Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Society of studies by _George
W._ and _Elizabeth Peckham_, of the _Instincts and Habits of the
Solitary Wasps_. These insects are familiar enough to us all, as we
meet them or see their nests of one or a few cells every day, and then
think no more of them. But Mr. and Mrs. Peckham, following them to
their haunts and keeping company with them, have found them
manifesting remarkable instincts and exercising curious customs, which
they describe in the style of persons who are in love with their work.
The opportunity for the studies was given in two gardens, one on the
top of a hill and the other lower down, with an island in a lake close
by and acres of woodland all about, offering a rich variety of nesting
places. There are more than a thousand species of these solitary wasps
in the United States, to only about fifty of the social ones, and they
live without knowledge of their progenitors and without relations with
others of their kind.
The eighth volume of the report of the _Iowa Geological Survey_
comprises the accounts of surveys completed during 1897 in six
counties, making up the whole number of twenty-six counties in which
the areal work has been completed. This does not, however, represent
the whole extent of the operations of the survey, for some work has
been done in nearly every county in the State, and in many counties it
will require but little additional work to make a complete report. In
addition to the areal work, too, special studies of coal, clay,
artesian waters, gypsum, lead, zinc, etc., have engaged attention. A
growing public appreciation of the work of the survey as illustrated
in the demand for the volumes of the reports and for special papers,
is recognized by the State Geologist, Mr. _Samuel Calvin_; and an
increasing use of the reports as works for reference and for general
study in high schools and other educational institutions is observed.
The survey is now collecting statistics of production of various
minerals mined in the State.
One of the features most likely to attract attention in the _Annual
Report of the State Geologist_ of New Jersey for 1897 is the paper of
Mr. C. C. Vermeule on the Drainage of the Hackensack and Newark Tide
Marshes. In it a scheme is unfolded for the reclamation and diking of
the flats, under which an ample navigable waterway shall be developed,
and the cities which now stop at their edges may be extended and built
up to the very banks of the new harbor, made a highway for ocean
sailing vessels. An interesting paper is published by Lewis Woolman on
Artesian and Bored and other Wells, in which many important wells are
described with reference to the geological strata they penetrate.
Other papers relate to iron mining and brick and clay industries,
mineral statistics, and statistics of clays, bricks, and terra cotta.
The field reports describe progress in the surveys of the surface
geology, the Newark system, and the upper Cretaceous formations.
On the basis of a reconnoissance made by him for Alexander Agassiz,
Mr. _Robert T. Hill_ has published through the Bulletin of the Museum
of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard University, a paper on _The
Geological History of the Isthmus of Panama and Portions of Costa
Rica_. He finds that there is considerable evidence that a land
barrier in the tropical region separated the two oceans as far back as
Jurassic time, and continued through the Cretaceous period. The
geological structure of the Isthmus and Central American regions, so
far as investigated, when considered aside from the paleontology,
presents no evidence by which the former existence of a free
communication of oceanic waters across the present tropical barriers
can be established. The paleontological evidence indicates the
ephemeral existence of a passage at the close of the Eocene period.
All lines of inquiry give evidence that no communication has existed
between the two oceans since the close of the Oligocene.
The _Twenty-second Annual Report of the Department of Geology and
Natural Resources_ of Indiana, _W. S. Blatchley_, State Geologist,
embraces, in part, the results of the work of the several departments
of the survey during 1897. These appear in the form of papers of
economic importance on the petroleum, stone, and clay resources of the
State, natural gases and illuminating oils, a description of the
curious geological and topographical region of Lake and Porter
Counties, and an extended paper on the Birds of Indiana, with specific
descriptions. A large proportion of the energies of the department
were employed during the year in gathering data for a detailed report
on the coal area of the State, which is now in course of preparation.
The _Report of the United States Commissioner of Education_ for
1896-'97 records an increase in the enrollment of schools and colleges
of 257,586, the whole number of pupils being 14,712,077 in public
institutions and schools, and 1,513,016 in private. The increase is
confined to the public institutions, the private ones having suffered
from "hard times." Among the numerous papers published in the volume
containing the report are those on Education in Great Britain and
Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Central Europe, and Greece;
Commercial Education in Europe; the Teaching of Civics in France,
Switzerland, and England; Sunday Schools, including accounts of the
several denominational systems; the Legal Rights of Children; and
sketches of Horace Mann and Henry Barnard and their work in furthering
education.
