LITERARY NOTICES. 



561 



Photo-Micrography. By A. Cowley Mal- 

 ley, F. R. M. S. Second edition. Lon- 

 don: H. K. Lewis, 136 Gower Street, 

 Pp. 166. 



Drawing can not be wholly relied upon 

 for the representation of minute microscopic 

 objects, because of the difficulty of seeing 

 such delicate things accurately, and of com- 

 manding the pencil to give a perfectly cor- 

 rect reproduction of what is seen. At the 

 best, a drawing is apt to show evidence of 

 preconceived notions of the structure in the 

 mind of the observer. Photography, though 

 not infallible, always accurately returns 

 what is sent to the plate, and is almost uni- 

 versally true. In the present work, the 

 author gives the methods he has himself 

 adopted, and the most applicable parts of 

 the methods used by others ; and, by show- 

 ing the facility of their application, he hopes 

 to make photo-micrography more popular, 

 and place it within the reach of all. In this 

 second edition have been incorporated the 

 advances that have been made in micros- 

 copy, and the more recent improvements 

 in photography. Descriptions of the wet 

 collodion and gelatino- bromide processes, 

 and of the best methods of mounting and 

 preparing microscopic objects for photo- 

 micrography, are given. 



The Occdlt World. By A. P. Sinnett. 

 Second American, from the fourth English 

 edition, with the Author's Corrections 

 and a New Preface. Boston : Houghton, 

 Mifflin & Co. Pp. 228. $1.25. 



The readers of " The Popular Science 

 Monthly " have already been informed, to 

 some extent, respecting the doctrines of the 

 theosophists, of which this may be consid- 

 ered one of the text-books. Among their 

 beliefs is that in the existence among some 

 privileged or specially instructed classes of 

 persons of mysterious knowledge and power 

 which are hidden from the mass of man- 

 kind, to which are referred and by which 

 may be explained many wonderful things 

 in ancient and modern lore, the reality of 

 which appears supported by evidence we 

 can not despise, but belief in which, so con- 

 trary are they to our ideas of nature, taxes 

 the most credulous. The " science " which 

 represents this knowledge and power has 

 made some advances since the first edition 

 of " The Occult World " was published, and 

 vol. xxvn. 36 



its votaries believe that they have received 

 additional confirmation of its reality. The 

 new developments are given in the form of 

 additional matter and notes, the original 

 text of the book having been changed but 

 little. 



Russia under the Tzars. By Stepniak, 

 author of " Underground Russia." New 

 York : Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 

 381. Price, $1.50.. 



This book is divided into three parts. 

 In Part I, " The Past," is shown how the 

 original fundamental principle of the Rus- 

 sian Government was the sovereignty of the 

 people, full, free, spontaneous, and indis- 

 putable in the highest possible degree, as it 

 still is in the Mir, or the rural communes ; 

 and how Czarism gained a footing, and 

 gradually crushed that sovereignty entirely 

 out within the empire at large, and in all 

 the great centers. Part II, " Dark Places," 

 is made up of the relations of incidents in 

 the lives of political suspects and their expe- 

 riences with the police. In Part III " Ad- 

 ministrative Exiles " are described, a num- 

 ber of features characterizing the despotism 

 of the military and the police, and the meas- 

 ures of administrative repression which the 

 Government is compelled to adopt in its 

 struggles against the forces of human na- 

 ture to which it has set itself in opposition. 



Third Annual Report op thh United 

 States Geological Survey, 1881, 1882. 

 By J. W. Powell, Director. Washing- 

 ton: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 

 564, with Plates. 



This volume contains the reports of 

 progress for the year of the heads of the 

 divisions of the survey, and six monographs 

 on special features of the survey. The 

 administrative reports are, that of Mr. Clar- 

 ence King, prepared for him in his absence 

 by Dr. Carl Barus, on the " Determinations 

 of the Physical Constants of Rocks " ; of Mr. 

 Arnold Hague, on " Operations in the Divis- 

 ion of the Pacific" ; of Mr. C. K. Gilbert, 

 of the " Division of the Great Basin, chiefly 

 relating to the Survey of the Quaternary 

 Lake Bonneville " ; of Mr. T. C. Chamber- 

 lin, on the " Survey of the Glacial Moraine, 

 from the North Border of Dakota to the 

 Atlanti'c " ; of Mr. S. F. Emmons, of the "Di- 

 vision of the Rocky Mountains " ; of Mr. G. 



