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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



substitution to simplify integration it is 

 sought to economize the time and effort of 

 the student. 



The Birds of Indiana, by Amos W. 

 Butler, lately published as part of Willis S. 

 Blatchley's Twenty-second Annual Report on 

 the Geology and Natural Resources of Indiana, 

 is just at hand. It is one of the most accu- 

 rate, detailed, and satisfactory local catalogues 

 yet published. Three hundred and twenty- 

 one species of birds have been taken in In- 

 diana, and of each of these is given a detailed 

 description, with a general account of its 

 habits, song, migration, and nesting. In the 

 case of the more rare species, full records of 

 the dates and places of capture of the known 

 specimens are appended. Analytical keys to 

 genera and species are also given, so that 

 every facility is furnished for the identifica- 

 tion of species. This book is a model of its 

 kind, and is a worthy fruit of Mr. Butler's 

 twenty years of devoted study of the birds of 

 his native State. 



Robert H. Whitten, in his monograph on 

 Public Administration in Massachusetts — the 

 relation of central to local activity — pursues 

 a parallel course with that taken by Mr. John 

 A. Fairlie in a similar essay on the Centrali- 

 zation of Administration in New York State> 

 of this same series of Columbia University 

 studies in History, Economics, and Public 

 Law. Having found the systems and tend- 

 encies of administration in the early settle- 

 ment of Massachusetts all for expansion and 

 decentralization, Mr. Whitten now perceives 

 the course altogether changed, and centrali- 

 zation more and more the rule. The change 

 corresponds with changes in the conditions 

 of life, and keeps track with them step by 

 step. Of great dynamic forces which have 

 been set to work and are bringing about a 

 complete reconstruction of the social struc- 

 ture, improvements in transportation and 

 communication were the most vital — first, 

 turnpikes, then the steamboat, railroad, and 

 telegraph ; then the horse railway, cheap 

 postage, the telephone, the electric railway) 

 and the bicycle. The tendency at first was 

 to bring about a concentration which was 

 attended by the congestion of population in 

 cities and the depopulation of the rural 

 towns. " The electric railway, the telephone, 

 and the bicycle came in to counteract these 



evils ; while their tendency is strongly toward 

 the centralization of bureaus, it is also toward 

 the diffusion of habitations. These great 

 socializing forces, going hand in hand with 

 the development of the factory system and 

 improvement of machinery, make possible a 

 vastly higher organization of society than 

 was possible under a stagecoach regime." 



The first volume of the Final Report of 

 the State Geologist of New Jersey, on Topog- 

 raphy, Magnetism, and Climate, was pub- 

 lished in 1888. Other volumes embracing 

 other topics have been published since, and 

 in the meantime the supply of the first vol- 

 ume has been exhausted, while the demand 

 has continued. It has been therefore neces- 

 sary either to reprint the volume or to pub- 

 lish a new work which should include the 

 important statistical matter of it. According- 

 ly, we have now The Physical Geography of 

 New Jersey, prepared by Prof. Rollin D. 

 Salisbury, with an appendix embodying 

 " Data pertaining to the Physical Geology of 

 the State," by Mr. C. C. Vermeule, who was 

 formerly in charge of the topographic sur- 

 vey, and is author of the volume on water 

 supply. The two parts of the volume treat 

 of the topography of New Jersey as it now is, 

 and the geological history of the topography. 

 The report is accompanied by a relief map of 

 the State, prepared by Mr. Vermeule on the 

 basis of the topographical survey, and pre- 

 senting, therefore, an accurate picture of the 

 relief. It shows the great features of the 

 State, its ranges of mountains, hills, table- 

 lands, plains, marsh lands, streams, and water 

 areas in their proper relations to one an- 

 other ; and it is contemplated to put it in 

 every schoolhouse in the State as an aid in 

 the study of geography. 



M. Imbert de Saint- Amanda series of 

 books about the Second French Empire fur- 

 nish very interesting reading, are, so far as 

 our recollection of events goes, historically 

 accurate, and fill a gap which the literary 

 world always has to suffer concerning any 

 period too recently passed for a competent 

 judicial mind to have appeared to tell its 

 story. The second of the series — Napoleon 

 III and his Court — takes Louis Napoleon at 

 the height of his success and happiness, just 

 after he had married the beautiful Eugenie, 

 of w horn the world has nothing harsh to say, 



