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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



scriptions are suggestive as to what the 

 facts may have been, rather than satisfying 

 as to what they were ; and the gaps between 

 them are so numerous and so wide as to 

 make a complete restoration of the history 

 6till impracticable. Hence wide differences 

 of opinion as to many of the essential feat- 

 ures still prevail among those who are 

 equally entitled to be regarded as authori- 

 ties. Yet great advances have been made 

 in the study, and a large number of the 

 more important facts have been made cer- 

 tain. They are almost enough to give us 

 the clew to the course of the history from 

 the beginning. These facts the authors 

 have sifted from the conjectures and specu- 

 lations and discussions of controverted points 

 with which the literature respecting ancient 

 Egypt is encumbered, and have presented 

 them in their order, and with reference to 

 their bearing ; and they have thus given, in 

 a readable shape, a notion of what is actu- 

 ally known on the subject. 



The Story of the Normans. Told chiefly 

 in Relation to the Conquest of England. 

 By Sarah Orne Jewett. New York: 

 G'. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 373. Price, 

 $1.50. 



This is one of the volumes of the hap- 

 pily conceived " Story of the Nations " se- 

 ries, and the one, perhaps, of those which 

 have been published, that possesses the 

 most immediate interest to American read- 

 ers, as telling of a people through whom, in 

 more than one sense, we partly derive our 

 ancestry and our institutions. The story is 

 presented in the attractive form of a run- 

 ning narrative, in which, while the history 

 is faithfully adhered to and presented in its 

 connection, 6cope is given for the full play 

 of the romantic features and lively incidents 

 which appear to be inseparable from our 

 conceptions of Norman history, feudalism, 

 and the life of the middle ages. 



The Annual Index to Periodicals for 

 1886. Bangor, Me. : Q. P. Index, Pub- 

 lisher. Pp. 27. 



This is the sixth annual issue of this In- 

 dex and the second in the series of " Cumu- 

 lative Indexes." It furnishes a complete 

 index for the year to more than twenty-seven 

 periodicals. By a system of notation which, 

 odd as it looks at first, is easily learned and 



proves to be simple when learned, articles 

 are referred to their authors and authors to 

 their articles, and both to the precise issues 

 of the several magazines in which they ap- 

 pear. Another set of symbols indicates the 

 precise character of the several articles, 

 The whole is put into so compact a shape 

 that the present thin volume contains six- 

 teen hundred and eighty-eight separate en- 

 tries. 



First Book of Chemistry: A Course of 

 Simple Experiments for Beginners at 

 Home and in Primary Schools. By 

 Mary Shaw Brewster. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 144. Price, 

 77 cents. 



To make the educational influence of the 

 study of chemistry available for young pu- 

 pils is the object of this little hand-book. 

 In the words of the preface, " It aims to 

 stimulate in the beginner, by the natural 

 method of observation and experiment, a 

 desire to know about every-day phenomena 

 to lead him to question for himself, and 

 then to answer his own inquiry, not by ap- 

 pealing to book or teacher, but by refer- 

 ence to the facts presented." Generally 

 the pupil is told only how to proceed, and 

 is left to discover the results of experi- 

 ments by his own observation. Only those 

 experiments are employed whose bearings 

 can be readily comprehended, and which 

 can be performed with utensils and materi- 

 als found in the homes and stores of any 

 village. But little of chemical theory or 

 nomenclature has been introduced. The 

 pupil is first led to observe the difference 

 between a mixture and a chemical com- 

 pound, and is further made acquainted with 

 chemical affinity, solution, crystallization, 

 precipitation, filtration, and other funda- 

 mental ideas and processes. Then, after a 

 presentation of the properties of acids, bases 

 and salts, the common elements are taken 

 up separately. The book is illustrated, and 

 contains lists of apparatus and materials 

 needed for experiments. 



Report of the Ladies' Health Protective 

 Association of New York. 1885-86. 

 Mrs. M. J. Herbert, Secretary. Pp. 15. 



The Association was organized in No- 

 vember, 1884, for the purpose of dealing 

 with some of the "east-side nuisances" of 



