Popular Science Monthly/Volume 18/April 1881/Literary Notices

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LITERARY NOTICES.

Food for the Invalid, the Convalescent, THE Dyspeptic, and the Gouty. By J. Milner Fothergill, M.D., and Horatio C. Wood, M.D. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1830. Pp. 150. Price, $1.

The introduction to this volume is a very important and interesting essay on food in its sanitary relations by Dr. Fothergill, while Dr. Wood compiled the recipes, some three hundred in number. In speaking of our present eating arrangements and culinary combinations, Dr. Fothergill says that they have come about under the guidance of the palate first, and the digestion afterward. They were established before the daybreak of physiological knowledge, and the light of chemistry and physiology can not fail to disturb them. Our food combinations should now be modified by our advancing knowledge of the wants of the organism. By a suitable dietary many maladies may be avoided, and many troubles, as indigestion, biliousness, gout, and diabetes, alleviated or even cured. To the increasing wealth and mental worry of our times. Dr. Fothergill ascribes much of the prevalent biliousness, gout, and visceral disturbance; and also the growing incapacity to digest fat, which has led to the use of artificial digestive agents. Hence the necessity for a cook-book devoted to the food of those out of health, or with feeble powers of digestion.

Dr. Fothergill traces the biliousness and gout so common nowadays to the excessive use of albuminoids in our food. They are requisite for tissue growth and repair, and, when swallowed, are digested mainly in the stomach, passing into the blood, whence they reach the tissues. But the nitrogen, their essential feature, when in combination with hydrogen and carbon, does not readily oxidize, and it is the imperfect oxidation in the liver of this nitrogen of the surplus albuminoids that causes biliousness and the gouty condition. "In biliousness the blood is surcharged with bile-salts of albuminoid descent and nitrogenized lineage; just as much as the lithic acid now known as 'gout-poison,' . . . and it is obvious that in the

treatment of biliousness and gout alike it is essential to cut down the albuminoid elements of the food to the minimum of tissue-wants."

To the question why we systematically eat more albuminoid food than we require, Dr. Fothergill replies that there are two very potent reasons: one, because it is pleasant to eat it, and another, because it produces an agreeable mental condition. "The albuminoid waste in the blood gives us the sensation of energy, of being equal to work, which is pleasant to all. But this sensation is bought with a price; and its Nemesis is found in biliousness and gout." After proving the albuminoid descent of both bile and gout-poison, Dr. Fothergill remarks that the amount of albuminoids required for the repair of the tissues of the body is very small, and it is with the intent of avoiding excessive albuminoid waste that the dietaries arranged in the volume consist so little of "brown meats." The flesh of fish, however, is provided for in abundance. More than ninety of the recipes are devoted to the preparation of fish of various kinds in soups, pies, patties, and puddings, or boiled, stewed, fried, broiled, in paste, and on toast. Not that "fish" differs materially from "flesh" in chemical composition, but it contains more water, and is more easily digestible. "A meal of fish," it is said, "gives less albuminoid waste than a meal of brown meats."

Great prominence is given to fat in the dishes here recommended. It is regarded as a most important element of food, and much pains are taken to make it unobjectionable to the palate, inoffensive to the stomach, and easily assimilable by the system. Starch, also, so long decried and sneered at as having no food-value, is given a prominent place. "With fat and starch," Dr. Fothergill declares, "the bilious are comparatively well; for neither can produce bile-acids." They may, however, lead indirectly to the production of bile-acids when eaten in excess.

The first forty-three recipes of the book are for drinks of various kinds—milk with seltzer-water, with lime, with magnesia, etc., teas, broths, gruels, egg preparations, lemonade, and a long list of variously flavored "waters." When we come to the solid foods, the reader is furnished with a guide to their use by means of initials attached to the recipes. I. stands for invalid, C. for convalescent, D. for dyspeptic, G. for gouty, and E. for economical. When a dish is suitable for all these classes, all these initials are appended to it. Thus, mock pâté de foie gras is marked (I. C. D. G. E.), cauliflower (C. G.), scrambled eggs (I. C. D.), while half a dozen recipes for various salads have only the single initial (G.)

