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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sold in the State during the rear, and one 

 hundred and seventeen other analyses of fer- 

 tilizers of various kinds were made. Other 

 analyses or tests were made of feeding-stuffs, 

 seeds, milk, well- and spring-water, and soils, 

 and cases of suspected poisoning of animals 

 were inquired into. Four bulletins were pub- 

 lished, and sent to the post-offices for dis- 

 tribution to agricultural societies and clubs, 

 to newspapers, and, on application, to pri- 

 vate addresses; and hektograph copies of 

 analyses are liberally sent out as soon as 

 the analyses are finished. 



Old School Days. By Amanda B. Harris. 

 Chicago and Boston: Interstate Pub- 

 lishing Company. Pp. 109, with Plates. 

 Price, 60 cents. 



This is a vivid reproduction, from 

 memory, of days and scenes and customs 

 that have passed away, and live only in the 

 traditions of those who are now fathers and 

 mothers. It brings before us the New 

 England country school-house of forty or 

 fifty years ago, with the children plainly 

 dressed, and most of them barefooted. The 

 story can not fail to be pleasing to those 

 who would recall the days when they were 

 children, and to those who would enjoy a 

 representation of what their parents did 

 and saw in the school. 



The Great Conspiracy ; its Origin and 

 History. By John A. Logan. New 

 York: A. E. Hart & Co. Pp. 810. 



This book will attract attention on ac- 

 count of the author's prominence in the 

 politics of the day, and will particularly in- 

 terest those who recollect his activity as a 

 soldier of the Union during the war of the 

 rebellion. In preparing the book it has 

 been his aim, he says, " to present in it, with 

 historical accuracy, authentic facts; to be 

 fair and impartial in grouping them ; and 

 to be true and just in the conclusions neces- 

 sarily drawn from them. While thus striv- 

 ing to be accurate, fair, and just, he has 

 not thought it his duty to mince words, nor 

 to refrain from ' calling things by their right 

 names ' ; neither ha3 he sought to curry 

 favor, in any quarter, by fulsome adulation 

 on the one side, nor undue denunciation on 

 the other, either of the living or of the 

 dead " ; in treating the subject, " he has 

 conscientiously dealt with it, throughout, in 



the clear and penetrating light of the volu- 

 minous records so readily accessible at the 

 seat of our national government. So far as 

 was practicable, he has endeavored to allow 

 the chief characters in that conspiracy, as 

 well as the Union leaders, ... to speak 

 for themselves, and thus, while securing 

 their own proper places in history, by a 

 process of self-adjustment, as it were, them- 

 selves to write down that history in their 

 own language." Nevertheless, the style of 

 the book is warm ; and many of the thoughts 

 and expressions seem more appropriate to a 

 period that survives only in history than to 

 the present, when men's thoughts are run- 

 ning in other channels, and their controver- 

 sies are on other questions than those that 

 engaged exclusive attention twenty years 



ago. 



Smithsonian Accounts of Progress in 1885. 

 Washington : Government Piinting-Of- 

 fice. 



Geography. By J. King Goodrich. Pp. 

 36. Mr. Goodrich has given a very readable 

 account of the year's work in geography, 

 which others than special students of the 

 subject will be interested in. Beginning 

 with " general notes " relating to the con- 

 dition and growth of geographical knowl- 

 edge as a whole, he arranges his review 

 under the special headings of the several 

 regions which have been fields of geo- 

 graphical research, with accounts of the 

 work done in each. 



Chemistry. By Professor H. Carring- 

 ton Bolton. Pp. 50. This account, though 

 short, gives the record of a busy year's work, 

 in which, while no startling discoveries have 

 been made, a great deal has been done in 

 the study of important questions relative to 

 the nature of the chemical radicals, their re- 

 lations to one another, and their reactions. 



Yulcanology and Seismology. By 

 Charles G. Eockwood, Jr. Pp. 23. The 

 study of this branch is still devoted largely to 

 individual manifestations, with much inquiry 

 for laws and causes, but few definite general 

 conclusions. It is given here as one of the 

 conclusions of Yerbeck's investigation of the 

 great Krakatoa eruption, that that volcano 

 lies at the intersection of three fissures of 

 the earth's crust, and the earthquake of Sep- 

 tember 1, 1S80, probably affected the Sunda 

 fissure and facilitated the entrance of great- 



