An unfulfilled intention entertained by two successive prosectors of
the London Zoölogical Society--the late Professor Garrod and the late
W. A. Forbes--of writing a treatise on bird anatomy, is carried out in
the present work[A] by their successor, _Frank E. Beddard_. Professor
Garrod had nearly completed an account of the Anatomy of the Fowl,
which was to be followed by a presentation of the anatomical
characters of the different groups. Professor Forbes died before he
was able to add anything to the manuscripts left by Professor Garrod.
In the instance of the present work the detailed account of _Gallus_,
with which Professor Garrod intended to preface his book, has been
rendered unnecessary by Dr. Shufeldt's monograph on the Raven, dealing
with one particular bird type. Accepting this as a sufficient
presentation of that feature of the subject, Mr. Beddard begins with a
general sketch of bird structure, purposely avoiding histological
detail and the elaborate description of anatomical facts, which
in the present state of our knowledge are not of great use in
classification. The main part of the book is the account of the
structure of the different groups of birds, which is treated of to a
considerable extent; and a large number of facts, some of which are
recorded for the first time, are incorporated in the systematic part
of the book. While all the principal facts pertaining to the subject
are believed to have been given, and nothing of importance to have
been left out, references are made in each section to most of the
memoirs already published. The majority of the facts of bird structure
have been verified by the author, especially those relating to
osteology and anatomy, and he has drawn liberally on the notebooks of
his two predecessors. The book gives first an account of the general
structure of birds; next of the reproductive and renal organs, the
circulatory, respiratory, and muscular systems, osteology, brain and
nervous system, and affinities of birds, and, finally, the
classification.
_Bush Fruits_[B] is the first of a proposed series of monographs on
the various types of American fruits, to be published under the
editorial direction of Prof. L. H. Bailey. Its purpose is to present
both the practical and the technical phases of all the important
questions concerned in the cultivation and domestication of the fruits
that grow on bushes; and the attempt is made to present these two
sides separate from the details of history, botany, and entomology, so
that the practical reader may be introduced at once to the information
he is seeking. The aim is made to treat general truths and principles
rather than mere details of practice, leaving the reader to think out
and solve the local problems for himself. The author, Mr. _F. W.
Card_, who presented the work originally as a Cornell University
thesis, was first a bush-grower, and then a student and teacher,
acquiring first the practice and then the theory. The fruits treated
of are raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, currants, gooseberries,
buffalo berry, gounie, huckleberries, Juneberries, the cranberry,
barberry, and sand cherry--all, as to their important types, except
the currants, evolutions from the species of our own woods. A useful
list of American books on bush fruits is given in the appendix.
_The History of the World, from the Earliest Historical Time to the
Year 1898_,[C] is the latest addition to the Concise Knowledge
Library, "a series of volumes on great subjects, containing in an
abridged form a wealth of exact information which can be thoroughly
relied upon by the student, and yet of such a popular character as to
meet the needs of the general reader." This compact volume of 790
pages presents a complete survey of the world's history. After a brief
introduction describing the various races that have furthered
civilization, ancient history proper begins with the Egyptians, the
people of whom we possess the earliest records, and who were the first
to emerge out of the darkness of prehistoric times. Closely connected
with them, both by racial affinities and political ties, were the
other great empires in the southwestern part of Asia that one after
the other rose, flourished, and fell into decay. The interesting part
of the book here is the constant reference to the familiar facts of
the Bible, the connection of the known with the unknown. The rise and
development of Greece and Rome, following in due course, bring us down
to the middle ages. Mediæval history has for its stage Europe, and for
its argument the upbuilding of the states on which our modern
political institutions rest. Modern history, dating from the discovery
of America, then turns the eyes of the nations westward, to found
empires beyond the sea. Nor is the East forgotten. Asia, the cradle of
man, and Africa, where he first rose into consciousness of himself and
recorded his deeds, again claim the historian's attention. But now it
is China and Japan on the one continent, and the conquests and
colonies of the Europeans on the other. Neither is the country
youngest in civilization, Australasia, passed by. And the history of
all these countries, whether east or west, is brought down to date.
