420 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Adams, of Johns Hopkins University (N. 

 Murray, 25 cents), gives an account of the 

 German practice, which is spreading among 

 American universities, of making special col- 

 lections of books for the use of students in 

 special branches of study. It contains also 

 a short paper advocating the extension of 

 the system to public reference libraries, in 

 connection with courses of lectures, and 

 another describing the similar practice aris- 

 ing in England under the name of univer- 

 sity extension. 



Mr. Edward Potts's monograph on Fresh- 

 Water. Sponges (Philadelphia : Academy of 

 Natural Sciences) has been prepared for the 

 purpose of describing genera and species, 

 mostly North American, that have been dis- 

 covered since the publication of Mr. Coates's 

 " Description and Classification " (London) 

 in 1881 ; to give the results of the examina- 

 tion of the character and variations of already 

 known North American species, and for use 

 as a book of reference on all "good " species. 

 The author further hopes to revive, among 

 lovers of Nature, the appreciation of the 

 existence of sponges in our fresh waters ; and 

 to show how to find, collect, classify, and 

 preserve them. 



Skeleton Notes upon Inorganic Chemistry, 

 by P. de P. RicJcetts and S. H. Russell (John 

 Wiley & Sons, New York), is a book of blanks 

 for preserving notes of lectures, experiments, 

 or studies. The present volume is labeled 

 Part I, and is devoted to the non-metallic 

 elements. A definite number of pages is 

 allotted to each element, the section being 

 preceded by a table giving the ascertained 

 constants and properties of the element, its 

 applications, and its principal binary com- 

 pounds. 



Of ;the Course of Lectures on Electricity 

 by George Forbes (Longmans, Green & Co., 

 London and New York, $1.60), five were de- 

 livered in 1886 before the London Society of 

 Arts, and the sixth — which shows the appli- 

 cations of the general principles to one de- 

 partment of practical engineering — was de- 

 livered at the Electrical Exhibition in Phila- 

 delphia in 1884. The lectures were intended 

 to meet the desires of an intelligent audience, 

 ignorant of electrical science, but anxious to 

 obtain sufficient knowledge to enable them 

 to follow the progress now being made in it; 



and the attempt is made to present in clear 

 language the fundamental facts governing 

 electrical phenomena in such a manner as 

 will leave the reader nothing to unlearn. 



In Loomis's Contributions to Meteorology 

 Pevieived (K. Kittredge, Ann Arbor, Mich., 50 

 cents), H. Helm Clayton has compiled a 

 summary of the series of papers which Prof. 

 Loomis has published in the " American 

 Journal of Science and Arts," and which are 

 collectively pronounced "one of the best 

 pieces of work in inductive meteorology of 

 the present age." This summary, covering 

 the chief results of the discussions, is in- 

 tended for those persons who have not access 

 to the papers in their complete form. 



The Conferencias Filosofcas, or Philo- 

 sophical Lectures ; second series, Psychology, 

 of Enrique Jose Varona (Havana), comprises 

 a series of thirty lectures which were given 

 in the Academy of Medical, Physical, and 

 Natural Sciences of Havana in 1880 and 

 1881, and have been already printed in 

 various numbers of the " Revista de Cuba." 

 The opening lectures explain the general 

 principles and foundations of the science, and 

 the importance of the phenomena of move- 

 ment to its study. They are followed by 

 discussions of the various corporal senses in 

 their order, and then by their relations and 

 qualities of sensation and perception, mem- 

 ory, representation, association, imagination, 

 the emotions and sentiments, the processes 

 of determining and acting, suggestions re- 

 specting classification, and a bibliography. 



Prof. Balfour Stewart and W. W. H. Gee 

 have undertaken a series of small books on 

 Practical Physics, of which vol. i. Electricity 

 and Magnetism (Macmillan, 60 cents), has 

 already been issued. This volume is based 

 on the one devoted to the same subject in 

 the " Elementary Lessons in Practical Phys- 

 ics " by the same authors. It is a laboratory 

 manual, consisting largely of simple experi- 

 ments and measurements in electrostatics, 

 magnetism, and current electricity, the prin- 

 ciples of which are at the same time explained 

 to the student. In order to make the book 

 complete in itself, a chapter is inserted de- 

 scribing the use of scales, calipers, wire- 

 gauges, the balance, etc. In the appendix 

 will be found plans of certain school labora- 

 tories, a list of apparatus, tools, and mate- 

 rials, and other information that should be 



