The Portland daily press., 1881-04-05
Magazine Notices.

There are fifteen articles in the April Popu-
lar Science Monthly, all of them readable and
instructive, and several of them of great prac-
tical value. Herbert Spencer opens the num-
Der with his sixth paper on The Development
of Political Institutions, in which he discusses
the subject of Political Heads, or the causes
and conditions that determine the concentra-
tion of authority and power in chiefs, kings,
etc. The Black Races of Oceanica, by Dr. r.
Verneau, is an illustrated article devoted to a
study of the cranial and facial characteristics
of the principal negro races of the Pacific
Islands. DR.. Felix L. Oswald continues his
common-sense treatment of the subject of
Physical Education in an article on Outdoor
Life. He claims, and with reason, that, as a
natural preventive of disease, nothing equals
active exercise in the open air; and, for res pi-
ratory ailments especially, it is superior to
anything else as curative agent For the
healthful development of children it is indis-
pensable, and with its associated opportunities
may be proftably substituted for much of the
dreary drill of the schoolroom. In the paper
on the History of Chronology, by Professor E.
S. Burns we have very Ineligible account
of the methods employed by the ancients in
measuring time, the errors they fell into, with
the resulting confusion, and the improvements
that have been effected with the advance of
accurate knowledge. Some Notes on a Doc
tors Liability, by Oliver E. Lyman, is a dis
cussion of the legal responsibilities of physi-
clans, which, in these days of frequent prose-
cutions for malpractice, both patients and doc
will do wall tn Tha rioin md
Structure of Volcanic Cones by Mr.. John
ston-Lavis, is an illustrated description of the
formation of those portions of volcanoes that
rise above the general level of the earth's sur
face Mr.. Charles Morris contributes a long
article entitled Man and the Vertebrate Series,
which sets forth in clear light our physical
relationships with other animals, and what
there is that may be regarded as distinctive in
human nature. Samuel Parsons, Jr., writes
briefly on The Relative Hardness of Plants;
and in the next article, also a short one, A
Medical Man undertakes to answer the ques-
tion which everybody is asking, What is a
Cold? The Publication of Sewer-Waters, by
NJ. E. Aubrey Vitet, is an account of several
attempts that have been made to dispose Of
the sewage of Paris; wherein they have failed;
aud the prospects of the latest scheme, which
consists in the removal of the solid matter, to
be used for agricultural purposes, and the re-
turn of the water, thoroughly purified, direct-
ly to the rivers. In the next paper, Mr.. Spen-
Ger Walpole gives highly entertaining sketch
of the late Frank Buckland noted English
naturalist, whose interesting and often humor-
GUS natural history articles have frequently ap-
peared in the Monthly. Plantation Folk-LoIe,
by Professor I. F. Crane; The Felicity of Nat
uralists; An Ancient Scientist; and a sketch,
with portrait, of the distinguished French
mathematician, Michel Chasles, lately de-
ceased, complete the body of the number. We
miss the usually vigorous articles of the Ed-
tors Table, which, for some unexplained rea-
son, has been omitted in this issue but the 9TH
er departments, and particularly the Popular
Miscellany, are uncommonly full and varied.
New York: ID. Appleton & Company.