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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



completeness is given; and we have the folk music of various tribes and 

 nations, described and illustrated with specimens, in its different degrees 

 of development. Next, the religious aspect of music is referred to, and the 

 beginning of harmony is discussed in connection with the appearance of 

 Christian church music. The era of pure choral music succeeding this is 

 followed by the rise of secular music, with the history of opera swaying to 

 and fro in the struggle between the musical and dramatic elements for pre- 

 dominance. Instrumental music is next studied in its early and middle 

 stage; the sonata; and finally the modern developments, with all their 

 varieties of style and form. In these discussions the typical works of each 

 age. form, and style are described and analyzed, the work done by the com- 

 posers who have made epochs in the progress of the art or established new 

 forms is examined into, and each point is illustrated by the introduction of 

 scores. Wagner is the latest master who has left a distinct mark in the 

 growth of music, and the nature and effect of the most characteristic fea- 

 tures of his compositions are inquired into in what seems to us a truly 

 judicial spirit. 



GENERAL NOTICES, 



Chemistry in Daily Life * embodies the 

 substance of a course of lectures delivered by 

 Dr. Lassar- Cohn, Professor of Chemistry in 

 the University of Konigsberg, to a society 

 in that town modeled after the celebrated 

 Humboldt Academy of Berlin. The book is 

 written in a popular style, and covers a very 

 wide and important field. It is really a tech- 

 nological handbook of what is perhaps best 

 described as household chemistry The sub- 

 jects treated are necessarily extremely vari- 

 ous, and, except from the side of their im- 

 portance in th affairs of everyday life, are 

 not in many instances very closely connected. 

 The Physics and Chemistry of Breathmg, 

 Argon, Composition of Fats, Tetravalency 

 of the Atom of Carbon, Vaseline, and In- 

 candescent Gaslights are some few of the 

 special headings in the first two chapters, 

 and will perhaps serve to indicate the great 

 variety of topics treated. Perhaps the most 

 important chapters are the first five, which 

 deal chiefly with the chemistry of physiol- 

 ogy. Tanning and bleaching are given a 

 chapter. Oil painting, modern -explosives, 

 glass manufacture, photography, and metal- 

 lurgy are other subjects receiving special 

 attention. The work is necessarily more or 

 less superficial, but it contains much infor- 



* Cbemietry in Daily Life. By Dr. Lassar- 

 Cohn. Translated by M. M. Pattison Muir. Phila- 

 delpbia: J. B. Lippincott Co. Pp. ^U, 12mo. 

 Pxice, SL75. 



mation of importance to the ordinary house- 

 holder. The translation seems to have been 

 very well done. 



The importance which proper nursing is 

 known to have in therapeutics has led of 

 late years to systematic courses in this sub- 

 ject, both at general hospitals and in special 

 schools. These courses have made special 

 text-books a necessity. Dr. Wise's work * is 

 the latest handbook of this sort to reach us. 

 As the author says, the chief difficulty in a 

 text-book of nursing is to strike a happy me- 

 dium between a medical and a high-school 

 text-book to avoid extreme technicality on 

 the one hand and a too superficial treatment 

 on the other. Dr. Wise seems to have ac- 

 complished this. The first volume, with the 

 exception of the last four chapters, which 

 give some general instructions for the prep- 

 aration and care of the sickroom, is de- 

 voted to a statement of the simpler facts of 

 anatomy, physiology, hygiene, and sanitation 

 which have a bearing on nursing. It is the 

 second volume which is the real text-book. 

 Methods of applying local remedies and 

 bandaging are fii-st taken up. The treat- 

 ment of fractures, dislocations, inflammar 

 tion, and haemorrhage are next considered. 

 Emergency work, artificial respiration, con- 



* A Test-Book for Training Schools for 

 Nurses. By P. M. W^ise, M.D. 2 vols. New 

 York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, Pp. 347 and 327, 

 12ino. Price, $1.33 each. 



