The Portland daily press., 1875-05-01
Recent Publications.

to the Constitution of Matter, the New Dynamcs,
and the Philosophy of Nature. By Fernand Pap
illon. New York: u. Appleton & Co. For sale
by Bailey s. Noyes.
The author of this volume of essays has
double purpose; to show 1st the wonderful
achievements and possibilities of science, and
End, that these possibilities are not infinite
that "science, properly so called, does not sa-
tiate the mind eager to know and to under
stand, and that therefore, metaphysics hold
large and an authorized place in the activity of
human thoughts 1t was by the employ ment
of metaphysical methods that Leibnitz arrived
at the idea, since reached through experiments
by various naturalists, that 'life does not dwell
in the whole [of an animate being] but in each
single one of its unseen elements; in other
words, that general life is nothing else than
the sum of great member of special lives"
every one of these living corpuscles is COM
plete whole, having at bottom the same forces,
the same tendencies, the same aspirations as
the more or less complex system to which it
gives birth by a thousand associations and vari-
Gus interweavings." "Real microcosms, each
living its own self-subsisting life, they are en-
dowed with essential properties which explain
all vital acts"
In answer the question "What is life? the
author quotes Leibnitz' ideas when he says
Life exists in those organic properties, pure
forces, which are constant. while the organs
the visible forms, are passing; matter is mere
ly the shifting envelope; the unchaugeable
base is force" There is something more in
the world than phenomena; there is energy.
spring, concealed activity. at rest, concentrated
and condensed inner potency, ever ready to be
translated into numberless appearances, Be-
yond perception, and without extension, these
mother-forces, fertile sources of all action and
all life, compose, as Lei5nitz teaches, the very
essence of things"
The essays on animal gratis and regenera-
tions, and on the relations of light, heat, cleo
tricity, and ferments to life, are full of curious
and interesting experiments by distinguished
naturalsts.
The subject being thus viewed from physi-
cal and a metaphysical point of view, the book
will be most welcome to all who are interested
in life and its relations to force and matter.
SoHEM's STATISTICS OF THE WORLD. Boston: Lee
g. Shepard. For sale by Loring, Short g. Harmon.
The new revised edition of Prof A. j.
Schem's Statistics of the World has just been
issued by Lee & Shepard. 1t gives, at a
glance the statistics of all countries of the
globe in parallel columns, under the following
headngs: Area, form of government head of
government, population, expenses. public debt,
paper money, standing army, navy, merchant
vessels, imports and exports, chief produce,
coins (and their value at the U. s. Mint),
weights compared with both pounds avoirdu-
pos and kilogrammes), linear measure (eom-
pared with both feet and metres) measures of
capacity Compared with both bushels, gallons,
and metres) the population of capitals princi-
pal cities and seapOrts, with the year OF Gen.
sus In addition to the above, there are vari.
GUS side tables exhibiting statistics of Chris
tianlty, religious statistics of Europe and of
the United States, railroads of the world and
of the United States, postal and telegraph
statistics of the world, the Presidents of the
United States, and Presidential elections from
1888 to 1872, school statistics of the United
States, etc. The statistical year books, public
records, amanacs, and periodicals, both of
America and Europe, have been carefully COM
pared, and the information on all subjects
brought down to March, 1875. A new feature
of the third edition is a special table exhibit
ing the principal creeds of the world. The
tables will be found a valuable supplement to
all historical and geographical works, and es-
pecially to cyclopedias, as source of daily
reference for the student and scholar as well
as to business men and every newspaper reader
THE CHEMISTRY OF LIGHT AND PHOTOGRAPHY.
By DR.. Hermann vogel Volume XIV of the In
te1national Scientific Series, New York: d. Apple
ton s. Co. For sale by Bailey and Noyes.
The fourteenth volume of the International
Scientific Series is one of the most interesting
and practical of the familiar "red covers" The
author, DIR. Vogel of the Royal Academy at
Berlin, holds the only professorship in exist
ence of photography considered in its relations
to science and art, and is the first authority on
the subject.
The volume is very comprehensive, covering
the whole range of photo-chemical knowledge
and application. The author has endeavored
to give popular view of photography and the
chemistry of light, showing their important
bearing on science, art, and industry. The pro-
fusion of wood.cuts and Photographic pictures
scattered through the work, are of great value
in calculating the text.
LITTLE CLASSICS. Tenth volume, Childhood. Bos-
ton: j. R. Osgood g. Co. For sale by Bailey q
Noyes.
The tenth volume of the delightful Little
Classics, just published under the appropriate
subtitle of "Childhood" embraces A Dog OF
Flanders, by Louisa De La Rame; The King OF
the IGolden River by Ruskin; Inc Lady OF
Shalott by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps; Marjorie
FLAMING John Brown; Little Jakey, by Mrs
9 TT. DeKroyft; The Lost Child, by Henry
Kingsley; Goody Gracious and the Forget-M Me-
Not, by John Neal; A Faded Leaf of History,
by Rebecca Harding Davis; and A Child's
Dream of Star, by Dickens. The selections
are charming, and the volume is quite in keep
ing with its entertaining predecessors.
WHIP AND SPUR. By George E. Waring, Jr. Bos-
ton: j. r. osgood & Co. For sale by Bailey 6
Noyes.
Those who hive read Colonel Warnings
cavalry evnerienca during the late war as Civ