# Popular Science Monthly/Volume 32/November 1887/Literary Notices

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Appletons' Physical Geography. By John D. Quackenbos and others. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 140. Price, $1.60.
This work has been prepared on a new plan. Physical geography, comprising parts of a number of sciences, covers a wider field than one man can be thoroughly familiar with; hence, in order to secure the advantage of special knowledge over the whole field, this work has been written by several ​hands. The section on the general structure and geological history of the earth has been prepared by Dr. John S. Newberry, Professor of Geology and Paleontology in Columbia College; that devoted to the geological history of the North American Continent, by Professor Charles H. Hitchcock, of Dartmouth College; the portion relating to general physiology and the physical features of the United States, by Mr. Henry Gannett, Chief Geographer of the United States Geological Survey; the pages explaining terrestrial magnetism, with the chapters on volcanoes and earthquakes, coral islands, the earth's waters, and meteorology, by Dr. W. Le Conte Stevens, Professor of Physics in the Packer Collegiate Institute. Dr. N. L. Britton, Lecturer in Botany, Columbia College, furnished the chapter on plant-life; Dr. C. Hart Merriam, the Ornithologist of the Department of Agriculture, those relating to zoölogy and the animal life of the United States; Professor William H. Dall, of the Smithsonian Institution, that on etimology; and Mr. George F. Kunz, gem expert and mineralogist with Messrs. Tiffany & Co., of New York, that on precious stones. Throughout the book references to standard works have been inserted, which will guide pupils and teachers to fuller sources of information on the various topics which can be only touched upon in a school text-book. The text is copiously illustrated with pictures, diagrams, and maps in color, on which no pains have been spared to secure accuracy and mechanical excellence.
The Printing of Cotton Fabrics, comprising Calico Bleaching, Printing, and Dyeing. By Antonio Sansone. Manchester, England: Abel Hey wood & Sons. Pp. 375, with Nineteeen Plates, Thirteen Text Illustrations, and Eight Plates of Printed Samples.
The applications of new chemical discoveries to technical purposes have become so frequent during the last quarter of a century as to cause almost a complete change in several important branches of modern industry, developing new fields of human application and effecting marked improvements in manufacturing generally. Like other industries, the colorist branch, which may be said to be the pet child of modern chemical investigation, has not been slow to feel the effect of the introduction of scientific methods in the every-day work of the factory; the result has been a steady progress and improvement in the methods of obtaining colors on fabrics, consequent on the introduction of new coloring-matters and a better understanding of the properties of the substances used, and of the principles which govern the formation and fixation of each color on the fiber.
The printing of tissues—that is, the art of fixing various colors which form more or less elaborate designs on cloth—is a very complicated process, requiring for its successful completion the assistance of all the skill which chemical and mechanical progress has placed at the service of manufacturers. This progress, however, which permits of greater facilities being introduced gradually, rendering possible the adoption of novel and more complicated designs which could not be easily employed with older methods, makes it at the same time imperative on those engaged in this branch of industry to keep themselves posted on all the forward steps made by others, in order to meet the artistic requirements of the consumer, and the competition of rival manufacturers.
This progress is so steady and gradual that it has to be followed incessantly. Publications treating specially of this branch of manufactures are not very plentiful; the continual changes and improvements are liable to deprive a book of its practical usefulness a few years after its publication. A complete work on the subject, embodying the latest devices and processes in use, can, therefore, not help being welcome both to the trained colorist and to the student. The author is well fitted for the task he has undertaken, having been for several years director of the School of Dyeing and Printing at the Technical School of Manchester, the center of the printing industry.
Theory and practice are given an equal share of attention, which they both deserve in an art in which scientific training, skill, experience, and artistic taste have all to contribute to the result. The opening chapter is devoted to the history of calico-printing which is traced from its origin in India, to its present flourishing expansion.