Cream is also a favorite element in many of the recipes of this book. Eggs, oysters, fruit, and vegetables abound in them; and, although the title only promises sick-room cookery, we are offered an abundance, and variety that commend the book to everybody, sick or well. Warmed-over meat is condemned, unless the digestion is perfect. One method of preparing it is given as follows: "Mince the meat fine with some pepper and salt; place a wall of well-mashed potato in a pie-dish or soup-plate; put in the minced meat, and place over it a crust of mashed potato; put in the oven till the moat is warmed through, and not one moment longer." Sandwiches are much approved. Nursery-food is carefully provided for, and excellent general directions are given concerning the serving of food to the sick. The book can not fail to be helpful to families which are seldom quite exempt from sickness or feebleness; and physicians may make it serviceable in providing a full dietary for their patients.

Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages, with Words, Phrases, and Sentences to be collected. By J. W. Powell. Second edition, with Charts. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 228, with blanks for taking Notes.

This work, published under the direction of the Bureau of Ethnography of the Smithsonian Institution, is designed to aid in the collection of data for the examination and comparison of the languages and dialects of the Indian tribes, and to direct the efforts of students among whatever tribe, so that they shall be conducted methodically, and adapted to fit a system embracing the whole subject. The first edition was published in 1877; the present edition embodies the modifications of the plan that have been suggested by the progress that has been made in the study. An alphabet has been prepared which seems to admit of the representation of all the sounds and modifications of sounds that are likely to occur without demanding the use of odd signs or going outside of the cases of a well-stocked English printing-office. A chapter is devoted to the explanation of the manners, customs, articles of dress, ornament, and use, etc., the study of which may throw light upon the main subject, and should be connected with it. This chapter contains also a synopsis of Mr. Lewis H. Morgan's work on kinship and affinity, illustrated by charts showing the relations of kinship for nine generations, and gives the substance of a paper by Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull on the best methods of studying the Indian languages. It is followed by a series of schedules embracing the various subjects of Indian thought which are to be filled up by individual students with details for vocabularies, phrases, the representation of inflections, and all other matter that may be of value in the study.

Report on the Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah. With Atlas. By C. E. Dutton, Captain of Ordnance, U. S. A. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 307.

The surveys, of which this report gives an account, were conducted, in 1875, 1876, and 1877, in connection with the surveys of Major J. W. Powell, and under his direction. The Colorado plateaus, of which the district covered by the survey is a part, extend from southern Wyoming through western Colorado and eastern Utah far into New Mexico and Arizona, and have a general elevation of about seven thousand feet above the sea, but which varies from five thousand to twelve thousand feet. The high plateaus constitute one of the most important of the several groups into which the region is divided, and occupy a belt of country extending from a point about fifteen miles east of Mount Nebo in the Wahsatch Mountains for about one hundred and seventy-five miles to the south-southwest, and having a breadth of from twenty-five to eighty miles, and a total area approaching nine thousand square miles. They are distinct, structurally and topographically, from the Wahsatch range, belong to another age, and are wholly different in their forms and geological relations. They are composed of early Tertiary and late Cretaceous formations, nearly or quite horizontal, and usually capped with lava formations of exceedingly complex arrangement. The region is for the most part destitute of vegetation and soil, and dissected by deep cañons. Consequently, its geology, as a whole, is plainly revealed, so that every fault, every flexure, the relations of successive unconformities, and all facts of structure are seen at once; but two sources of obscurity exist, in that some of the highest plateaus are covered with forests and vegetation, and that the extravasated rocks are aggregated in a more confused manner than the sedimentary beds, so that uncertainties and doubts still remain after the utmost labor and care in tracing them. The surface of the plateaus appears to have formed the bottom of a lake in Eocene times, and to have gradually risen to its present height by a movement which may still be going on. The drainage is by the tributaries of the Colorado, whose channels were formed in the lake-bottom before it was wholly dry, and have kept their course and level where they are, "in spite of faults, flexures, and swells, in spite of mountains and plateaus," the streams turning neither to the right nor to the left as these irregularities were encountered, but persistently cutting their way through the same old places, till the present magnificent cañons have been carved out. Another salient feature of the region is given by the extraordinarily extensive faults, the results of displacements which took place in relatively recent times. Some five or six of these great displacements are from twenty to a hundred miles long, and are of heights rising to a maximum of five thousand feet. One of them, the Eastern Kaibab fault, is the longest line of displacement of which the author has any knowledge; it has a length which can not fall much short of three hundred miles, and may be found to exceed that after its termini have been discovered, and a maximum height of seven thousand feet. The displacements do not belong wholly to any one period, but are of distinct though not widely separated ages. The erosions of the plateau do not appear to have been affected by the presence of ice during the glacial epoch, but the evidence is strongly in favor of the conclusion that the climate in this district was not glacial. "The ravines and valleys are conspicuously water-carved, and conspicuously not ice carved." Yet evidences of the former existence of small local glaciers are found on the summits of the cliffs, not less than eight thousand five hundred to nine thousand feet high; and this is believed to emphasize the evidence of the absence of ice-action in the valleys and plateau flanks.

