5 6 4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



House-Drainage and Sanitary Plumbing. 

 Providence : E. L. Freeman & Co. An- 



LAGEN VON HaUSENTWASSERUNGEN NACH 



Studien Americanischer Verhaltnisse. 

 (Plans for House-Drainage, after Studies 

 of American Arrangements.) Berlin. 

 Diagram ior Sewer Calculations. All 

 by William Paul Gerhard, Civil and 

 Sanitary Engineer. Newport, Rhode Isl- 

 and. Pp. 105, 38, and 7. With Plates. 

 The first of these publications is a re- 

 print of a paper which was contributed to 

 the fourth annual report of the State Board 

 of Health of Rhode Island, and is an excel- 

 lent practical treatise on the subject con- 

 sidered. It asserts the possibility of secur- 

 ing an efficient and healthful drainage of 

 houses, whether upon open ground or into 

 a sewer or cess-pool, by methods which are 

 without mystery or secrecy, and involve 

 " nothing more than the proper application 

 of well-known laws of nature"; and ex- 

 plains specifically and with intelligible illus- 

 trations the best systems of drains, pipes, 

 traps, basins, bath-tubs, water-closets, and 

 6'inks, at the same time pointing out the 

 errors and defects of many of the systems 

 in use. The second work is intended to 

 give to German engineers a description of 

 house-drainage as it is practiced in England 

 and the United States. The third pamphlet 

 is a description of a diagram on sewer cal- 

 culations constructed by the author, and is 

 of technical value. The first of these pub- 

 lications, revised by the author, is now pub- 

 lished by D. Van Nostrand as No. 63 of his 

 " Science Series." Pp. 205. Price, 50 cents. 



New Method of Learning the French 

 Language. By F. Berger. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 138. Price, $1. 



The author a few years ago published a 

 " Method " for French pupils learning Eng- 

 lish, which has been used in France satis- 

 factorily, and with a success that is repre- 

 sented by the exhaustion of fourteen edi- 

 tions of it and a fourfold increase of the 

 number of French students of English in 

 five years. He now applies the features 

 that characterize that system to the study 

 of the French language by English pupils. 

 The features are a simple and careful indi- 

 cation of the pronunciation/and a conver- 

 sational method, in which are given 1. The 

 French text, with the pronunciation and a 

 literal translation ; 2. A review of words ; 



and, 3. The French text again, with the 

 English opposite, translated closely, so as 

 to enable the pupil to translate alternately 

 into French and into English. Besides tlie 

 lessons on this plan are given conversational 

 phrases, paradigms of the verbs Sire and 

 avoir, conversational phrases, a version of 

 Miss Edgeworth's play of " Old Poz," and a 

 collection of words, sentences, phrases, and 

 idioms. 



Chapters on Evolution. By Andrew Wil- 

 son, Ph. D., F. R. S. E., etc. With 259 Il- 

 lustrations. New York : G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons. Pp. 383. Price, $2.50. 



We have no hesitation in cordially rec- 

 ognizing this volume as a timely contribu- 

 tion to a subject that is now attracting wide 

 and serious attention. It meets an undoubt- 

 ed want, and is certain to prove helpful to 

 all general students of the subject of or- 

 ganic development. 



Yet, the title of the book may be ob- 

 jected to as somewhat misleading. It is 

 not devoted to evolution in the full meaning 

 now given to that term, but is restricted to 

 one division of it, which ought to have been 

 designated in the title. It is more properly 

 confined to that phase or section of evolution 

 which has come to be represented by the 

 term " Darwinism," and is a book that should 

 be ranked with Professor Gray's " Darwini- 

 ana " and Oscar Schmidt's German volume 

 on " Descent and Darwinism." There should 

 be no confusion here, for Darwinism is not 

 evolution, and is but a part of it. Dr. 

 Wilson virtually concedes this by employing 

 in his text the term " Darwinian evolution," 

 thus recognizing that it is but one sort of 

 something of a larger kind ; and also when 

 he speaks of " development " as a strong 

 pillar of the theory of evolution. 



With the reservation here made, Dr. 

 Wilson's work, as we have said, may be 

 heartily commended. It is a very full and 

 popular treatise on the important and in- 

 teresting questions of organic development, 

 and abounds in the biological information 

 that has now been accumulated in illustration 

 of the law of descent with variation. The 

 principle of natural selection is, of course, 

 assumed and interpreted as a great contri- 

 bution to organic progress, and the various 

 questions that have arisen in connection 



