LITERARY NOTICES. 



l 3: 



The Chemistry of Sake-Brewing. By R. 

 W. Atkinson, B. Sc. (Lond.), Professor 

 of Analytical and Applied Chemistry 

 in Tokio Daigaku. Tokio, Japan : Pub- 

 lished by the University. Pp. 73. 



Sake is the beer of Japan, and is made 

 from rice by processes similar in principle 

 to those by which our beer is made from 

 our grains, and which are described in their 

 details in the course of this work. The 

 Japanese brewers, it appears, discovered, 

 three hundred years ago, a process for pre- 

 serving their beer by heating it, thus antici- 

 pating a part of Pasteur's great discovery, 

 but did not have the art of putting the 

 heated liquor in perfectly pure germ-proof 

 vessels, so that they omitted, after all, the 

 most essential feature of Pasteur's process. 

 It is only by repeated heatings, whereby its 

 quality is injured, that they are able to keep 

 their beer for a very considerable length 

 of time. We learn, from the introduction 

 to this work, that the annual consumption 

 of sake in Japan is equivalent to about six 

 gallons per head of the population. If the 

 sake were diluted twice, so as to be of about 

 the same strength as English beer, the con- 

 sumption, twelve gallons a head, would be 

 but little more than one third the consump- 

 tion of beer in England, thirty-four gallons 

 a head. " The brewing of sake is, there- 

 fore, of relatively less importance than that 

 of beer in England, and this is doubtless to 

 be ascribed to the enormous consumption 

 of tea, which serves at all times, in sum- 

 mer and in winter, as the national bev- 



Information relative to the Construction 

 and Maintenance of Time-Balls. Pre- 

 pared under the Direction of General W. 

 B. Hazen, Chief Signal-Officer of the 

 Armv. Washington: Government Print- 

 iug-Offics. Pp. 31, with Three Plates. 



Frequent inquiry having been made at 

 the Signal-Service office for information rel- 

 ative to the erection of time-balls, or other 

 accurate time-signals, the general officer of 

 the service addressed a letter of inquiry to 

 the observers connected with the bureau 

 who employed the balls, concerning the 

 method of their construction and their op- 

 erative machinery. The present circular of 

 information is compiled from the replies to 

 his inquiries. 



PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



Programme of the Thirty-first Meeting of 

 the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, held at Montreal, August 23, 1882. 

 Montreal : Published by the Local Committee. 

 Pp. 215. 



Address of Edward Atkinson at the opening 

 of tlie Second Annual. Pair of the New England 

 Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Institute, in Bos- 

 ton, September 6, 1882. Boston : Franklin Press. 

 1882. Pp.32. 



The Growth of Children. By George W. 

 Peckham. Reprint from Sixth Annual Report 

 of the State Board of Health. Wisconsin. Pp. 

 46. 



The International Time System. By Pro- 

 fessor John K. Rees. From "Transactions of 

 the New York Academy of Sciences." Pp. 10. 



Annual Report of the Board of Directors of 

 the Chicago Astronomical Society, together with 

 the Report of the Director of the Dearborn Ob- 

 servatory. 1882. Chicago : Knight & Leonard. 

 Pp. 56. Illustrated. 



Extracts from an Old History of Louisiana. 

 Translated. Pp. 19. Illustrated. Also, On the 

 Transmission and Transformation of Nervous 

 Diseases through Heredity. By Thomas Layton, 

 M. D. Reprints from New Orleans ' Medical 

 and Surgical Journal." 1882. Pp. 22. 



" The Modern Stenographic Journal." Vol. I, 

 No. 1. Monthly. Buffalo, New York, September, 

 1882. Pp. 12. $2 a year. 



Stricture of the Rectum. By Robert New- 

 man, M. D. Reprint from New England " Medi- 

 cal Monthly." 1882. Pp. 7. 



New Check List of North American Moths. 

 Bv Professor A. R. Grote. New York. 1882. 

 Pp. 73. 



The Alphabet of the Future. By George H. 

 Paul. 1882. Pp.12. 



Sixth Annual Report of the State Board of 

 Health of Wisconsin. 1881. Madison, Wiscon- 

 sin. 1882. Pp. 230. 



The House - Fly considered in Relation to 

 Poison Germ. By Thomas Taylor, M. D. 1862. 

 Pp.0. 



Report of the Board of Commissioners of the 

 Ninth Cincinnati Industrial Exposition. 1881. 

 Pp. 314. 



Report on the Character of Six Hundred Tor- 

 nadoes. By Sergeant J. P. Finley. Washing- 

 ton. 1882. Pp.19. With Plates. 



Explosive and Dangerous Dusts. By Profess- 

 or T. W. Tobin, Ph. D. Milwaukee. 1882. 

 Pp. 14. 



Dime Question Books. No. II. Literature. 

 Pp. 35. No. III. Physiology. Pp. 37. No. IV. 

 Theory and Practice of Teaching. Pp. 37. No. 

 VI. United States History and Civil Govern- 

 ment. Pp. 32. 10 cents each. Also, The New 

 Education, by Professor Meiklejohn. Pp. 35; 

 and A Small Tractate of Education, by John 

 Milton. Pp. 26. 15 cents each. Syracuse, New 

 York : C. W. Bardeen & Co. 



On the A?e of the Tejon Rocks of California 

 and the Occurrence of Ammonitic Remains in 

 Tertiary Deposits. By Angelo Heilprin. From 

 the " Proceedings of the Academy of Natu- 

 ral Sciences of Philadelphia," July, 1882. Pp. 



Contributions from the Laboratory of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania. No. XX. Contribu- 

 tions to Mineralo'srv. By F. A. Genth. 1882. 

 Pp. 24. 



Historical Sketch of Greene Township. Ham- 

 ilton County, Ohio. By C. Reemelin. Cincin- 

 nati : Robert Clark & Co. 1882. Pp. 33. 



Nervous Control, or Equilibration. By James 

 T. Searcy. M. D. From "Transactions of the 

 Alabama Medical Association." 1882. Pp. 24. 



