LITERARY NOTICES. 



701 



taut scientific problems. In preparing this 

 edition two especially technical essays have 

 been omitted, another has been divided and 

 the parts relocated, and many corrections and 

 some important additions have been made in 

 various places. Two new papers have been 

 added to the Tropical Nature and other Es- 

 says, namely, The Antiquity of Man in North 

 America, and The Debt of Science to Dar- 

 winism. This division of the volume com- 

 prises also chapters on the animal life, vege- 

 tation, climate, and other features of the 

 equatorial zone, tropical humming-birds, the 

 colors of animals and sexual selection, the 

 colors of plants and the color-sense, and the 

 antiquity of man. Among the subjects of 

 the essays on Natural Selection are the intro- 

 duction of new species, protective resem- 

 blances, instinct, the philosophy of birds' 

 nests, and natural selection applied to man. 



The Electro-platers' Handbook. By G. E. 

 Bonnet Illustrated New York : D. 

 Van Nostrand Co. Pp. 208. Price, 

 $1.20. 



The amateur who would like to possess 

 table-ware, jewelry, or miscellaneous articles 

 plated with silver or gold by his own hands, 

 and the intelligent boy in a plater's shop 

 who wants to supplement his oral instruction 

 with a record of facts and figures that he 

 can not well carry in his memory, will both 

 find their needs supplied by this manual. 

 Much or little electrical and mechanical 

 knowledge may be used in electro-plating : 

 the amateur may make his own battery or 

 dynamo if he desires, or he may buy appa- 

 ratus of one of the kinds and makes named 

 in this book. The author tells just what 

 kinds are suitable for doing plating, and 

 why, and also describes the vessels, brushes, 

 lathes, etc., required for the work. He next 

 gives a chapter on preparing the work, which 

 includes thorough cleaning and the grinding 

 out of all scratches, pits, and roughness. The 

 latter operation may be done very labori- 

 ously by hand, but the amateur will have it 

 done in some shop on a lathe. The opera- 

 tion of "stripping" the remains of the old 

 coating from articles that have been plated 

 before, and the use of "dipping" and 

 "quicking" solutions are also described 

 here. Separate chapters are then devoted 

 to electro-plating with silver, gold, nickel, 



copper, alloys, and with zinc, tin, iron, etc. 

 All the little points that need attention are 

 touched upon in each case, and in the chap- 

 ter on silver full directions are given for 

 burnishing the work. The directions are 

 everywhere simple and concise, and the book 

 is not burdened with historical matter, vari- 

 ous alternative processes, or elementary sci- 

 ence. The volume is amply illustrated, has 

 a portrait of Faraday for a frontispiece, and 

 has an index. 



Ajt Introduction to the Study of Mammals, 

 Living and Extinct. By William Hen- 

 ry Flower, F. R. S., etc., and Richard 

 Lydekker, F. Z. S., etc. New York: 

 Macmillan & Co. Pp. 7t33. Price, $6. 



This work is based largely upon the arti- 

 cle Mammalia, together with forty shorter 

 articles, written by the senior of the two au- 

 thors for the ninth edition of the Encyclo- 

 paedia Britannica. The article Ape, by Dr. 

 St. G. Mivart, and several articles by Dr. G. 

 E. Dobson and Mr. Oldfield Thomas, have 

 also been used, with the permission of the 

 writers. This material has been arranged, 

 the gaps between the several parts have been 

 filled, and new matter, especially on the ex- 

 tinct forms and the group Artiodactyla, has 

 been added. Anatomy and classification are 

 the subjects most largely treated, compara- 

 tively little attention being given to habits 

 and mental traits. The text is illustrated with 

 three hundred and fifty-seven figures, most 

 of which appear in the Encylopaxlia articles 

 above mentioned, while some have been 

 drawn for the present volume, and some ob- 

 tained from other sources. The well-known 

 character of the Britannica is a sufficient 

 index of the high quality of this work. 



A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry. By 

 T. E. Thorpe, F. R. S., assisted by Emi- 

 nent Contributors. Vol. II. London and 

 New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 

 Price, $15. 



The second volume of this important 

 work goes from Eau de Cologne to Nux 

 Vomica. Its most extended articles are 

 those on Explosives, Fermentation, Gas 

 (Coal, Oil, and Water), Glass, and Glycerin, 

 on the metals Iron, Lead, and Mercury, and 

 on India Rubber, Iodine, Matches, and Milk. 

 The metallurgical articles treat extraction 

 processes with considerable detail, and give 



