LITERARY NOTICES'. 



503 



Inclination of the Earth's Axis." The au- 

 thor considers the following questions : 

 How could a belt of nebulous matter acted 

 on by the laws of motion and gravitation 

 become a spheroid ? How did the axis of 

 the spheroid, normally perpendicular, be- 

 come inclined ? What was the amount of 

 this inclination up to the moment of the 

 earth's existence separate from the moon? 

 When did the increase to the present ob- 

 liquity occur? Finally, what was the cause 

 of that increase ? 



Man : Paleolithic, Neolithic, and sev- 

 eral other Races, not inconsistent 

 with Scripture. By Nemo. Dublin : 

 Hodges, Foster & Co. Pp. 137. 



The first appearance of man upon the 

 earth took place, according to this author, 

 in the Pliocene, or perhaps earlier. . Before 

 the Adam of the book of Genesis there were 

 several creations of man, and of these cre- 

 ations ten races besides that of Adam sur- 

 vive to this day. Thus, instead of being 

 the first, the scriptural Adam was the last 

 created man. After the " six days " of 

 creation the seventh day commenced, and 

 of that day nearly 6,000 years have run. 

 Judging from analogy, many thousands of 

 years have yet to elapse before the " sev- 

 enth day " is ended. 



On Supposed Changes in the Nebula M 17 

 = h. 2008 = G. C. 4403. By E. S. Hol- 



DEN. 



This paper, reprinted from the American 

 Journal of Science and Art, goes over the 

 same ground as the article by the same 

 author, " The Horseshoe Nebula in Sagitta- 

 rius," in Yol. VIII. of this Monthly. In the 

 latter paper Prof. Holden addresses a pop- 

 ular audience, and he accordingly eschews 

 mathematics ; but in the former he ad- 

 dresses astronomers, and of course writes 

 in technical language. 



The Public-School Question : Two Lect- 

 ures. Boston : Free Religious Associ- 

 ation. 



The school question is here presented 

 from two opposite points of view : that of 

 " an American Catholic citizen," by Bishop 

 McQuaid, of Rochester, N. Y. ; and that of 

 "a liberal American citizen," by Francis E. 

 Abbott, editor of the Index. 



Wheeler's Survey of the Territories. 

 Reports of G. K. Gilbert, pp. 270 ; 

 Edwin E. Howell, pp. 70; and A. R. 

 Marvine, pp. 35. Washington, 1876. 



These reports have been printed by the 

 authors for private circulation. They are 

 all extracted from vol. iii. of Wheeler's 

 United States Engineer Reports of Explo- 

 rations and Surveys west of the One Hun- 

 dredth Meridian. The authors, in this pri- 

 vate edition of their reports, correct various 

 typographical errors, and restore some pas- 

 sages which, though occurring in the original 

 manuscripts, do not appear in the documents 

 as officially published. In some instances 

 statements made in the reports are corrected 

 in accordance with the results of more re- 

 cent investigation. 



Memoirs of the Peabody Academy of Sci- 

 ence, No. 4. Salem : Published by the 

 Academy. Pp. 94, with Plates. 



In this elegant quarto volume the Pea- 

 body Academy presents to the public the 

 late Prof. Jeffries Wyman's memoir upon 

 the fresh-water shell-mounds of the St. 

 John's River, Florida. Prof. Wyman made 

 his first examination of these shell-mounds 

 in 1860, when collections were made at 

 Lake Harney, Black Hammock, and Enter- 

 prise. In 1867 he revisited these places, 

 and soon afterward published a short ac- 

 count of them, of which the present me- 

 moir is in some respects a reprint. But 

 later he had opportunities for further ex- 

 ploration, the results of which are here 

 given. The collections made by Prof. Wy- 

 man are preserved in the Peabody Museum 

 of American Archaeology and Ethnology at 

 Harvard College. 



Bulletin of the United States Geological 

 and Geographical Survey of the Ter- 

 ritories. Vol. II., No. 1, pp. 87; No. 

 2, pp. 100. 



The first of these two numbers of the 

 Bulletin of Hayden's Survey is specially in- 

 teresting. It contains seven papers, nearly 

 all of them illustrated, on archaeological 

 subjects connected with Colorado, Arizona, 

 Utah, and other Western Territories. In 

 number two are two essays, viz., " Studies 

 of the American Falconidae," and "Orni- 

 thology of Guadeloupe Island." Both of 

 these papers are by Mr. Robert Ridgeway. 



