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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



disease among chinch-bugs. Another use- 

 ful paper, by George E. Curtis, shows the 

 utter untrustworthiness of the weather pre- 

 dictions, made for a year ahead, by a local 

 weather prophet. Some other topics treated 

 are Artesian Wells in Kansas, Cements man- 

 ufactured in Kansas, Notes on Gophers, and 

 the Manufacture of Binding-twine. 



A service has been done to persons inter- 

 ested in forestry by the publication of In- 

 sects injurious to Forest and Shade Trees, by 

 Prof. Alphcus 8. Packard, being the fifth 

 report of the IT. S. Entomological Commis- 

 sion (Department of Agriculture, Washing- 

 ton). The volume has 957 pages, and its 

 contents are arranged under the names of 

 trees. The body of the work is introduced 

 by a chapter of general information, which 

 includes descriptions of various insecticides, 

 and of mean3 for applying them to trees. 

 The text is illustrated with 306 cuts and 40 

 plates, some of the latter being colored. 

 There are separate indexes of insects, of 

 plants, and of authors quoted. 



A sketch of what has been done toward 

 inventing a practical air-ship is given in the 

 lecture on Aerial Navigation, by 0. Chanute, 

 C. E., reprinted from The Railroad and En- 

 gineering Journal as a pamphlet. Mr. Cha- 

 nute sketches the progress in ballooning 

 since the time of Montgolfier, and describes 

 also the attempts that have been made to 

 construct mechanical flying machines. He 

 believes that dirigible balloons, which have 

 already attained a speed of fourteen miles 

 an hour, will before long be driven at the 

 rate of twenty-five to thirty miles, and says 

 that much greater speeds may, perhaps, be 

 attained eventually with aeroplanes. 



Bulletin No. 19 of the U. S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey is a report by Ensign J. C. 

 Drake on Tlie Sounds and Estuaries of Geor- 

 gia, with reference to oyster culture. It 

 embodies an examination of all the waters 

 under the jurisdiction of the State of Geor- 

 gia in which oysters grow naturally, or in 

 which they probably could be made to grow. 

 The extent of each body of water is given, 

 the character of its currents and its bottom, 

 the area of any existing oyster-beds in it, and 

 the density of the water. Seven large fold- 

 ed charts accompany the text. 



The Zoological Articles contributed to 

 the Encyclopaedia Britannica by E. Ray 



Lankcster have been reprinted in a volume 

 with kindred articles by eminent specialists, 

 which are also taken from the Encyclopae- 

 dia (Scribners, $5). Dr. Lankester states, 

 in the preface, that the purpose of the vol- 

 ume is to make these monographs readily 

 accessible to university students. His own 

 articles are those on protozoa, hydrozoa, mol- 

 lusca, polyzoa, and vertebrata ; the others 

 are, Sponges, by Prof. Sollas ; Planarians, 

 by Prof, von Graff; Nemcrtines, by Prof. 

 Habrecht ; Rotif era, by Prof. Bourne ; and 

 Tunicata, by Prof. Herdman. These togeth- 

 er form a treatise on a considerable section 

 of the animal kingdom. In the reprint a 

 few errors have been corrected, and some 

 notes and illustrations have been added. 



The Transactions of the Iowa Stale Medi- 

 cal Society, for 1890, contains the proceed- 

 ings of the thirty-eighth annual session of 

 the society, held in April, 1S90, and a large 

 number of papers presented at that meeting, 

 with the discussions upon them. A subject 

 of popular interest, treated in one of these 

 papers, is pension examinations, the burden 

 of the paper being a complaint that examin- 

 ing surgeons are required to perform sev- 

 eral hours of professional labor for one or 

 two dollars. The address of the president 

 was on the question, Should persons who 

 have inherited disease detrimental to society 

 and the State be allowed to marry? the 

 negative side being taken. 



Johnson's comprehensive treatise on Sur- 

 veying (Wiley), first published in 18S6, has 

 reached its seventh edition. Some changes 

 have been made each time a new edition has 

 appeared, and this issue contains a great 

 many. To the part on surveying instru- 

 ments have been added descriptions and 

 cuts of the architect's level and several 

 other instruments ; the table of magnetic 

 declination formulae has been replaced with 

 the new table of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey ; the isogonic chart of the United 

 States has been redrawn and brought down 

 to 1890; the chapter on land-surveying has 

 been recast, and considerable new matter 

 concerning monuments and the rules govern- 

 ing the resurvey of lands has been added ; 

 the description of the U. S. Land Surveys has 

 been rewritten and expanded ; a method of 

 running out parallels of latitude, with suit- 



