will in the near future assume the same relation to the electric
motor that the science of thermo-dynamics already bears to the
steam engine, Mr. _Charles Ashley Carus-Wilson_ aims in the book
of that name[63] to apply the principles of that science to the
direct-current motor. Writing for electrical engineers particularly,
he takes for granted a certain acquaintance with the use and design
of motors, but avoids unexplained technicalities as far as possible.
He has not deemed it necessary to deal with self-induction, except
in connection with the question of sparking. The numerical accuracy
attempted has been limited to that attainable with an ordinary
ten-inch slide rule, on which all the examples have been worked out.
Importance is attached to the graphic method of solution.
Of Dr. _Frank Overton's_ three books on _Applied Physiology_,[64]
the first or primary grade follows a natural order of treatment,
presenting in each subject elementary anatomical facts in a manner
that impresses function rather than form, and from the form described
derives the function. The facts and principles are then applied to
everyday life. The intermediate grade, besides being an introduction
to the study of anatomy and physiology, is intended to be a complete
elementary book in itself, giving a clear picture of how each organ
of the body performs its work. The advanced grade book was suggested
by a series of popular lectures in which the author presented the
essential principles of physiology about which a physician is
consulted daily. His explanations of many common facts were novel
to his auditors, and it was found that the school books were silent
upon many of these points, especially with regard to the cells.
Throughout the series the fact that the cells are the units in which
life exists and acts is emphasized. The author has endeavored to
include all the useful points of the older text-books, and to add
such new matter as the recent progress of physiological and hygienic
science demands. Avoiding technical terms, he has sought to express
the truths in simple language, "such as he would use in instructing a
mother as to the nature of the sickness of her child." The subjects
of alcohol and other narcotics are made prominent in all the books,
and are discussed fully in the third of the series. The relation
of respiration and oxidation to the disappearance of food, to the
production of waste matters, and to the development of heat and
force, is dwelt upon. Simple and easy demonstrations, many of them
new, are provided at the ends of chapters. A chapter on Repairs of
Injuries, or the restoration of the natural functions, when impaired,
by the body, is new in a school textbook.
In _Yetta Ségal_,[65] a slender thread of a story is used by Mr.
_Rollin_ as the vehicle for a theory of "type fusion" or convergence
which he thinks has not received sufficient attention from social
or scientific students. There are a pair of lovers, one of whom is
discovered at a critical period in the courtship to have negro blood
in his veins, and a philosopher who comes forward to satisfy the
parties (who hardly need it) that this is no serious matter, but is
all according to human evolution and the destiny of the race. "You
must be impressed," he says, "by the fact that there are a great
many people here and there, of mixed blood, and that the number is
increasing; ... it is well that not a few are indeed truly admirable
specimens of the human race. Such phenomena must be interpreted in
a way consistent with man's nature: if he is developmental; if he
shall attain a higher status through struggle, or through means that
are seemingly, or for the time, degrading; if he is moving from the
simple to the complex, as to organization; if universal movement
tends to unific existence--then race interchange, with elimination
of peculiar characteristics, has probably made its appearance as a
phase of infinite order, and for the benefit of future man.... It is
presumptuous for the wisest to assert that the man of lower type has
no element of strength peculiar to his race which the most advanced
does not need in his present organization. It may be needed either
for present protection in the way of re-enforcement, or as an element
of strength for further advancement." Mr. Rollin does not advocate
type fusion or wish to accelerate the movement, but presents it as
a fact and factor in human evolution deserving more extensive and
thorough study than it has received.
The increasing attention which of late years has been given to the
study of comparative anatomy has finally resulted in what promises
to be a complete and detailed account of the structure of a subhuman
mammal.[66] The author, Dr. _Jayne_, believes that a course in
mammalian anatomy offers a valuable preliminary to the study of
medicine, and this is the purpose for which the book has been made.
This is to a certain extent true, especially where, as in the case
of the cat, there is so close a similarity to the structure of the
human body. But the chief scientific interest and value of such a
work must lie in its broader philosophic aspects; in the aid which
it can not but give in clearing up some of the many mooted points of
evolutional biology, and in the stimulus which it will impart to the
study of relationships among the lower animals. The present volume,
the first of the series, deals only with the skeleton of the cat,
each bone being first studied individually, then in its relations to
other bones and to the muscular system and the skeleton as a whole,
and finally in comparison with the corresponding portion of the
human skeleton. There are 611 extremely good illustrations, and the
printing of the volume is unusually clean and attractive.
