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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



way of a review, the value of a carefully pre- 

 pared bibliography of geological literature as 

 a reference book for libraries and geological 

 writers can not be overestimated. No. 138 

 is entitled Artesian Well Prospects in the 

 Atlantic Coastal Plain Region, and is by the 

 same author as No. 127. It seems that in 

 this region of the Atlantic slope there are no 

 large supplies of potable surface water. For- 

 tunately, however, it has a geologic structure 

 particularly favorable to the accumulation 

 and flowage of underground waters, and from 

 these underground streams several cities at 

 present obtain their water supply. Mr. Dar- 

 ton tells us that during the past six years he 

 has been engaged in a geological study of 

 this coastal plain region, and has given espe- 

 cial attention to the question of subterranean 

 waters ; and while this investigation is as yet 

 very imperfect, he thinks that it will in a 

 measure meet the great demand for informa- 

 tion as to well prospects and the general re- 

 lation of the water horizons. In No. 139 

 Messrs. Weed and Pirsson give us a general 

 study of the geology of the Castle Mountain 

 mining district of Montana. No. 140 is a 

 report of the progress made in the division 

 of hydrography in the calendar year of 1895. 

 The author is F. H. Newell. The Eocene 

 Deposits of the Middle Atlantic Slope in 

 Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, A Brief 

 Contribution to the Geology nnd Paleontology 

 of Northwestern Louisiana, The Moraines of 

 the Missouri Coteiu and tbeir Attendant 

 Deposits, and The Potomac Formation in 

 Virginia are the titles of the next four bul- 

 letins. No. 146, by F. B. Weeks, is a Bibli- 

 ography of North American Geology, Pale- 

 ontology, and Petrology and Mineralogy for 

 1895. No. 147 is a record, by C. D. Penine, 

 of the earthquakes occurring in California in 

 1895, of which there seem to have been 

 about fifty. Messrs. Clarke and Hillebrand, 

 in No. 148, publish some analyses of rocks 

 and analytical methods used in the United 

 States Geological Survey between the years 

 1880 and 1896. 



In The Social Mind and Education* by 

 G. E. Vincent, an effort is made to bring 

 conceptions from social philosophy to bear 



* The Social Mind and Education. By George 

 Edgar Vincent. New York : The Macmillan Com- 

 pany. Pp. 155. Price, $1.25. 



upon the problem of education, with the 

 hope that there may result both clarification 

 of ideas and greater definiteness of purpose. 

 Stress h laid chiefly upon the cognitive func- 

 tion of society and of the individual. Such 

 one-sidedness of treatment is adopted, not 

 from any failure to recognize the organic 

 unity of the mind, but because the vastness 

 of the general subject precludes its treat- 

 ment in a single volume. The parallel be- 

 tween the development of the race and the 

 individual has of late been subjected to criti- 

 cism. " It has been pointed out that there 

 are short cuts by which in individual evolu- 

 tion whole stages of the race's growth may 

 be omitted. . . . Education sets before itself 

 the task of relating the individual intrinsic- 

 ally to the social tradition so that he may 

 become an organic part of society. ... It 

 should be therefore a definite aim of the 

 higher education to direct the student in a 

 purposeful integration of his various pur- 

 suits, a putting back of these abstractions 

 into a concrete conception of life." 



Dr. Shufcldt has at last brought together 

 in one volume * the majority of his popular 

 scientific papers on Natural History. Most 

 of the material has already appeared as 

 magazine articles, and hence does not form 

 a systematic treatise, but is rather a series 

 of Nature stories selected at random, and 

 ranging from the cedar bird to the polar 

 bear. Technical descriptions are avoided, 

 and the text has been prepared chiefly with 

 the view of stimulating the unscientific to 

 an interest in the common forms of animal 

 life which are so abundant and interesting, 

 and which usually receive so little intelligent 

 attention from the average country stroller. 

 The first two chapters deal with methods of 

 study and the classification of animals, and 

 serve as a sort of introduction to the main 

 portion of the book. There is also a final 

 chapter on museums and their uses. This 

 class of books on popular natural history has 

 been enormously increased of late, and while 

 even the poorest of them have some value, a 

 new one in order to justify itself ought to 

 have special claims to originality, and in or- 

 der to be of scientific value, some system in 



* Chapters on the Natural History of the 

 United States. By K. W. Shufeldt. Illustrated. 

 New York : Studer Brothers. Pp. 472. 