Before the tissue can actually be printed upon, it is necessary that it should be bleached; to this important Preliminary ​operation an interesting chapter is devoted. The colors and materials used by the calico-printers are many, and are divided into three classes—colors, mordants, and thickening materials. The colors are divided as follows: mineral colors, the importance of which has largely decreased of late in calico-printing; natural organic coloring matters, such as logwood, madder, indigo cochineal, berries, etc., which are used chiefly under the form of extracts; artificial coloring-matter, or coal-tar colors. The origin, properties, chemical composition, etc., of each coloring-matter arc given. The mordants include all those substances possessing the property of causing coloring matter to become fixed on the fiber, either by precipitation, adhesion, or otherwise. Salts of alumina, iron, chrome, tin, lead, zinc, antimony, etc., possess mordant properties, and occupy an important place in the preparation of the print-colors. Tannin, soaps, oils, etc., are also extensively used.
Thickening materials are indispensable to the calico-printer. In order to prevent the colors on the cloth "running" into each other, and to obtain a distinct separation between the different shades, all the printing-colors have to be thickened. This is done by means of starch, gum, albumen, etc. The colorist has to be thoroughly familiar with the properties of all the substances he uses, and with their action toward each other. Considering that some of the print-colors have to be composed by mixing together from six to ten different materials, the knowledge of the properties of each is important. A short chapter is devoted to water. The most important part is that devoted to the printing processes, the practical work of the colorist. It includes chapters on preparing thickenings; preparing mordants; steam-colors (steam pigment-colors; steam aniline-colors, steam alizarin colors, dyewood, redwood, catechu, and compound steam-shades); steam mineral colors; a chapter on steam-colors of the most recent introduction, and on new solvents; oxidation-colors, colors obtained by reduction; dyed colors, the designs on which are obtained by resisting and discharging processes.
The machinery and apparatus employed in calico-printing are described in another chapter, and illustrated. The illustrations are many, and represent the most important apparatus which are in use in print-works. The most complicated of these is the twelve color printing-machine, by means of which the most complicated and elaborate designs can be produced on cloth.
Short chapters are devoted to the finishing of printed goods; electricity in printing; and printing woolen fabrics.
A table, showing the principal styles of calico-printing, and the number of shades that can be produced in each style, is also given. Besides the numerous illustrations the volume contains eight plates of printed samples of calico, chosen so as to show the different styles.
Taken altogether, the volume under review contains a very large amount of practical information. The student will find in it a complete guide in his first attempts at laboratory work in the branch he chooses to follow, while the expert colorist can rely upon it as a valuable reference-book.
Romantic Love and Personal Beauty: Their Development, Causal Relations, Historic and National Peculiarities. By Henry T. Finck. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 560. Price, $2.
Many sober-minded persons would expect a book on romantic love and personal beauty to contain nothing better than silly sentimentalism, if happily it contained nothing worse. But these two closely connected subjects have other aspects than the sentimental one. Romantic love, by which is meant, in this book, the complex emotion that leads a civilized person, free from considerations of policy, to desire marriage with a particular individual, has a powerful influence in directing the development of the race. For the feelings that determine the choice of partners in marriage determine also what physical, mental, and moral characteristics shall be brought together and transmitted to the next generation. The design of Mr. Finck's book is to analyze romantic love and personal beauty, and to trace their development and history. In what he calls a "chemical" analysis he compares love to a musical note, composed of the sexual relation as its fundamental tone, with eleven overtones, viz.: individual preference, monopoly or exclusiveness, ​jealousy, coyness, gallantry, self-sacrifice, sympathy, pride of conquest and possession, emotional hyperbole, mixed moods—major and minor—and admiration of personal beauty. Love thus constituted, he maintains, is unknown to savages, and was not experienced even by the civilized peoples of antiquity. In fact, he affirms that animals approach nearer to the emotion of romantic love than savages, for many animals, especially birds, have a period of courtship in which they display at least four of the "overtones" of romantic love, viz., jealousy, coyness, individual preference, and admiration of personal beauty, while savage men obtain their wives by capture or by paying a price for them in goods or labor, without any preliminary love-making. Even among ancient