852 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



starts in a quiet and dignified way. There 

 was evidently no effort to go far afield for 

 conspicuous contributors to the first num- 

 ber, six of its seven articles being contrib- 

 uted by Chicago professors. It is announced, 

 however, that some of the most eminent soci- 

 ologists in the United States and Europe will 

 be advisory editors and contributors. We 

 are glad to see the lack of a journal for 

 America in this field supplied. The new 

 magazine can be productive of much good, 

 both to its readers and to its contributors 

 to the latter, by forcing them to state their 

 ideas so as to be proof against the criticism 

 which never dares raise its head in the pro- 

 fessor's lecture-room. 



Two pamphlets on American currency, 

 either of which may be taken as an antidote 

 to the other, have come to hand within the 

 same month. In one. The Financial Ques- 

 tion, a large number of considerations ad- 

 verse to the free coinage of silver are pre- 

 sented by Charles S. Ashley in short, dis- 

 connected discussions or quotations (the au- 

 thor, Toledo, 0.). A feature of the pub- 

 lication is a series of diagrams, in which 

 many of the author's facts and estimates are 

 presented in a graphic way. Various con- 

 siderations on the opposite side of the ques- 

 tion are presented by Mason A. Green under 

 the title -4 re we Losing the West ? (C. E. Brown, 

 Boston, 10 cents). If the Ohio man can be 

 taken as speaking for the West, the anxiety 

 of the Massachusetts man is misdirected. 



Among the bulletins issued by the Uni. 

 versity of the State of New York in 1895 

 was a revision of the Academic Syllabus, or 

 statement of the requirements for the ex- 

 aminations conducted by the university. It 

 contains the changes determined upon since 

 the last revision, in 1891, the most impor- 

 tant of which tend toward more thorough 

 work in English and history. Another bul- 

 letin is devoted to the Tenth Annual Con- 

 ference of Associated Academic Principals, 

 in which discussions on a number of sub- 

 jects interesting to teachers are reported. 

 Extension Bulletin No. 9 consists of brief 

 .descriptions of the Summer Schools of the 

 United States and of a few abroad. 



Guides to genuine science teaching are 

 steadily increasing in number. A little 

 manual which well embodies the spirit of 



such instruction is Practical Proofs of Chem- 

 ical Laws, prepared by Vaughan Cornish, of 

 Owens College (Longmans, 28., 75 cents). It 

 is a course of some twenty experiments on 

 the combining proportions of the chemical 

 elements, with full working directions, and a 

 statement in each case of what the results 

 mean. The results of historic experiments 

 and of students' work are frequently cited 

 to show what approximation to accuracy 

 should be expected. 



A JVaturalht in Mexico, by Prank C. 

 Baker (David Oliphant, Chicago), is the ac- 

 count of a winter's trip to Cuba, northern 

 Yucatan, and Mexico. The expedition was 

 undertaken under the auspices of the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 its object being to collect data and speci- 

 mens illustrating the fauna, flora, and geol- 

 ogy of Yucatan and southern Mexico. The 

 text is a combination of narrative, science, 

 and history. Some of the descriptive writ- 

 ing is very well done, and while the book is 

 perhaps not exhaustive, the whole trip only 

 lasting a trifle over three months, it is ex- 

 tremely interesting. Illustrations from pho- 

 tographs, taken by the party, together with 

 sketches made by the author, are quite nu- 

 merous ; and there are also figured a num- 

 ber of new species of mollusks which were 

 discovered by the expedition. 



A Laboratory Course in Experimental 

 Physics, by W. T. Loudon and J. C. 3fcLen- 

 waw (Macmillan, 8s. 6c?., $1.90), was prepared, 

 say the authors, to assist them in handling 

 large laboratory classes in which they had 

 found it very troublesome and slow to give the 

 necessary detailed explanation of the experi- 

 ments to each individual orally. The book 

 contains a series of elementary experiments 

 adapted for students who are not familiar 

 with higher mathematical methods, which 

 have been arranged as far as possible in 

 order of difficulty. There is also an ad- 

 vanced course of experimental work in 

 acoustics, heat, and electricity, which is in- 

 tended to follow the elementary course. 



The Eleventh A nmial Report of the Com- 

 missioners of the State Reservation at Niagara 

 contains, besides the detailed account of 

 the work of the commission for the year 

 1893-'94, an interesting paper on the Du- 

 ration of Niagara Falls and the History of 



