LITERARY NOTICES. 



125 



effect. The author has, therefore, devoted 

 his attention almost entirely to the explana- 

 tion of principles, to the exclusion of me- 

 chanics. He has aimed to exhibit the iden- 

 tity of all the forms of electricity, and has 

 accordingly so arranged the matter of his 

 treatise that each succeeding form shall 

 appear to flow naturally from its predeces- 

 sor. For the biographical sketches, those 

 men have been selected whose discoveries 

 have added most to the science ; and the 

 sketches are so distributed that each one 

 shall be in logical juxtaposition with those 

 branches of the science that have been most 

 conspicuously illustrated by its subject. In 

 the several chapters are given explanations 

 of magnetism ; the " Mariner's Compass," 

 statical and atmospheric electricity, galvan- 

 ism and galvanic batteries, electro-chemical 

 decomposition, electrotyping and gilding, 

 electro-magnetism, the electric telegraph, 

 magneto-electricity and dynamos, the stor- 

 age of electricity, the telephone, the aurora 

 borealis, and Faraday's observations on ta- 

 ble-moving. The subjects of the sketches 

 are Faraday, Franklin, Galvani, Volta, Oer- 

 sted, Ampere, and Professor Morse. 



The Care of Infants : A Manual for Moth- 

 ers and Nurses. By Sophia Jex- Blake, 

 M. D. London and New York : Mac- 

 millan & Co. Pp. 109. Price, 40 cents. 



The subject of this primer is a most 

 important one, especially in view of the 

 frightful rate of infant mortality that pre- 

 vails, largely the result of ignorance and 

 carelessness. The author is a most compe- 

 tent person to discuss it. Her purpose, she 

 says, is " to supply, in the simplest and 

 easiest possible way, the few leading facts 

 respecting infant existence, and to specify, 

 as briefly and clearly as may be, the treat- 

 ment demanded by Nature and common 

 sense for the preservation of the frail little 

 lives that are perishing by millions for want 

 of it." 



Annual and Seasonal Climatic Maps of 

 the United States. By Charles Deni- 

 son, Denver, Colorado. Chicago : Rand, 

 McNally & Co. Five Maps, in Colors, 

 variously mounted. 



These maps are compiled from the re- 

 turns of the Signal-Service Office, and are 

 designed to show, graphically, by an equa- 



ble standard and on impartial author- 

 ity, chiefly, the average amount of cloudi- 

 ness and precipitation at every place in the 

 United States, for the year and for each 

 season. In addition to this, they give the 

 isothermal lines, the directions of prevailing 

 winds, and of winds that usually and those 

 that do not usually bring rain or snow, ele- 

 vation above the sea, location of mineral 

 springs, annual, monthly, and daily ranges 

 of temperature, and other information that 

 can be given graphically, or in a table, re- 

 lating to the climatology of our country. 

 The maps can be had separately, or, as in 

 the case of the set submitted to us for ex- 

 amination, mounted on opposite sides of the 

 same sheet. 



Controlling Sex in Generation. By Sam- 

 uel Hough Terry. New York : Fowler 

 & Wells Company. Pp. 147. Price, $1. 



This is an attempt to discover the phys- 

 ical law influencing sex in the embryo of 

 man and brute, and its direction to produce 

 male and female offspring at will. The sub- 

 ject is an important one to breeders, and the 

 author thinks he has discovered its law, 

 claiming that the determination of the sex 

 of offspring in all life lies in the separate 

 physical conditions of the two parents. In 

 his book he shows how he has reached his 

 conclusion, brings forward the evidence by 

 which he believes it is sustained, and makes 

 suggestions respecting its practical bearing. 



The National Dispensatory. Containing 

 the Natural History, Chemistrv, Phar- 

 macy, Actions, and Uses of Medicines. 

 By Alfred Stille, M. D., and John M. 

 Maisch, Ph. D. Third edition. Phila- 

 delphia: Henry C. Lea's Son & Co. 

 Pp. 1,755, with 311 Illustrations. 



The first edition of the " National Dis- 

 pensatory" was published in 1879. It in- 

 cluded descriptions of all crude drugs and 

 chemical and pharmaceutical preparations, 

 officinal in the Pharmacopoeias of the United 

 States and Great Britain, together with the 

 more important medicines of the French Co- 

 dex and German Pharmacopoeia which were, 

 to some extent, prescribed here, or which 

 might serve for comparison with similar arti- 

 cles in the English and American stand- 

 ards ; also, of drugs not recognized by any 

 pharmacopoeia, but often kept in the shops 