Mr. _David T. Day's_ report on the _Mineral Resources of the United
States_ for 1896 appears as Part V of the Eighteenth Annual Report of
the United States Geological Survey, in two volumes of fourteen
hundred pages in all; the first of which is devoted to Metallic
Products and Coal, and the second to Nonmetallic Products except Coal.
The report covers the calendar year 1896, and shows only a slight
increase in total values over 1895. Of some substances, however--gold,
copper, aluminum, and petroleum being the most important ones--the
value was the greatest ever attained. Of other substances, including
lead, bituminous coal, building stones, mineral waters, salt, and
pyrites, the product was increased in amount, but the value was less.
A paper, by Mr. George F. Becker, on the Witwatersrand Banket, records
observations made by him in the Transvaal gold fields.
_A Geological Reconnoissance of the Coal Fields of the Indian
Territory_, published in the Contributions to Biology of the Hopkins
Seaside Laboratory of Leland Stanford Junior University, by _Noah
Fields Drake_, is based upon a six months' examination made by the
author during the spring, summer, and fall of 1896, of the larger part
of the coal measures and adjacent formations of Indian and Oklahoma
Territories. The best maps that could then be had being exceedingly
inaccurate, sketch maps were made of areas that were especially
important. On account of features of particular geological interest,
nearly all the area south and east of the Canadian River and the
bordering areas of the Boone chert and limestones were sketched and
studied rather closely.
The _American Catholic Historical Society_ at Philadelphia publishes
in its _Quarterly Records_ much that, while it must be of deep
interest to historical students holding the Roman Catholic faith,
possesses, perhaps, a strong though more general interest to all
students of American history; for the men of that faith have had no
small part in the colonization and development of this country. The
number for June, 1898, contains a portrait and a bibliographical
sketch of the Rev. Peter Henry Lemke, O. S. B., of Pennsylvania,
Kansas, and Elizabeth, N. J.; a poem on the Launch of the American
Frigate United States, whose commander was a Catholic; articles on the
Sir John James Fund, and Catholic Chronicles of Lancaster, Pa., and
Extracts from the Diary of the Rev. Patrick Kenny.
A memoir on _A Determination of the Ratio ([Greek: chi]) of the
Specific Heats at Constant Pressure and at Constant Volume for Air,
Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, and Hydrogen_ gives the result of a series of
investigations by Drs. _O. Lummer_ and _E. Pringshein_, of
Charlottenburg, Germany, made with the aid of a grant from the
Hodgkins Fund of the Smithsonian Institution. Besides being of
exceptional importance in thermodynamics, the specific heat ratio is
of interest as affording a clew to the character of the molecule. In
the present investigation coincident results on the gases examined
appear to have been reached for the first time. (Published by the
Smithsonian Institution.)
From the greater lightness of the air and the higher velocity of its
currents, it is evident that the materials it may carry and deposit
will be somewhat different in composition and structure from those
which are laid down in water. They are as a rule finer, they exhibit a
different bedding, and are more capriciously placed. Mr. _Johan August
Udden_ has made a careful study of the subject, the results of which
he publishes under the title of _The Mechanical Composition of Wind
Deposits_, as the first number of the Augustana Library Series, at the
Lutheran Augustana Book Concern, Rock Island, Ill.
The _History Reader for Elementary Schools_ (The Macmillan Company, 60
cents), prepared by _L. L. W. Wilson_ and arranged with special
reference to holidays, contains readings for each month of the school
year, classified according to different periods and phases of American
history generally, so chosen that some important topic of the group
shall bear a relation to the month in which it is to be read. The
groups concern the Indians, the Discovery of America, Thanksgiving,
Other Settlements (than those of Virginia and the Pilgrims), Dr.
Franklin, Lincoln and Washington, the Revolution, Arbor Day, and Brave
Sea Captains, etc., closing with articles in reference to Flag Day.
The insertion of an article on the War with Spain seems premature.
Public sentiment is not yet at rest on the subject.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. Cornell
University: No. 160. Hints on Rural School Grounds. By L. H. Bailey.
Pp. 20; No. 161. Annual Flowers. By G. N. Lanman and L. H. Bailey. Pp.
32; No. 162. The Period of Gestation in Cows. By H. H. Wing. Pp.
120.--Delaware College: No. 43 (abridged edition). The European and
Japanese Chestnuts in the United States. By G. H. Powell. Pp.
