562 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



reader than for the antiquary, and this idea 

 has been kept in mind during the revision. 

 There is a useful bibliograpliy appended. 

 (Philadelphia: David McKay, $2.) 



The Coming Ice Age, by C. A. M. Taher, 

 is an attempt to show the manner in which 

 an ice age is being brought about, and is an 

 extension, the author says, of a treatise pub- 

 lished in 1894 on The Cause of Warm and 

 Frigid Zones. The author's notion seems to 

 be that ocean currents, in conjunction with 

 winds and slight modifications in coast line, 

 are sufficient to bring about the great changes 

 in climate necessary to produce a glacial 

 epoch in present temperate regions. The 

 author sums up as follows : " Consequently, 

 there seems to be no method yet devised 

 through Nature's mode of action that can 

 carry sufficient heat into the antarctic lati- 

 tudes to melt the ice sheets from the south- 

 ern continent, or even arrest their growth, 

 while the Cape Horn channel maintains its 

 present width and depth. Therefore the in- 

 crease of glaciers and icebergs will slowly 

 continue until a glacial epoch is perfected." 



The Transactio7is of the Kansas Academy 

 of Science for the years 1893-'94 has just 

 come to hand. The volume begins with an 

 article by the retiring president, entitled 

 " Small Things," in which he calls attention 

 to the great importance in scientific investi- 

 gation of apparently trivial details. There 

 are a number of mathematical papers, among 

 which may be mentioned The Inverse of 

 Conies and Conchoids from the Center, and 

 Harmonic Forms. A long and well-illustrated 

 account of Kansas Mosses is the most im- 

 portant paper in the botanical section. Mr. 

 Robert Hay contributes a paper on the Eco- 

 nomic Geology of the River Counties of 

 Kansas, to which is appended an exhaustive 

 bibliography. 



Modern Optical Instruments, by Henry 

 Orford, is intended apparently as an elemen- 

 tary text-book of practical optics. The con- 

 struction and properties of the human eye 

 are described in the earlier pages, as are 

 also some of the commoner aberrations and 

 defects to which our eyes are subject. The 

 following chapters, which deal with the the- 

 ory and practice of ophthalmoscopic exami- 

 nation, with the various forms of spectacles 

 and the principles governing their use and 



selection, the stereoscope, the optical lan- 

 tern, and the spectroscope, contain a very 

 good elementary consideration of these va- 

 rious subjects. (Macmillan, 80 cents.) 



Special Method in Natural Science is the 

 title of No. 4 of a series of special methods 

 in the common-school studies. It is intended 

 to give the teacher " a general view of the 

 problem of science-teaching." As in most 

 books of this class, many of the suggestions 

 seem trivial and unnecessary. Some of the 

 hints, however, are good, and very possibly 

 the others may be useful to that large class 

 of teachers who are such through "circum- 

 stances," and not because of any special 

 training or ability which they have for teach- 

 ing. (Public School Publishing Company, 

 Washington, 111., 50 cents.) 



An extended work on Oceanic Ichthyol- 

 ogy, by the late Dr. George Brown Goode 

 and Dr. Tarleion H. Bean, has been issued 

 by the Smithsonian Institution. It consists 

 of technical descriptions of all forms of 

 fishes found in the seas of the world, accom- 

 panied by an atlas of 123 plates bearing 417 

 figures. The text forms a volume of 553 

 quarto pages and contains many new facts. 

 This treatise appears at a time when no 

 deep-sea explorations are in progress, and 

 the final ichthyological results of all past ex- 

 peditions have been published. The authors 

 have aimed to assemble in it all existing sci- 

 entific data concerning oceanic fishes, and it 

 is not likely to be superseded as an authority 

 for many years. Its preparation was carried 

 on in great part amid the pressure of offi- 

 cial duties. It was first ready for printing 

 in 1885, was revised and rewritten in 1888 

 and in 1891, and again in 1894 as it was 

 going through the press, these- changes be- 

 ing made necessary by successive publica- 

 tions of new material. For the senior author, 

 whose death occurred within the same month 

 in which it was issued, this is a truly monu- 

 mental work. 



The Tenth Annual Report of the Commis- 

 sioner of Labor, for 1894, makes a thick oc- 

 tavo volume and another about half as thick. 

 It is devoted to strikes and lockouts, cover- 

 ing those occurring in the United States 

 from January, 1887, to June, 1894, and 

 forming a continuation of the Third Annual 

 Report. For each disturbance there are 



