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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



subject has been introduced into the agri- 

 cultural and national schools of France, and 

 the art has become there, according to the 

 author, not only a regular branch of indus- 

 try, but also the fashion. It is recommended 

 as being equally well adapted to women with 

 the care of poultry, bees, and silk-worms. 

 "As a recreation, it interests the mind and 

 the eyes ; and it has been well tested as an 

 economical resource. As a regular pursuit, it 

 has been taken up and then dropped several 

 times ; in the present effort that is making 

 to establish it on a systematic basis, the 

 United States is acknowledged to be in ad- 

 vance of any of the European countries 

 which are named. Of its importance, the 

 author well says that, in a period of civiliza- 

 tion like that which we have reached, every 

 waterfall, however slight it may be, should 

 and can be utilized as a motor force, and 

 every stream and water surface should be 

 made to support the maximum of aquatic in- 

 habitants best suited to purposes of food. 

 To obtain this condition, nothing has to be 

 created. All that is necessary is " to study 

 and adopt what has been done in England, 

 Switzerland, some places in Germany, and 

 especially in the United States." In the 

 several chapters and sections of the book 

 are considered the properties of fresh water, 

 the different kinds of fish, natural and arti- 

 ficial breeding and feeding, the construction 

 and management of fish-ponds, the manage- 

 ment of lakes and methods of dealing with 

 running waters, migratory and " sedentary " 

 fish, crustaceans, lagoon fish, and sea fish. 

 The whole is abundantly and satisfactorily 

 illustrated, and a classified list of the fresh- 

 water fishes of France is added. 



A paper that will have value for manu- 

 facturers of iron and steel is that on The 

 Construction of Cupolas for the Melting of 

 Pig-Iron, by M. A. Gouvy, Jr., translated 

 by W. F. Durfee, which appeared in the 

 " Journal of the Franklin Institute " for 

 January, 1889. It presents, in one compre- 

 hensive view, most of the experiments that 

 have been tried in many lands, with a hope 

 of improving the working of cupolas ; and 

 the translator believes that, if its conclu- 

 sions are intelligently followed by users of 

 cupolas, very large economies of fuel will 

 result. Among the experiments whose his- 



tory is given in this sketch are the employ- 

 ment of hot blast, utilization of the gas es- 

 caping from the top of the furnace, changes 

 in the form of the vertical section of cupolas, 

 cooling the walls, equal distribution of the 

 blast, suction-blast, gas-firing, and complete 

 combustion of the carbonic oxide. The au- 

 thor points out clearly the advantages and 

 disadvantages of each of these devices, aud 

 at the end sums up his conclusions. A table 

 giving the relative dimensions, the product, 

 and the consumption of fuel in thirty-three 

 cupolas of various construction accompanies 

 the paper. 



The purpose of the manual on Foods for 

 the Fat, by Nathaniel F. Davies (Lippincott, 

 75 cents), is to enable persons suffering from 

 corpulency to so regulate their diet as to cure 

 their ailment. The first division of the vol- 

 ume tells the amount of food required by 

 persons in ordinary occupations, the uses of 

 fat in the body, and the effect on corpulency 

 of exercise, stimulants, tea, coffee, and other 

 beverages. In the second part of the book 

 a list of articles which may be eaten by the 

 corpulent is given for each month, and some- 

 thing more than half the volume is devoted 

 to recipes for preparing such articles. 



Dr. Ceorge 31. Gould, of Philadelphia, 

 publishes a report of three cases in which, 

 respectively, chorea, flatulent dyspepsia, and 

 palpitation of the heart had been caused by 

 eye-strain, and were cured when the eye was 

 relieved. Following the line of research 

 thus opened, the author examines the rela- 

 tion of sexualism and reflex ocular neuroses, 

 and finds a means of accounting for the head- 

 aches of women in the years between puberty 

 and middle age, and for various other func- 

 tional derangements. 



The object of the Inventor's Manual (J. 

 F. Davidson & Co., New York, f 1) is " to give 

 the inventor and patentee some hints on 

 patents generally, together with information 

 on ways of exhibiting inventions, bringing 

 them to public notice, and effecting sales." 

 Among the subjects treated in this work are, 

 how to invent, how to secure a good patent, 

 value of a good invention, how to exhibit an 

 invention, how to interest capital, how to 

 estimate the value of a patent, advice on 

 selling patents, advice on the formation of 

 stock companies, forms for assignments, 

 licenses, and contracts, State laws concerning 