civilized nations he maintains that romantic love could not exist, because women then held a degraded position, and were carefully secluded both as maids and matrons, marriages being arranged for by the parents of the young people, thus allowing no opportunities for courtship and for free matrimonial choice. Among his evidence for this thesis is the statement that there is no mention of romantic love in the Bible, not excepting the Canticles. He disposes of Herder, who has asserted the opposite, by calling him "a very unsafe and shallow guide in this matter," and says, "So far as love is referred to in the Song of Solomon, it is probable that conjugal affection is meant." He makes a sharp distinction between conjugal and pre-matrimonial love, in which many persons will not agree with him, and claims that the former is developed earlier in the history of all peoples than the latter. Mr. Finck sees no evidence of a knowledge of romantic love in the verses of Anacreon or Sappho, of Catullus or Ovid, nor in the deification of Eros and Cupid. He does credit Ovid with depicting an approach to romantic love, but this approximation was soon lost to the world, and the sentiment remained unknown throughout the dark ages, even including the period of chivalry, which much-lauded institution Mr. Finck deems to have been less refined in practice than in theory. According to our author, romantic love began its existence a. d. 1274, in the breast of Dante, when he was a nine-year-old boy, and its advent is described in the "Vita Nuova." But Mr. Finck says that Dante "hyperidealized his passion," and that it was Shakespeare who first mingled the sensuous, aesthetic, and intellectual elements in proper proportion; next to Shakespeare's poetry, he deems Heine's the most valuable depository of modern love. In giving a further detailed account of the genuine romantic sentiment, he touches on the topics, old maids, bachelors, genius in love, kissing—past, present, and future—how to win and how to cure love, and the characteristics of French, Italian, Spanish, German, English, and American love.
In treating of personal beauty he very properly insists on hygienic living, which involves shunning many so-called beautifiers, as the basis of physical beauty, and credits some beautifying influence to crossing, romantic love, and mental refinement. After a short discussion of the evolution of taste, he describes the different ideals of beauty, savage and civilized, for the various parts of the human form, from the feet to the hair, with hints for improving the appearance of each part, and concludes with an examination of national types of beauty.
Mr. Finck supports his various statements with a multitude of analogies, allusions, and quotations. He maintains throughout a playful attitude toward his subject, which leads him into the use of slang and colloquial language in order to make fun; for instance, such expressions as "get left," "high-toned," "sparking," and "stabbed by a white wench's black eye." He is also careless about his syntax, thus he says, "A favorite Slavonic device is to cut the finger, let a few drops of her blood run into a glass of beer," etc., the pronoun having no antecedent. He defines a morganatic marriage as "a special royal euphemy for bigamy," but such a marriage need not involve bigamy. His science is as careless as his language; thus he speaks of existing savages as representing "a later stage of evolution" than existing animals. In short, this book is the production of a clever writer; it is clean and entertaining reading, but it is no addition to our knowledge of a subject which is really worthy of earnest study.
Facts and Fictions of Mental Healing. By Charles M. Barrows. Boston: II. II. Carter & Karrick Pp. 248. Price, $1.25.
It is a friendly hand which has written these chapters. According to Mr. Barrows's preface, he "is convinced, by the results of many careful tests, that if the mental treatment of disease be not all that its most sanguine advocates picture it, it is a powerful therapeutic agent when skillfully used, and based on a philosophy which has done the world incalculable good." In the opening chapters the author gives as clear an account as could be expected of the somewhat confused and contradictory ideal philosophy and pantheistic creeds of the mental healers, little if any of which appears to be essential to mental healing; "indeed, a majority of the cures of this character," says Mr. Barrows, "have been wrought by persons utterly ignorant of, or disbelievers in, the doctrines of modern psychopathy." He describes a number of cures without medicine effected by regular physicians either by acting on the mind of the patient, or by resigning him to the recuperative power of a strong constitution. None of the cases of relapse or death under mental treatment which have been reported are alluded to by Mr. Barrows, although he mentions that one of the great lights of "Christian science" was recently prostrated with nervous exhaustion, and obliged to seek medical aid; and that another, who had become so enthusiastic as to declare that he could never be sick, died within a year of hæmorrhage of the lungs. The concluding chapters consist of more or less relevant matter drawn from Buddhism, Brahmanism, and the philosophy of Emerson.
