POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



543 



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Cooking-School Text-Book. By Juliet Cor- 

 son. New York : Orauge Judd Co. Pp. 240. 



Outline of General Geoloij'. By Theo. B. 

 Comstock. Ithaca, New York : University Press. 

 Pp. ^i. 



Coal : its History and Uses. Edited by Pro- 

 fessor Thorpe. Loudon : Mactuilian & Co. 18T8. 

 Pp. 3130. $4. 



Red Ea^le. By G. C. Eggleaton. New York: 

 Dodd, Mead & Co. 1878. Pp. 346. 



Elements of Comparative Anatomy. By Carl 

 Gegenbaur. Loudon: MacmiUan & Co. Is78. 

 Ppr645. $7. 



The Bride of Gettysburg. By J. D. Hylton. 

 Palmyra, New Jersey. ls7S. Pp.172. 



The Rei^n of God not " the Reign of Law." 

 By Thomas'Scott Bacou. Baltimore: Turuball 

 Brothers. 1878. Pp.400. $1.50. 



Political Economy. By William Roscher. 

 New York : Holt & Co. 1873. Two vols., pp. 

 461 and 455. $7. 



The Labor Side of the Great Sugar Question. 

 New York. 1878. Pp. 30. 



Researches in Telephony. By Professor Dol- 

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 Academy of Science and Arts.''^ Pp. 15. 



Report on Life-Saving Apparatus. By Lieu- 

 tenant D. A. Lyle, of the Orduaiice Department. 

 Washington: Government Printing-Offlce. 1878. 

 Pp. 100,'vith numerous Plates. 



The Temoeraments. By Dr. D. H. Jacques. 

 New York : S. R. Wells. Pp. 239. S1.50. 



Tran^^mission of Power by Compressed Air. 

 Bv R. Zahner. Now York : Van xVostraud. Pp. 

 133. 50 cents. 



Mansill's Almanac of Planetary Meteorology 

 for 1S79. Rack Island, Illinois : R. Crampton. 

 Pp. 52. 50 cents. 



Bulletin of the United States Geological and 

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 No-i.2. 3,4. Washington: Government Printing- 

 Offlce. 1878. 



Bulletin of the United States National Mnse- 

 nm. Nos. 10 and 12. Washington : Government 

 Printing-Offlje. 



Bibliography of North American Invertebrate 

 Paleontology. Pp. 119. Catalosrue of Photo- 

 graphs of Indians. Pp.122. Washington : Gov- 

 ernment Printing-Offlce. 



Birds of the Colorado Vallev. Bv Elliott 

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 Offlce. Pp. 8i2. 



Drift from York Harbor. Bv G. Hou'^hton. 

 Boston : A. Williams & Co. 1R79. Pp. 48. 



Total Abstinence. By Dr. B. W. Richardson. 

 London: Macmillan & Co. Pp 110. 



Handbook of Alabama. By S. Bcmey. Pp. 

 33S, with Map. Paper, $1..50. 



Noxious and Beneficial Insects of Illinois 

 By Dr. C. Tliomas. Springflell, Illinois: Lusk 

 print. Pp. 290. 



Reptiles and Barracbiai" of Ciliforaia. etc. 

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Physiology of the Spermatozoa. Bv Dr. S. 

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Text-Books and Mf^thods of Instruction in 

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Almanac for U«e of Navigators for the Year 

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Difficult Labor. By Dr. E. M. Hale. Pp. 91. 



Native Wild Flowers anrl Ferns. By Thomas 

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POPULAR MISCELLAKY. 



Reorganization of the Government Sur- 

 yeys. — We have alreadj' briefly stated the 

 conclusions reached by the Committee of tlie 

 National Academy of Sciences, appointed to 

 consider what changes might be desired in 

 the method of conducting the surveys of the 

 Territories. We have since received an 

 official copy of the Committee's report, and 

 consider its subject matter of sufficient im- 

 portance to justify a fuller abstract. The 

 Committee interpreted the act of Congress 

 directing their inquiry as applying only to 

 surveys of the public domain, and hence did 

 not take mto consideration surveys or in- 

 vestigations which have for their objective 

 point engineering works : such surveys, in 

 the judgment of the Committee, should be 

 conducted by the engineer corps of the 

 army. The surveys which, in their opin- 

 ion, were intended by the act to be inquired 

 into were those popularly known as Wheel- 

 er's, Hayden's, Powell's, and the Land Sur- 

 veys under the supervision of the Land-Of- 

 fice. Besides these, though not enumerated 

 in the law, there is the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey. All the work done by these differ- 

 ent corps may be classed under two heads : 

 1. Surveys of mensuration ; 2. Surveys of 

 geology and economic resources of the soil. 

 The surveys of mensuration are at pres- 

 ent conducted by five independent organiza- 

 tions, already named. There is no coordi- 

 nation between these five surveys, and their 

 results show many contradictions. The 

 geographical work of Wheeler's, or Hay- 

 den's, or Powell's survey is of little value 

 for the parceling of land, while the land 

 surveys are of correspondingly slight topo- 

 graphical and geographical value. The 

 opinion of the Committee is, that " the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey is practically best pre- 

 pared to execute the entire mensuration sys- 

 tem required." But the Committee recom- 

 mend that this survey be transferred from 

 the Treasury to the Department of the In- 

 terior, and that in addition to it? original 

 field of work it should also assume the en- 

 tire mensuration of the public domain. 



The Geological Survey should have a sep- 

 arate organization. " To meet the require- 

 ments of existing laws in the disposition of 

 the agricultural, mineral, pastoral, timber, 



