74 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



republic. Besides their own experiments, 

 the authors, to qualify themselves for their 

 work, visited the principal laboratories of 

 Europe, including those of Dr. Miquel, of 

 Montsouris ; Dr. Ferran, of Barcelona ; Prof. 

 Emmerich, of Munich ; Dr. Korralsky, of 

 Vienna ; Prof. Fodor, of Buda-Pest ; and 

 Dr. Fraenkel, of Berlin. The first part of 

 the treatise relates to the examination for 

 mineral constituents, including the determi- 

 nation of the weight of 6olids, of alkalinity, 

 noxious metals, chlorine, nitric and nitrous 

 acids, and gases ; the second part, to the ex- 

 amination for organic impurities by the am- 

 monia and permanganate processes ; and 

 the third part, to the bacteriological exami- 

 nation. To this is added a chapter on para- 

 sitical animals introduced by water into the 

 organism, by Dr. Rafael Blanchard, of Paris. 

 The work is illustrated by one hundred and 

 twenty-seven engravings, sixteen photomicro- 

 graphs, and five photograms of cultivations, 

 and is published in London in Spanish by 

 Burns & Oates. 



Persifor Frazer's useful Tables for the 

 Determination of Minerals by Physical Prop- 

 erties ascertainable with the Aid of a Few 

 Field Instruments is published by the J. B. 

 Lippincott Company in a third edition, en- 

 tirely rewritten. The author's first intention 

 was to introduce the method of determination 

 pursued in the Royal Saxon Mining Academy 

 at Freiberg, in a translation of Prof. Weis- 

 bach's tables ; but he soon found that it 

 would have to be modified in many particu- 

 lars in order to meet the wants of American 

 readers ; and the changes and additions were 

 so numerous as to make virtually a new book. 

 The principle is insisted upon that every true 

 mineral is a definite chemical compound or 

 element, homogeneous throughout its parts, 

 and capable of expression in a chemical 

 molecular formula. This principle, which 

 was at first opposed by Prof. Dana, has 

 now been tacitly conceded by all modern 

 writers, including Prof. Dana himself. The 

 minerals are classified for purposes of identi- 

 fication into those of metallic luster, and 

 then, subordinately, according to their colors; 

 those of submetallic and non-metalic luster, 

 and the color of their streak ; and minerals 

 of non-metallic luster with white or light 

 gray streak, and according to their sectility 

 or hardness. $2. 



In A Preliminary Report on the Geology 

 of the Central Mineral Region of Texas, 

 which forms a part of the first Annual Re- 

 port of the Geological Survey of the State, 

 Mr. Theodore B. Vomstock assumes that the 

 region has never been adequately studied, 

 and criticises the references to it by the geo- 

 logical writers who have spoken of it as be- 

 traying want of information. In his own re- 

 port he gives only definite results which the 

 facts known are fully believed to warrant. 

 Of statements of previous authors which he 

 summarizes a certain number have been 

 verified by his observations, while as many 

 more have been found incorrect ; and, as a 

 result of the field work of 1 889, a consider- 

 able amount of new and wholly unexpected 

 structure has been worked out. 



Mr. Ernest E. Thompson, in his mono- 

 graph on The Birds of Manitoba (United 

 States National Museum), has made the po- 

 litical boundaries of the province the bound- 

 aries also of the district included, although 

 it does not constitute a distinct zoological 

 province. He spent altogether about three 

 years in the province and in his studies of 

 birds. He offers his observations as they 

 were made on the spot, without condensa- 

 tion or generalization, believing that the only 

 right course under the circumstances. His 

 original plan was to prepare something 

 "after a very old-fashioned model," but 

 widening experience caused a change of view. 

 His own observations are supplemented by 

 those of numerous observers in different parts 

 of the province, and citations of other scat- 

 tered published matter. From his sketch of 

 the physical features of the province, we learn 

 that it is plentifully, almost too plentifully, 

 supplied with water. Besides the numerous 

 extensive lakes indicated on the map there 

 are thousands more of smaller extent, while 

 the region of the Red River Valley in par- 

 ticular is diversified by vast stretches of 

 marsh and lagoon. The lakes consist of 

 sweet or live-water lakes of various sizes, 

 fed and drained by living streams and teem- 

 ing with fish ; and the alkaline lakes, which 

 are mere drainage basins, and depend on 

 evaporation for the removal of their accumu- 

 lated waters. They owe their alkaline con- 

 stituents to the continual influx and evapo- 

 ration of surface water slightly impregnated 

 with alkali, through running over the prairies 



