LITERARY NOTICES. 



705 



strewn with the ashes of the annual fires. 

 These " dead lakes " do not contain fish, but 

 swarm with a species of Amblystoma, and 

 leeches and aquatic insects, and are fre- 

 quented by certain kinds of birds that seem 

 to avoid the fresher waters. 



In a paper on Revised Astronomy a con- 

 tribution is made to theoretical astronomy 

 from a new base by the Rev, James W. Han- 

 na. After twenty years of study he has 

 come to the conclusion that all the attractive 

 forces of organic nature are one ; that con- 

 nected with it is another force, equally gen- 

 eral and important, of repulsion ; and that 

 the resisting medium of space plays a larger 

 part in the economy of the universe than it 

 has been accredited with. Keeping these 

 principles in view, he finds much in received 

 astronomical theories to be corrected, and for- 

 mulates his views in thirty-eight propositions. 

 (Fleming H. Revell Co., Chicago and New 

 York. Price, 35 cents.) 



In an address on Tlie New School of 

 Criminal Anthropology delivered before the 

 Anthropological Society of Washington by 

 Dr. Robert Fletcher, the principal results of 

 the labors of Prof. C. Lombroso, of Turin, 

 are briefly presented, together with refer- 

 ences to the works of other writers who are 

 disposed to regard criminals as constituting 

 to a greater or less extent a distinct class of 

 the human race. 



In the Annual Report of the Chief Sig- 

 nal Officer of the Army for 1890 a decided 

 improvement is noted in military signaling. 

 During the year the heliograph was largely 

 used in Arizona, nearly two thousand miles 

 of military and sea-coast telegraph lines were 

 operated, and considerable use was made 

 of telephones. The meteorological work in- 

 cluded the issuing of weather and tempera- 

 ture forecasts, the display of storm-signals, 

 the gauging and reporting of rivers for navi- 

 gation and flood-warnings, and the publica- 

 tion of weather maps, hurricane reports, the 

 Weather Crop Bulletin, and the Monthly 

 Weather Review. The percentages of suc- 

 cessful forecasts were 84-4 for weather and 

 78'Y for temperature, giving a general aver- 

 age of 82*6. This is excellent in view of the 

 statement made that "the average time at 

 the disposal of the forecast official for the 

 discussion and formal issue of weather fore- 

 casts is forty-nine minutes in the morning 

 vol. xxxix. 51 



and fifteen minutes more at night," and that 

 consequently " rarely can a minute be given 

 to the predictions for any particular State 

 or district." The accuracy of weather and 

 temperature predictions had increased 1"7 

 per cent over the previous year ; that of 

 storm-signals had remained practically the 

 same, 67"1 per cent. The details and statis- 

 tics of the above and other work of the Sig- 

 nal Corps are given, with many maps, in 

 special reports that occupy the greater part 

 of the volume. 



A Report on the Cahaba Coal-field, by 

 Joseph Squire, has been issued by the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Alabama. This report de- 

 scribes the geology of the region, the chemi- 

 cal composition of the coals from different 

 parts of the field, and the methods of min- 

 ing employed there. Appended to the re- 

 port is an account of the Geology of the 

 Valley Regions adjacent to the Cahaba Field, 

 by Eugene A. Smith, the State Geologist. 

 The volume is illustrated, and is accompa- 

 nied by a folded map. 



Mr. Arthur Winslow, State Geologist of 

 Missouri, reviewing, in his Biennial Report of 

 the Bureau of Geology and Mines, the his- 

 tory of the geological survey of the State in 

 past years, finds that " its life has been very 

 fitful. It has existed for a few years, only 

 to be discontinued before any plan of work 

 was completed and at the sacrifice of much 

 of the result reached. It has been weakened 

 by successive changes of management with 

 accompanying changes of policy. Its trained 

 corps of employes and its equipment for 

 work have been lost during the interim be- 

 tween two periods of activity ; its collections, 

 designed to illustrate the resources of the 

 State, have been scattered, and with it all a 

 considerable sum of money has been ex- 

 pended." The present, management has spent 

 a year in preparation, and is entering upon 

 a systematic work. It is to be hoped that it 

 will be left alone long enough to accomplish 

 something of permanent value. 



Parents who have never taken much 

 thought as to what kind of schools their 

 children go to should read The Coming 

 School, by Ellen E. Kenyon (Cassell, 50 cents 

 and $1). It is a companion to The Young 

 Idea, by Miss Lc Row, which reveals the sad 

 absurdities that characterize the prevalent 



