LITERARY NOTICES. 



4i3 



mittee that " between deaths and appari- 

 tions of the dying person a connection exists 

 which is not due to chance alone." Some 

 other remarkable cases seem to indicate action 

 on the part of the dead, but the committee 

 does not deem them anything like sufficient 

 to establish post mortem agency. 



Manual of Geology. By Jamks D. Dana. 

 Fourth edition. New York : American 

 Book Company. Pp. 1088. 



Prof. Dana's Manual has been an author- 

 ity for a generation, its first edition having 

 appeared in 1863. It has always been of 

 especial value to American students from 

 the fact that it has treated geology with es- 

 pecial reference to American geological his- 

 tory. In the new edition, for which the 

 work has been wholly rewritten, this fea- 

 ture has been preserved. Historical geology, 

 in fact, occupies about two thirds of the 

 volume, three hundred pages being devoted 

 to the dynamical side of 'the science, while 

 the physiographic and structural divisions 

 together occupy one hundred. So many 

 new facts and hypotheses have been brought 

 forward in the last fifteen years that the au- 

 thor felt obliged to increase the quantity of 

 matter, both text and illustrations, in the 

 book by fifty per cent. A peculiar interest 

 attaches to this edition from the death of 

 Prof. Dana two months after completing the 

 supervision of its publication. It is fortu- 

 nate for students of geology that he was 

 able to finish his task. 



The Astrophysical Journal. An Inter- 

 national Review of Spectroscopy and As- 

 tronomical Physics. Vol. I, Nos. 1 and 2, 

 January and February, 1895. George 

 E. Hale and James E. Keeler, Editors. 

 Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

 Pp. 100. Annual subscription, $4. 



The plan of this journal was conceived 

 by Mr. Hale several years ago, but was modi- 

 tied on consultation with Prof. Payne, of the 

 Sidereal Messenger, and a union of forces re- 

 sulted in the publication, in January, 1892, 

 of the periodical Astronomy and Astrophys- 

 ics. This periodical was, during three 

 years, a leading organ of astronomical re- 

 search, and its career was highly creditable 

 to American science. A separation of in- 

 terests has now taken place, Popular As- 

 tronomy being continued as a journal of the 



character indicated by its title, and Mr. Hale 

 returning to his original plan of conducting 

 a journal of Astronomical Physics. In prep- 

 aration for this undertaking the co-operation 

 of eminent astronomers the world over has 

 been secured, and besides those of its editors 

 in chief the Astrophysical Journal bears the 

 names as assistant editors of J. S. Ames, of 

 Johns Hopkins; W. W. Campbell, of the 

 Lick Observatory ; Henry Crew, of the North- 

 western University ; E. B. Frost, of Dart- 

 mouth College ; and F. L. 0. Wadsworth, of 

 the University of Chicago ; and as associate 

 editors, of ten eminent working astronomers 

 in Europe and America. The scope of the 

 journal includes all investigations of radiant 

 energy, whether conducted in the observatory 

 or in the laboratory especially photographic 

 and visual observations of the heavenly bod- 

 ies, spectroscopic, photometric, bolometric, 

 and radiometric work of all kinds ; descrip- 

 tions of instruments and apparatus used in 

 such investigations ; and theoretical papers 

 bearing on any of these subjects. 



A Text-book of Invertebrate Morphology. 

 By J. Playfair McMurrich, M. A., Ph. D. 

 New York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 661. 

 Price, $4. 



A student of the invertebrates will wel- 

 come this new work by Prof. McMurrich. 

 The various subdivisions are fully discussed, 

 and an excellent bibliography follows each 

 group. The illustrations are abundant 

 enough and in the main clear, though one 

 would wish for better drawings, some of 

 which, especially in the Mollusca, are posi- 

 tively bad. In a work of so comprehensive 

 a nature the author would have avoided 

 many minor mistakes if he had submitted 

 each section to a specialist. Under the 

 Brachiopods we are told that the shells are 

 similar to those of the Lamellibranchs, 

 whereas neither in origin, structure, nor po- 

 sition is there the slightest similarity. In 

 stating the composition of the Brachiopod 

 shell as carbonate of lime he overlooks Lin- 

 gula, in which the composition is phosphate 

 of lime. He says there are no organs of 

 hearing in Brachiopods, while Lingula has 

 very distinct auditory vesicles. He states 

 that the circulation is induced by the con- 

 traction of the body wall, whereas circula- 

 tion is due to the ciliary lining of the lacu- 



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