Palæolitic Man in Northwest Middlesex By John Allen Brown. Illustrated London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 227.
This contribution to the study of prehistoric man in Britain embodies the substance of papers read before various scientific societies, describing investigations by the author in the northwestern portion of the county which environs London north of the Thames. The river-deposits here run back for about three miles, rising in terraces to more than one hundred and forty feet above the present level of the stream. The author describes and figures a large number of worked flints from the gravels of various levels, as well as similar implements from other sources. He reviews the customs of savage tribes in various parts of the world, who still use stone implements, and from this material constructs a picture of Paleolithic life in Middlesex. As to the antiquity of man in Britain, he concludes that the river-drift hunter of the Thames Valley, entering the British Isles at least as early as the first Continental period, saw the last submergence of the greater part of the British Isles beneath the sea, survived the Glacial period which followed the re-emergence of the land, and, as the glaciers retreated, reoccupied that portion of the country from which the sea and the ice had driven him.
Gilman's Historical Readers. Nos. 1, 2, and 3. By Arthur Gilman. Chicago: The Interstate Publishing Company.
The making of books for young persons is not always an easy matter, and this is conspicuously the case with historical books. Most of the short and concise histories intended for school use are so condensed in matter, so filled with details and with useless names and dates, that they but poorly fulfill the purpose for which they are written. The true end to be aimed at in teaching history to the young is to give them a clear and correct outline view of the history of the leading nations, and impress this view as vividly as possible upon their minds. But too often the books they have to study are so overloaded with detail that the outlines of the whole are lost in the multiplicity of the parts; and thus the attention and the memory are heavily taxed without any corresponding benefit.
The books now before us are not liable to this objection. Mr. Gilman seems to have in the main an excellent idea of what matter and how much should be introduced into a school-book on history. Very few of his chapters are crowded with detail, and for such cases of the kind as do occur there is generally some special reason. The three volumes on American history form a graded series, the first being the simplest and the last the most difficult. The first volume is devoted to the discovery of the ​continent, and the early voyages before the settlement of North America. The second covers the period of colonization down to the extinction of the French power east of the Mississippi. The third and concluding volume is devoted to the "Making of the American Nation," by which term the author means "the process by which the loosely-connected American communities outgrew their colonial condition of social and political life, and developed into a nation." This process, Mr. Oilman holds, was not completed till after the civil war and the reconstruction of the Union, since it was not until then that the people became one in sentiment in all parts of the land. Throughout his work the author has avoided, for the most part, the details of battles and of political intrigues, which fill so large a space in many historical works, rightly deeming them inferior in importance to those more quiet but deeper movements of society which really determine military and partisan affairs themselves. The book may be heartily recommended to the young, and to all instructors engaged in the teaching of history.
Grasses of North America: for Farmers and Students. By W. J. Beal, Michigan Agricultural College. Published by the author. Pp. 457. Price, $2.50.
The author's aim has been, as is implied in the title, to furnish such an account of the grasses which more commonly come under observation as will be interesting and useful to the farmer and student, as well as to the general reader who has never studied botany. While no attempt has been made to write a complete account of the structure and physiology of grasses, such information is given on these points as will probably be sufficient and satisfactory to the classes of persons mentioned. The first chapter is, in fact, devoted to "The Structure, Form, and Development of the Grasses," and gives intelligible descriptions of their parts and the philosophy of their growth. In the chapters that follow are considered: "The Power of Motion in Plants"; "Plant-Growth" (germination, the functions of green leaves, the plant as a factory, and the composition of plants, particularly of American grasses); "Classifying, Naming, Describing, Collecting, and Studying"; "Native Grazing-Lands"; "Grasses for Cultivation" (under which head thirty-one species are described and figured); "Early Attempts to Cultivate Grasses"; "Testing Seeds, some Common Weeds"; "Grasses for Pastures and Meadows"; "Preparation of the Soil and Seeding"; "Care of Grass-Lands"; "Making Hay"; the improvement of grasses; and "Grasses for the Lawn, the Garden, and for Decoration." Although clover is not a grass, farmers regard it as economically in that category, and a chapter is therefore given to it and other leguminous forage plants. The treatise is concluded with chapters on "The Enemies of Grasses and Clovers" and "The Fungi of Forage Plants," both of which are well illustrated, a bibliography, and a convenient index. A second volume is in preparation, to contain the descriptions of all the known grasses of North America, with illustrations of one species, and sometimes more than one, in each genus, notes on cultivation, and a chapter on geographical distribution.
