y 



710 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



good to take up at any time of the day and 

 to read steadily or in five to fifteen minute 

 intervals. Six of the papera first appeared 

 in the North American Review (Roberts 

 Brothers, $1.50). 



The second volume of The Cambridge 

 Natural History (Macmillan, $3.50) contains 

 a connected and comprehensive history of 

 the flatworms and mesozoa, nemertines, 

 threadworms and sagitta, rotifers, polychaet 

 worms, earthworms and leeches, gephyrea 

 and phoronis,. and polyzoa. These various 

 subdivisions are dealt with by special stu- 

 dents and zoologists. The chapters on poly- 

 chaet worms, gephyrea and phoronis, and 

 polyzoa are particularly acceptable as bring- 

 ing together much information that has here- 

 tofore been locked up in special memoirs. 

 In the chapter on rotifera, Prof. Hartog pre- 

 pents for the first time his views on the zoo- 

 logical affinities of the group. He says : " I 

 have been induced to take a view of the 

 structure of the rotifers that brings it into 

 close relationship with the lower platyhel- 

 minthes and with the more primitive larva of 

 the nemertines termed pilidium." He there- 

 fore changes the orientation of the rotifer, 

 and places it, like the cuttlefish, mouth down- 

 ward. For anterior and posterior he substi- 

 tutes oral and apical ; for dorsal and venti-al 

 he uses anterior and posterior. As in the 

 volume on insecta, the name of the author of 

 the first chapter only stands conspicuously 

 on the cover. The volume and the whole 

 series, in fact, is in a way so encyclopedic in 

 its character that it seems as much out of 

 place to have an author's name on the cover 

 as it would be to see a single author's name 

 on an encyclopicdia. The volume is an indis- 

 pensable adjunct to the library of a natural- 

 ist. The beautiful illustrations, the matter, 

 well up to the latest researches on the sub- 

 ject, and the fact that specialists in each de- 

 partment have contributed to its material, 

 bringing in their own original work, make 

 the series unique and invaluable. 



The United States Weather Bureau has 

 issued a folio pamphlet on Surface Currents 

 of the Great La/;f.s, deduced from the courses 

 taken by floating bottles put into the waters 

 of the lakes in 1892, 1893, and 1894. Of 

 the five thousand bottles set afloat by the 

 Bureau, six hundred and seventy two had 



been recovered up to the preparation of this 

 report. The text is accompanied by a chart 

 of each lake, showing the courses taken by 

 the bottles each season, and the movements 

 of the waters which these courses indicate. 



The Report of the Commissioner of Edu- 

 cation for the Year 1893-94 makes two vol- 

 umes of the familiar form containing over 

 a thousand pages each. The usual statistics 

 are accompanied by a large number of essays 

 on educational topics. The reports of the 

 " Committee of Fifteen " on training of teach- 

 ers, on correlation of studies, and on city 

 school systems, which have aroused wide- 

 spread interest, are here printed ; Rev. A. D. 

 Mayo contributes a history of public schools 

 during the colonial and revolutionary period;". 

 A digest of school laws in the several States 

 and of sanitary laws affecting schools occu- 

 pies about three hundred pages. Other fea- 

 tures are A Preliminary List of American 

 Learned and Educational Societies, giving 

 the officers, objects, and publications of each, 

 and Some Recent Educational Bibliographies. 

 There was an increase of over four hundred 

 thousand pupils in the public schools of the 

 country during the year, against an average 

 of less than three hundred thousand for the 

 preceding ten years. 



A useful contribution to the current dis- 

 cussion of the money question is afforded in 

 No. 74 of the Old South Leaflets, Hamilton's 

 Report an the Coinage. All the important 

 phases of the currency problem are dis- 

 cussed calmly and thoroughly in this mas- 

 terly report of the first Secrefciry of the 

 Treasury, and it is highly instructive to see 

 how an able financier, unatfected by any of 

 the prejudices of the present day, looked at 

 matters that are now in hot dispute. The 

 report makes a pamphlet of thirty-two pages. 

 (Directors of the Old South Work, Boston, 

 5 cents a copy, $3 a hundred.) 



Describing his book, Tite Perfect Whole 

 (Ellis, $1.50), in its preface, Horatio W. 

 Dresser says : " Thus, broadly defined, the 

 purpose of this book is threefold psycho- 

 logical, metaphysical, and practical. As a 

 psychological analysis, it is especially con- 

 cerned with the higher or spiritual nature of 

 man. As a philosophical discussion, it aims 

 to develop a generally sound view of reality by 

 a consideration of materialism, agnosticism, 