The region is one of extinct volcanism, the action of which, though small compared with that we know of some other regions, has been great compared with what is seen in most of the volcanic districts of Europe. The phenomena are of the most varied kinds, and relate to eruptions of which the oldest go back to the middle Eocene, while the latest "can not be as old as the Christian era," and "it is hard to believe that they are as old as the conquest of Mexico by Cortes." They are subjected to a careful study, especially with reference to the order of succession of the eruptions, and a comparison of the same with the arrangement proposed by Baron Richtofen. This study is followed by a discussion of the origin of volcanic eruptions, as illustrated by these phenomena. The photographic work not having been completed, has not been embodied in the present volume. The text is more especially devoted to the general geology, while many of the details are made more clear by heliotypic illustrations than they can be by mere textual descriptions. The atlas contains topographical, geological, and relief maps, and a sheet showing the arrangement of the faults and flexures.

The Power of Movement in Plants. By Charles Darwin, LL. D., F. R. S., assisted by Francis Darwin. With Illustrations. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1881. Pp. 592. Price, $2.00.

Mr. Darwin's latest study of plant-life shows no abatement of his power of work or his habits of fresh and original observation. We have learned to expect from him I at intervals, never much prolonged, the results of special research in some by-path or other subordinated to the main course of the biological system associated with his name; and it has been an unfailing source of interest to see the central ideas of the evolution and the continuity of life developed in detail through a series of special treatises, each wellnigh exhaustive of the materials available for its subject. It is in the department of plant-life that he has of late years devoted himself to working out the laws which govern the whole realm of vital phenomena. That these laws in their origin and ultimate operation are common to plant and animal alike has long formed a characteristic principle or axiom of his philosophy. In the experimental study needed for the elaboration of the vital processes and the making good the resulting generalizations, the kingdom of plant-life offers decided advantages beyond that of animals, if it were only that observations of this class are free from all possible taint of inhumanity. Mr. Darwin has in the quietude of his hothouse, and with a boundless variety of forms for selection, experimented upon the vital organism of plants, seconded by the untiring energy and patience of his son. Night and day seem to have come alike to the aid of this enthusiastic pair of naturalists. The electric light has served them on the failure of the sun's beams, and has in truth opened up of itself a wholly new field for observation as regards the agency of light upon the phenomena of life. To the vista of knowledge revealed by these experiments upon the elementary processes of life in movement, growth, nutrition, respiration, sensation, etc., imagination can set no bounds. It is impossible, Mr. Darwin remarks at the close of his record of these interesting experiments, not to be struck with the resemblance between the foregoing movements of plants and many of the actions performed unconsciously by the lower animals. This analogy has been made the subject of much interesting investigation by Sachs, Frank, and other leading biologists on the Continent, and we may expect that the highly original and elaborate experiments recorded in the volume before us will give fresh stimulus to this most important course of investigation, laying as they do a new and more solid basis for the comparative study of plant and animal life. Plants, of course, possess neither nerves nor a central nervous system, and there is consequently lacking in them that which gives its most distinctive character to animal life as a whole. Yet that sensitive impressions are present in plants, with the power of movement in obedience to the stimulus thereby imparted to the organism, may be held to be conclusively shown by facts such as those produced by Mr. Darwin. Most striking of all, he urges, as a point of resemblance, is the localization of their sensitiveness, and the transmission of an influence from the excited part to another, which consequently moves. May it not be inferred that in animals the nervous structures serve merely for the more perfect transmission of impressions and for the more complete intercommunication of parts? From the earliest sign of germination in plants—namely, the protrusion of the radicle from the seed-coats under the soil—there is manifest a sensitiveness to external influences, with a movement in response to the conditions of light or pressure, etc., which is not sharply to be distinguished from the rudimentary intelligence in animals. In the sensitive point or tip of the radicle, which we might compare with the antennæ in insects, there is to be seen an organic power equivalent, in a lesser degree, to the action of the brain in the lower animals:

We believe that there is no structure in plants more wonderful, as far as its functions are concerned, than the tip of the radicle. If the tip be lightly pressed or burned or cut, it transmits an influence to the upper adjoining part, causing it to bend away from the affected side; and, what is more surprising, the tip can distinguish between a slightly harder and softer object, by which it is simultaneously pressed on opposite sides. If, however, the radicle is pressed by a similar object a little above the tip, the pressed part does not transmit any influence to the more distant parts, but bends abruptly toward the object. If the tip perceives the air to be moister on one side than on the other, it likewise transmits an influence to the upper adjoining part, which bends toward the source of moisture. When the tip is excited by light (though in the case of radicles this was ascertained in only a single instance) the adjoining part bends from the light; but when excited by gravitation the same part bends toward the center of gravity. In almost every case we can clearly perceive the final purpose or advantage of the several movements. Two, or perhaps more, of the exciting causes often act simultaneously on the tip, and one conquers the other, no doubt in accordance with its importance for the life of the plant. The course pursued by the radicle in penetrating the ground must be determined by the tip; hence it has acquired such diverse kinds of sensitiveness. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the tip of the radicle thus endowed, and having the power of directing the movements of the adjoining parts, acts like the brain of one of the lower animals; the brain being seated within the anterior end of the body, receiving impressions from the sense organs, and directing the several movements.

In this suggestive passage, with which our authors bring their present course of investigations to a close, we see opened up a far-reaching prospect for the biological progress of the future. For the present it must suffice to have made good so much as our authors have been able to report from their patient study of the simpler and more easily observable vital phenomena.

A great part of Mr. Darwin's work is taken up with the details of experiments for measuring the quantity and direction of motion in plants, both under natural and artificial conditions. Direct observations have been made in numerous cases under the microscope, and in others use has been made of delicate apparatus of various kinds. Minute bits of card or tissue paper have been attached to the radicles, filaments, or terminals of stems, and tiny particles of metal or beads of shellac have been employed as weights to test the power of rigidity or of sensitiveness in the fibers of plants. Pins stuck in the soil around the stem have served to mark the conduct of the plant when impeded in its growth or its spontaneous habits of movement. The movements of the tenderest filaments or leaflets have been made to trace themselves in lines upon smoked glass. A series of diagrams has in this way been worked out, and set before the eye in numerous woodcuts, generally magnified two or three fold, showing the general law of circumnutation indefinitely modified by special conditions. The differences of movement in seedling and mature plants, in monocotyledons and dicotyledons, with the indications of certain movements having been acquired for a special purpose, are pursued through widely contrasted classes of plants. The circumnutating powers of young leaves are described in thirty-three genera belonging to twenty-five families, widely distributed among ordinary and gymnospermous dicotyledons, and among monocotyledons, together with many cryptogams. Here the seat of movement is generally seen to lie in the petiole, but sometimes both in the petiole and the blade, or in the blade alone. The movement is chiefly in a vertical plane; yet, as the ascending and descending lines never coincide, there is always some lateral movement, resulting in irregular ellipses, so that the motion becomes really one of circumnutation. It is interesting to mark the periodicity. of leaf-movement, a gentle rise being observed in the evening and the early part of the night, with a sinking toward morning. In Dionæa and certain graminiæ, a strange jerking and oscillatory movement is to be seen under the microscope, curiously contrasted with the immobility of the tentacles of Drosera rotundifolia, which are yet sensitive enough to curl inward in twenty-three seconds so as to absorb a bit of raw meat. The distinction of epinastic and hyponastic growth—according as the growth takes place more rapidly in the upper or lower surface of an organ, causing it to bend downward or upward respectively—introduced by De Vries, has been illustrated in the case of a number of plants. To Frank is due the introduction of the useful terms of "heliotropism," for the tendency to turn to the light, with its correlative "apheliotropism," the opposite tendency, occasionally to be observed, "geotropism," for the bending toward the earth, and "apogeotropism," expressing motion in opposition to gravity or from the center of the earth. For the measurement of movements, sometimes excessively minute, various expedients were adopted. Dots were made from time to time upon sheets of glass placed vertically and horizontally near the plant, these dots being then copied on tracing-paper and joined by ruled lines, arrows being added to show the direction of the movement. The plants were exposed to varied conditions of light, sometimes being wholly protected, the light at other times being admitted from above or from either side. In addition to the sun's rays, the electric light was made the subject of experiment, with results comparable with those of Dr. Siemens. A valuable chapter is given to the sensitiveness of plants to light, with its transmitted effects. That growth in general is checked by light, which acts upon plants much in the same manner as it does upon the nervous system in animals, is a statement which needs to be reconciled with the undoubted fact that the power of bending to the light is beneficial to plants, and may in all probability have been specially acquired under the action of natural selection. Experiments have abundantly shown that growth is exceptionally promoted by light continuously kept up, as in the polar summer, or when the absence of sunlight is compensated by the electric ray. Herein is, of course, involved the intricate problem of the sleep of plants, which is carried on through two chapters of the highest interest.—Saturday Review.