Circulars of the Bureau of Education. No. 1. 1887. Washington: Government Printing-office. Pp. 89.
The present number of the "Circulars" is an account of the College of William and Mary, prepared by Professor Herbert B. Adams as a contribution to "The History of Higher Education." The history of this institution, of which Washington was a chancellor, and Jefferson, Chief-Justice Marshall, and other distinguished statesmen were graduates, is made to suggest several lessons bearing upon the higher education, of which the author emphasizes the ideas of "a college-capital, or at least of higher education, in a municipal rather than in a rural, or even suburban, environment; and the revival of that close connection between education and good citizenship which made the College of William and Mary a seminary of statesmen"—ideas which are considered more specifically with reference to what the author declares to be the greatest educational need of our time—the application of historical and political science to American politics.
A Manual of Weights and Measures. By Oscar Oldberg. Chicago: Charles J. Johnson. Pp. 246. Price, 81.50.
This book is designed for a text-book and a book of reference, and gives information of practical as well as theoretical value on the important subject, with a fullness and method that we have not observed in any other single work. 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. Careful attention has been given to the applications of weights and measures to prescribing and dispensing, and to the construction of formulas for liquid preparations.
The Struggle for Religious and Political Liberty. By Theo. C. Spencer. New York: The Truth-Seeker Company. Pp. 140. Price, 75 cents.
The progress of political liberty occupies but a small portion of this book, which is mainly devoted to pointing out the defects, inconsistencies, and cruelties of the religions of the Western world. The claims of the Bible to be an inspired book are disputed, and it is compared to the Koran and the Book of Mormon. A sketch is given of the chief persecutions of Protestants and Catholics, and of the collisions between various Protestant sects. The Church of Rome is declared to be the chief obstacle to religious liberty.
Nervous Diseases and their Diagnosis By H. C. Wood, M. D., L.L. D. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 501. Price, $4.
This work is described by the author as a treatise on the phenomena produced by diseases of the nervous system, with especial reference to the recognition of their causes. Dr. Wood classifies nervous disorders under the following heads: Paralysis, Motor Excitements, Reflexes, Disturbances of Equilibration, Trophic Lesions, Sensory Paralysis, Exaltations of Sensibility, Disturbances of the Special Senses, Disorders of Memory and Consciousness, Disorders of Consciousness, and Disturbances of Intellection. The descriptions are clear, and a copious index is appended to the volume.
Dermatitis Venenata: An Account of the Action of External Irritants upon the Skin. By James C. White, M. D. Boston: Cupples & Hurd. Pp. 216. Price, $2.50.
This book is a manual for the medical practitioner, comprising accounts of the action of those vegetable, animal, and mineral substances which produce inflammation of the skin when externally applied, with directions for treating such inflammation. The plants are arranged alphabetically by families, and comprise a hundred species. The irritant action upon the skin of various vegetable products and chemicals is described, and also of the bites and stings of insects.
The Curability of Insanity and the Individualized Treatment of the Insane. By John S. Butler, M. D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 59. Price, 60 cents.
The author recommends a preventive treatment in the incipient stages of the disease; lays particular stress upon the advantage of individualization in treatment, or its adaptation to the character and circumstances of individual patients and the manner in which their affection manifests itself; and advocates the separation of curable cases from those which are hopeless.
The Graphical Statics of Mechanism. By Gustav Herrmann. Translated and annotated by A. P. Smith. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 158, with Plates.
