LITERARY NOTICES. 



855 



rang, the puzzle of fifteen, the tower of 

 Hanoi, Chinese rings, and the like; the 

 knight's path on the chess-board, the art of 

 traversing mazes, geometrical trees ; the 

 speculations on spaces of one, two, and 

 four dimensions ; and hypotheses concerning 

 matter and gravity. Some of these prob- 

 lems are trivial ; others are associated with 

 the names of distinguished mathematicians ; 

 while several of the memoirs quoted have 

 hitherto not been accessible to English 

 readers. 



The Atlantic Ferry : Its Ships, Men, and 

 Working. By Arthur J. Maginnis. New 

 York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 304. Price, 



$2. 



This is a book of general interest and 

 considerable historical value. Many inter- 

 esting articles on its subject have been pub- 

 lished in various periodicals, but none that 

 in themselves have covered the whole ground, 

 and given, as the author says, an idea of the 

 routine, forethought, and general arrange- 

 ments necessary to carry on such a far- 

 reaching organization as a great steamship 

 line, and which would set forth the efforts of 

 the men who have instituted and maintained 

 such enterprises, and the nature and results 

 of the more remarkable examples of vessels 

 and machinery which they have employed. 

 The effort has been made in this book to 

 cover this ground ; and the book gives the 

 history, from the earliest institution of At- 

 lantic steamers, of the several lines ; chap- 

 ters descriptive of the working, sailing ex- 

 periences, and machinery of the Atlantic 

 lines; notices of the men who have made 

 and conduct the Atlantic ferry ; sketches of 

 eventful passages and scenes, etc. ; facts 

 concerning the manning, expenses, and cost 

 of Atlantic lines ; and Atlantic records and 

 tables. 



In the Elementary Geography of the Brit- 

 ish Colonics, published by Macmillan & Co. 

 as one of their Geographical Series (price, 80 

 cents), the part relating to the British pos- 

 sessions in North America, the West Indies, 

 and the southern part of the South Atlantic 

 Ocean, is contributed by Dr. George M. Daw- 

 son, of the Geological Survey of Canada ; and 

 that concerning the colonies, dependencies, 

 and protectorates in the northern part of the 



South Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Africa, 

 Asia, Australasia, and Oceania is contributed 

 by Mr. Alexander Sutherland, of Melbourne. 

 India and Ceylon are not included, but are 

 described in a separate volume of the Geo- 

 graphical Scries. In both departments the 

 descriptions are systematic, full, and satis- 

 factory; and the geography is a valuable 

 manual for whatever purpose such a work 

 may be required. 



In his book on Electric Railway Engineer- 

 ing (Rubier Publishing Company, Lynn, 

 Mass.) the author, Mr. Edward Trevert, has 

 endeavored to make the subject as plain and 

 interesting as the present advance in the sci- 

 ence will admit. The book is written wholly 

 from an electrical point of view, and aims to 

 make clear all the points connected with the 

 management of electric railways. The power- 

 house and its apparatus, generators, the con- 

 struction of the line, motors, rheostats, elec- 

 tric heaters, trolleys, locomotives for heavy 

 traction, trucks, car-wiring, and the storage- 

 battery system are described and illustrated 

 in the chapters severally assigned to them. 

 Accounts are given of some illustrative roads, 

 and remarks for motor men and station men ; 

 and some miscellaneous matters are treated 

 of in the appendix. The author predicts a 

 brilliant future for electric railroading. 



We published a few months ago a paper 

 by M. Charles Henry on Odors and the Sense 

 of Smell, which included many facts and 

 principles of great interest some of them, 

 doubtless, novel to most of our readers. Prof. 

 Henry's full discussion of these subjects, 

 with technical observations, tables, etc., 

 which were not appropriate to a popular arti- 

 cle, with descriptions of some special appa- 

 ratus he has invented and applied, are given 

 in a hand-book, Les Odcurs ; Demonstrations 

 pratiques avee V Olfactometre et le Phe-vapeur 

 (Odors; Practical Demonstrations with the 

 Olfactometer and Vapor-Balance), which is 

 published in Paris as a number of the Forney 

 Municipal Professional Library of Art and 

 Industry. 



The Etiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment 

 of the Prevalent Epidemic of Quackery an 

 address before the graduating class of a 

 medical school by Dr. George M. Gould, is 

 devoted very largely to the denunciation of 

 homoeopathy. The offer of a prize of $100 

 is made for the best essay that shall, histori- 