Among the articles of special value in recent numbers of the
(bimonthly) _Bulletin of the Department of Labor_, under the
editorial control of Commissioner _Carroll D. Wright_ and Chief
Clerk _O. D. Weaver_, are those on Boarding Houses and Clubs for
Working Women, by Mary S. Ferguson, in the March number; The Alaskan
Gold Fields and the Opportunities they afford for Capital and Labor,
by S. C. Durham, in the May number; Economic Aspects of the Liquor
Problem; Brotherhood Relief and Insurance of Railway Employees, by E.
R. Johnson, Ph. D.; and The Nations of Antwerp, by J. H. Gore, Ph.
D., in the July number. Summaries of reports of labor statistics, of
legislation and decisions of courts affecting labor, and of recent
Government contracts constitute regular departments of the bulletin.
(Washington.)
For delicate humor and refined art of expression few writers can
excel Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, but the sources of his rich
flow of humor are so deeply hidden and his expression is so very
subtle that the generality of those who attempt to read his works
fail to appreciate him or even to understand him, and give him up.
The pleasure of appreciating him is, however, worth the pains of
learning to do so. Those who are willing to undertake this, and who
read German, may find help in the _Selections from the Works of
Jean Paul Friedrich Richter_, prepared by _George Stuart Collins_,
and published by the American Book Company. The book is intended
for students of German who have attained a certain mastery of the
language. Pains have been taken to avoid such passages as might
from their mere difficulty discourage the reader, and to choose
such as would be complete in themselves. The selections are made
from the shorter writings of the author, and each is intended to be
representative of some feature of his manifold genius and style.
A notice of the _Stenotypy_, or system of shorthand for the
typewriter, of _D. A. Quinn_, was published in the Popular Science
Monthly in March, 1896. It is really a system of phonography to be
used with the typewriter whenever it is practicable to employ that
instrument. A second edition of Mr. Quinn's manual and exercises
for the practice of the system is published by the American Book
Exchange, Providence, R. I.
A paper on _Polished-Stone Articles used by the New York Aborigines
before and during European Occupation_, published as a Bulletin of
the New York State Museum, is complementary to a previous bulletin
on articles of chipped stone. Both papers are by the Rev. Dr. _W. M.
Beauchamp_, and are illustrated by figures from his large collection
of original drawings, made in nearly all parts of New York, but
mostly from the central portion. While the chipped implements are
more numerous and widespread than those treated of in the present
bulletin, the latter show great patience and skill in their higher
forms and taste in selecting materials, and they give hints of
superstitions and ceremonies not yet thoroughly understood.
_Henry Goldman_ has invented, in the arithmachine, what he claims is
a rapid and reliable computing machine of small dimensions and large
capacity, with other advantages. He now offers, as a companion to it,
_The Arithmachinist_, a book intended to serve as a self-instructor
in mechanical arithmetic. It gives historical and technical
chapters on the calculating machines of the past, describes the
principles controlling the construction and operations, and furnishes
explanations concerning the author's own device. (Published by the
Office Men's Record Company, Chicago, for one dollar.)
The _Bulletin from the Laboratories of Natural History of the
State University of Iowa_, Vol. IV, No. 3, contains two technical
articles: On the Actinaria, collected by the Bahama Expedition of the
University, in 1891, by J. P. McMurrich, and the Brachyura of the
Biological Expedition to the Florida Keys and the Bahamas in 1893, by
Mary J. Rathbun; and a list of the coleoptera of Southern Arizona,
by H. F. Wickham. Mr. Wickham observes that the insects of northern
Arizona are widely different from those of the southern part, a fact
which he ascribes to difference of altitude, and, consequently, in
vegetation. The Bulletin is sold for fifty cents a copy.
Two books in English--_Elementary English_ and _Elements of Grammar
and Composition_--prepared by _E. Oram Lyte_, and published by the
American Book Company, are intended to include and cover a complete
graded course in language lessons, grammar, and composition for
study in the primary and grammar grades of schools. The endeavor
has been made to present the subject in such a way that the pupil
shall become interested in the study from the first. The first
book, Elementary English, is designed to furnish material for
primary language work, and to show how this material can be used
to advantage, embodying and representing the natural methods of
language teaching. The child is given something to do--easy and
practical--at every point, and is not troubled by formal definitions
and rules to be committed to memory. The second book is also based
on the principle that the best way to gain a working knowledge of
the English language is by the working or laboratory method. It is
therefore largely made up of exercises, and aims to teach through
practice. The subject is unfolded from a psychological rather than
a logical point of view. What is to be memorized is reduced to a
minimum, and not presented till the pupil is ready for it. The
lessons in literature and composition are designed to help the pupil
to appreciate worth and beauty of literature, and lead him to fluent
and accurate expression.
