others. In a chapter on The Theory of Federal Government, the doctrine of sovereignty is defined, certain new federal combinations of states are described, the nature of fed eral government is analyzed, federal governments are classified, and their political conditions are considered.
The French Invasion of Ireland in '98, an episode of the French Revolution that has heretofore received little attention, has been made the subject of a volume by Valerian Gribayédoff (C. P. Somerby, New York, $1.50). The story is told in a popular way, and is attractively illustrated. The pictures include battle-scenes and portraits, most of the latter being drawn by the author. The record is substantiated by frequent reference to contemporary accounts, and the appendix contains several letters bearing on the events of the campaign.
Political Americanisms (Longmans) is a convenient and useful glossary of terms and phrases current at different periods in American politics, by Charles Ledyard Norton. ​"It is impossible," the compiler remarks, "to look over the columns of a daily journal, especially during the progress of a spirited political campaign, without encountering numerous expressions and phrases, the meaning of which can not be learned from any dictionary, but which, to one who is familiar with the current argot of the period, are often quite as vigorously expressive as the most picturesque slang of the street." Mr. Norton's attempt is to explain most of these expressions. Without claiming to be exhaustive, he has included a number of phrases which, he says, can be found in no other compilation. Some have passed out of current use, others are still living. The definitions are studiously uncolored.
Prof. J. Howard Gore, in a paper on The Decimal System of Measures of the Seventeenth Century, presents the claims of the priest, Gabriel Mouton, of Lyons, to be regarded as the originator of the decimal system. As early as 1665 he proposed a scheme of measures by tens, the unit of which was derived from a minute of the arc of the terrestrial great circle, and which embodied the essential features of the scale proposed by the official commission in 1799.
W. M. Griswold, the industrious index-maker, has prepared and publishes, at Cambridge, Mass., in a pamphlet of fifty-two pages, A Descriptive List of Novels and Tales dealing with American Country Life. Its purpose is to direct readers, having a taste for books of the kind, to a number of novels, easily obtainable, but which may have become forgotten in the rush of other novels coming after them. Many of these books are typical, or have a historical value; some of them are of the first quality of excellence, and should not be allowed to perish at least in the present age; and all are worthy of the place given them. Descriptive notices are appended to each of the titles, which have usually been selected from reviews in the standard critical journals. Other lists of kindred character are promised.
The Indiana College Association was formed in 1878 for the mutual improvement of its members and the consideration of college instruction and management, and now includes representatives of fourteen institutions. It has held meetings every year, but no publications were made of the proceedings of its meetings from 1884 to 1888. The full publication of the Proceedings and Addresses of the thirteenth session, December, 1890, is accompanied by abstracts of the proceedings of these five sessions. The principal addresses at the meeting of 1889 were on The Religious Sentiment in it3 Relation to Scholarship, President J. J. Mills; Relations of Mathematics to Metaphysics, Prof. A. S. Hunter; The Function of the Laboratory in Technical Schools, Prof. Thomas Gray; The Study of Man through Language and Literature, Prof. Hoffman; Word Color, Prof. E. B. T. Spencer; and Mathematics in the Preparatory Schools, Prof. R. J. Aley.
A strange volume is that entitled A Secret Institution, written by Clarissa C. Lathrop (Bryant Publishing Co.), to describe the events that led to her incarceration in the Utica Insane Asylum from 1880 to 1882, her treatment there, and the way she obtained her release. Its purpose is to call attention to the injustice which many persons have suffered through being committed to asylums and kept there when perfectly sane. The writer draws a dark picture of asylum life, and her story shows what terrible abuses are possible where the light of investigation can not penetrate.
A novel in which a representation of one of the current forms of socialism is given has been written by Albion W. Tourgee, under the title Murvale Eastman, Christian Socialist (Fords, $1.50). The social doctrines are applied in the dealings of a street railway company with its employés. The story is more than a mere vehicle for the doctrines, being rich in plot and incident.
A number of geological monographs of much interest have recently been published by Prof. Warren Upham. First on the list in the amount of labor it represents is the author's Report of Exploration of the Glacial Lake Agassiz in Manitoba, which appears in connection with the report of the geological survey of Canada. Lake Agassiz was a lake, the result of the damming of the waters by ice in glacial times, which existed in the Red River Valley in Dakota and Minnesota, and thence toward the north across Manitoba into Saskatchewan, covering an area (about 110,000 square miles) greater ​than that of the five Laurentian lakes combined. Prof. Upham having studied the remains of this lake as defined by its ancient beaches in the United States, obtained authority from the Canadian survey to carry on his investigations in the British territory, and his paper of one hundred and fifty-six pages furnishes the evidence that he did so very carefully. The paper is illustrated by a map of the country of Lake Agassiz, showing its position and probable extent and its relation to the Upper Laurentian lakes, and by a map of its beaches and deltas in southern Manitoba. Many artesian wells have been obtained in the plain which occupies the site of the valley of the ancient lake, and the description of these furnishes the substance of a paper on Artesian Wells in North and South Dakota. Prof. Upham is not confident that the wells can be made efficient in these regions for irrigation. A well flowing one hundred gallons a minute would be needed to irrigate a quarter section, or one hundred and sixty acres of land—the usual area of a homestead. Such a well would cost seven thousand dollars, and to this the outlay for reservoirs and conduits would have to be added. A Discussion of the Climatic Conditions of the Glacial Period was participated in, in the Boston Society of Natural History, by Frank Leverett, Prof. Shaler, and Prof. W. O. Crosby, with Prof. Upham. Prof. Upham thought the conditions most favorable to the formation of the ice-sheets were long-continued rather than excessive cold, with an abundant supply of moisture by storms, and cooler summers than now. In a fifth paper the Fiords and Great Lake Basins of North America are considered as evidence of pre-glacial continental elevation and of depression during the Glacial period.