LITERARY NOTICES. 



375 



A Practical Treatise on Roads, Streets, 

 and Pavements. By Q. A. Gillmore, 

 A. M. Pp. 258. New York: D. Van 

 Nostrand. Price, $2. 



A much-needed and most excellent lit- 

 tle manual. There is no better measure of 

 civilization than the state of the highways 

 in city or country, and judged by that 

 standard the American people are not much 

 advanced. Bad roads prevail roads badly 

 laid out, badly constructed, and kept in bad 

 order and, while this general badness is an 

 enormous burden upon the community, in- 

 volving waste of horse-flesh, vehicles, time, 

 and obstruction of business, there is still a 

 degree of ignorance concerning the me- 

 chanics of the subject that is surprising 

 among a people who make such large pre- 

 tensions to enterprise. There are well-es- 

 tablished principles in road-laying, road- 

 making, and road-management, the viola- 

 tion or neglect of which entails such seri- 

 ous losses that it is a matter of public 

 economy to wake up any community to the 

 importance of the subject. General Gill- 

 more's book gives the latest information 

 regarding it, within moderate limits, and he 

 thus states the leading objects that have 

 been kept in view in its preparation : 



" 1. To give within the compass of one small 

 volume such descriptions of the various meth- 

 ods of locating country roads, and of construct- 

 ing the road and street coverings in more or 

 less common use at the present day, as will ren- 

 der the essential details of those methods, as 

 well as certain improvements thereon of which 

 many of them are believed to be susceptible, 

 familiar to any intelligent non-professional 

 reader. 2. To make such practical suggestions 

 with respect to the selection and application of 

 materials, more especially those with the prop- 

 erties and uses of which builders are presumed 

 to be the least acquainted, as seem needful in 

 order to develop their greatest practical worth 

 and realize their greatest endurance. 3. To in- 

 stitute a just and discriminating comparison of 

 the respective merits of the several street 

 pavements now competing for popular recogni- 

 tion and favor, under the varying conditions of 

 traffic, climate, and locality, to which thqtf are 

 commonly subjected." 



Uses of a Topographical Survey of New 

 York. By James I. Gardner. 

 The uses of a topographical survey of 

 the State, as set forth in this paper, are as 

 follows : 1 . Such survey is a necessary ba- 

 sis for equalizing taxation ; 2. It will es- 

 tablish imperishably every property boun- 



dary in the State ; 3. It will make it possible 

 to describe correctly the area of real estate 

 conveyed by a deed ; 4. It will afford fa- 

 cilities for proper plans of suburban drain- 

 age and water-supply, and extensions of 

 village streets and couutry roads ; 5. It 

 will furnish a basis for a scientific survey 

 of the State's resources. 



The American State and Statesmen. By 

 W. G. Dix. Boston, Estes & Lauriat. 

 Price, $1.50. 



In his preface the author asks the ques- 

 tion, " Have we not been trying to get along 

 somehow for nearly a hundred years with- 

 out any principle of government ? " If so, 

 it is full time to discover a principle of some 

 kind. From the titles of two or three chap- 

 ters, such as " Christianity the Inspirer of 

 Nations," "America a Christian Power," 

 " Materialism the Curse of America," it 

 would appear that the author's prescription 

 for all our political ills is Christian states- 

 manship. And, when the nation has been 

 saved, we must head a grand crusade against 

 Mohammedan sovereignty in Eastern Europe, 

 Western Asia, and Northern Africa ! 



The Bible and Science. By J. Weiss. Also, 

 The Sympathy of Religions. By T. W. 



HlGGINSON. 



These are tracts published by the Free 

 Religious Association, Boston. They are in- 

 tended to popularize the ideas and aims of 

 a body of thoughtful men and women, and 

 are sold at the low price of $3.00 per 

 hundred copies. The tracts already pub- 

 lished are four in number, including, besides 

 the two named above, one on " Taxation of 

 Church Property," by James Parton, and 

 one on " Transcendentalism," by the late 

 Theodore Parker. 



Notes on the Yucca-Borer. By C. Y. 



Riley, Ph. D. Pp. 23. St. Louis : R. 



P. Studley. 



The roots or subterranean trunks of 

 yuccas are often found to be hollowed' out 

 along the axis ; this tunneling is the work 

 of the yucca-borer {Megathymus yuccce). 

 In the paper before us, Prof. Riley gives 

 the results of his studies upon this insect. 

 He is inclined to regard the yucca-borer as 

 the representative of an ancient type from 

 which are derived on the one hand the 

 Castnians, on the other the Hcsperians. 



