SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



711 



and Newark Tide Marshes ; G. F. Jenkins on 

 the Iron Mining Industry; and John Gifford 

 on Forestry in Holland, Germany, Switzer- 

 land, and France; with mineral statistics. 

 The reports are accompanied by excellent 

 maps. 



The last volume in Appletons' Home- 

 Reading Series to reach us is entitled Curious 

 Homes and their Tenants. It consists of a 

 popular description of some of the more 

 curious human and animal " homes." The 

 author, James Carter Beard, disclaims any 

 attempt to do more than attract the atten- 

 tion of his readers to the subject in the hope 

 of awakening in them the desire for a more 

 thorough acquaintance with an interesting 

 and instructive study. As the chief function 

 of the animal or plant seems to be the per- 

 petuation of species, we may expect the high- 

 est and most perfect qualities and instincts 

 to be manifested in the solution of the cares 

 and duties of parentage. To give some idea 

 of the scope of the book we take the follow- 

 ing chapter headings : Cave Dwellers, Birds 

 that build Edible Nests, Moles, Jumping 

 Mice, Bees and Wasps as Miners, Ants at 

 Home, Cliff-dwellers, Butterfly House, Hu- 

 man Nest Builders, Eskimo Homes, Human 

 Lake- dwellers, A City of Birds. Illustrations 

 are numerous and well chosen. 



The purpose of the work Opposites of the 

 Universe is explained by the author, Mamie 

 Sands, as to demonstrate that the universe 

 is a whirl of opposites, and that these oppo- 

 sites are eternal, " which implies that they 

 are neither creatable nor destroyable when 

 the whole kosmos is considered." The book 

 is to be in six parts. The first part, now 

 before us, is a Discourse about Immortality, 

 in which ''opposites in special" are consid- 

 ered. They are arranged under numerous 

 headings, such as chemiological, astrologi- 

 cal, electrological, etc., opposites ; and the 

 theses are enforced by citations from philo- 

 sophical and other writers of all ages. (Peter 

 Eckler, New York, publisher. Price, 50 

 cents.) 



Mr. J. Wilson, in common with most of 

 his human brothers, is not satisfied with the 

 present management of " things," so he has 

 written a book on the rights and wrongs of 

 men, under the title Self-control, or Life 

 without a Master. He states its aim to be 



the bringing of the reader to a realizing 

 sense of the fact that "no man has a right, 

 under any circumstances or under any con- 

 ditions, to be the master of another man." 

 He contends that under the existing order 

 the child is a slave to his nurse, then to his 

 parents until he is twenty-one, and from this 

 time until his death to the state. " He does 

 not believe in masters or governments in any 

 form." He claims no originality for his 

 thoughts ; " he would not deny for a moment 

 that such thoughts have come or will come 

 to other men." And further he says : " If 

 the reader has not full confidence in his " 

 (the author's) " ability to discuss this question 

 fully and fairly, and if he is not confident 

 that the author knows just what he is saying 

 and what he is talking about, he ought to 

 select some other book for perusal," which 

 is certainly fair enough. The closing para- 

 graph of the volume contains the following 

 prediction : " What happened in Paris in the 

 eighteenth century is liable, I may say is cer- 

 tain, to happen in America some time during 

 the twentieth." (Lemcke & Buechuer, New 

 York.) 



We have received from C. W. Bardeen 

 (Syracuse) A Government Class-book of the 

 State of Michigan. It is a review of the 

 form of State, county, city, and township 

 government which prevails in Michigan, stat- 

 ing the function and powers of the various 

 governing bodies and officials, and contain- 

 ing as two appendices the Constitutions of 

 the State of Michigan and of the United 

 States. 



Not In It, by Anna Olcott Commelin, is 

 a story intended to show the obligation un- 

 der which the rich man is to aid his poorer 

 neighbors. It recounts the history of sev- 

 eral individuals in varying conditions of 

 life, showing the value of well-timed aid 

 and the great suffering which poverty en- 

 tails on those who are suddenly reduced to it 

 from comparative wealth. (Fowler & Wells, 

 New York, 75 cents.) 



The first series of lectures by A. D. Wal- 

 ler on physiology, which was delivered at the 

 Royal Institution in the spring of 1897, has 

 just appeared in book form under the title 

 Animal Electricity. The material consists of 

 six lectures. The first is a demonstration of 

 the phenomenon of animal electricity, the 