Guide to the Study of Political Economy. By Dr. Luigi Cossa. Translated from the second Italian edition. With a Preface by W. Stanley Jevons, F. R. S. London: Macmillan & Co. 1880. Pp. 237. Price, $1.25.

This is a work which no English student of economics can fail to find of the greatest value, in helping him to a knowledge of the extent and worth of the economic writings of foreign authors. Dr. Cossa is peculiarly fitted, by his wide acquaintance with economic literature and by his breadth of view, to make a competent and trustworthy guide, and the translation of his work into the chief European languages sufficiently attests its merit. The work comprehends a brief exposition of the scope, character, and method of the. science, with an historical review of its position and doctrines in ancient and modern times, and a long list of the writings of economists of all countries, with indications of their worth. In the first chapter the science is defined and its demarkation from allied branches of knowledge pointed out. The division of the science and its relation to other sciences occupy the author in the next two chapters, the views of a number of leading economists being given. The chapter upon method contains a brief but excellent discussion of the questions involved in the controversy between what are known as the historical and philosophic schools, Dr. Cossa pointing out the error of main position of the former school, while admitting the value of much of the work accomplished by its members. A consideration of the importance of the science and an examination of some of the objections to it complete the more general part of the work, the remainder being devoted to the historical review. This includes a notice of the political economy of the ancients, of the middle ages, and of modern times, treating briefly in the latter period of that of the physiocrats, of Adam Smith and his successors, of the economists of the present century, and closing with a consideration of contemporary Italian economists. An index of the authors quoted in the text is placed at the close of the volume, the list containing over seven hundred names.

The Young Folks' Cyclopædia of Persons and Places. By John D. Champlin, Jr., late Associate Editor of the "American Cyclopædia." With numerous Illustrations. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1881. Pp. 936. Price, $3.50.

This work, including both real and fabulous persons and places, is intended, in connection with the "Young Folks' Cyclopædia of Common Things" by the same author, to cover the usual range of cyclopedic knowledge. The language is simple; technical terms where admitted are explained; the illustrations are selected to exclude those common in school-books, and preference is given to those showing restorations of classic scenes and famous buildings. The pronunciations are indicated approximately by plain English letters; and the size of countries and cities is made more plain by comparing them with States and towns at home. Most of the facts are brought down to 1880.

James Smithson and his Bequest, by William J. Rhees; and The Scientific Writings of James Smithson, edited by William J. Rhees. Washington: Published by the Smithsonian Institution. 1879. Pp. 227.

The preparation of a biography of the founder of the Smithsonian Institution has been delayed on account of the scantiness of the materials. Unusual exertions were made last year to collect the facts and incidents of the life of Mr. Smithson, but nothing new was elicited. The few facts which are known have been collected by Mr. Rhees as all the information likely to be obtained, and are presented for the first time as an authentic account of the man who crowned a well-earned reputation for scientific attainments with his remarkable bequest for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. Three portraits of Mr. Smithson and a view of his tomb at Genoa lend attractions to the work.

The volume contains, of Smithson's scientific writings, twenty-seven papers, mostly on chemical subjects, which were published in the "Transactions of the Royal Society of London," and Thomson's "Annals of Philosophy," between 1791 and 1825, with reviews of the scientific character of the papers by Professor Walter R. Johnson and J. R. McD. Irby. Mr. Smithson left, in addition to these papers, several hundred manuscripts, scraps, and notes on many subjects, which were destroyed in the fire at the Smithsonian Building in 1865.

Report on the Culture of the Sugar-Beet and the Manufacture of Sugar therefrom in France and the United States. By William McMurtrie, E. M., Ph. D., Superintendent of Agriculture in the United States Section, and Agent and Representative of the United States Department of Agriculture, at the Paris Exposition of 1878. Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1880. Pp. 294.

