562 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



American Nervousness, its Causes and 

 Consequences. A Supplement to Ner- 

 vous Exhaustion (Neurasthenia). By 

 George M. Beard, A. M., M. D. New 

 York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 352. 

 Price, $1.50. 



The author believes that nervousness 

 " strictly, deficiency or lack of nerve-force " 

 is a modern affection, and that it is mani- 

 fested in the United States through a variety 

 of symptoms that are peculiar in many re- 

 spects to the country, and remarkable. He 

 ascribes its great development and rapid 

 increase chiefly and primarily to modern 

 civilization, which is different from the an- 

 cient civilization by a number of character- 

 istics which breed mental activity and anx- 

 iety about time-tables, and excitements about 

 matters of politics and business, for which 

 the ancients had only a limited concern. It 

 is aided by secondary and tertiary causes 

 which might be comparatively unimportant 

 in themselves alone, but which, combined 

 with each other and with the chief cause, 

 exert each its own kind and degree of effect. 

 The symptoms by which this nervousness is 

 manifested, numerous as they are, and un- 

 pleasantly as they often exhibit themselves, 

 do not all betoken ill to the country ; for 

 brain-workers have in all ages been long- 

 lived, longevity increases apace with ner- 

 vousness ; good taste, the beauty of women, 

 the faculty of humor, the eloquence of ora- 

 tory, increase with it ; the evil of it tends, 

 within certain limits, to correct itself; "and 

 the physical future of the American people," 

 says the author, " has a bright as well as a 

 dark side ; increasing wealth will bring in- 

 creasing calm and repose ; the friction of 

 nervousness shall be diminished by various 

 inventions ; social customs shall be modi- 

 fied, and as a consequence strength and 

 vigor shall be developed at the same time 

 with, and by the side of, debility and ner- 

 vousness." 



The Library. By Andrew Lang. With a 

 Chapter on Modern English Illustrated 

 Books, by Austin Dorson. London: 

 Macmillan & Co. Pp.184. Price, $1.25. 



The purpose of this work is explained 

 in its own pages thus : " There are, in every 

 period of taste, books which, apart from 

 their literary value, all collectors admit to 

 possess, if not for themselves, then for 



others of the brotherhood, a peculiar pre- 

 ciousness. These books are esteemed for 

 curiosity, for beauty of type, paper, binding, 

 and illustrations, for some connection they 

 may have with famous people of the past, 

 or for their rarity. It is about these books, 

 the method of preserving them, their ene- 

 mies, the places in which to hunt for them, 

 that the following pages are to treat." 



The Microscope and its Relation to Med- 

 icine AND Pharmacy. Edited and pub- 

 lished by Charles H. Stowell, M. D., 

 Assistant Professor of Physiology and 

 Histology, University of Michigan, and 

 Louisa Reed Stowell, M. S., Assistant 

 in Microscopical Botany, University of 

 Michigan. An Illustrated Bimonthly 

 Journal, Vol. I, No. 1. Ann Arbor, 

 Michigan. Detroit: George S. Davis. 

 Pp. 32. Price, $1 per year. 



While, in other medical journals that 

 give attention to microscopy, microscopic 

 topics are made secondary to medical ones, 

 the conductors of this journal intend to give 

 the most prominence to those subjects es- 

 pecially related to the microscope. The 

 present number contains four original arti- 

 cles in the special department of the maga- 

 zine, and presents matters of general interest 

 to physicians and pharmacists, under the 

 heading of " Editorial Abstracts." 



Principal Characters of American Juras- 

 sic Dinosaurs. By Professor 0. C. 

 Marsh. Pp. Y, with Seven Plates. 



The discovery of a nearly complete skel- 

 eton of Brontosaurus has added many new 

 points to our knowledge of the group of 

 Dinosauria, some of which are given in the 

 present paper. A second species, equally 

 gigantic in size, has since been found, and 

 two new genera from the same formation, 

 all of which are noticed, and an outline of 

 classification of the group is proposed. 



Information for Emigrants. The Climate, 

 Soils, Timhers, etc, of Kentucky, con- 

 trasted with those of the Northwest. 

 By John R. Procter. Frankfort, Ken- 

 tucky : Kentucky Geological Survey and 

 Bureau of Immigration. Pp. 29. 



The Bureau of Immigration has already 

 issued several publications setting forth the 

 resources of Kentucky. Persons interested 

 in the settlement of the North west have pub- 