16.--Michigan: Nos. 164 and 165. Methods and Results of Tillage, and
Draft of Farm Implements. By M. W. Fulton. Pp. 24; Elementary Science
Bulletin, No. 5. Branches of Sugar Maple and Beech as seen in Winter.
By W. J. Beal. Pp. 4; do., No. 6. Potatoes, Rutabagas, and Onions. By
W. J. Beal. Pp. 6.--New Jersey: No. 133. Peach Growing in New Jersey.
By A. T. Jordan. Pp. 16; No. 134. Fermentation and Germ Life. By
Julius Nelson. Pp. 24.--North Dakota: No. 15. Some Chemical Problems
Investigated. Pp. 28.--Ohio: Newspaper Bulletin 188. Sugar Beets and
Sorghum in Ohio. Pp. 2.
Aston, W. G. A History of Japanese Literature. New York: D. Appleton
and Company. Pp. 408. $1.50.
Berry, Arthur. A Short History of Astronomy. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons. Pp. 440. $1.50.
Brush and Pencil. An Illustrated Magazine of the Arts and Crafts.
Monthly. Chicago: Arts and Crafts Company. Pp. 64. 25 cents. $2.50 a
year.
Bulletins, Reports, etc. Colgate University, Department of Geology and
Natural History: Announcement. Pp. 16.--Field Columbian Museum,
Chicago: Annual Report of the Board of Directors for 1897-'98. Pp. 90,
with plates.--Financial Reform Association: 1848 to 1898. Fifty Years'
Retrospect. London. Pp. 54, with plates; Financial Reform Almanac for
1899. London. Pp. 316. 1 shilling.--New York State Library:
Legislative Bulletin for 1898. Pp. 132. 25 cents.--New York
University: Catalogue and Announcements for 1898-'99. Pp.
358.--Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind:
Sixty-seventh Annual Report of the Trustees, to August 31, 1898. Pp.
305.--United States Department of Labor: Bulletin No. 20, January,
1899. Edited by Carroll D. Wright and Oren W. Weaver. Pp. 170.
Byrd, Mary E. Laboratory Manual in Astronomy. Boston: Ginn & Co. Pp.
273.
Cajori, Florian. A History of Physics in its Elementary Branches,
including the Evolution of Physical Laboratories. New York: The
Macmillan Company. Pp. 323. $1.60.
Callie, J. W. S. John Smith's Reply to "Merrie England, Defense of the
Liberal Programme." London: John Heywood. Pp. 88. Sixpence.
Chapman, Frank H., Editor. Bird Lore. February, 1898, Vol. I, No. 1.
Bimonthly. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 32. 20 cents. $1 a
year.
Davenport, Charles B. Experimental Morphology. Part II. New York: The
Macmillan Company. Pp. 509. $2.
Evans, A. H. Birds (The Cambridge Natural History, edited by S. F.
Harmer and A. E. Shipley, Vol. IX). New York: The Macmillan Company.
Pp. 635. $3.50.
Egbert, Seneca. A Manual of Hygiene and Sanitation. Philadelphia: Lea
Brothers & Co. Pp. 368.
Foulke, William Dudley. Slav or Saxon: a Study of the Growth and
Tendencies of Russian Civilization. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.
141. $1.
Huntington, Elon. The Earth's Rotation and its Interior Heat. Pp. 33.
Janes, Lewis G. Our Nation's Peril. Social Ideas and Social Progress.
Pp. 31. 25 cents.
McLellan, J. A., and Ames, A. F. The Public School Mental Arithmetic.
New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 138. 25 cents. Boston: James H.
West & Co.
Maltbie, Milo Ray. Municipal Functions. A Study of the Development,
Scope, and Tendency of Municipal Socialism. (Municipal Affairs,
December, 1898.) New York: Reform Club, Committee of Municipal
Administration. Pp. 230. 75 cents.
Mason, Hon. William E. Speech in the United States Senate on the
Government of Foreign Peoples. Pp. 26.
Patten, Simon N. The Development of English Thought. New York: The
Macmillan Company. Pp. 415. $3.
Pittsburg Press Almanac, The, for 1899. Quarterly. St. Louis: The
Press Publishing Company. Pp. 536.
Récéjac, E. Essay on the Basis of the Mystic Knowledge. Translated by
Sera Carr Upton. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 287. $2.50.
Reprints. Caldwell, Otis W. The Life History of Lemna Minor. Pp.
