POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



421 



Taylor, W. E. The Box Tortoises of North. 

 Ameiica. U. S. National Museum. Pp. 16. 



University of the State of New York. Report 

 of the Examination Department, 1894. Pp. 122. 



Warming, Dr. E. A. Handbook of Systematic 

 Botany. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 020. 

 $3.75. 



Warren, Lillie Eginton. Speech Revealed in 

 Facial Expressions. New York : E. S. Werner. 



Wheelbarrow on the Labor Question. Chi- 

 cago : The Open Court Publishing Company. 

 Pp. 303. 35 cents. 



Wheeler, Oliver D. Sketches of Wonderland. 

 St. Paul, Minn. Pp. 105. 



Werner, The, Company. Self-Culture. Month- 

 ly. May, 1895. Pp. 48. 20 cents, $2 a year. 



Wright, Mabel Osgood. Bird Craft. A Field 

 Book of Two Hundred Song, Game, and Water 

 Birds. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 317, 

 with 15 Two-page Colored Plates. 



United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. 

 Legal Units of Electrical Measure in the United 

 States. Pp. 2. The Constant of Aberration as 

 determined from Observations of Latitude at San 

 Francisco, Cal. Pp. 10. The Direction and In- 

 tensity of the Earth's Magnetic Force at San 

 Francisco, Cal. Pp. 4. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Meeting of the American Association. 



The forty-fourth meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 will be held in Springfield, Mass., August 

 28th to September 7th. Ample provisions 

 have been made by the local committee for 

 the accommodation of the association and its 

 sections and for the entertainment of those 

 who will attend. The meetings will be held 

 in the Young Men's Christian Association 

 building, where the offices will be and the 

 general meetings will be held ; the Art 

 Museum, the high-school building, Christ 

 Church Parish House, Unity Church Chapel, 

 State Street Baptist Church lecture rooms, 

 South Church Chapel, and Evangelist Hall. 

 A large list of excursions has been arranged, 

 to places in the vicinity of Springfield and 

 some longer ones, adapted to almost every 

 taste, a large proportion of them being to 

 factories or laboratories where manufac- 

 turing processes and scientific methods are 

 practically illustrated, and a considerable 

 number to interesting geological fields. 

 Meetings of affiliated societies will be held 

 as follows : Geological Society of America, 

 August 27th and 28th ; Society for Promo- 

 tion of Agricultural Science, August 26th ; 

 Association of Economic Entomologists, date 

 not given; Association of State Weather 

 Service, date not given ; American Chemical 

 Society, August 27th and 28th ; American 



Forestry Association, September 3d; Botan- 

 ical and Entomological Club of America, 

 during the week. The president for the 

 year is E. W. Morley, of Cleveland, O. ; per- 

 manent secretary, F. W. Putnam, Cambridge, 

 Mass. ; general secretary, James Lewis Howe, 

 Lexington, Va. ; treasurer, R. S. Woodward, 

 New York. 



Lu Chn Islands Politics. The history of 

 the Lu Chu Islands for several centuries has 

 consisted, according to Prof. Basil Hall Cham- 

 berlain, of " an attempt to sit on both sides 

 of the fence." With China on the one hand 

 and Japan on the other, " the kinglet of Lu 

 Chu was driven into being a sort of Mr. Fac- 

 ing-both-ways ; and the whole nation more 

 or less, or at any rate the higher official class, 

 came to have a double set of manners one 

 for use vis-d-vis the first of its inconveniently 

 big neighbors, the other vis-d-vis the second. 

 Thus the Japanese copper ' cash,' with which 

 of late some of the commercial transactions 

 of life had been carried on in the absence 

 of any native money, were always carefully 

 kept out of sight when the Chinese officials 

 were by to see. On the other hand, the 

 Chinese year names commonly current in Lu 

 Chu were ignored as far as possible in dip- 

 lomatic intercourse with Japan. Even in 

 matters of food the poor little Lu Chuans 

 tried to make themselves all things to all 

 men." Of the two patrons China was the 

 favorite, notwithstanding that Japan was 

 more nearly allied by race. The Chinese 

 overlordship was rather nominal than real, 

 and the tribute-ships despatched annually to 

 Fu Chau did such good strokes of business 

 under the rose that the Lu Chuans actually 

 requested to be allowed to send more tribute 

 to China than the amount originally stipu- 

 lated. 



Undisturbed Nature. M. de Conferon 

 relates in La Nature that a fox, which had 

 established itself on his place, made nightly 

 excursions for several months into his gar- 

 den and yard. He was rather pleased with 

 the visits than otherwise, being a lover of 

 animals, and interested in the study of the 

 habits of this one. The marks the fox left 

 behind him indicated that, while he might 

 be fond of grapes, he could eat a great num- 

 ber of rats and mice, and of beetles and oth- 