Mr. McMurtrie took advantage of his visit to the Paris Exposition to secure full information concerning the methods of culture of the beet and manufacture of sugar followed in France, and the same is given here, with additional information from other countries in Europe. The conditions most favorable to the success of the beet-sugar enterprise appear to be a mean temperature of not more than 70° and a minimum average rainfall of above two inches during the summer months. Tables, with illustrative charts, are given, showing in what parts of the United States these conditions exist. Full detailed reports are added of the progress and present condition of the sugar-beet culture in the New England States, particularly in Maine. The machinery used in making the sugar is illustrated by descriptive cuts.

Sanskrit and its Kindred Literatures. Studies in Comparative Mythology. By Laura Elizabeth Poor. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1880. Pp. 468. Price, $2.

The object of the author has been to interest people in the study of all literature on the new basis which has been laid by the sciences of comparative philology and comparative mythology; to show that literature is one and continuous; that the same leading ideas have arisen at epochs apparently far separated from each other; and that each nation, however isolated it may seem, is, in reality, a link in the great chain of development of the human mind. The most prominence is given to Sanskrit as the oldest and nearest to the foundation of the Aryan literatures, which is viewed in its Vedic and Buddhist aspects, and in the light of the greatest works in either branch. A notice of the ancient Persian literature and the Zendavesta follows, after which are chapters on Greek mythology, poetry, drama, philosophy, and history, Latin and Keltic, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, and German literatures, mediæval hymns and ballads, the mythology of Slavonic literature, and the modern poetry of Europe.

High Schools. By B. G. Northrop, Secretary of the Connecticut Board of Education. Syracuse, N. Y.: Davis, Bardeen & Co. Paper. Pp. 26. Price, 25 cents.

Mr. Northrop in this pamphlet essays to answer the objections that have been urged during a few years past against the continuance of the public high schools. To the objection that they are an excrescence on our school system, aside from the design of its founders, he replies that they have been maintained in Massachusetts for a longer time and on a broader scale than in any other state of the world, the first law establishing them having been passed in 1647. He urges that the high school lifts up all the schools of lower grades by giving increased efficiency to them through its standard of admission, which presents a strong stimulus to studiousness and fidelity. It is true that only a small proportion of college students have received their preliminary training in the high schools, but it is claimed on the other side that the interest of a large proportion of the students in higher education was first excited in the high schools, and that they have gone out from them to the academies where they have received their special preparation. That the high schools have not a communistic tendency, as some assert, is proved by the fact that communism prevails least where they are the most flourishing. they are not in the nature of a charity, as some seem to believe, but are an assertion of the right of the State to demand that its people should have the education necessary to its preservation and prosperity. Much of the opposition to high schools has arisen from mistakes that have been made in their management. They should not undertake to teach Latin and Greek, or other branches that the pupil may not have occasion or opportunity to apply or continue in afterlife, but should aim rather to teach him how to study, and to inspire him with love of learning.

The Geological and Natural History of Minnesota. The Eighth Annual Report, for the Year 1879. St. Paul: the Pioneer-Press Company. 1880. Pp. 183.

The year's work of surveys was carried on chiefly in the northern part of the State, and resulted in the extension of the surveyed area in northeastern Minnesota, except as to some points on the Cascade River, as far west as the Poplar River, and over a considerable district west of that stream. Studies have also been made of the drift-covered counties in the central and western part of the State, with especial reference to their topography, glacial geology, and economic resources. Collections have been made of animals and plants on the shores of Lake Superior, and a partial catalogue of species of birds is given.

Ninth Report of the State Entomologist on the Noxious and Beneficial Insects of the State of Illinois. Fourth Annual Report by Cyrus Thomas, Ph. D. Springfield, Illinois: Weber & Co., State Printers. Pp. 142.

The increasing demand for the State Entomological Reports is regarded as indicating that farmers and horticulturists are paying more attention to entomology than formerly, and attests the usefulness of the office of State Entomologist. The present report gives especial attention to the history of the European cabbage-worm; and, though the author considers it a diversion from his legitimate field, in answer to repeated requests furnishes information in reference to parasites infesting domestic animals.

Abridgment of the Nautical Almanac for 1881. Philadelphia: Riggs & Brother. Pp. 150. Price, 25 cents.

