ii6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Fnless the teacher is more than ordinarily 

 stupid, and addicted to the routine of book- 

 teaching, the pupil can hardly fail to have 

 his mental stature increased, his reasoning 

 powers strengthened, by going over the 

 course of experiments here laid down. Of 

 the author's success in carrying out this 

 scheme, the first volume of the series was 

 evidence ; and our readers can see from the 

 copious extracts which we elsewhere pub- 

 lish in the present Monthly that the prom- 

 ise made in the preface is more than ful- 

 filled in the body of the work. Prof. May- 

 er's text leaves nothing to be desired in 

 point of clearness, and, where the imperfec- 

 tion of written speech might cause obscuri- 

 ty, the illustrations, which are all new and 

 rigorously exact, will serve to guide the 

 leader aright. 



Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual 

 Meeting of the Free Religious Asso- 

 ciation (1878). Boston: The Free Re- 

 ligious Association. Pp. 90. Price, 40 

 cts. 



Besides the financial reports and the 

 list of oflBcers for the ensuing year, this vol- 

 ume contains several more or less elaborate 

 addresses, among which may be mentioned 

 an essay by Thaddeus B. Wakeman, en- 

 titled "The Religion of Humanity," in 

 which the author explains what that re- 

 ligion is, and shows how it may be organ- 

 ized and cultivated upon American soil; 

 also, an essay by William H. Spencer: 

 " Religion of Supernaturalism ; why it 

 should be disorganized, and how it may be 

 done." 



Annals of the Astronomical Observa- 

 tory OF Harvard College. — Photo- 

 metric Researches. By C. S. Peikce. 

 Made in the Years 18'72-]875. Leipzig: 

 Wilhelm Engelmann. Pp. 181. With 

 Plates. 



Of the five chapters into which this 

 elaborate work is divided the first treats of 

 the sensation of light; the second, of the 

 numbers of stars of different degrees of 

 brightness ; the third is a record of the 

 author's original observations with the as- 

 tro-photometer of ZoUner; in the fourth, 

 the star-magnitudes given by the different 

 observers are compared ; and the fifth treats 

 of the form of the galactic cluster. 



In the Wilderness. By Charles Dud- 

 let Warner. Pp. 175. Price, 75 cts. 



If you cannot compass a trip to tha 

 Adirondacks, this inimitable little volume 

 of forest sketches is a capital substitute, for 

 Mr. Warner brings to his work a love of 

 the woods and a knowledge of their varied 

 features, rivaling that of "Old Mountain 

 Phelps " himself. Moreover, subtile humor- 

 ist as he is, he cannot escape being funny, 

 and his little volume sparkles with delicate 

 wit and keen but not unkindly satire from 

 beginning to end. 



Metric Weights and Measures for Medi- 

 cal and Pharmacal Purposes. Wash- 

 ington : Government Printing-Office. Pp. 

 40. 



In the Marine Hospital service, medical 

 officers are now required to employ metric 

 weights and measures for all medical and 

 pharmacal purposes, and in this little pam- 

 phlet are contained rules and tables for the 

 conversion of quantities according to apothe- 

 caries' weight and measure into quantities 

 according to the metric system. The work 

 will interest physicians and pharmacists, 

 and will probably be of service in hastening 

 the general adoption of the metric system 

 in the United States. 



Sound and the Telephone. By C. J. 

 Blake, M. D. Pp. 12. 



In this paper, which was read before 

 the British Society of Telegraph Engineers, 

 the author states in part the result of ex- 

 periments made for the purpose of measur- 

 ing the vibrations of the disks of the Bell 

 telephone, and determining the loss of pow- 

 er sustained in the transmission of sound. 

 He further compares the vibrations of the 

 telephone-disk with those of the human 

 tymi^anum membrane. 



American College Directory (1878). St. 

 Louis: C. H. Evans & Co. Pp. 111. 

 Price, 10 cts. 



This volume contains a list of all the 

 colleges, seminaries, special schools, etc., 

 in the United States, and gives in brief 

 much essential information concerning each ; 

 for instance, the number of teachers and 

 pupils, number of volumes in the library, 

 value of scientific apparatus, value of build- 

 ings, etc. 