This work is intended to be a guide for the use of machinists, architects, and engineers, and a text-book for technical schools. The graphical method is becoming extensively disseminated in engineering circles, as its advantages over the analytical method are more and more recognized, and its further development is kept constantly in view. Its application has been impeded by the difficulty of taking account of friction ​and the special hurtful resistances to motion, the calculations of which have hitherto been confined to the analytical method. No method being known to the author by which the frictional resistances and efficiency of any desired mechanism can be graphically determined, he has endeavored, in his lectures before the polytechnic schools of Aix-la-Chapelle, to show the relations existing between the forces in mechanism in a simpler form than that offered by the analytical method. The present treatise, which the translator characterizes as containing "almost discoveries" on the subject, has grown out of that endeavor.
Compressed Gun-Cotton for Military Use. Translated from the German of Max von Förster. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 164. Price, 50 cents.
Herr von Förster's practical manual on the application of gun-cotton, which rests largely upon the evidence of more or less extensive experiments performed in Germany, is preceded by an account of the manufacture, properties, and uses of modern gun-cotton, by Lieutenant John P. Wisser, of the United States Army.
Synopsis of the North American Syrphidæ (Bulletin of the United States National Museum, No. 31). By Samuel W. Williston. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 335.
The family of Syrphidæ is one of the most extensive in the order of Diptera. "They contain among them many of the brightest-colored flies, and numerous specimens are sure to appear in every general collection of insects. None are injurious in their habits to man's economy, and many of them are very beneficial." To be more definite in popular description—"they are flower-flies, and feed upon honey and pollen. They are observed on blossoms of sweet-smelling, melliferous plants, such as the Hymenoptera prefer; and patches in bloom of blackberry (Rubus), wild-cherry (Prunus), dogwood (Cornius), Canada thistle (Cirsium), and elderberry (Sambucus), will always be sure to reward the patience of the collector. Some species, as those of Syritta, Spærophoria, Mesograpta, etc., will be seen wherever there are blossoms. Species of the last, especially, are very abundant about cornfields when the plants are in blossom, and will frequently alight upon one's hands; these 'sweat-flies' are feared by not a few persons, under the belief that they will 'sting.' All are sunshine-loving, and will rarely be found except in the middle of bright, unclouded days." About three hundred species are described in this volume from the region north of Mexico, in such a way that the author hopes that even the non-entomological student, with a little exertion, may be able to identify them.
The Use of Electricity in Gynecological Practice. By George J. Engelmann, M. D., St. Louis.
Dr. Engelmann believes that electricity is a valuable agent in treatment, which had, however, in his practice failed to give uniformly satisfactory results. He set himself to work to investigate the causes of the diversity in the efficiency of its application, and publishes his experiments and the results of them in the present paper. His decided success—in the treatment of pelvic disorders—in the past year, "no longer accidental, but the result of method"—has convinced him of the value of the remedy, which he is assured, when fully developed, will assume prominence. Its success and general adoption, he believes, depends upon precision and uniformity of measure and record; and he has given here, as a contribution to those factors, his own system, which includes the milli-ampère intensity of the current; size of electrodes for calculation of density; time of application, for calculation of quantity; resistance of the tissues in ohms when such resistance was unusual, or when an explanation of the intensity of the current seemed called for.
The City Government of St. Louis. By Marshall S. Snow. Baltimore: N. Murray. Pp. 40. Price, 25 cents.
This monograph is one of the Johns Hopkins "University Studies in Historical and Political Science." The "Studies" are now in their fifth series, which is especially devoted to the subjects of municipal government and economics. The history of St. Louis is given from its foundation in 1764, with the various steps of its growth as an infant settlement, a community, a ​municipality, and a city absorbing the county, down to the operation of the present charter, which went into effect in 1877. Mr. Snow believes that a careful study of this charter "will convince any impartial man of its great worth as a framework for a system of municipal government. The length of the term of its municipal officers; the carefully-framed provisions to secure honest registration of voters and an honest vote at the polls; the guards and checks upon all who administer the financial affairs of the city; the provisions against an undue increase of the public debt; the plan by which the important offices filled by the mayor's appointment are not vacant until the beginning of the third year of his term of office, so that as rewards of political work done during a heated campaign they are too far in the dim distance to prejudice seriously the merits of an election—these are a few of its important advantages as a plan of city government. Since its adoption it has worked well, and but few amendments have been suggested."
