LITERAR Y NOTICES. 



761 



enough for all practical purposes, and, could 

 the officers be got to cooperate in carrying 

 out its provisions, the result would undoubt- 

 edly be a material lessening of disease and 

 mortality in the arm)'. But, as now man- 

 aged, both disease and mortality arc largely 

 in excess of what they should be. From a 

 table showing the ratio per thousand of 

 mortality in the United States Army as 

 compared with the mortality of males be- 

 tween twenty and forty years of age in civil 

 life, it appears that the death-rate from 

 disease among the soldiers is from twice to 

 three times as great per thousand as among 

 civilians. The author ascribes this partly 

 to the character of the food, which is often 

 deficient in fresh vegetables, but mainly to 

 the habitations in which the soldiers are 

 obliged to live. In many instances these are 

 without provision for ventilation, are often 

 much overcrowded, and are rarely furnished 

 with adequate appliances for bathing and 

 the maintenance of cleanliness of person. 

 In the matters of clothing and hospital ser- 

 vice the author considers the troops gener- 

 ally well provided for. The bulk of the re- 

 port is taken up with descriptions of mili- 

 tary posts, furnished by different members 

 of the army medical corps. 



Eighth Annual Report on the Noxious, 

 Beneficial, and Other Insects of Mis- 

 souri. By C. V. Riley, State Entomol- 

 ogist. Pp. 196. Jefferson City : Regan 

 & Carter print. 



The noxious insects considered in this 

 volume are the Colorado potato-beetle, can- 

 ker-worm, army-worm, Rocky Mountain 

 locust, and the grape phylloxera. One in- 

 noxious insect, the yucca-borer, is treated 

 of. The loss sustained in the State of Mis- 

 souri in 1875 from injury done to grains 

 alone by the Rocky Mountain locust is esti- 

 mated by Prof. Riley at $15,000,000. Ac- 

 cordingly, we are not surprised that the 

 greater part of the annual report should be 

 devoted to this insect. Several interesting 

 questions regarding the natural history of 

 the locust are discussed, such as its trans- 

 formations, the habits of the unfledged lo- 

 custs, the directions in which the young lo- 

 custs travel, etc. It has been asserted that 

 young locusts are led in their marches by 

 " kings " or "queens," but this Prof. Riley 

 declares to be an error. " Certain large lo- 



custs," he writes, "belonging to the genera 

 Acridinia and OEdipus hibernate in the 



full-grown, winged state, and not in the egg- 

 state, like the Rocky Mountain species al- 

 ways with us; their presence was simply 

 more manifest last spring, when the face 01 

 the earth was bare. Hopping with the 

 others, or falling into ditches with them, 

 they gave rise to this false notion, and it is 

 an interesting fact, as showing how the 

 same circumstances at times give rise to 

 similar erroneous ideas in widely-separate 

 parts of the world, that the same idea pre- 

 vails in parts of Europe and Asia." 



The Geological Agency of Lateral Press- 

 ure exhibited by Certain Movements 

 of Rocks. By W. H. Niles. Pp. 15. 

 Boston : Kingman print. 



Prof. Niles has studied, in five different 

 localities, the evidences proving the con- 

 tinued action of the lateral pressure occa- 

 sioned by the earth's contraction. His gen- 

 eral conclusions are 1. That the rock at 

 these localities has been brought into a 

 compressed condition by a powerful lateral 

 pressure, acting only in a northerly and 

 southerly direction ; and, 2. That, when op- 

 portunity is presented, the compressed rock 

 expands with great energy. 



Geographical Variation among North 

 American Mammals. Also, Sexual, In- 

 dividual, and Geographical Variation in 

 Leucosticte tephrocotis. By J. A. Allen. 

 Pp. 41. Washington: Government 

 Printing-Office. 



Mr. Allen finds the variation in size, 

 with latitude, to be surprisingly great in 

 wolves and foxes, amounting in some spe- 

 cies to twenty-five per cent, of the average 

 size of the species, while in other species 

 of the Ferce it is almost nil. Contrary to 

 the general impression, the variation in size 

 among representatives of the same species 

 is not always a decrease with the decrease 

 of the latitude of the locality, but is in 

 some cases exactly the reverse. 



Transactions of the Kansas State Hor- 

 ticultural Society (1875). Pp. 277. 

 Topeka: G. W. Martin print. 



The State Horticultural Society of Kan- 

 sas appears to be a very industrious and 

 efficient body. Two meetings were held 

 during the year 1875, and the proceedings 



