LITERARY NOTICES. 



423 



fluences which affect the Power of Voluntary 

 Muscular Contractions, by Warren P. Lom- 

 bard ; The Influence of Temperature and of 

 Endocardiac Pressure on the Heart, and par- 

 ticularly on the Action of the Vagus and Car- 

 diac Sympathetic Nerves, by G. N. Stewart ; 

 and The Blood-Corpuscles of the Crustacea, to- 

 gether with a Suggestion as to the Origin 

 of the Crustacean Fibrin Ferment, by W. B. 

 Hardy. Cambridge, England : Cambridge En- 

 graving Company. Price, 12s. ; $5 a volume. 



Humanity and Health is a monthly jour- 

 nal, of which we have received the first num- 

 ber, published by E. A. Jennings, M. D., at 

 18 Clinton Place, New York. It is devoted 

 " to the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual 

 health of mankind " ; the just and humane 

 treatment of all men, women, and children ; 

 the inculcation of charity, of judgment, and 

 the spirit of forgiveness, to equal rights, the 

 cause of the oppressed, and other objects 

 pertaining to the welfare of mankind ; and we 

 observe that it has kind words for animals. 

 Pp. 14. Price, 10 cents ; $1 a year. 



Part I, Volume XXVI, of Annals of the 

 Astronomical Observatory of Harvard Col- 

 lege, relates to the Preparation and Discus- 

 sion of the Draper Catalogue, and is by Prof. 

 E. C. Pickering. The Draper Catalogue is 

 named from Dr. Henry Draper, who took in 

 1872 the first photograph of a star in which 

 the characteristic lines are visible. The 

 work, interrupted by his death in 1882, is 

 now continued at the Harvard Observatory 

 under the Henry Draper Memorial Fund 

 which was established by his widow. The 

 history and progress of the Memorial are de- 

 scribed in the introduction to the present 

 volume. The portion of Part I which fol- 

 lows this account gives a description and dis- 

 cussion of the Draper Catalogue and of the 

 other work done with the Bache telescope 

 from 1885 to 1889. Accounts of other divis- 

 ions of the work are promised in Part H, 

 which is yet to be published. 



The second part of the twentieth volume 

 of the Annals of the Observatory of Harvard 

 College gives an account, by A. Lawrence 

 Rotch, of the Observations made at the Blue 

 Hill Meteorological Observatory in 1889 a 

 history and description of the Observatory, 

 with an account of its instrumental equip- 

 ment and the methods of observation and 

 reduction, having been previously given in 



Part I of the volume. To the tables of the 

 year's observations are added appendixes 

 containing observations at Boston and at 

 Blue Hill during the five years 1886-1890, 

 with a summary of the diurnal and annual 

 periods at Blue Hill as shown by the tables. 



The first number of the Engineering and 

 Mining Journal for 1892 (January 2d) is the 

 annual statistical number, and contains the 

 Mineral Statistics for 1891. These statistics 

 have been collected with great pains and at 

 heavy expense, and are claimed to be the 

 only statistics of the whole mineral industry 

 published until the Government reports, 

 which are not likely to appear for a year. 

 We are further told that the highest and best 

 known authorities in every part of the world 

 have contributed, each in his specialty, to 

 this record. Besides the official returns of 

 nearly all the important minerals and metals, 

 it gives statements of the sources of produc- 

 tion, the occurrence of the minerals, the use 

 and values of their products, and in many 

 cases the stocks of metal on hand at the 

 close of the year. 



The Elementary Algebra of Dr. Charles 

 Davies has for many years held a high place 

 among mathematical text-books. It is so 

 arranged as to conduct the pupil by easy and 

 simple gradations from the arithmetical pro- 

 cesses to the more abstract methods of analy- 

 sis, and to be introductory to the best works 

 of higher algebra. The new edition which 

 the American Book Company now publish 

 has been edited and brought up to date by 

 Prof. J. H. Van Amringe, of Columbia Col- 

 lege. Among its peculiar features are the 

 expansion and simplification of the subject 

 of factoring, with the greatest common divi- 

 sor and least common multiple ; the exten- 

 sion of evolution to embrace any root ; and 

 greater simplicity and thoroughness in the 

 treatment of series and logarithms. 



The volume Consumption ; how to Pre- 

 vent it and how to Live viith it, has grown out 

 of the preparation by the author, N. S. Davis, 

 Jr., M. D., of a series of hygienic rules for his 

 patients, with brief explanations of the effect 

 of their execution. The author has faith in 

 the power of hygiene, and expresses the be- 

 lief that consumption could be reduced every- 

 where to very moderate limits if the bodies 

 of children and growing youths were prop- 

 erly developed physically, and if the hygiene 