32.--Calkins, G. N. Some Hydroids from Puget Sound. Pp. 24, with six
plates.--Cope, Edward D. Vertebrate Remains from the Port Kennedy Bone
Deposit. Pp. 75, with plates.--Fitz, G. W. Play as a Factor in
Development. Pp. 7; The Hygiene of Instruction in Elementary Schools.
Pp. 7.--Howard, William Lee. Double Personality; Lenten Hysteria. Pp.
8.--Howe, R. H., Jr. North American Wood Frogs.--Hunt, Charles
Wallace. The Engineer: His Work, his Ethics, his Pleasures.
(President's Address, American Society of Mechanical Engineers.)
Pp. 15.--Hunter, S. J. The Coccidæ of Kansas. Pp. 15, with
plates.--Krauss, W. C. The Stigmata of Degeneration. Pp. 360.--Lichty,
D. Thalassic Submersion a Means of Disposal of the Dead. Pp.
12.--McDonald, Arthur. Emile Zola. Pp. 16.--Phillips, W. B. Iron
Making in Alabama. Montgomery. Pp. 380.--Saunders, De Alten.
Phycological Memoirs. Pp. 20, with plates.--Schlicht, Paul J. A New
Process of Combustion. Pp. 32.--Stevens, F. L. The Effect of Aqueous
Solutions upon the Germination of Fungus Spores. Pp. 30.--Stock, H. H.
The International Correspondence Schools, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Pp.
12.--Urn, The. Modern Thought on Modern Cremation. United States
Cremation Company. Pp. 40.--Veeder, M. A. The Relative Importance of
Flies and Water Supply in Spreading Disease. Pp. 8.
Robinson, Albert Gardner. The Porto Rico of To-day. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons. Pp. 240, with maps. $1.50.
Salazar, A. E. Kalkules de Kañerius de Agua (Calculations of Water
Conduits). Santiago de Chile. Pp. 246.
Schnabel, Dr. Carl. Handbook of Metallurgy. Translated by Henry Louis.
2 vols. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 876 and 732. $10.
Seligman, E. R. A. The Shifting and Incidence of Taxation. Second
edition. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 337. $3.
Semon, Richard. In the Australian Bush and on the Coast of the Coral
Sea. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 552. $6.50.
Spencer, Baldwin, and Gillen, F. J. The Native Tribes of Central
Australia. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 671, with plates.
$6.50.
Technology Review, The. A Quarterly Magazine relating to the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. January, 1899. Pp. 143. 35
cents.
United States National Museum. Annual Report for the Year ending June
30, 1896. (Smithsonian Institution.) Washington. Pp. 1107, with
plates.
Weir, James. The Dawn of Reason. Mental Traits in the Lower Animals.
New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 234. $1.25.
Westcott, Edward N. David Harum. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
Pp. 392. $1.50.
Whipple, G. C. The Microscopy of Drinking Water. New York: John Wiley
& Sons. Pp. 300, with nineteen plates. $3.50.
Wilkinson, F. The Story of the Cotton Plant. (Library of Useful
Stories.) New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 191. 40 cents.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Earth Sculpture, or the Origin of Land Forms. By James Geikie.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 397. Price, $2.
[15] The Psychology of Peoples. By Gustave Le Bon. New York: The
Macmillan Company. Pp. 236. Price, $1.50.
[16] A Text-Book of Mineralogy, with an Extended Treatise on
Crystallography and Physical Mineralogy. By Edmund Salisbury Dana. New
edition, entirely rewritten and enlarged. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Pp. 593. $4.
[17] The Story of the Railroad. By Cy Warman. New York: D. Appleton
and Company (Story of the West Series). Pp. 280. Price, $1.50.
[18] Infinitesimal Analysis. By William Benjamin Smith. Vol. I.
Elementary; Real Variables. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 352.
$3.25.
[19] The Jubilee History of the Leeds Industrial Co-operative Society
from 1847 to 1897. Traced Year by Year. By George Jacob Holyoake.
Leeds (Eng.) Central Co-operative Office. Pp. 260.
Fragments of Science.
