SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



853 



of Jordan and Gilbert's Synopsis of the 

 Fishes of North America, but with the text 

 entirely rewritten and eoveriug a greater 

 geographical range than the Synopsis. By 

 the extension of range, which brings in the 

 faunas of Mexico, Central America, and the 

 West Indies, the number of species included 

 has been more than doubled. The fact to 

 which the authors call attention, that over 

 a hundred species have been added to the 

 list within the time taken for printing the 

 present volume, shows that there is still work 

 to be done in the same field. The classifi- 

 cation and sequence of groups adopted for 

 this catalogue is essentially that of Dr. 

 Theodore Gill, freely modified to suit the 

 present purposes of the authors. In the 

 arrangement of the families and genera they 

 have endeavored to avoid unnatural associa- 

 tions and incoherent groups, even at the 

 risk of what may seem an excessive subdi- 

 vision. Among the forms commonly called 

 fishes the authors recognize three classes 

 Leptocardii, Marsipobranchii, and Pisces. 

 The present part of the work extends to 

 twelve hundred and forty octavo pages, and 

 contains descriptions of sixteen hundred and 

 twenty-seven species, of which four are Lep- 

 tocardii and eleven are Marsipobranchii. 

 An atlas is to accompany the work when 

 completed. 



Mr. James Bryce has prepared an abridged 

 edition in one volume of his able and popular 

 work on The American Commonwealth in or- 

 der to make the book more available for the 

 unexpected demand that has arisen for it as 

 a text-book in American colleges and high 

 schools (Macmillan, $1.75). The abridg- 

 ment is divided into three parts, dealing re- 

 spectively with the National Government, 

 the State Governments, and Political Meth- 

 ods. In selecting the parts of the original 

 work to be used in the single volume the au- 

 thor has been aided by Jesse Macy, Profess- 

 or of Political Science in Iowa College. The 

 Constitution of the United States is ap- 

 pended, and the volume contains lists of the 

 Presidents, the States, and important events, 

 together with a full and carefully made in- 

 dex. 



The method of Cairnsh Manual of 

 Quantitative Chemical Analysis, which has 

 now reached a third edition, is, by explain 



ing some of the more serious obstacles to 

 successful analysis, to teach thoughtfulness 

 and caution, and, by giving very explicit di- 

 rections in the earlier part of the course, to 

 induce habits of precision and enable the 

 student to proceed without fuither leading. 

 The important changes that have been made 

 in the practice of analytical chemistry since 

 1880, when the book was first published, 

 has rendered a thorough revision necessary, 

 and this has been given to it by Dr. Elwyn 

 Waller. The editor has aimed to give de- 

 scriptions and directions for such methods 

 as are generally pursued in most analytical 

 laboratories, with brief references to the 

 theory of other methods, that the student 

 may have presented to him one or two plans 

 of procedure which find acceptance to-day, 

 and at the same time suggestions of other 

 plans which may lead to modifications of 

 our present methods. Radical changes hav- 

 ing been made in the science and practice of 

 quantitative proximate analysis since the 

 death of the author, ail the chapters relating 

 to that subject have been cut out, leaving 

 only what was always the chief feature of 

 his work, namely, mineral analysis. Both the 

 author and the editor have been instructors 

 in analysis at the Columbia School of Mines. 

 (Holt, $2.) 



An addition to the number of journals 

 representing the science of chemistry in this 

 country has been made by the establishment 

 of Tlie Journal of Physical Chemistry at 

 Cornell University. It is to be issued month- 

 ly, except in July, August, and September, 

 under the editorship of Profs. Wilder D.. 

 Bancroft and Joseph E. Trevor. The first 

 number contains papers on Irreversible Cells, 

 by A. E. Taylor ; Chemistry and its Laws, by 

 F. Wald ; and a second paper on Ternary 

 Mixtures, by Wilder D. Bancroft. There are 

 also several book notices and a department 

 of reviews, conducted by a board of six 

 reviewers, in which are given critical digests 

 of recently published papers bearing on 

 physical chemistry. (The Editors, Ithaca, 

 N. Y., $2.50 a year.) 



The treatise on The Magnetic Circuit in 

 Theory and Practice, by Dr. H. du Bois, 

 which has been translated by Dr. Atkinson 

 (Longmans, $4), is designed to be a system- 

 atic and critical account, from the physical 



