FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



135 



Mivart, St. George. The Groundwork of Sci- 

 ence. A Study of Epistemology. New York: 

 G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.328. $1.75. 



Mustek, John R. Lights and Shadows of our 

 War with Spain. New York: J. S. Ogilvie Pub- 

 lishing Company. Pp. 224. 



Muter, John. A Short Manual of Analytical 

 Chemistry, Qualitative and Quantitative— Inor- 

 ganic and Organic. Second American edition. 

 Philadelphia : Blakiston's Son & Co. Pp. 228. 

 $1.25. 



New Jersey, Geological Survey of. Annual 

 Report of the State Geologist for 1897. Pp. 368. 



New World, The. A Quarterly Review of Re- 

 ligion, Ethics, and Theology. September, 189S. 

 Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 200. 75 

 cents. $3 a year. 



New York State College of Forestry at Cornell 

 University. Announcement. Pp. 40. 



Shufeldt, Dr. R. W. On the Alternation of Sex 

 in a Brood of Young Sparrowhawks. Pp. 4. 



Smith. William B. Infinitesimal Analysis. Vol. 

 I. Elementary; Real Variables. N>-w York. The 

 Macmillan Company. Pp. 352. $3.25. 



Thomson, J. J. The Discharge of Electricity 

 through Gases. New York: Charles Scribner's 

 Sons. Pp. 203. $1. 



Ui'iversity of Tennessee Record. Knoxville. 

 Pp.80. 



Venable, P. P., and Howe, J. L. Inorganic 

 Chemistry according to the Periodic Law. Eas- 

 ton, Pa.: The Chemical Publishing Company. 

 Pp.266. $1.50. 



Wilson, L. L. W. History Reader for Ele- 

 mentary Schools. New York: The Macmillan 

 Company. Pp. 403. 60 cents. 



Wright, Mabel Osgood, and Chapman, Frank 

 M. Four-footed Americans and their Kin. New 

 York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 432. $1.50. 



fragments uf Jcietxce. 



Carbonic Aeid and Glaciation. — In a 



paper on Hypotheses bearing on Climatic 

 Changes, Prof. T. C. Chamberlin takes up a 

 suggestion of Tyndall's that the periods of 

 terrestrial glaciation might be dependent 

 upon the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere, 

 the peculiar competence of which to retain 

 solar heat he had demonstrated. Following 

 out the doctrine of atmospheric loss on its 

 own lines, although only in a tentative way 

 as yet, he seems to find a rhythmical action 

 that may in part explain the glacial oscilla- 

 tions. The idea, he says, hinges on the action 

 of the ocean as a reservoir of carbon dioxide, 

 and on the losses of the organic cycle under 

 the influence of cold. Cold water absorbs 

 more carbon dioxide than warm water. As 

 the atmosphere becomes impoverished and 

 the temperature declines, the capacity of the 

 ocean to take up carbonic acid in solution in- 

 creases. Instead, therefore, of resupplying 

 the atmosphere in the stress of its impover- 

 ishment, the ocean withholds its carbon diox^ 

 ide to a certain extent, and possibly even 

 turns robber itself by greater absorption. 

 So also, with increased cold the progress of 

 organic decay becomes less active, a greater 

 part of the vegetal and animal matter re- 

 mains undecomposed, and its carbon is there- 

 by locked up ; and hence the loss of carbon 

 dioxide through the organic cycle is in- 

 creased. The impoverishment of the atmos- 

 phere is thus hastened and the epoch of 



cold is precipitated. With the spread of 

 glaciation the main crystalline areas whose 

 alteration is the chief source of depletion 

 become covered and frozen, and the abstrac- 

 tion of carbon dioxide by rock alteration is 

 checked. The supply continuing the same, 

 by hypothesis, re-enrichment begins, and 

 when it has sufficiently advanced warmth 

 returns. With returning warmth the ocean 

 gives up its carbon dioxide more freely, the 

 accumulated organic products decay and add 

 their contribution of carbonic acid, and the 

 re-enrichment is accelerated and interglacial 

 mildness is hastened. 



Additions to the Missouri Botanical Gar- 

 den. — We learn from the ninth annual report 

 of the Missouri Botanical Garden that while 

 the decorative features were maintained in 

 1897 in about the same manner as hereto- 

 fore, considerable additions have been made 

 in certain classes, especially orchids, and the 

 collections of cultivated species, with their 

 named varieties, are now estimated to num- 

 ber about five thousand. Circumstances 

 made possible material additions to the con- 

 tents of the herbarium ; and, besides the 

 purchased current collections, rather larger 

 and more numerous than usual, the garden 

 has secured the herbarium of the late J. H. 

 Redfield, very rich in earlier collections rep- 

 resenting the flora of the United States ; the 

 herbarium of the late Dr. J. F. Joor, contain- 