_The Bulletin of the Geological Institution of the University
of Upsala_ presents a series of special papers of much interest
to students of that science, on studies in geology, largely of
Scandinavia, but of other countries as well. Part 2 of Vol. III, now
before us, has such papers on Silurian Coral Reefs in Gothland, by
Carl Wiman; the Quaternary Mammalia of Sweden, by Rutger Sernander;
Some Ore Deposits of the Atacama Desert, by Otto Nordenskiold;
the Structure of some Gothlandish Graphites, by Carl Wiman; the
Interglacial Submergence of Great Britain, by H. Munthe; Mechanical
Disturbances and Chemical Changes in the Ribbon Clays of Sweden, by
P. J. Holmquist; Some Mineral Changes, by A. G. Högborn; and the
Proceedings of the Geological Section of the Students' Association of
Natural Science, Upsala. The articles are in German, English, and (in
previous numbers) French.
Two Spanish-American works of very different character have
come to us from Valparaiso, Chili. One is entitled _Literatura
Arcaica--Estudios Criticos_, or critical studies of old Spanish
literature, by _Eduardo de la Barra_, of the Royal Spanish Academy,
which were communicated to the Latin-American Scientific Congress
at Buenos Ayres. The author was invited to present to the congress
the fruits of his extensive studies on the Poem of the Cid, but
afterward modified his plan and gave these, the results of his more
general investigations of the romances of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, which Spanish critics regard as the most ancient they
have, and other romances attributed to the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, with an article on the Cid. This work is published by K.
Newman, Valparaiso.
The other book is a volume of _Rrimas_, or rhymes, by _Gustabo Adolfo
Béker_, published by Carlos Cabezon, at Valparaiso. The ordinary
student might think that the Spanish language is one of those least
in need of spelling reform, but not so the author and publisher of
these poems, which are presented in the most radically "reformed"
spelling, and with them comes a pamphlet setting forth the character
and principles of "Ortografia Rrazional."
The report of a study of seventy-three Irish and Irish-American
criminals made at the Kings County Penitentiary, Brooklyn, N. Y., by
Dr. _H. L. Winter_, and published as _Notes on Criminal Anthropology
and Bio-Sociology_, contains numerous observations bearing upon the
effect of hereditary influences in criminality, but hardly sufficient
to justify the drawing of any general conclusions.
The late Mr. Lewis M. Rutherfurd, in developing the art of
astronomical photography, naturally gave much attention to the star
61 Cygni--which was the first to yield its parallax, and through
which the possibility of measuring stellar distances was shown--and
its neighbors. A number of the plates of this series were partially
studied by Miss Ida C. Martin more than twenty years ago, and the
study has now been carried out by _Herman S. Davis_, as part of the
work of Columbia University Observatory. The results of Mr. Davis's
labors are published by the observatory in three papers: _Catalogue
of Sixty-five Stars near 61 Cygni_; _The Parallaxes of 61^1 and 61^2
Cygni_; and _Catalogue of Thirty-four Stars near "Bradley 3077"_;
under a single cover.
In a small work entitled _A Theory of Life deduced from the Evolution
Philosophy_ a few thoughts are recorded by _Sylvan Drey_ relative
to the manner in which, from central doctrines identical with
the teachings of Herbert Spencer, a system of religion, an ideal
society, a theory of ethics, and a political creed--the doctrine of
social individualism--may be built up. The religion is to recognize
an inexplicable and inconceivable energy revealing itself in the
universe, of which the highest theistic conception possible to human
beings, free from the supposition that it represents a likeness, is
the only one that can be accepted. "Absolute truth is beyond the
grasp of human beings; but for all practical purposes the teachings
of the evolution philosophy, relative truths though they may be, may
be regarded as final and conclusive." Mr. Drey's paper of thirty-four
pages is published by Williams & Norgate, London.
FOOTNOTES:
[61] The American Woods. Exhibited by Actual Specimens. Part I,
representing Twenty-five Species. By Romeyn B. Hough: Lowville, N. Y.
