274 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



revising the determinations of the atomic 

 weights of all the elements. lie does not 

 claim that any of the results he has reached 

 are final, but admits that each one of them 

 is liable to repeated corrections. The real 

 value of the work, he believes, lies in an- 

 other direction ; the data have been brought 

 together and reduced to a common standard, 

 and the probable error has been determined 

 for each series of figures. Thus the ground 

 is cleared, in a measure, for future experi- 

 menters. 



The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning : 

 A Manual for Housekeepers. By Ellen 

 H. Richards, Instructor in Chemistry, 

 Woman's Laboratory, Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology. Boston: Estes 

 & Lauriat. Pp. 90. Price, $1. 



We are glad to see such a book by such 

 an author from such a place. A lady en- 

 gaged in teaching practical chemistry in an 

 institute of technology, and applying her sci- 

 ence to the art of improving domestic life, 

 affords an example of the fitness of things 

 which is seen much too rarely. To the eye 

 of a stupid public opinion, cooking and clean- 

 ing are very vulgar things the operations 

 of menials and scullions. But to the eye of 

 science they are most interesting processes, 

 tasking thought to master them, giving 

 pleasure in understanding them, and valu- 

 able benefit in applying them. To the eye 

 of ignorance, however cultivated, there is 

 nothing about cooking and cleaning that is 

 worthy of respect, and they are therefore 

 left to the incompetent, who give us bad 

 work ; but, if they were better understood, 

 practice would be improved, and we should 

 have more wholesome cookery and more per- 

 fect cleanliness. 



Mrs. Ricbards's neat little brochure is a 

 contribution to domestic education which, 

 though too slight, will be well appreciated. 

 It is not an attempt to compress a great 

 deal of information in a small compass, but 

 to make the subject clear as far as it is 

 treated. Her " Chemistry of Cooking " is at 

 the same time a course of brief lessons in 

 chemistry ; that is, enough of the science is 

 thoroughly explained to make its applica- 

 tions intelligible. We cordially commend 

 it as an excellent beginning in a direction 

 that must in future be more carefully and 

 thoroughly pursued. 



The Geological and Natural History 

 Survey of Minnesota. Ninth Annual 

 Report, for the Year 1880. By N. H. 

 Winchell, State Geologist. St. Peter, 

 Minnesota. Pp. 392, with Six Plates. 



The work of the year covered by this 

 report consisted chiefly of the arrangement 

 for the museum of the crystalline rocks 

 gathered during the previous seasons in the 

 northern part of the State, including the 

 cupriferous series ; determinations in pale- 

 ontology ; examinations of building-stones ; 

 the study of the hydrology and water- 

 powers ; field work in the southwestern part 

 of the State ; and the examination of the 

 " Lake region " of the center, with reference 

 to hydrology and the distribution of forest- 

 trees. 



La Lumiere F^lectrique ; son Histoire, sa 

 Production, et sonEmploi. (The Elec- 

 tric Light ; its History, Production, and 

 Employment.) By Em. Alglave and 

 J. Boulard. Paris. 



The authors have taken advantage of 

 the revelations which the recent Interna- 

 tional Electrical Exposition at Paris afford- 

 ed of the extent to which electrical force 

 has been developed as a working power, 

 and the variety of purposes to which it has 

 been practically applied, to prepare this ele- 

 gant work, showing what has been done in 

 that direction, when, and how. The large 

 mass of material which they had to dispose 

 of has been divided among six books, in the 

 first of which is reviewed the history of arti- 

 ficial illumination, and the different phases 

 through which it has passed from the dimly 

 tempered darkness of the ancients, with their 

 rude oil-lamps, through the stages of tallow, 

 sperm, and stearine candles, and the improved 

 lamps of modern days, to the beginnings of 

 the electric light. The second book treats 

 of voltaic or arc lights, the manner in which 

 the arc is produced, the fabrication of the 

 carbons, and the mechanism of the regulat- 

 ing apparatus, and furnishes descriptions of 

 the different lights of this class. The third 

 book is devoted to incandescent lamps, and 

 includes descriptions of the Edison, Swann, 

 Lane Fox, and Maxim lamps. In the fourth 

 book the different kinds of apparatus for 

 generating the electric current, and in the 

 fifth book the several systems for securing 

 its distribution and division, are described ; 



