LITERARY NOTICES. 



421 



booklet of practical directions for acquiring 

 plumpness of form, strength of limb, and 

 beauty of complexion, with rules for diet and 

 bathing, and a series of improved physical 

 exercises, based on the text of William Milo, 

 of London. It gives much sound and inter- 

 esting hygienic lore for ten cents. 



The President's Annual Report of Colum- 

 bia College for 1891 presents a record of a 

 very full year of changes and progress inci- 

 dent to a lively growth. The College of Phy- 

 sicians and Surgeons, which has been affili- 

 ated since 1860, is now fully consolidated as 

 a part of the institution. An important ad- 

 dition to the faculty is the institution of the 

 Da Costa Professorship of Biology, with Prof. 

 H. F. Osborn as its incumbent, and Dr. Bash- 

 ford Dean as instructor. Prof. Osborn has 

 been appointed Curator of Mammalian Pale- 

 ontology in the American Museum of Natural 

 History, and the first important step has been 

 taken toward co-operation of that institution 

 and the college. Another movement in the 

 direction of co-operation has been made in 

 the arrangement with the Union Theological 

 Seminary for interchange of privileges. The 

 Law School has been reorganized, with a new 

 course of three years, and a new chair of In- 

 ternational Law and Diplomacy. The De- 

 partment of English has also been reorgan- 

 ized, and a Department of Literature created, 

 with Mr. George E. Woodberry as professor. 

 The faculty of philosophy, philology, and let- 

 ters has been further strengthened by the 

 creation of the chair of Experimental Psy- 

 chology, with Prof. J. McK. Cattell as pro- 

 fessor. Other changes, rather incidental than 

 fundamental, are noticed in the report. 



The Ninth Annual Report of the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural Experiment Station rep- 

 resents that a favorable season has aided 

 materially in a successful termination of a 

 variety of field experiments as well as in a 

 satisfactory general management of the farm- 

 work. The introduction of a vegetation-house 

 for the purpose of studying, under well-de- 

 fined circumstances, the influence of special 

 articles of plant-food on the growth and char- 

 acter of plants and other intricate questions 

 of vegetable physiology, is mentioned as an 

 important addition to the resources of the in- 

 stitution. The report embodies detailed ac- 

 counts of feeding experiments, field experi- 

 ments and observations in vegetable physi- 



ology and pathology, special work in the 

 chemical laboratory, and meteorological ob- 

 servations. 



The work of the Connecticut Experiment 

 Station, as presented in its report, has includ- 

 ed analyses of commercial fertilizers ; test- 

 ing samples of butter, oleomargarine, molas- 

 ses, and vinegar ; analyses of feeding stuffs ; 

 various tests and analyses of milk, cream, 

 etc. ; experiments on the continuous growth 

 of Indian corn on the same land ; tests of the 

 relative yield, in the course of years, of pota- 

 toes from tubers of different sizes ; studies of 

 the albuminoids or proteids of the seeds of 

 the oat, flax, and cotton; and experiments, 

 chemical and other, on the curing of to- 

 bacco. 



The Indiana Experiment Station has suf- 

 fered some changes in the personality of its 

 staff, but its efficiency has not been impaired 

 thereby. A study has been made for several 

 years bearing upon the suitability of Indiana 

 as a sugar-beet producing State, with encour- 

 aging results under certain conditions and in 

 certain parts of the State. Investigations are 

 in progress on the application of nitrogenous 

 fertilizers to wheat. The plant diseases of 

 grain, smut, a bacterial affection of the sugar- 

 beet, and maladies of carnations have been 

 studied. The lumpy jaw of cattle is under 

 investigation. The feeding experiments re- 

 late to the influence of the physical condi- 

 tion of the rough food on meat production 

 in steers ; comparative rations of whole and 

 skim milk for calves ; different forms of feed- 

 ing corn, and rations designed for producing 

 lean or fat meat in pigs. 



The Nebraska experiment station is grad- 

 ually becoming recognized as an important 

 factor in the agriculture of the State. The 

 number of farmers who turn to the office for 

 information is rapidly increasing ; and the 

 demand for the bulletins, which go regularly 

 into the hands of more than five thousand 

 actual farmers, is very great. The bright 

 promise of the beet-sugar industry has led to 

 giving it prominence in the shaping of in- 

 vestigations and in the report. Besides ac- 

 counts of field experiments and meteorologi- 

 cal observations, the report also contains a 

 catalogue of the native trees and shrubs of 

 Nebraska and " farm-notes " on many sub- 

 jects. 



The report of S. A. Forbes, State Ento- 



