704 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



voted to the promotion of intercourse among 

 those interested in the study of Nature; and 

 the wide separation of investigators in dif- 

 ferent centers of educational and civic life 

 makes such a journal almost a necessity. 

 Science, under its new auspices, will be con- 

 ducted by an editorial committee of chosen 

 students, each representing a field in which 

 he is a specialist, and under the general edi- 

 torial direction of Prof. J. McKeen Cattell. 

 In the first number of the new Science, Prof. 

 Newcomb explains the scope of the journal, 

 and President Gilman invites communica- 

 tions from those who have matter suited to it. 

 The leading place among the regular articles 

 is given to a part of Dr. Brinton's American 

 Association address on the Character and 

 Aims of Scientific Investigation a most ap- 

 propriate subject with which to open the 

 first number of the new journal ; which is 

 followed by the equally appropriate review 

 of America's Relation to the Advance of 

 Science, by G. Brown Goode. Prof. T. C. 

 Mendenhall gives an account of the Legal 

 Units of Electrical Measurement, now sanc- 

 tioned by act of Congress. Major Powell 

 discusses what in education ai-e technically 

 called the Humanities; Prof. C. Hart Mer- 

 riam furnishes notes on Zoological Nomen- 

 clature ; S. H. Scudder discusses the study of 

 North American Orthoptera ; several reviews 

 of books appear; and notes are published 

 on a variety of subjects. 



Sea and Land. By N. S. Shaler, Professor 

 of Geology in Harvard University. Illus- 

 trated. New York : Charles Scribner's 

 Sons. Pp. 252. Price, $2.50. 



Every thoughtful person who visits the 

 eeaside must have queried why there is in 

 one place a gently sloping beach of sand, in 

 another a stretch of loose stones, and else- 

 where a ragged cliff rising abruptly from 

 the water's edge, with a fringe of fragments 

 at its foot. He who has voyaged upon the 

 open sea has wondered how the fantastic 

 icebergs that float by him were formed and 

 what the dark depths of water beneath him 

 may conceal. To answer these and similar 

 questions Prof. Shaler's book has been pre- 

 pared. He explains first what forces are at 

 work carving the edge of the land and how 

 different efl'ects are produced under different 

 conditions. Passing to the depths of the sea, 



he tells how our knowledge of the ocean floor 

 has been obtained, and describes the pro- 

 cesses going on upon it. The career of an 

 iceberg is then sketched, after which the 

 subject of harbors is discussed at some 

 length. The diflCerent kinds of harbors are 

 distinguished, and the ways in which they 

 are formed or destroyed are described, the 

 effects of tide and the work of animal and 

 vegetable organisms finding place under the 

 latter head. The book is handsomely printed 

 and is embellished with many full-page illus- 

 trations as well as smaller pictures in the 

 text. 



An Elementary Chemistry. By George 

 Rantoul White, A. M. Boston : Ginn 

 & Co. Pp. 272. Price, $1.10. 



The teacher who likes to roll along in a 

 rut would be a good deal disturbed by this 

 book ; it is so different from other books. 

 It is an experimental text-book, but it is dif- 

 ferent from others of this class. The vari- 

 ous chemical properties and relations of mat- 

 ter are taken up in the order in which the 

 author believes they can be learned most 

 readily and profitably not according to any 

 logical or systematic arrangement. The first 

 thing the student is told to do is to test the 

 properties of iron, and cause it to combine 

 with oxygen. The method of the book is to 

 require the student to start from observa- 

 tions upon things and to arrive at general 

 laws and principles by induction. Taking 

 statements on authority is discouraged. In 

 the words of the preface: "At first the stu- 

 dent is told little or nothing. He is com- 

 pelled to find out all things for himself. To 

 assist him in finding the essential, and to 

 make sure that he has succeeded in this, fre- 

 quent questions are inserted in the text of 

 the experimental part." Gradually proceed- 

 ing to more complicated cases, the author 

 finally puts before the student, under the 

 head of A Chemical Investigation, such a 

 problem as the chemist has who is working 

 on the borderland of the science. After go- 

 ing through this experimental drill the stu- 

 dent is led to trace the history of chemistry, 

 " to note what observations lead to the estab- 

 lishment of certain theories, and the recog- 

 nition of what facts lead to the overthrow of 

 these same theories ; to recognize the gradual 

 unfolding of chemical law ; and, finally, to 



