POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



757 



Smithsonian Report, 1875. Pp. 422. 

 Washington : Government Printing-office. 



Properties of Continuous Bridges. By 

 C. Bender, 0. E. Pp. 150. Boiler Incrus- 

 tation. By F. J. Rowan. Pp. 88. New- 

 York : Van Nostrand. Price, 50 cents. 



"The Jukes:" A Study in Crime, Pau- 

 perism, etc. By R. J. Dugdale. Pp. 118. 

 New York : Putnams. Price, 50 cents. 



Origin of the Chinese Race. Pp. 30. 

 Japanese Wrecks in the North Pacific. 

 Pp. 23. Early Maritime Intercourse of 

 Ancient Western Nations. Pp. 13. By 

 diaries Wolcott Brooks. San Francisco : 

 Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Cali- 

 fornia Academy of Sciences. 



The Stone Age in New Jersey. By Dr. 

 C. C. Abbott. Pp. 134. With numerous 

 Plates. Washington : Government Print- 

 ing- Office. 



The Science of Astronomy. Lecture by 

 A. K. Bartlett. Pp. 36. Battle Creek, 

 Mich. : The Author. Price, 50 cents. 



Analysis of Milk. By E. von Baum- 

 hauer. Pp. 34. New York : J. F. Trow 

 & Son print. 



Wisconsin Geological Survey for 1876. 

 By T. C. Chamberlin. Pp.40. Madison: 

 S. D. Carpenter print. 



The Chinese Scientific Magazine. Month- 

 ly. Vol. I., No* 10. John Fryer, Editor, 

 Shanghai (printed in Chinese). Price, 50 

 cents per annum. 



Addresses before the St. Louis Acad- 

 emy of Science. By C. V. Riley. Pp. 16. 

 St. Louis : R. R. Studley & Co. print. 



The Index. Containing classified Index 

 of Periodical Literature. Monthly. Pp. 

 16. New York : William Erving. Price, 

 1.00 a year. 



Theory of the Radiometer. By William 

 Crookes, F. R. S. Pp. 16. London, 1877. 



Minnesota Normal School Board for 

 1876. Pp. 40. ,St. Paul: Pioneer Press 

 print. 



Polar Colonization. By H. W. Howgate. 

 Pp. 40. With Chart. Washington Beres- 

 ford print. 



Zoological Society of Cincinnati. First, 

 Second, and Third Annual Reports. Cin- 

 cinnati, O. : Printed for the Society. 



Common-School Education. By B. A. 

 Hinsdale, A. M. Pp. 38. Cleveland, 0. : 

 Robinson, Savage & Co. print. 



Metric System of Weights and Meas- 

 ures. Pp. 12. Boston : The Society of 

 Civil Engineers. 



Vitality of Certain Land-Mollusks. By 

 R. E. C. Stearns. Pp. 2. With Plates. 

 From the Proceedings of the California 

 Academy of Sciences. 



Report of the Commissioners of the 

 State Survey for 1877. Albany : Parmen- 

 ter print. 



Outlines of Field Geology. By Prof. 

 Geikie. Pp. 61. Price, 25 cents. Ab- 



sorption of Light. By Prof. Stokes. Pp. 

 43. Price, 20 cents. London and New 

 York : Macmillan. 



Excrescences and Eccentric Wood- 

 Growths in the Trunks of Trees. By Thom- 

 as Meehan. Pp. 6. From the Proceed- 

 ings of the Philadelphia Academy of Nat- 

 ural Sciences. 



Milk-Adulteration in the New York 

 Courts. Pp. 32. New York : J. F. Trow 

 & Son print. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Tyndall and Roberts on Spontaneous Gen- 

 eration. Dr. Bastian, in a communication 

 to the Royal Society of London, last June, 

 cited some experiments to show that, while 

 an acid urine usually remains barren after 

 being boiled a few minutes, it becomes fertile 

 when similarly treated if previously neutral- 

 ized by liquor potassae, especially if it be 

 afterward maintained at a temperature of 

 115 or 120 Fahr. But the significance 

 of these results for the doctrine of spon- 

 taneous generation is proved to be very 

 little indeed by Dr. William Roberts and 

 Prof. Tyndall, both of whom show that 

 Bastian's experiments only confirm the ob- 

 servation made by Pasteur more than four- 

 teen years ago, that alkaline liquids are 

 more difficult to sterilize than acid ones. 

 They further show that such liquids, once 

 effectually sterilized, according to methods 

 which they describe, remain perfectly ster- 

 ile w 7 hen the access of life-germs from with- 

 out is precluded. The addition of the al- 

 kali appears to enable the preexisting germs 

 in the urine to survive the process of ebul- 

 lition. To prevent this conservative action 

 of the liquor potassae, and at the same time 

 to have a mixture precisely the same as that 

 experimented on by Bastian, Tyndall adopt- 

 ed the following mode of procedure, which 

 is substantially identical with that adopted 

 by Dr. Roberts : Small tubes, with their 

 ends finely drawn out, were charged with a 

 definite amount of caustic potash, and sub- 

 jected for a quarter of an hour to a tempera- 

 ture of 220 Fahr. They were then intro- 

 duced into flasks containing measured quan- 

 tities of urine. The urine being boiled for 

 five minutes, the flasks were hermetically 

 sealed during ebullition. They were sub- 

 sequently permitted to remain in a warm 