=The Nernst Electric Lamp.=--Prof. Walter Nernst, of the University of
Göttingen, has recently devised an electric lamp which promises to be
an important addition to our present methods of lighting. The part of
the lamp which emits the light consists of a small rod of highly
refractory material, said to be chiefly thoria, which is supported
between two platinum electrodes. The rod is practically a nonconductor
when cold, but by heating it (in the smaller sizes a match is
sufficient) its conductivity is so raised that a current will pass
through it; after the current is once started the heat produced by the
resistance of the rod is sufficient to keep up its conductivity, and
the latter is raised to a state of intense incandescence, and gives
out a brilliant white light. As the preliminary heating by means of a
match or other flame would in some cases be an inconvenience,
Professor Nernst has devised a lamp which, by means of a platinum
resistance attachment, can be started by simply turning a switch. The
life of the rods is about five hundred hours. The lamps are said to
work equally well with either alternating or direct currents, and
there is no vacuum necessary. If this lamp proves a success as a
commercial apparatus, it will be but another example of how slight a
matter may make all the difference between success and failure. There
have been numerous experimenters trying for the last ten years, and in
fact ever since the appearance of the arc lamp, to utilize in an
electric lamp the great light-giving power of the refractory earths in
a state of incandescence; but, owing to their high resistance at
ordinary temperatures, no results were obtained until Professor Nernst
thought of heating his thoria rod, and this simple procedure seems to
have solved the whole difficulty. It is claimed that the Nernst lamp
is a much more economical transformer of electricity into light than
the present incandescent electric lamps. An apparatus called a kaolin
candle, which has been suggested as an anticipation of Professor
Nernst's lamp, was constructed by Paul Jablochkoff in 1877 or 1878. It
consisted of a strip of kaolin, along which ran a "match" of some
conducting material. The current was passed through this "match" until
the kaolin strip became heated sufficiently to become a conductor
itself. The lamp did not, however, prove a commercial success.
=Laws of Climatic Evolution.=--The problem of the laws of climatic
evolution was characterized by Dr. Marsden Manson, in a paper read at
the British Association, as one of the grandest and most far-reaching
problems in geological physics, since it embraces principles and laws
applicable to other planets than ours. After presenting a formulation
of those laws, the author pointed out that in consequence of their
working, a hot spheroid rotating in space and revolving about a
central sun, and holding fluids of similar properties to water and air
within the sphere of its control, must pass through a series of
uniform climates at sea level, gradually decreasing in temperature and
terminating in an ice age, and that this age must be succeeded by a
series of zonal climates gradually increasing in temperature and
extent. The conclusions thus reached were that in the case of the
earth zonal distribution of climates was inaugurated at the
culmination of the ice age, and is gradually increasing in temperature
and extent by the trapping of the solar energy in the lower
atmosphere, and that the rise has a moderate limit; that the ice age
was unique and due to the physical properties of water and air, and to
the difference in specific heat of land and water; and that prior to
the ice age local formation of glaciers could occur at any latitude
and period. Dr. Manson then observed that Jupiter was apparently in a
condition through which the earth has already passed, and Mars was in
one toward which the climatic evolution of the earth was tending.
=Poisonous Plants.=--Statistics in regard to poisonous plants are
lacking on account of a general ignorance of the subject, and it is
therefore impossible to form even an approximate estimate of the
damage done by them. Besides the criminal uses that may be made of
them, there are some other problems connected with them that are of
general public interest. The common law of England holds those who
possess and cultivate such plants responsible for damages accruing
from them; and a New York court has awarded damages in a case of
injury from poison ivy growing in a cemetery. In order to obtain
information on the subject, the botanical division of the Department
of Agriculture arranged to receive notices through the clipping
bureaus of the cases of poisoning recorded in the newspapers. Thus
through the persons named in the articles or through the local
postmaster it was put in correspondence with the physician in the
case, who furnished the authentic facts. A large number of correct and
valuable data were thus secured. It is proved by these facts that all
poisonous plants are not equally injurious to all persons nor to all
forms of life. Thus poison ivy has no apparent external effect upon
animals, and a few of them eat its leaves with impunity; and it acts
upon the skin of the majority of persons with varying intensity--on
some hardly at all, while others are extremely sensitive to it. A
similar variability is found in the effects of poisonous plants taken
internally. In some cases often regarded as of that kind, death is
attributable not to any poison which the plant contains, but to
immoderate or incautious eating, or to mechanical injury such as is
produced in horses by the hairs of crimson clover, or to the effect of
parasitic growths, such as ergot on rye. Excluding all which operate
in these ways, there are, however, a large number of really poisonous
plants, the properties of which are comparatively unknown. It is
concerning these that information has been sought by the botanical
division. Its report contains descriptions of about forty plants, with
figures, belonging to seventeen families.