POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



423 



Thayer, William R. The Best Elizabethan Plays. 1 

 Boston : Ginn & Co. Pp. 611. $1.40. 



Thompson, Robert Ellis, D. D. The Life of 

 George H. Stuart, written by Him=elf. Philadelphia : 

 J. M. Stoddart & Co. Pp. 333, with Portrait. 



Tolstoi, Count Leo. The Kreutzer Sonata. 

 Boston : Benjamin R. Tucker. Pp. 143. 



"Ward, Lester F. The Course of Biological Evo- 

 lution. Washington : Biological Society. Pp. 33. 



Whiting, Harold. Experiments in Physical 

 Measurement Cambridge : John Wilson & Son. 

 Pp. 278. 



Winslow. Arthur, State Geologist. Geological 

 Survey of Missouri. Bulletin No. 1. Jefferson City. 

 P|». 85. 



Zoe, a Biological Journal. Monthly. Vol. I, No. 

 2. San Francisco. Pp. 32, with Plate. 20 cents; 

 $2 a year. 



Zurcher, Rev. George, Buffalo Plains, N. Y. 

 Handcuffs for Alcoholism, Pp. 132. 25 cents. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Geological Survey-Work in Minnesota. 



— The law of 1872, under which the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Minnesota was instituted, 

 was intended, according to Prof. N. H. 

 Winchell, to place the survey in close con- 

 nection with the State University ; and the 

 professorship of Geology and Mineralogy in 

 the university was maintained for six years 

 at the expense of the survey fund. From it 

 the museum of the university has obtained 

 the nucleuses of growing geological, zoo- 

 logical, and archaeological collections. The 

 survey was supported by legislative appro- 

 priations till the revenue from the sale of 

 salt-springs lands supplied their place. The 

 economic side of the enterprise has been 

 kept in mind constantly, though it has not 

 been conspicuous. " The annual reports em- 

 body common facts, and description cast in 

 a semi-scientific mold. They are addressed 

 primarily to a home constituency, in order 

 to show them the utility of the work of the 

 survey. As the survey becomes grounded 

 in the good-will of our own citizen?, it is 

 strengthened for doing more advanced work, 

 and at the same time finds a constituency 

 that is ready to welcome more strictly scien- 

 tific publications." Among the most im- 

 portant results of the work of the survey 

 have been the saving of the salt-springs 

 lands from being devoured by speculative 

 enterprises ; dissuading citizens, by the 

 publication of correct information on the 

 subject, from making fruitless searches for 

 coal ; calling attention to the economic re- 

 sources of the State ; and showing the 

 people how to secure cheaply a supply of 



pure water for domestic purposes. The 

 scientific results, while not including any 

 great new discoveries, have been numerous, 

 and^ all have a place in the elucidation of 

 geological theory. The unfinished work 

 of the survey lies in the northern part of 

 the State, and, embracing the crystalline 

 rocks and the various questions of econom- 

 ic and technical geology that pertain to them, 

 is the most important as well as the most 

 difficult and costly part of its work. 



Summer Courses at Harvard. — The 



courses of summer instruction at Harvard 

 University will include four courses in chem- 

 istry (general elementary chemistry, qualita- 

 tive analysis, quantitative analysis, and or- 

 ganic chemistry) ; courses in experimental 

 physics and botany, geology (elementary and 

 advanced) ; topography, French, German, and 

 physical training ; and courses at the medi- 

 cal school. A general course of lectures on 

 methods of instruction will be given in ad- 

 dition by teachers in the several departments 

 represented by the schools, open free to all 

 members of the summer schools. Persons 

 are admitted as special students in the uni- 

 versity who desire to pursue for a year or 

 more the study of some particular subject ; 

 and who, having received a high-school or 

 academy training, wish to follow for one or 

 more years a course of liberal study prepara- 

 tory to some profession or to the walks of 

 active life. The summer courses will open 

 on different days between June 30th and 

 July 9th, inclusive. 



Nature's Earth-Carving.— As the tools 

 used by Nature in carving the earth, Dr. 

 Archibald Geikie enumerates air, rain, riv- 

 ers, springs, and frost. , Exposure to the 

 air changes the hardest rocks. Cracks 

 form in them which receive the rain and are 

 enlarged by freezing in winter, to increase 

 the effect of the next season's rain in wash- 

 ing away the surface. No rock wears away 

 faster than white marble, the destruction of 

 which is speeded by the carbonic acid in the 

 air. The waste in a century sometimes 

 amounts to a third of an inch in thickness. 

 The more compact kinds of sandstone en- 

 dure better, and in tombstones still, after 

 the lapse of two centuries, show marks of 

 the chisel. Sandstones, however, usually con- 