Even our recent war with Spain is briefly told. Indeed, the value of
the book as a work of reference lies in the fact that it encompasses
_all_ the world's history, giving in compact, handy form the chief
data in the progress of the human race, that otherwise must be sought
for in a dozen different places. Another valuable feature of the book,
attainable only on the plan of rigid selection of salient points, is
the connection between the different peoples. Their interdependence,
the sequence of their appearance on the stage of action, and their
decline, are most vividly realized in such a bird's-eye view. The book
has maps and a full index.
The essays comprised in Mr. _William M. Bryant's_ volume entitled
_Life, Death, and Immortality, and Kindred Essays_[D] have developed,
as he expresses it, one by one during a number of years past. The term
developed is a happy one, for the papers were certainly not made to
order, but read like results of systematic, continuous thinking. They
concern the religious aspect of human nature. The author thinks that
negative criticism has for the time being exhausted its resources, and
the time has come for further positive interpretation of the
fundamental conceptions of the Christian doctrine as to man's nature
and destiny. A reference to a few of the points in the first essay,
which gives the title to the book, will afford a view of the author's
method. Men of science are constantly insisting that the total
quantity of energy is changeless, and nothing can be added to it and
nothing taken away. What are the "total quantity of energy" and the
"great first cause" but the same, to the activity of which is due
every phase of reality? This being changeless, it could not at some
period "have created a world and afterward left it to spin on of its
own accord 'without interference.'" Mind is a form of energy,
consequently indestructible and undying, and the question of
immortality is reduced to the form "whether in respect of man's
essential nature as a thinking unit, death can ever be more than
transition from one to another grade of life." Other essays are on
Oriental Religions, Church Organization, The Heresy of Non-Progressive
Orthodoxy, Christian Ethics and those of other religions, and
Eternity.
Professor _Merriman's_ _Elements of Sanitary Engineering_[E] is a
thoroughly practical treatise setting forth the principal rules and
laws relating to sanitation, both individual and municipal, as it is
practiced to-day. A brief historical introduction is followed by a
classification of diseases, and a general consideration of such
questions as filth and disease, impure air and disease, drinking water
and disease, etc. The second chapter takes up the question of the
purification of water. Chapter III discusses the practical aspects,
for a municipality, of water-supply systems. Consumption of water,
capacity of storage reservoirs, pipe lines, pumping engines, tanks and
stand pipes and street mains are among the special headings. Sewerage
systems are next dealt with. A discussion of questions connected with
the disposal of garbage and sewage forms the fifth and last chapter of
the book. An item which adds value to the volume is the series of
exercises and problems, practically applying the laws set forth, which
follows each chapter.
_An Epitome of Human Histology_[F] has been written by Mr. _Weysse_ to
meet the difficulty in which the conscientious student of microscopic
anatomy is placed who finds himself in possession of a great many
isolated facts about the minute structure of the body, but with rather
an indefinite conception of the relation of those facts to one another
and of the subject as a whole. In the writing the author has sought to
present all the facts that are of real importance to the student; to
express them in the briefest and clearest language, omitting whatever
is not strictly required; and to arrange them in such a way that the
reader, in considering any organ, may, if he will, actually sketch
each part as he proceeds, and thus make a diagrammatic plan or picture
of the entire structure. The book is not for idle students, but for
serious ones, and it is not a text-book or intended to take the place
of one; and it can serve its true purpose only when used by students
who have had laboratory practice as well as lectures in histology, and
have thus examined the actual structures.
In his work on _Elementary Botany_,[G] Professor _Atkinson_ introduces
the method which he has found successful in teaching beginners. Many
of the newer botanical text-books, in reacting against the plan of
presenting first the higher types of plant life, overwhelm the student
not only with a multitude of unfamiliar forms, but demand from him
powers of comparison and analysis that are generally the result of
much scientific discipline. In this book the pupil receives some
preliminary guidance in habits of correct induction. By studying the
processes of transpiration, nutrition, growth, and irritability in
plants belonging to higher as well as lower groups, he learns the
universality of these life principles, and is led to see the
foundations for sound generalization. This the author considers vastly
more important than the knowledge of individual plants. The student,
however, in this investigation becomes acquainted with special forms
among the lower plants, and is thus prepared to take up morphology
systematically. This topic begins with the study of Spirogyra, and
ends with an outline of twenty lessons in the angiosperms. The final
third of the book is devoted to ecology, the study of plants in their
natural surroundings and of their modifying factors--climate, soil,
topography, etc. The illustrations, which are above the average
throughout the work, are in this division exceedingly good. The
descriptive text of the same section is entertaining enough to be used
as a class reader, and would interest those unfamiliar with botany.
