FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



7^7 



upon bacteria iu water, Prof. H. Marshall 

 Ward would explain the comparative freedom 

 of river waters under the blazing hot sum- 

 mer sun from bacteria as against the more 

 abundant infection of the same waters in 

 winter. Pasteur and Miquel found that the 

 germs floating in the air are for the most part 

 dead killed, the author holds, like the germs 

 in the air of the Alps, by the sun. Yeasts 

 which normally vegetate on the exterior of 

 ripening grapes are destroyed, according to 

 Martinaud, if the heat be very intense ; and 

 Giunti has observed that the ingress of sun- 

 light hinders acetic fermentation a bacte- 

 rial process. So the access of light appears 

 to be inimical to the germination and devel- 

 ment of fungi of various kinds. The de- 

 structive rays may be cut off by color screens, 

 and the protected germs can then sprout and 

 develop as easily as if no light was playing 

 upon them. Such color screens appear to 

 the author to be common in Nature, where 

 the spores and tender growing cells are com- 

 pelled to begin their vegetative processes in 

 the light. The green chlorophyll screen of 

 ordinary plants may fulfill this purpose. 

 When the typlioid bacillus falls into turbid, 

 dirty water in summer, it finds a congenial 

 propagating place. The dirt furnishes it 

 food, absorbs heat to increase the warmth, 

 and keeps off the hostile blue and violet 

 rays. 



The Appraisal of Books. The subject 

 of furnishing librarians and the public with 

 some general, comprehensive guide to the 

 character and real value of books is discussed 

 by Mr. George lies in a paper on The Ap- 

 praisal of Literature, which he presented to 

 the International Library Conference held 

 in London in July. The task of selecting 

 from the enormous mass of books now ap- 

 pearing daily to be bought or read is a be- 

 wildering one. How make it easier? Mr. 

 lies would reach the end .by a system of 

 shortened reviews, prepared and adjusted for 

 the purpose " a brief note of description, 

 criticism, and comparison, written by an 

 acknowledged authority, signed and dated, 

 and placed where the reader can not help 

 seeing it, both within the lid of the reviewed 

 book itself and on a card next the title- card 

 in the catalogue." If the book treats of a 

 question in debate, fact and opinion should 



be carefully distinguished, and views of op- 

 posed critics might be presented. By this 

 means the inquirer would know which book 

 is best, or among the best of its kind ; would 

 be made aware of defects ; would learn how 

 one book can gainfully piece out another; 

 and would gather indications of the period- 

 icals or transactions which bring a story of 

 discovery and research down to date. In a 

 final line he might be told where detailed 

 reviews are to be found. Persons qualified 

 to undertake this business of appraisal might 

 be found among professional reviewers, who 

 could " boil down " their larger reviews and 

 adapt them. The work might be placed 

 under the direction of a central superintend- 

 ency of the American Library Association ; 

 and in connection with it something might 

 be done "to rescue from neglect the great 

 books which, from such causes as the un- 

 timely death of their authors, or the sheer 

 brunt of advertisement, are overlaid by new 

 and much inferior writing." Starts have 

 been made toward this work in such manuals 

 as the Reader's Guide iu Economic, Social, 

 and Political Literature, the List of Books 

 for Girls and Women and their Clubs, and 

 the special lists of books on fine art and on 

 music. 



Man's Laugnage to Animals. The ex- 

 clamations we use in driving and calling 

 horses, oxen, cats, dogs, fowls, and other 

 domestic animals ai-e presented by Prof. H. 

 C. Bolton in a paper on the subject as af- 

 fording familiar illustrations of a language 

 of peculiar characteristics, whose words are 

 chiefly monosyllabic and dissyllabic, and 

 usually repeated in groups of three, utterly 

 devoid of grammar, exclusively in the im- 

 perative mood, and consisting of words not 

 found in the dictionaries, which serves as a 

 ready and suflScient means of communication 

 between man and the many races of animals 

 under his subjection. It has little in com- 

 mon with the language used by the animals 

 themselves, but is forced upon them by man 

 and made comprehensible to them by con- 

 stant repetition. The terms used are differ- 

 ent in different countries. In thus control- 

 ling the actions of domestic animals by the 

 voice, man makes comparatively little use 

 of the language by which he communicates 

 with his fellow-creatures, but employs a pe- 



