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79 



Gage, A. P. Principles of Physics. Boston : 

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Grindon, L. H. The Sexuality of Nature. 

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 75 cents. 



Guerber, H. A. Contes et Legends. Pp. 181. 

 GO cents ; and Myths of Northern Lands. Pp. 

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Hensoldt, Heinrich. Prospectus of Popular 

 Lectures on Oriental Travel. Pp. 14. 



Hertwig, Oscar. The Cell. Translated by 

 Henry Johnstone Campbell. New York : Mac- 

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MacClure, Theodore R. Babies. Pp. 50. 



Macnie, John. Elements of Geometry. New 

 York : American Book Co. Pp. 374. $1.25. 



Miall, Prof. L. C. The Natural History of 

 Aquatic Insects. New York : Macmillan & Co. 

 Pp. 39. $1.75. 



Parkes, Louis. Elements of Health. Phila- 

 delphia : P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 245. 

 $1.25. 



Practical Science Monthly. Devoted to the 

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Singleton, M. T. Gravitation and Cosmological 

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Smith, John B. (Smithsonian Bulletin). Con- 

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Warren, L. E. Speech revealed in Facial 

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Webster's Academic Dictionary. New York : 

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The Rod Cross. The organization known 

 as the Red Cross is the result of the interna- 

 tional treaty of Geneva, and has for its object 

 the prevention or amelioration of suffering 

 incurred in war. All military hospitals under 

 its flag are neutral, and can not be attacked 

 or captured. Surgeons, nurses, chaplains, at- 

 tendants, and all non-combatants wearing its 

 badge, all supplies, and whatever else, under 

 its care, are likewise protected. In this 

 country it has a civil branch, known as the 

 "American Amendment," which other coun- 

 tries are adopting, and which provides relief 

 against woes arising from fire, flood, pesti- 

 lence, and other national calamities. As late 

 as the Crimean War, civil help for military 

 necessities was unknown, and Florence Night- 

 ingale walked into a pathless field. In our own 

 civil war relief was afforded by the Sanitary 

 and Christian Commissions. The Red Cross 

 became active first in the Franco-German 

 War of 1870-71, and the annals of that war 

 were not stained by any record of needless 



inhumanity or cruelty to wounded or sick. 

 Since then no war between nations within 

 the treaty has taken place in which the Red 

 Cross has not done its work, maintained its 

 position, and been respected. Under the 

 " American Amendment '' it has had a share, 

 according to Miss Clara Barton, its originator 

 and leading spirit, in relief work in the case 

 of the forest fires of Michigan in 1881 ; the 

 overflow of the Mississippi in 18S2 ; the 

 drought in Texas in 1886; the relief of the 

 sufferers from the Mount Vernon cyclone in 

 1888 ; the yellow-fever epidemic in Florida 

 in 1888; the Johnstown disaster in 1889; 

 the Russian famine in 1891-92; and the 

 hurricane and tidal wave of the South Caro- 

 lina sea-island coast in 1893-'94. It has also, 

 during that time, taken part in several inter- 

 national movements. 



Unsolved Problems in the Manufacture 

 of Light. In a lecture before the Royal So- 

 ciety of Canada, on Unsolved Problems in 

 the Manufacture of Light, Prof. John Cox 

 showed that in practice not more than from 

 seven to sixteen per cent of the energy stored 

 in the coal can be extracted by the steam 

 engine, and theoretical considerations fix an 

 absolute limit to the perfection of that ma- 

 chine, so that we can never hope to convert 

 so much as thirty per cent of the coal by any 

 form of heat engine. This is one of the un- 

 solved problems unsolved, but still capable 

 of solution if some means of extracting ener- 

 gy from coal otherwise than by heat, and 

 more like the methods used in burning zinc 

 in a battery, can be discovered. In the sec- 

 ond stage of the process for producing the 

 electric light, the dynamo is already nearly 

 perfect, and hardly any heat is lost in its 

 conversion into an electrical current. We 

 reach the third stage, the lamp, with some 

 seven per cent of the original energy still 

 available. In this stage our only means of 

 producing luminous energy is to heat the 

 molecules of some substance, whereby we 

 are compelled to waste the greater part of 

 our efforts in producing heat, which is worse 

 than useless, before we obtain the light rays. 

 " Here, then, is the second unsolved problem, 

 since even in the incandescent lamp and the 

 arc lamp not more than from three to five 

 per cent of the energy supplied is converted 

 into light. Thus of the original store in the 