There are several slight errors to be corrected in a future edition.
In the table of measures a kilometre is made to equal one hundred
instead of one thousand metres, and the references to plates are
occasionally wrong. On page 345 the reference should be 449, and on
page 349 should be 458 in place of 457. In describing pollination of
the skunk cabbage, the words "rub off" are ambiguous. The uninitiated
might suppose that the insect obtained pollen from the stigmas instead
of depositing it there. The book is not intended for recitation, but
for reference and as a guide in study. It is supplied with an appendix
upon the collection and preservation of material, and an index.
A notice of a book[H] of this nature is justified in this column,
since it contains much that will be of interest to the student of
ethnology, folklore, and cognate subjects. It is interesting to get a
glimpse of matters pertaining to social customs, ways of thinking, and
the occurrences which animated these ways among the Japanese a
thousand and more years ago. The author says, "It is a remarkable and,
I believe, an unexampled fact that a very large and important part of
the best literature which Japan has produced was written by women."
The preparation of his _Elementary Text-Book of Botany_[I] was
undertaken by Mr. _Vines_ to meet a demand which appeared to exist for
a less bulky and expensive volume than his Students' Text-Book. A more
important feature than the diminution of the bulk is claimed in the
simplification which the contents have undergone from the omission of
certain difficult and still debatable topics. The usual divisions into
morphology, anatomy, physiology, and systematic botany are followed;
but the caution is appended that it must not be forgotten that these
are all parts of one subject, different methods of studying one
object--the plant. Hence they must be pursued together. "For instance,
the morphology of the leaf can not be profitably studied without a
knowledge of its structure and functions; and it is also important to
know what is the systematic position of each of the various plants
whose leaves afford the material for study. In a word, the student
should not attempt to read the book straight through from the
beginning as if it were a novel. On the contrary, he may begin with
any one of the four parts as his main subject; but that part must be
studied in close relation with the other three parts"; and this method
of proceeding is facilitated by the insertion of a large number of
cross-references in the text.
A satisfactory account is given by _C. Francis Jenkins_ in
_Animated Pictures_[J] of the development and present state of
chronophotography, or the art of "conveying by persistence of vision a
counterfeit impression of objects in motion through the display in
rapid succession of a series of related pictures." The story shows
very clearly that this, like most other inventions of consequence, is
no sudden discovery, but is the culmination of a very long series of
experiments. The principle of it is embodied in the toy, the zoetrope,
the origin of which is not known, though a citation from Lucretius
indicates that something of the kind existed in his time. With the
discovery of instantaneous photography, a new application of the
principle of the zoetrope was found. Muybridge and Marey were pioneers
in this development with their photographs of the motions of animals
valuable in sciences. Since their work was begun the photographic
processes and apparatus have been greatly improved. Mr. Jenkins
forecasts a brilliant and useful future for the art, which he hopes
will be prosecuted along the line of other than its present most
popular uses. The book is practical as well as historical and
prophetic, and contains an account of Mr. Jenkins's phantoscope as the
first successful "moving picture projecting apparatus," for which he
received the Elliott Cresson medal from the Franklin Institute.
_The Metric System of Weights and Measures_, prepared by Mr. _A. D.
Risteen_, and published by the Hartford Steam-Boiler Inspection
Company, Hartford, Connecticut (price, $1.25), gives what has long
been wanted--a neat volume, convenient for the pocket and durably
bound, furnishing tables for instantly converting all the metrical
units up to one hundred of each into those of the English weights and
measures, and _vice versa_. Calculation, being needed only for the
numbers above one hundred, for which there are already short devices,
is reduced to the lowest possible limit.
_Terrestrial Magnetism_, an international quarterly journal, edited by
_L. A. Bauer_ and _Thomas French, Jr._, and published at the
University of Cincinnati, is the recognized organ of the International
Conference on Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity. The
September number, 1898, contains the proceedings of the conference,
which met in connection with the last Bristol meeting of the British
Association. It contains in full the welcoming address of Prof. W. E.
Ayrton, the opening address of A. W. Rücker, president of the
conference, and ten of the papers read at the meeting.