The Author.
[62] Plant Life considered with Special Reference to Form and
Function. By Charles Reid Barnes. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 428.
Price, $1.12.
[63] Electro-Dynamics. The Direct-Current Motor. By Charles Ashley
Carus-Wilson. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 298.
[64] Applied Physiology. Including the Effects of Alcohol and
Narcotics. By Frank Overton, M. D. Primary Grade. Pp. 128.
Intermediate Grade. Pp. 188. Advanced Grade. Pp. 432. American Book
Company.
[65] Yetta Ségal. By Horace J. Rollin. New York: G. W. Dillingham &
Co. Pp. 174.
[66] The Mammalian Anatomy of the Cat. By Horace Jayne, M. D.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Illustrated. Pp. 816. Price,
$5.00.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Adams, Alexander. Mechanical Flight on Beating Wings. The Solution of
the Problem. Pp. 5.
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. New York:
No. 143. A Destructive Beetle and a Remedy. By P. H. Hall and V.
H. Lowe; No. 144. Combating Cabbage Pests. By F. H. Hall and F.
A. Sirrine. Pp. 8.--Ohio: Newspaper, No. 186. Peach Yellows and
Prevention of Smut in Wheat. Pp. 2; No. 24. The Maintenance of
Fertility. Pp. 42.--United States Department of Agriculture: No.
9. Cuckoos and Shrikes in their Relation to Agriculture. By F. E.
L. Beal and Sylvester D. Judd. Pp. 25; No. 10. Life Zones and Crop
Zones of the United States. By C. Hart Merriam. Pp. 79; No. 11.
The Geographic Distribution of Cereals in North America. By C. S.
Plumb. Pp. 24; Division of Statistics: Crop Circular for October,
1898.--University of Illinois: No. 51. Variations in Milk and Milk
Production. Summary. Pp. 40; No. 52. Orchard Cultivation. Pp. 24; No.
53. Abstract. The Chemistry of the Corn Kernel. Pp. 4.
Allen, Alfred H. Commercial Organic Analysis. Second edition, revised
and enlarged. Proteids and Albuminous Principles. Philadelphia: P.
Blakiston's Son & Co. Pp. 584. $4.50.
Atkinson, George Francis. Elementary Botany. New York: Henry Holt &
Co. Pp. 444. $1.25.
Bulletins, Proceedings, and Reports. American Chemical Society:
Directory. Pp. 551.--Field Columbian Museum, Chicago. Publication 28:
Ruins of X Kichmook, Yucatan. By Edward H. Thompson. Pp. 16, with 18
plates.--Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration: Report
of the Fourth Annual Meeting, 1898. Pp. 116.--Maryland Geological
Survey: Report on the Survey of the Boundary Line between Alleghany
and Garrett Counties. By L. A. Bauer. Pp. 48, with 6 plates.--New
York Academy of Sciences: Annals. Vol. X. Pp. 292, with 5 plates;
Vol. XI, Part II. Pp. 168, with 20 plates.--Pennsylvania Society
for the Prevention of Tuberculosis: Report for the Year ending
April 13, 1898. Pp. 16.--The Philadelphia Museums: The Philadelphia
Commercial Museum. Pp. 16.--United States Commissioner of Labor:
Twelfth Annual Report, 1897. Economical Aspects of the Liquor
Problem. Pp. 275.--University of Wisconsin: Bulletin No. 25. The
Action of Solutions on the Sense of Taste. By Louis Kahlenberg.
Pp. 82.--University of Chicago: Anthropology. III. The Mapa de
Cuauhtlantzinco or Codice Campos. By Frederick Starr. Pp. 38, with
plates.--University of Illinois: The New Requirements for Admission.
By Stephen A. Forbes. Pp. 22.
Bailey, L. H. Sketch of the Evolution of our Native Fruits. New York:
The Macmillan Company. Pp. 472. $2.
Beddard, Frank E. Elementary Zoölogy. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
Pp. 208.
Brush, George J., and Penfield, Samuel L. Manual of Determinative
Mineralogy, with an Introduction on Blowpipe Analysis. New York: John
Wiley & Sons. Fifteenth edition. Pp. 312.
Bryant, William M. Life, Death, and Immortality, with Kindred Essays.
New York: The Baker & Taylor Company. Pp. 450. $1.75.
Carborundum manufactured under the Acheson Patents. Illustrated
Catalogue. Niagara Falls, N. Y.: The Carborundum Company. Pp. 61.
