LITERARY NOTICES. 



707 



The first three numbers, now before us, are 

 filled with bright, suggestive, and practical 

 leading articles on various points in domestic 

 life, and several " departments " containing 

 recipes, sensible household suggestions, hints, 

 and " spicy " items. Price, twenty cents a 

 copy. 



The Journal of Physiology, edited by 

 Michael Foster, with the co-operation of a 

 number of eminent English and American 

 physiologists, continues to publish articles 

 of original research, and stands at the head 

 of publications of this class in the English 

 language. The double number for May con- 

 tains accounts of investigations of taste, sen- 

 sations, respiratory changes, retractile cilia in 

 the intestine of Lumbricus terrestris, cobra- 

 poison, the influence of calcium salts on heat 

 coagulation of albumins, the protective func- 

 tions of the skin, etc. Cambridge, England. 

 Pi ice, $5 a volume. 



A pamphlet on How to light a Colliery 

 by Electricity contains full directions on that 

 subject by Sydney F. Walker, author of other 

 papers on electric lighting. It gives direc- 

 tions concerning the number of lamps re- 

 quired, apparatus, dynamos, and their types, 

 the engines that drive them, their position, 

 lamps, switches, cables, faults, and many 

 other points related to the subject. Pub- 

 lished in New York by Macmillan & Co. Pp. 

 36. Price, 75 cents. 



Dr. Daniel G-. Brinton has printed a num- 

 ber of Studies in South American Native 

 Languages, being papers which were con- 

 tributed to the Proceedings of the American 

 Philosophical Society in the early months of 

 1892. Most of them are based on unpub- 

 lished manuscripts in European and Ameri- 

 can libraries, and they include material on 

 at least four linguistic stocks hitherto wholly 

 unknown to students. Dr. Brinton has also 

 added two studies of Mexican languages. 



Physiology: its Science and Philosophy 

 (The Courier Co., New Castle, Ind.), is an 

 octavo volume in which the author, Jacob 

 Redding, M. D., gives his ideas of the phi- 

 losophy which underlies physiology and dis- 

 ease. 



One of the latest efforts to establish a 

 substantial identity of body and soul is con- 

 tained in a book on PI uri- Cellular Alan, in 

 which the questions " Whence and what is 

 the intellect, or soul ? " " What becomes of 



the soul ? " and " Is it possible to save the 

 soul ? " are considered from a biological 

 point of view, by Dr. C. A. Stephens. The 

 author conceives matter as sentient or feel- 

 ing, and the living body, consequently, as 

 composed of an aggregation of living atoms, 

 or cells. Hence the processes of life have 

 their origins in the beginnings of Nature. 

 The cell " is not only a modicum of proto- 

 plasm, but the instrumentality of a self, an 

 ego, a personal being." The soul " is the 

 developed and experienced living matter of 

 the body, particularly that in the cells of the 

 nerve ganglia and the brain." The second 

 and third questions proposed are answered 

 in accordance with this doctrince. 



The volume of the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden for 1892 contains the third annual 

 reports of the Board of Trustees and of 

 the director, William Trelease, three anniver- 

 sary publications, and two scientific papers. 

 We learn from the director's report that the 

 garden has acquired the grasses of the her- 

 barium of the late Dr. George Thurber, Mr. 

 Hitchcock's collection of 2,000 specimens 

 representing the flora of the West Indies, 

 and Mr. Trelease's herbarium of 11,000 speci- 

 mens representing 4,000 species, mostly of 

 fungi ; and the Engelmann Herbarium of 

 about 98,000, and the Bernhardi Herbarium 

 of 57,500 specimens, have been mounted 

 and arranged. The anniversary publications 

 in the volume are the Second Annual Flower 

 Sermon, by the Rev. Montgomery Schuyler ; 

 the proceedings of the second annual ban- 

 quet of the trustees of the Garden, and of 

 the second annual banquet to gardeners. 

 The scientific papers are a revision of North 

 American species of Rumex, by Mr. Trelease, 

 and " the Yucca Moth and Yucca Pollination," 

 by Prof. C. V. Riley, with notes on Agave 

 Engelmanni and Parmelia molliuseula. Both 

 the papers are excellently illustrated. Price, 

 $1. 



One of the fruits of the effort of Mr. 

 Draper, State Superintendent of Public In- 

 struction of New York, to secure compari- 

 sons of the school system of that State with 

 those of other States and of foreign coun- 

 tries appears in French Schools through 

 American Eyes, which has been prepared at 

 Mr. Draper's request by J. Russell Parsons, 

 inspector of teachers' classes, formerly our 

 consul at Aix-la-Chapelle, and author of a 