Besides the hydrograpbic notices, the rules of the road at sea, and the catalogue of lighthouses, this abridgment contains an important paper on maritime meteorology, by Professor Thompson B. Maury. The paper embraces a synopsis of the nature and direction of the prevailing winds of the Atlantic coast and ocean, and of the laws that appear to govern the course of hurricanes; to which are added hints for handling ships in or near cyclones, by the observance of which shipmasters may be enabled to decide upon and pursue the course most likely to insure the safety of their vessels.

Mr. Henry George has in the press of D. Appleton & Co., and will shortly publish, a new book, entitled "The Irish Land Question: What it involves, and how alone it can be settled."


PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Causes which produce the Great Prevailing Winds and Ocean-Currents, and their Effects on Climate. By C. A. M. Taber. Boston: David Clapp & Son, printers. 1881. Pp. 54.

Report on the Marine Isopoda of New England and Adjacent Waters. By Oscar Harger. Pp. 166. with Thirteen Plates. From the Report of the United Slates Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. Part VI for 1878.

The Development of Osseous Callus in Fractures of the Bones of Man and Animals. By Henry O. Marcy, M. D. Philadelphia: Collins's printing-house. 1880. Pp. 20.

Report of the Analysis of the Ohio River Water. By C. R. Stuntz, M.D. Cincinnati; Robert Clarke & Co. 1881. Pp. 29.

Dr. Edward Jenner's Discovery of Vaccination. By E. L. B. Godfrey, M. D. Philadelphia: Hoeflich & Senseman, printers. Pp. 16.

Higher Education of Medical Men. By F. D. Lente, M. D. New York; C. L. Birmingham & Co. 1881. Pp. 16.

A Syllabus of Anglo Saxon Literature. By J. M. Hart, University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. 1881. Pp. 69.

The Strong Galvanic Current in the Treatment of Sciatica. By V. P. Gibney, M. D. Philadelphia: Collins, printer. 1880. Pp. 11.

Second Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Colorado. Denver, Colorado: Tribune Publishing Co. 1881. Pp. 133.

Nasal Catarrh and Ozæna. By George Pyburn, M. D. Sacramento, California: Day & Joy, printers. 1881. Pp. 16.

Clinical Anatomy of the Lower Extremity. By W. W. Keen, M. D., of Philadelphia. Illustrated. Brooklyn, New York. 1881. Pp. 20.

The Structure and Affinities of Euphoberia: a Genus of Carboniferous Myriapoda. By Samuel H. Scudder. Reprint from the "American Journal of Science." Pp. 5.

Tidal Theory of the Forms of Comets. By George W. Coakley. Salem, Massachusetts. 1880. Pp. 18.

"Papillo." Organ of the New York Entomological Club. Vol. I, No. 1. New York. January, 1881. Pp. 12. Subscription, $2 per annum (ten numbers).

Third Annual Announcement of the Normal and Scientific School, Morris, Illinois. Morris. 1880. Pp. 22.

On the Constitution of the Naphthalines and their Derivatives. By M. M. P. Reverdin and E. Notting. Translated from the German by M. Benjamin, Ph.B., and T. Tonnele, Ph.B. Pp. 8.

Indications of Character in the Head and Face. By U. S. Drayton, A.M. Illustrated. New York: Fowler & Wells. 1851. Pp. 48. Price, 1.5 cents.

Pueblo Pottery. By F. W. Putnam. From the "American Art Review" for February, 1881. Illustrated. Pp 4.

The Spirit of Education. By M. l'Abbé Amable Béesau. Translated by Mrs. E. M. McCarthy. Syracuse. New York: C. W. Bardeen. 1881. Pp. 325. $1.25.

Reminiscences of Dr. Spurzheim and George Combe. By Nahum Capen. LL. D. New York: Fowler & Wells. 1881. Pp. 262. $1.50.

Drugs that enslave. The Opium, Morphine, Chloral, and Hashisch Habits. By U. H. Kane, M.D. Philadelphia: Presley Blakiston. 1881. Pp. 204. $1.50.

First German Book. After the Natural or Pestalozzian Method. By James H. Worman, A.M. New York and Chicago: A. S. Barnes & Co. Pp. 63. 35 cents, post-paid.

The Baldwin Locomotive Works. Illustrated. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1881. Pp. 153. $5.

The Human Body: An Account of its Structure and Activities, and the Conditions of its Healthy Working. By H. Newell Marten. D. Sc, etc. Illustrated. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1881. Pp. 655. $1.75.