An Introduction to the Study of Embryology. By Alfred C. Haddon, M. A., M. R. I. A., Professor of Zoölogy in the Royal College of Science, Dublin. Illustrated. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 336. Price, $6.
This work is especially designed for medical students, and for those who have a knowledge of the main facts of comparative anatomy and systematic zoölogy. There are eight chapters, dealing with maturation and fertilization of the ovum, segmentation and gastrulation, formation of the mesoblast, general formation of the body and development of the embryonic appendages, organs derived from the epiblast, hypoblast, and mesoblast, respectively, and closing with a chapter of general considerations. Certain structures and processes which are of secondary importance, or present especially difficult problems, have been briefly mentioned or omitted. Where hypotheses have been introduced, care has been taken that the student may not mistake them for facts. Important matter has been distinguished by large type, and most of the figures have been so drawn as to admit of distinctive coloring. The classification of genera adopted is embodied in an appendix. The volume is furnished also with an analytical table of contents, an index, and a bibliography.
The Claim of Moral Insanity in its Medico-Legal Aspects. By James Hendrie Lloyd, M. D., Philadelphia. Pp. 16.
The author, who has had a large experience with cases of insanity, has not seen one case which answers to the description given in the books, of moral insanity; that is, of pure and simple dislocation of the moral nature; but all cases were accompanied with perversions of the understanding. He believes, therefore, that the conception of "the cerebrum as an individual unit, whose special act is always a reflex process of ideation, tends to a satisfactory definition and classification of insanity, as well as to an intelligible application of our knowledge to the solution of medico-legal questions much superior to anything attainable by the distinctions of the metaphysicians or the arbitrary tests of the judges."
The Fortunes of Words. Letters to a Lady. By Federico Garlanda, Ph. D. New York: A. Lovell & Co. Pp. 225. Price, $1.25.
This is a series of popular essays on English philology, which, together with much curious and useful information, conveys a vivid idea of the contrast between the modern method of scientific research in the department of language and the ways of the old etymologists. Separate chapters show how the development of industry, ethical feelings, the color-sense, and calculation may be traced in language. In another chapter the chief reasons why words change their meanings are given. The author does not utterly condemn slang, but points out that language gains some of its most vigorous expressions from the better class of slang.
Health Lessons. A Primary Book. By Jerome Walker, M. D. Illustrated. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 194. Price, 56 cents.
No child can fail to be interested and instructed by this little book. The subject matter is embodied in simple and vivid language, and is illustrated by an abundance of original and entertaining pictures. These ​lessons deal almost entirely with hygiene, the author deeming it injudicious to require young children to learn much about the names and locations of bones and blood vessels, etc. The book is divided into sixteen "lessons" of moderate length, each having at the end a short list of questions with answers. Following these is a chapter on "Accidents, Injuries, and Poisons." Some practical suggestions to teachers of health subjects are prefixed to the volume. Special teaching as to the effects of alcoholic stimulants and of narcotics upon the human system is given in connection with the descriptions of the chief organs of the body.
Ligaments, their Nature and Morphology. By John Bland Sutton. Illustrated. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 107. Price, $1.25.
This treatise is designed to be a systematic account of ligaments and fasciæ generally, with respect to their morphology and ancestral history. Frequent reference has been made to the facts of comparative anatomy, but for the convenience of the student of human anatomy these facts have been concentrated in one chapter. The author finds that the more important ligaments "are derived either from the metamorphosis and regression of muscles, or the degeneration of osseous and cartilaginous tissues." The metamorphosis of contractile into fibrous tissue is caused by disuse and consequently diminished nutrition. In the case of many ligaments of the axial skeleton and pectoral girdle, bones corresponding to them in position have been found in certain of the lower animals, showing that these ligaments have arisen from a degeneration of osseous and cartilaginous tissues, during the development of the human species.
Chauvenet's Treatise on Elementary Geometry. Revised and abridged by W. E. Byerly, Professor of Mathematics in Harvard University. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 322. Price, $1.20.