The name of Prof. _John Trowbridge_ as author of such a book as
_Philip's Experiments; or, Physical Science at Home_ (D. Appleton and
Company, $1) is a sure guarantee of its scientific value. The author
has given a chapter substantially out of his own experience, for he
says his taste for science and for drawing were stimulated by his
father in the manner here described. His object in publishing it is
"to show that a few moments devoted each day at home to simple
investigations can result in habits of self-reliance in the
acquirement of a modern language and in the study of the art of
drawing." He endeavors also to show how to cultivate a taste for
mathematics by studying practical problems in surveying and in sailing
a boat; and how much a parent can accomplish in the formation of a
son's tastes without special knowledge, and without the expenditure of
much time and money. The account is in the form of letters from the
father to a friend, describing his experiments with his son Philip in
this method of teaching. He has always cultivated fellowship with the
boy; and, finding him inclined to improve and add to the designs on
the wall-paper, puts objects to be drawn and copied in his way, and
induces him to go out and draw from Nature. So the boy learns to study
forms and observe. To teach language he gives him regularly the daily
German newspaper, to pick out what he can from it, and joins him in
the sport. In a similar way he introduces Philip to surveying and
physics, and other branches of science. The plan is a success; Philip
attracts attention by the ingenuity which his training has enabled him
to develop, and going to college is graduated with credit and in
possession of a live as well as a book knowledge of what he has
studied.
In _The Story of the English_ (American Book Company) the more
prominent facts of English history from the beginning to the present
time are related by _H. A. Guerber_ in simple, brief narratives. A
commendable feature of the book is the insistence in the preface of
the essential oneness of the English and American people--an idea that
can hardly be too sedulously cultivated. The author's principal object
has been to render pupils so familiar with the prominent characters of
English history that they shall henceforth seem like old
acquaintances, and, in addition, to make the story attractive; but it
is a fact to be regretted that he has regarded the growth of English
law and liberty and the changes in religion as too unintelligible and
uninteresting to be more than touched upon "very briefly and in the
most simple way." The growth of law and liberty are the very things
that it is most important to fix the attention of children upon, and
it is only because they have suffered comparative neglect in the
education of teachers in favor of stories of war and intrigue that
they are not the most intelligible and interesting branch of the
subject.
Prof. _Francis E. Nipher_, of Washington University, having been
called upon to present a paper to an educational convention on the
Greater Efficiency of Science Instruction, undertook to show how such
changes as were adapted to promote that end might be accomplished
without radical departures from present methods; and the _Introduction
to Graphical Algebra_ (Henry Holt & Co., New York, 60 cents) is the
result of that effort. The author believes that the study of algebra
and geometry as distinct subjects having no relation to each other
gives the pupil a false idea of the intellectual situation of to-day;
that by injecting here and there into the ordinary instruction in
algebra such material as is found in his book, new meaning will be
given to the operations involved in the solution of equations, and new
interest in the subject may be aroused; and that as scientific
investigators are making much use of other methods than Euclid's,
while the study of his geometry should not be banished from our
schools, some of the time given to it might be usefully spent in
elementary analytical geometry or graphical algebra. The treatise is
brief and convenient in size and composed in clear language.
_The New Man, a Chronicle of the Modern Time_ (Philadelphia: The
Levytype Company), is a story written by _Ellis Paxson Oberholzer_
with reference to that expansion of women's education and sphere of
action which is suggested by the phrase "the new woman." In it "the
new woman is developed to her logical conclusion, and the new man as
he must needs become under the reaction of her influence," and it
deals with "men and women imbued with the modern university spirit,
whose emotional natures are developed under the scientific impulse of
our time, and whose thoughts and actions reflect that impulse in the
midst of all the varied realities of our modern life."
_Armageddon_ (Rand, McNally & Co.), to the plot of which the author's
name of _Stanley Waterloo_ seems curiously appropriate, is possibly a
specimen of a class of literature to which we are likely to be treated
in abundance for a few years to come. The spoliation of the Spanish
Egyptians by the Americans having come to a halt with the gain of
Puerto Rico and the Philippines, the great Anglo-American alliance
enters upon the view and is made a fact, though informally. The two
nations together build the Nicaragua Canal, and are about to celebrate
its completion, when they are anticipated by the precipitation of the
war of the nations through the simultaneous occurrence of a number of
slight international quarrels in different parts of the world.