Carnegie, The, Steel Company, Limited, Pittsburg. Ballistic Tests of
Armor Plate. By W. R. Balsinger. Plates and letterpress descriptions.
Dana, Edward Salisbury. A Text-Book of Mineralogy, with an Extended
Treatise on Crystallography and Physical Mineralogy. New York: John
Wiley & Sons. Pp. 593. $4.
Darwin, George Howard. The Tides and Kindred Phenomena in the Solar
System. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 378. $2.
Giddings, Franklin Henry. The Elements of Sociology. New York: The
Macmillan Company. Pp. 353. $1.10.
Guerber. H. A. The Story of the English. American Book Company. Pp.
356.
Hough, Romeyn B. The American Woods. Exhibited by Actual Specimens
and with Copious Explanatory Text. Part I. Representing twenty-five
species. Second edition. Lowville, N. Y.: The author. Pp. 78, text.
James, William. Human Immortality. Two Supposed Objections to the
Doctrine. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 70. $1.
Kunz, George F. The Fresh-Water Pearls and Pearl fisheries of the
United States. United States Fish Commission. Pp. 52, with 22 plates.
Le Bon, Gustave. The Psychology of Peoples. New York: The Macmillan
Company. Pp. 236. $1.50.
Miller, Adam. The Sun an Electric Light, Chicago. Pp. 32.
Needham, James G. Outdoor Studies. A Reading Book of Nature Study.
American Book Company. Pp. 90.
Newth, G. S. A Manual of Chemical Analysis, Qualitative and
Quantitative. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 462. $1.75.
Nipher, Francis E. An Introduction to Graphical Algebra. New York: H.
Holt & Co. Pp. 61. 60 cents.
Reprints. Gifford, John. Forestry on the Peninsula of Eastern
Virginia. Pp. 3; Forestry in Relation to Physical Geography and
Engineering. Pp. 19.--Hester, C. A. An Experimental Study of the
Toxic Properties of Indol. Pp. 26, with tables.--Hoffmann, Fred.
Fragmentary Notes from the Reports of Two Early Naturalists on
North America. Pp. 18.--Johnson, J. B. A Higher Industrial and
Commercial Education as an Essential Condition of our Future Material
Prosperity. (An address.) Pp. 33.--Kain, Samuel W., and Others.
Seismic and Oceanic Noises. Pp. 6.--Mayer, Hermann. Bows and Arrows
in Central Brazil. Pp. 36, with plates.--Packard, Alpheus S. A
Half Century of Evolution, with Special Reference to the Effect of
Geological Changes on Animal Life. (Presidential address to American
Association.) Pp. 48.--Rhees, William J. William Bower Taylor. Pp.
12.--Searcy, J. T., M. D. How Education fails. Pp. 81.--Shufeldt,
R. W., M. D. On the Alternation of Sex in a Brood of Young Sparrow
Hawks. Pp. 4.--Starr, Frederick. Notched Bones from Mexico. A Shell
Inscription from Tula, Mexico. Pp. 10.--Woolman, Lewis. Report on
Artesian Wells in New Jersey, etc. Pp. 84.
Smithsonian Institution. United States National Museum. The Fishes
of North and Middle America. By D. S. Jordan and B. W. Evermann.
Part II. Pp. 942.--The Birds of the Kurile Islands. By Leonhard
Stejneger. Pp. 28.--On the Coleopterous Insects of the Galapagos
Islands. By Martin L. Linell. Pp. 20.--On Some New Parasitic Insects
of the Subfamily Encystinæ. By L. O. Howard. Pp. 18.--Descriptions
of the Species of Cycadeoidea, or Fossil Cycadean Trunks, thus far
determined from the Lower Cretaceous Rim of the Black Hills. By
Lester F. Ward. Pp. 36.
Socialist, The, Almanac and Treasury of Facts. New York: Socialistic
Co-operative Publishing Association. Prepared by Lucien Sanal. Pp.
232. (The People's Library. Quarterly. 60 cents a year.)
Thompson, Ernest Seton. Wild Animals I have known, and Two Hundred
Drawings. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 359. $2.
Todd, Mabel Loomis. Corona and Coronet. Being a Narrative of the
Amherst Eclipse Expedition to Japan, 1896, etc. Boston and New York:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp 383. $2.50.
Trowbridge, John. Philip's Experiments, or Physical Science at Home.
New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 228. $1.