Professor Byerly's edition of this standard text-book is carefully adapted to obtaining as much original work as possible from the student. He maintains that the student should be compelled to think and to reason for himself, thus gaining the power to grasp and prove any simple geometrical truth that may be set before him. "On this account, the demonstrations of the main propositions, which at first are full and complete, are gradually more and more condensed, until at last they are sometimes reduced to mere hints, by the aid of which the full proof is to be developed; and numerous additional theorems and problems are constantly given as exercises for practice in original work."
Henderson, C. Hanford, Philadelphia. Glass-making. Pp. 26.
Holmes, Howard M., Lansing, Mich. Incineration of the Dead. Pp. 11.
Baker. Henry B., Lansing-, Mich. Diagrams to illustrate a Paper on the Relations of Certain Meteorological Conditions to Diseases of the Lungs and Air-Passages. Fourteen Diagrams.
Canfield, William Buckingham, M. D., Baltimore. Cyclic Albuminuria. Pp. 8.
Beale, F. M. M., U. S. Signal Corps. "Monthly Weather Review," July, 1887. Pp. 20, with Charts.
Riley, Charles V., Department of Agriculture. Report of the Entomologist for 1886. Pp. 140, with Plates.
Bryce, James, M. P. The Predictions of Hamilton and De Tocqueville. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University. Pp. 57. 25 cents.
Black, James. Report of the Commissioner of Pensions for 1887. Washington: Government Printing-office. Pp. 95.
Williams. Dr. J. W. "The Naturalist's Monthly." Vol. I, No. 1, September, 1887. London: Waller Scott. Toronto: W. J. Sage &, Co. Pp. 20. 6d.
Packard. A. S. On the Syncarida, on the Gampsonychidæ, and on the Anthracardæ (new fossil crustaceans), Pp. 17, with Plates. On the Carboniferous Xiphosurous Fauna of North America. Pp. 13, with Plates.
Baskerville, W. M. An Outline of Anglo-Saxon Grammar, with a List of Irregular Verbs, by James A. Harrison. New York and Chicago: A. S. Barnes & Co. Pp. 66.
Jones, William H. Federal Taxes and State Expenses. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 135. $1.
Parlor Games. Rochester, N. Y.: The O. M. Hubbard Company. Pp. 96. 50 cents.
Norman, Henry. Bodyke: A Chapter in the History of Irish Landlordism. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp 78. 75 cents.
Marks, William Dennis. The Relative Proportions of the Steam-Engine. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp 289. $3.
Cooper, Sarah. Animal Life in the Sea and on the Land. New York: Harper & Brothers. Pp. 413.
Love, Samuel G. Industrial Education. New York and Chicago: E. L. Kellogg & Co. Pp. 328. $1.75.
Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service, 1885-'86. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 550.
Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission. Vol. VI, for 1886. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 495.
Three Good Giants. From Rabelais. Compiled by John Dimitry. Boston: Ticknor & Co. Pp. 246. $1.50.
​Greene, William H. Wurtz's Elements of Modern Chemistry. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 770. $2.50.
Marks, William Dennis. Kystrom's Pocket-Book of Mechanics and Engineering. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 670. $3.50.
Knox, Thomas W. Decisive Battles since Waterloo. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, Pp. 477.
Ridgway, Robert. A Manual of North American Birds. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 630, with 124 Plates. $7.50
Jackson, Edward P. A Manual of Astronomical Geography. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 73.
Munroe, Charles E. Notes on the Literature of Explosives. No. XIII. Pp. 24.
Land, Dr. C. H. Detroit, Mich. The Inconsistency of our Code of Dental Ethics. Pp. 32.
Lewis, T. H. Incised Bowlders in the Upper Minnesota Valley. Pp. 4.
Hay, O. P., Irvington. Ind. On the Manner of Deposit of the Glacial Drift. Pp. 8. The Red-Headed Woodpecker a Hoarder. Pp. 4.
Holmes, Mary E. The Morphology of the Carinæ upon the Septa of Rugose Corals. Boston: Bradlee Whidden. Pp. 31, with Sixteen Plates.
Everhart. Professor Edgar. Infant Food and Infant Feeding. Houston, Texas. Pp. 20.