Germany, Russia, the Scandinavians, and the Latins are pitted on one
side, and the British and Americans, assisted by the British colonies
and the Japanese, on the other; and the battle of the combined fleets
occurs near the Canaries. The hero of the story has invented an air
ship which carries terrible explosives to be dropped from a great
height into the midst of the enemy. This engine does its work at the
decisive moment, and then follows the grab game of negotiations, in
which might rules, and Germany joins the Anglo-Saxon alliance against
the rest of the world. Finally, the air-ship engine of destruction has
rendered war henceforth forever impossible.
Mr. _James Reid Cole_, president of a classical and military school at
Dallas, Texas, has published under the title of _Miscellany_ what is
substantially a picture or transcript of his own life. It contains a
variety of articles--literary essays, school addresses, and even
schoolboy compositions--the chief interest of which is to the author
and his close friends. Other papers, such as A Bird's-eye View of
Johnston's Surrender, the sketches of the Life of Lieutenant C. C.
Cole, the Looking Backward over the course of the author's own life,
and political and legislative speeches may have a more general value
as partial reflections of the times to which they relate, more
intimate than are usually to be derived from ordinary sketches and
histories.
The publications of the _New York Academy of Sciences_ now consist of
two series--the _Annals_ (8vo) and the _Memoirs_ (4to). The
Transactions, in which the shorter papers and business reports have
hitherto appeared, are abolished, and the matter appears in the
Annals. This publication, which was begun in 1824, contains the
scientific contributions and reports of researches, together with the
reports of meetings. The complete volumes will hereafter coincide with
the calendar year. Vol. X, Nos. 1 to 12, contains three papers by H.
S. Davis and one by Frank Schesinger based on the Rutherfurd
photographs of the stars; The Nature and Origin of Stipules, by A. A.
Tyler, and an examination of the Ascidian Half-Embryo, by H. E.
Crampton, Jr. Vol. XI, Part II, contains the annual address of
retiring President J. J. Stevenson, February 28, 1898, on the Debt of
the World to Pure Science, and six articles on special subjects in
biology.
The Commissioner of Labor was authorized by Congress in 1895 to make
an investigation, so far as it could be done within the limits of the
regular appropriations to his department, relative to the economic
aspects of the liquor traffic. He interpreted such an investigation to
include the consideration of monetary conditions; of the agricultural
and other products used in the production of liquors; of the
manufacture of liquors as a distinct industry; of transportation,
consumption, and the traffic in them; of the revenue derived from them
and the laws regulating its collection; and of the experience and
practice of employers in relation to the use of intoxicants. In some
of these phases of the subject the facts were not separable from those
relating to other matters; in others, they were to be found in the
reports of other departments; and original inquiry was necessary only
with reference to the last three items of the category. The results of
this inquiry are given in the _Twelfth Annual Report of the
Commissioner of Labor, 1897_, under the heading of _Economic Aspects
of the Liquor Problem_.
_A New Story of the Stars_ is an essay in which _A. W. Bickerton_,
professor of chemistry and physics in Christ Church College, New
Zealand, sets forth a theory of the origin of universes or of parts of
universes by impact. Nebulæ already existing--but how existing we are
not informed--careering through space, are supposed to collide,
whereby heat and light are developed. They may meet in face, and would
then probably coalesce, but more likely the impact would be a grazing
one, when three bodies would be produced; a portion, or slice, as the
author calls it, of each of the colliding bodies would be sheared off,
forming an intensely hot and bright new star, while the original
masses would go on their course, having the parts that had been in
contact heated and made brilliant, so as to present in their
revolutions the aspect of variable stars. The author's attention was
drawn to this subject by the appearance of a new star in Cygnus in
1877. A little while afterward Nova Aurigæ appeared, presenting
exactly the phenomena he had predicted. Professor Bickerton writes as
one who understands his subject; there is nothing in his speculations,
so far as we have observed, that grates harshly with known facts, and
it can be read, as he reads it, to account plausibly for some of the
facts--just as can several other theories of the formation of the
universe which are still only speculations. The problem is yet far
from comprehension, and is one of the legacies which the nineteenth
century is destined to bequeath to the twentieth. (Published at Christ
Church, New Zealand.)