272 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



species, while the British author makes the 

 discovery of mutual relations and associa- 

 tions into groups a prominent object. 



The tenth volume of the Resultados del 

 Observatorio National Argeniino at Cordoba, 

 Juan M. Thome, director, contains all the 

 observations made during 1877 for the 

 General Catalogue, the four microscopes, as 

 well as three tallies of transit-threads, having 

 been employed for them ; and the zones from 

 755 to 759 inclusive, with their reduction- 

 tables, and an index for reference. The 

 number of stellar determinations made dur- 

 ing the year was 17,380, of which 516 were 

 made in zones. Tables of corrigenda for the 

 present volume, and for the errors detected 

 in the volumes already published, are ap- 

 pended. 



The paper of Mr. Cyrus Thomas, entitled 

 Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices (Gov- 

 ernment Printing-Office), is based on the as- 

 sumption that an attempt to decipher those 

 documents on the supposition that they con- 

 tain true alphabetic characters must end in 

 failure. Some of the characters are more 

 than probably phonetic symbols ; but Landa's 

 alphabet furnishes no help in deciphering 

 them, and is evidently based on a miscon- 

 ception of the Maya graphic system. "If 

 the manuscripts are ever deciphered, it must 

 be by long and laborious comparisons and 

 happy guesses." This paper is intended to 

 be a step in that direction. The author 

 concludes that, at the time the codices ex- 

 amined were written, " Maya culture had 

 reached that stage where the idea of pho- 

 neticism was being introduced into the writ- 

 ing. Yet it is certain, and even susceptible 

 of demonstration, that a large proportion, 

 perhaps the majority, of the characters are 

 symbols. The more I study these characters 

 the stronger becomes the conviction that 

 they have grown out of a pictographic sys- 

 tem similar to that common among the In- 

 dians of North America. The first step in 

 advance appears to have been to indicate, by 

 characters, the gesture-sign." 



In Hints for Teachers of Physiology (D. 

 C. Heath & Co., " Guides for Science Teach- 

 ing"), Prof. H. P. Bowdilch makes an at- 

 tempt to show how a teacher may supple- 

 ment his text-book instruction by means 

 of simple observations and experiments on 

 living bodies or on organic material, so as 



to impart to his pupils a knowledge of the 

 foundation on which physiology rests, and 

 bring the impressions made on the senses to 

 aid the memory in retaining the facts com- 

 municated didactically. The essay, though 

 simply a primer, is fruitful in suggestions 

 for familiar illustrations. 



Though edible mushrooms of many va- 

 rieties are found in all parts of the United 

 States, few of them are utilized, because the 

 majority of the people do not know how to 

 distinguish them from poisonous species. 

 A useful aid to making this very important 

 distinction is furnished in Dr. Thomas Tay- 

 lor's pamphlet of descriptions, with natural- 

 colored illustrations, of Twelve Edible Mush- 

 rooms of the United States ; which also gives 

 directions for selecting and preparing for 

 the table. The paper is embodied in the 

 report of the Department of Agriculture for 

 1885, and is published separately by Dr. 

 Taylor in Washington. 



Investigations of sorghum - blight and 

 the mildew of the huckleberry, with certain 

 parasitic insects inhabiting the knots pro- 

 duced by it, and the fungous parasites of 

 weeds, together with experiments in the cross- 

 fertilization of corn and the germination 

 of weed-seeds, are described in the Report 

 of the Botanical Department of the Kansas 

 State Agricultural College Experiment Sta- 

 tion. 



A number of documents and papers con- 

 cerning the care of the insane, and questions 

 concerning the responsibility of the insane, 

 may be noticed in a group. The Report of 

 the Standing Committee on the Insane of the 

 New York State Board of Charities presents 

 the results of the annual visitation to ex- 

 amine the condition of the eight State hos- 

 pitals and asylums and the eighteen asylums 

 of the exempted counties. The Recent Ju- 

 dicial Departure in Insanity Cases, by Clarfc 

 Bell, reviews two recent decisions of high 

 courts one of the State of Alabama and 

 the other of the United States that indi- 

 cate an approach to a more fixed and accu- 

 rate definition of the responsibility of the 

 insane than has heretofore prevailed. In 

 the case of The Insanity of Oscar Hugo 

 Webber, Dr. J. Hendric Lloyd enters a pro- 

 test against the conviction for murder of a 

 man who in the author's view was insane to 

 irresponsibility. The question of rcsponsi- 



