SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



853 



tion. The systematic place and external 

 characteristics of the Ophidia are first ex- 

 plained, and then follow chapters on bones, 

 muscles, and the digestive and vascular sys- 

 tems and special sense organs, and brief 

 explanations of methods are given in ap- 

 pendixes. (Published by the author, Colum- 

 bus, Ohio.) 



Another of Appletons' Home-Reading 

 Books is Harold's First Discoveries, in the 

 Nature-Study series, by J. W. Troeger, de- 

 signed for younger children. Harold ob- 

 serves what he sees, or at times goes out to 

 see, and learns or is told about the dispersion 

 of seeds like those of the milkweed, dande- 

 lion, thistle, etc., trees, fruits, vapor, frost, the 

 magnet, metals, crystals, animal life, and 

 budding and germiuation as illustrated in 

 the willow, lilac, beans, and peas. The 

 works in these series are furnished with 

 practical hints as to the way the subjects 

 may be dealt with in the teachers' guidance 

 of their pupils, so as to awaken the most 

 lively interest and contribute to real knowl- 

 edge of them. 



An account of Certain Aboriginal Mounds 

 of the Georgia Coast, published by Clarence 

 B. Moore in the Journal of the Academy of 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, gives the result of 

 five months' continuous work in the mounds 

 along the coasts of the inland water passage, 

 in the course of which twenty-one of them 

 were examined. Remarks on the methods of 

 burial observed in these mounds and in those 

 of Florida — " bunched " and " flexed " — the 

 burial of infants and burials in baskets and 

 in jars, precede the accounts ; attention is 

 called to some rather marked differences in 

 custom and practice found to have prevailed 

 in the region and in Florida, and even in 

 close neighborhood with one another. A 

 chapter is added on Inhumation and Incinera- 

 tion in Europe, by the Marquis de Nadaillac. 

 The paper is illustrated by figures in the 

 text and fifteen excellent large plates. 



Dr. M. L. Holbrooh is of the opinion that 

 " the time has come for man to take special 

 interest in his own evolution, to study and 

 apply so far as possible all the factors which 

 will in any way promote race improvement." 

 As a contribution to this study he offers his 

 book on Stirpiculture (M. L. Holbrook & Co., 

 New York, $1). We are not yet able, he 



admits, to apply perfectly all the factors that 

 will promote race improvement, but we can 

 make a beginning ; " greater thoughtfulness 

 may be given to suitable marriages ; im- 

 proved environment may be secured ; better 

 hygienic conditions taken advantage of ; 

 food may be improved ; the knowledge we 

 have gained in improving animals and plants, 

 so far as applicable, may aid us ; air, exercise, 

 water, employment, social conditions, wealth 

 and poverty, parental conditions, all have an 

 influence on offspring, and man should be 

 able to make them all tell to the advantage 

 of future generations." These topics are dis- 

 cussed in so far as they bear upon the main 

 question. 



Mrs. L. L. W. Wilson's manual for teach- 

 ers on Nature Study in Elementary Schools 

 (the Macmillan Company, New York, 90 

 cents) is characteiized by the editor, Francis 

 W. Parker, as " an outgrowth of a rich, 

 varied, and thoughtful experience with child 

 nature and the nature that surrounds the 

 child." The manner and atmosphere of the 

 book justify the characterization. The meth- 

 od has been tested in the schoolroom with 

 excellent results. It is planned to meet the 

 needs of the ordinary grade teacher in the 

 public schools of a city. It does not pre- 

 suppose special knowledge on the part of the 

 teacher, or special facilities for the collec- 

 tion of material, but earnestness in his work 

 and all that pertains to it. The system is 

 substantially an object lesson system, and 

 should be assisted by class excursions for 

 material. The excursions of the author's 

 class were made into the street, in Philadel- 

 phia. 



t To their valuable and attractive series of 

 Home Reading Books, Messrs. D. Appleton 

 and Company have added The Hall of Shells 

 (price, 60 cents), in which the young reader 

 is introduced by the author, Mrs. A. S. Hardy, 

 to the beauty and wonderful structure of 

 mollusks and the habitations they construct 

 for themselves. The characters in a simple 

 story wander along the seashore gathering 

 shells, or find them in their aquarium and 

 converse freely about them — their forms, 

 colors, peculiarities of structure, and the 

 animals that inhabit them — under the guid- 

 ance of one who has some scientific knowl- 

 edge of them. In this way enough informa- 



