LITERARY NOTICES. 



567 



Lectures delivered to the Employes of 

 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 

 Company. By Professor II. Newell 

 Martin and Drs. Henry Sewell, Will- 

 iam T. Sedgwick, and William K. 

 Brooks, of Johns Hopkins University. 

 Baltimore: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad 

 Company. Pp. 98. 



The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com- 

 pany maintains two reading-rooms for the 

 men in its employ, but it had been observed 

 that only a part of those for whom the rooms 

 were intended availed themselves of them. 

 Professor Martin suggested to President 

 Garrett that the men who were not readers 

 might be induced to attend free popular 

 scientific lectures, and proffered the ser- 

 vices of himself and his biological col- 

 leagues in the Johns Hopkins University. 

 The lectures were delivered in February, 

 18S2, before audiences of twice as many 

 deeply interested hearers as were expected. 

 They were on " How Skulls and Backbones 

 are built," by Professor Martin ; " How we 

 move," by Dr. Sewall ; " Fermentation," by 

 Dr. Sedgwick ; and " Some Curious Kinds of 

 Animal Locomotion," by Dr. Brooks. They 

 are popular in character and are published 

 in their present form by the railroad com- 

 pany for free distribution among the men 

 who heard them, and among others in its 

 employ who were not able to attend them. 



The Unending Genesis ; or, Creation ever 

 present. By H. M. Simmons. Chicago : 

 The Colegrove Book Company. Pp. 111. 



A pleasantly conceived and pleasant- 

 tempered essay on the phenomena of nature 

 in the light of the Biblical story of the 

 creation, the purpose of which is to show 

 that creation is not and is not to be a com- 

 pleted process, but one that is ever recur- 

 ring, the object of continual renewals, and 

 still as fresh and living in its repetitions of 

 to-day as when it first began to operate. 



Proceedings of the Davenport Academy 

 of Natural Sciences. Vol. Ill, Part 

 III. 1879-1881. Davenport, Iowa: 

 Published by the Academy. Pp. 130, 

 with Four Plates. 



The volume which is completed by the 

 publication of this part contains a large 

 number of contributions on subjects of ge- 

 ography, geology, natural history, and an- 

 tiquities, which speak well for the activity 



and intelligent zeal with which the members 

 of the Academy perform their self-imposed 

 work. Most of the papers record the re- 

 sults of local investigations around Dav- 

 enport, which seems to be situated in a 

 district of much scientific interest. Other 

 papers concern the larger field of investi- 

 gations opened by our rapidly developing 

 Western Territories. The whole of the third 

 part of the volume is occupied with the me- 

 morials and writings of the late youthful but 

 devoted President of the Academy, Joseph 

 Duncan Putnam, in whose death science 

 evidently has suffered a great loss. Besides 

 the memorial addresses and biographical 

 sketches, its principal feature is the publi- 

 cation in full of Mr. Putnam's notes on the 

 Solpugidce a family between the scorpions 

 and the spiders of North America. 



Proposed Ordinance and Rules and Reg- 

 ulations for Plumbing, House-Drain- 

 age, etc., in the City of Philadelphia. 

 As reported by the Committee of Twen- 

 ty-one. Philadelphia : P. Blakiston, 

 Son & Co. Pp. 13. Price, 20 cents. 



The "Committee of Twenty-one" con- 

 sisted of plumbers, architects, physicians, 

 and citizens, interested in sanitary matters. 

 The plumbers, as a body, submitted their 

 suggestions, and the architects did the 

 same. The committee, guided by these 

 aids and their discussions, elaborated the 

 ordinance which, in the shape in which it 

 is here presented, constitutes a valuable 

 epitome of the essentials of sanitary plumb- 

 ing and engineering. 



" Appalachia," April, 1883. Vol. Ill, No. 

 2. Appalachian Mountain Club. Bos- 

 ton : W. B. Clarke & Carruth. Pp. 104. 

 Price, 50 cents. 



The present number of this interesting 

 journal contains an article on " Mountain Ob- 

 servatories," by Professor Pickering ; a pa- 

 per by Mrs. John Tatlock, Jr., on the " Vari- 

 ations of Barometric Measurements of Alti- 

 tude with the Season " ; descriptive accounts, 

 from explorations, of the Twin Mountain 

 Range, the Blue Hills (of Norfolk County, 

 Massachusetts), the Mountains of Eastern 

 Cuba, and Roan Mountain, North Carolina ; 

 reports of officers, and of the work of the 

 Club ; and proceedings of meetings. In 

 the course of the past three years, the 



