LITERARY NOTICES. 



7S7 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Experimental Science Series for Begin- 

 ners. LifiHT : a Series of Simple, En- 

 tertaining, and Inexpensive Experiments 

 in the Phenomena of Light, for the Use 

 of Students of every Age. By Alfred 

 M. Mayer and Charles Barnard. New 

 Yo.-k: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 112. 

 Price, $1. 



The expensiveness of apparatus has 

 long been felt as a formidable difficulty in 

 the effort to make scientific education popu- 

 lar and practicable. There is double hin- 

 drance here ; the instruments of experiment 

 are so costly that they cannot be procured 

 for common use, and because of this expen- 

 siveness they have to be kept in careful 

 charge, so that ordinary pupils cannot use 

 them, and must content themselves merely 

 to look on and see others work. But what 

 is wanted indispensably is, that all the stu- 

 dents shall be themselves put to work ; shall 

 be set to making experiments, and observ- 

 ing and proving things for themselves. The 

 obstacles to such a course have hitherto 

 been so great and so general that pupils 

 have had but little chance to cultivate ma- 

 nipulation ; and but few schools, in fact, 

 have lieen able to procure the instruments 

 requisite for demonstration on the part of 

 the teacher. To remedy these difficulties 

 and point out not only how scientific ap- 

 paratus for physical experiments can be 

 cheaply made, but how much the pupil can 

 do to help himself in the matter, Prof. 

 Mayer, of the Stevens Polytechnic Insti- 

 tute, has undertaken a series of little books, 

 of which the first is now published. His 

 choice of a subject to begin with is most 

 fortunate. The phenomena of light are at 

 once familiar and attractive, are always 

 available, and admit of appliances for illus- 

 tration of the most simplified and inexpen- 

 sive character. We give ample illustra- 

 tions of this in another article of the Month- 

 ly, from which the reader will see how 

 much can be done in the way of careful 

 experimentiil work for the illustration of 

 the principles of optics, with but a small 

 outlay of money and but little trouble. 



The authors say in the preface : " It is 

 believed that this book will occupy a place 

 hitherto unfilled in scientific literature. It 



is specially prepared for the boy or girl 

 student and for the teacher who has no ap- 

 paratus, and who wishes his pupils to be- 

 come experimenters, strict reasoners, and 

 exact observers. Nearly all the experl- 

 ments described are new, and all have been 

 thoroughly tested. The materials employed 

 are of the cheapest and most common de- 

 scription, and all the experiments may be 

 performed at an expense of less than fifteen 

 dollars. The apparatus is at the same time 

 suitable for regular and daily use in both 

 the home and school, and with care should 

 last for years." 



It is proper to add, in explanation of 

 the joint authorship of the work, that Prof. 

 Mayer has been long busy in inventing 

 I simple and cheap apparatus to help teach- 

 j ers and pupils in the art of experiment- 

 I ing; but, being greatly occupied with his 

 I professional duties, he made an arrange- 

 j men* with Mr. Charles Barnard to assist 

 I him in preparing his results for the press. 

 All the contrivances and inventions for il- 

 lustrating experiments belong to Prof. 

 Mayer; Mr. Barnard has attended to the 

 i detail in the execution of the book, while 

 Prof. Mayer has maintained a close super- 

 vision of the work. 



Report of the Commissioner of Fish and 

 Fisheries. Part III., for 1873-"74 and 

 18'74-"75. Washington: Government 

 Printing-Office. 



In this report Prof Baird gives the re 

 suits thus far obtained in the inquiry into 

 the decrease of food-fishes, and the efforts 

 to protect and propagate them in American 

 waters. The work in which the commission 

 is engaged is an important one ; it has been 

 pushed with vigor, and with results which 

 upon the whole are encouraging. The ex- 

 tent to which fish can be made to contribute 

 to the food-supply is not generally appre- 

 ciated. It is not alone the fisheries of the 

 coasts and the Great Lakes that may be made 

 to have value, but every mile of river and 

 creek, and every pond and even ditch, may, 

 with proper management, be made to con- 

 tribute toward supporting a stock of fish. 

 They manage these things better in China, 

 and have carried pisciculture to an extent 

 unknown among Western nations. 



Many of the indigenous game-fish de- 

 cline to adapt themselves to the changed 



