4H 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nae. A flushing of the lacunae, so to speak, 

 takes place now and then when the shells 

 open and close. 



The author has frankly stated in his 

 preface that the book must necessarily be 

 tinged with his own opinions, and therefore 

 the reviewer can only express disagreement 

 with the position he has assigned to certain 

 groups, notably the Lamellibranchs, Echino- 

 derms, and Amphioxus, and to the use of 

 the word type. Despite the minor errors, 

 which can be corrected in a subsequent edi- 

 tion, we heartily commend the book, and 

 congratulate the author for his fairness in 

 accrediting drawings to their proper source. 



Elements- of Mineralogy, Crystallogra- 

 phy, and Blowpipe Analysis from a 

 Practical Standpoint. By Alfred J. 

 Moses, E. M., Ph. D., and Charles L. 

 Parsons, B. S. New York : D. Van 

 Nostrand Company. Pp. 342. 



A thorough and systematic study of 

 mineralogy is the ideal of this book. The 

 part on crystallography is illustrated with 

 one hundred and seventy-one figures ; it de- 

 scribes the use of the hand and the reflec- 

 tion goniometers, and contains a chapter on 

 clinographic projection of crystal figures. 

 The symbols of Weiss, Naumann, Dana, and 

 Miller are given with the several forms. The 

 chapters on blowpipe analysis include sys- 

 tematic schemes of operation. More than 

 half of the volume is devoted to descriptive 

 mineralogy, in which, after some account of 

 the physical and chemical characters of 

 minerals, the species are taken up by groups, 

 as the iron minerals, the manganese miner- 

 als, zinc and cadmium minerals, etc. As the 

 book is made from a practical standpoint, 

 the chief uses and localities of each mineral 

 are included in its description. This part is 

 also fully illustrated with forms of crystals, 

 bringing the whole number of figures up to 

 three hundred and thirty-six. A series of 

 i allies for determinative work and two in- 

 dexes complete the volume. 



A large fund of information about pub- 

 lic affairs is crowded into Tlie Daily News 

 A! ma line and Political Register for 1895 

 (I bicago, 25 cents). It includes rates of the 

 old and new tariffs, statistics of imports and 

 exports, of manufactures, agriculture, mort- 

 gages, the liquor trade, pensions, etc., etc. ; 



accounts of the labor disturbances, the Ha- 

 waii affair, and other matters ; a register of 

 the national Government, the army, navy, 

 and diplomatic service, important legislation 

 by Congress, election returns, events of the 

 year, including sporting events, and many 

 other things that it is often convenient to 

 refer to. 



The Aeronautical Annual for 1895, ed- 

 ited by James Means (W. B. Clarke & Co., 

 Boston, $1), is made up largely of historic 

 matter. Some account of Leonardo da Vinci 

 is given, with reproductions of his mechan- 

 ical drawings and extracts from his Treatise 

 upon the Flight of Birds. This is followed 

 by essays on aerial navigation, by Sir George 

 Cayley, Bart., published in 1809 and 1810, 

 by Thomas Walker in 1810, by F. H. Wen- 

 ham in 1866; Benjamin Franklin's aero- 

 nautical correspondence, 1783 to 1786; and 

 some minor fragments. There are also a 

 bibliography of aeronautics, an essay on The 

 Problem of Manflight, by the editor, 1894, 

 and an editorial article on the prospects of 

 aeronautics. The volume is illustrated with 

 repi-oductions of many quaint engravings. 



The Smithsonian Geographical Tables, 

 prepared by R. S. Woodward, is an out- 

 growth and further development of the idea 

 embodied in the meteorological tables pre- 

 pared by Dr. Arnold Guyot, at the request 

 of Prof. Henry, and published in 1852 in the 

 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. This 

 work passed through four editions, the last 

 having been published in 1884. This edition 

 was exhausted in a few years, and a recast- 

 ing, rather than a revision, of the work was 

 called for; and it was decided by Prof. 

 Langley to publish the new work in three 

 parts Meteorological Tables, Geographical 

 Tables, and Physical Tables each repre- 

 sentative of the latest knowledge in its field, 

 and independent of the others. The Me- 

 teorological Tables were published in 1893. 

 The present is the second work in the con- 

 templated series. It includes an introduc- 

 tory part and tables. The introductory part 

 is divided into seven sections under the heads 

 Useful Formulas, Mensuration, Units, Geol- 

 ogy, Astronomy, Theory of Errors, and Ex- 

 planation of Source and Use of Tables. The 

 forty-two tables, involving various factors of 

 geodetical and astronomical measurement, 

 occupy one hundred and seventy pages. 



