710 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



beyond all proportion to its wealth, mem- 

 bership, and success. Most of the com- 

 munistic societies of the United States might 

 better be studied as religious than as so- 

 cialistic phenomena. . . . Icaria is an at- 

 tempt to realize the rational, democratic 

 communism of the Utopian philosophers, 

 hence its value as an experiment." 



The Elements of Chemistry, Inorganic and 

 Organic. By Sidney A. Norton, Ph. 

 D. Cincinnati and New York: Van 

 Antwerp, Bragg & Co. Pp. 504. 



Intending his treatise to be used as a 

 text-book, not as a manual for reference. 

 Professor Norton has endeavored to select 

 such chemical phenomena as represent the 

 cardinal principles of the science, giving pref- 

 erence to those which are easily reproduced 

 by the student, and which enter into the af- 

 fairs of common life. He invites students 

 to experiment, and encourages them, if they 

 can not afford artistically made apparatus, 

 to extemporize apparatus with bottles and 

 tumblers and connecting tubes. The most 

 essential thing in experimenting, he says, is 

 the experimenter, who should know what 

 he proposes to do, what are the means at 

 his command, and how he intends to use 

 them ; and, chemistry being exact in its 

 methods, he must remember that careless 

 manipulation will not secure good results, 

 and that such words as neutral, acid, basic, 

 and excess, must not be neglected. In no- 

 menclature, the rules of the London Chemi- 

 cal Society are observed ; in notation, a 

 flexible plan has been adopted ; and, in the 

 descriptions of elements, MendelejefE and 

 Meyer's classification has been followed. 



Report of an ARCHiEOLOGiCAt Tour in 

 Mexico, in 1881. By A. F. Bandelier. 

 Boston : Cupples, Upham & Co. Pp. 

 326, with Twenty-six Plates. 



The report is one of the papers of the 

 Archaeological Institute of America, in co- 

 operation with which Mr. Bandelier made his 

 explorations, and is the second of the Ameri- 

 can series of its special reports. Besides the 

 notes of the explorer's travel, it embraces 

 his studies of and observations upon the 

 archaeological relics in the city of Mexico, 

 the mounds of Cholula, and the interesting 

 ruins of Mitla, all richly illustrated, largely 

 from photographs. 



Science in Song ; or. Nature in Numbers. 

 By William C. Richards. Boston : Lee 

 & Shepard. New York: Charles T. Dil- 

 lingham. Pp. 131. 



An attempt to present various facts and 

 principles of science in verse. Among the 

 special topics sung in measured numbers are 

 steam, electricity, the spectroscope, mag- 

 netism, various chemical elements, heat, as- 

 tronomical phenomena, etc. The verse has 

 considerable life and merit as verse, and the 

 author's success justifies his belief that phi- 

 losophy and poetry in union are not in- 

 congruous. The singer's bias is decidedly 

 against the doctrine of evolution, which he 

 appears to believe — mistakenly, as both 

 sides are coming to conclude — is in some way 

 hostile to the foundations of his religious 

 faith. 



Reports of the Meetings of the Scientific 

 Associations held in Montreal and 

 Philadelphia, as given in " Science." 

 Cambridge, Mass. : " Science " Company. 

 Pp. 112. 



Accounts of the proceedings of the re- 

 cent meetings of the British and American 

 Associations at Montreal and Philadelphia, 

 with abstracts of the more important and 

 interesting papers, including the presiden- 

 tial and vice-presidential addresses, were 

 published in the consecutive numbers of 

 " Science," from August 29 to October 3, 

 1884. These six numbers are here com- 

 bined in a bound volume under the title 

 given above, which, besides the abstracts 

 mentioned, contains considerable other mat- 

 ter of scientific interest. 



Representative British Orators, with In- 

 troductions and Explanatory Notes. By 

 Charles Kendal Adams. New York: 

 G. P. Putnam's Sons. Three volumes, 

 pp. 318, 308, and 376. Price, $3.75. 



The object of this publication is to help 

 show the great currents of political thought 

 that have shaped the history of Great Brit- 

 ain during the past two hundred and fifty 

 years, by bringing together the most famous 

 of those oratorical utterances that have 

 changed, or have tended to change, the 

 course of English history. While the ora- 

 tions included — from masters of English 

 oratory — are great as rhetorical efforts, it is 

 not for this that they are given, but for 

 their political significance. Eliot and Pym 



