564 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



largely taken up with the geology of the 

 iion-bearing rocks of northern Minnesota, 

 and several brief papers. The volume is 

 illustrated with geological maps and many 

 structural figures. 



Dr. M. E. Wadsworlh was in charge of 

 a surveying party during a part of the sum- 

 mer of 1886, but devoted the rest of the sea- 

 son to laboratory work, the result of which 

 is published as Bulletin No. 2 of the Minne- 

 sota survey, entitled Preliminary Description 

 of tlie Peridotyles^ Gabbros, Diabases, and 

 Andcsyles of Minnesota. The paper com- 

 prises general descriptions of the Minnesota 

 rocks belonging to these groups, with a great 

 many special descriptions of specimens col- 

 lected in the northern part of the State. 



Bulletin No. 4 of the survey is a Synop- 

 sis of the Aphididce of Minnesota, prepared 

 by 0. W. Oestlund, A general description 

 of the Aphididce and a bibliography of the 

 family are prefixed to the synopsis, and a 

 list of North American plants with the names 

 of species known to attack them is appended. 

 The species of plant-lice treated in this paper 

 were mostly collected along the Mississippi 

 River ; but the author has also added notes 

 from other localities, so that he considers 

 the report as applying to the whole State, 

 except the pine district in the northern part. 



A quarterly journal called The Clima- 

 tologist began life with the number for Janu- 

 ary (P. 0. Box 274, Washington ; 50 cents a 

 year). Its chief object will be to present in- 

 formation as to the climatic conditions of 

 various regions and resorts with especial re- 

 gard to their influence on the preservation 

 of health and the cure of disease. Various 

 sanitary subjects will also come within its 

 scope. 



The instructors, pupils, and friends of 

 Adam Todd £)~uce, Ph. D., have issued a 

 quarto memorial volume containing his the- 

 sis entitled Observations on the Embryology 

 of Insects and Arachnids, written for his ex- 

 amination for the degree of Ph. D. Prefixed 

 to the thesis is a sketch of the scientific work 

 of Dr. Bruce by Prof. W. K. Brooks. This 

 young biologist graduated from the Univer- 

 sity of New Jersey in 1881. He obtained 

 the degree of Ph. D. at the Johns Hopkins 

 University in June, 1886, and was appointed 

 an instructor there in September following. 

 He died in March, 1887. The volume con- 



tains six plates illustrating the thesis and a 

 portrait of the author. 



Inebriety : its Etiology, Pathology, Treat- 

 ment, and Jurisprudence, by Norman Kerr, 

 a physician, whose titles and offices indicate 

 that he is an expert in the study of the sub- 

 ject (Philadelphia, P. Blakiston, Son & Co.), 

 has been prepared in response to numer- 

 ous inquiries which have been addressed to 

 the author regarding the best course to be 

 adopted in dealing with the inebriate. The 

 one common feature of most of these in- 

 quiries " has been the non-recognition of a 

 disease element in inebriety, and the ac- 

 knowledgment of only a moral depravity." 

 Dr. Kerr takes an opposite view, and holds, 

 with Dr. Crothers, of Hartford, that ine- 

 briety is a disease, in the face of which the 

 victim is helpless, and that it can be cured 

 only by suitable medical treatment and 

 regimen. In elaboration of this view, he 

 has prepared the present full, methodical 

 treatise on the subject in all its aspects, 

 illustrated with copious citations from his 

 own and other professional experience and 

 observation. The disease inebriety having 

 been described as allied to insanity, five 

 chapters are given to the consideration of 

 its various forms ; four to its etiology, with 

 special stud'es of its predisposing and its 

 exciting causes; two to its pathology; five 

 to its treatment, which, as the disease is a 

 complex one, is necessarily intricate, and is 

 most successful in special homes where the 

 surroundings can all be made favorable ; 

 and five to its medico-legal aspects. Under 

 the last heading it is very evident that the le- 

 gal treatment upon the theory that inebriety 

 is a disease must be quite different from the 

 present system, which regards it as a vice. 



llie Journal of Physiology (Cambridge 

 Scientific Instrument Co., England) presents 

 in No. 1 of Vol. IX three papers, with notes 

 of proceedings. The first paper, by C. A. 

 MacMunn, is " On the Chromatology of some 

 British Sponges," and consists of examina- 

 tions of the coloring matters in twelve species 

 of sponge from Tenby. In ten of them ho 

 found chlorophyll, differing in no respect 

 worth mentioning from vegetable chloro- 

 phyll ; he also found lipochromes in nearly 

 all, and a histoh^matin in seven. As to 

 what use chlorophyll is to sponges. Dr. 

 MacMunn suggests that it may sift out light- 



