LITERARY NOTICES. 



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"Journal of Social Science," containing 

 the Transactions of the American 

 Association, December, 1882. Sara- 

 toga Papers of 1882. Boston: A. Wil- 

 liams & Co. New York: G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons. Pp. 164. $1. 



The present number of tbe " Journal " 

 contains, besides tbe opening address of 

 the President of the Association, Professor 

 Francis Wayland, and the report of the 

 General Secretary, the papers read at the 

 meeting in the Health and the Social Econ- 

 omy Departments. Among the papers in 

 the former department we notice especially 

 those of Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, on " The Health 

 Care of Households, with Especial Refer- 

 ence to House Drainage" ; of Dr. D. F. Lin- 

 coln, on "The Health of Boys' Boarding- 

 Schools " ; of Dr. E. M. Mosher, on " The 

 Health of Criminal Women " ; and of Dr. 

 A. N. Blodgett, on " The Management of 

 Chronic Inebriates and Insane Drunkards." 

 Two papers in the Social Economy Depart- 

 ment, those of Mrs. Robinson on "Early 

 Factory Life in New England " and Lucy 

 Larcom on " American Factory Life," de- 

 pict a condition of life and, intelligence 

 among factory-operatives, and relations be- 

 tween employers and employed, which Amer- 

 icans were once proud of, and foreigners 

 admired, but which have now thanks 

 largely to the protective policy become 

 things of the past, and which we can hardly 

 hope to enjoy again. 



On the Value of the " Nearctic," as one 

 of the Primary Zoological Regions. 

 By Professor Angelo Heilprin. Phila- 

 delphia. Pp. 20. 



The "Nearctic," in Messrs. Sclater and 

 Wallace's classification, corresponds with 

 the North American zoological region, as 

 distinguished from the Palaearctic or Eur- 

 Asian, and the Neotropical, or South Amer- 

 ican, regions. The question under discus- 

 sion is " whether the Nearctic region should 

 be kept separate, or whether it should form 

 part of the Palaearctic or of the Neotropical 

 regions." Eminent authorities differ on 

 the subject. Professor Heilprin makes an 

 examination, by families, genera, and spe- 

 cies, of the mammalia, birds, reptiles, and 

 partially the butterflies and mollusca of 

 the three regions, inquiring how many of 

 each are common to the Nearctic and one 



of the two others, and to which of the two ; 

 and concludes " that, by the community of 

 its mammalian, batrachian, and reptilian 

 characters, the Nearctic fauna ... is shown 

 to be of a distinctively Old World type, and 

 to be indissolubly linked to the Palaearctic 

 (of which it forms only a lateral extension)." 

 The conclusion is further illustrated by the 

 mollusca and the butterflies. 



Department of Agriculture : Report of 

 the Entomologist for the Year end- 

 ing June 30, 1882. By Charles V. 

 Riley, M. A., Ph. D. Washington : Gov- 

 ernment Printing-Office. Pp. 168, with 

 Twenty Plates. 



The present report, which necessarily 

 covers only a small part of the work actu- 

 ally done in the entomologist's office, is de- 

 voted to some of the more important obser- 

 vations and experiments of a practical na- 

 ture on such subjects as the cultivation of 

 pyrethrum and its use as an insecticide, 

 silk-culture, the cotton-worm, the chinch- 

 bug, the army-worm, the insects affecting 

 the orange and those affecting rice, some 

 new depredators on corn, and various mis- 

 cellaneous insects that attracted more than 

 usual attention during the year. The large 

 number of letters, asking for information, 

 received at the office, has led to the prepara- 

 tion of bulletins on special subjects to be 

 sent out. Such bulletins are ready on the 

 Northern army-worm, the boll- or corn-worm, 

 and canker-worms, and others are in prepa- 

 ration on cabbage-insects and the chinch- 

 bug. Three special reports, which will be 

 more bulky, are in preparation a bibliog- 

 raphy of economic entomology, and reports 

 on the insects affecting the orange-tree, and 

 forest-tree insects. 



Bulletin of the Buffalo Naturalists' 

 Field Club. Vol. I. Nos. 1 and 2. 

 Charles Linden, President ; George S. 

 Wardwell, Corresponding Secretary. 

 Buffalo, N. Y. : W. W. Hicks, Printer. 

 Bimonthly. Pp. 48. Price, $1 a year. 



The club was organized in 1S80, and has 

 shown great vitality and enlisted much in- 

 terest. Being in a condition to establish a 

 periodical of its own, and that seeming de- 

 sirable, it has originated the " Bulletin," the 

 plan of which is to publish brief summaries 

 of general papers read at the winter meet- 

 ings of the club, short original papers, or 



