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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the great Anglo-American alliance en- 

 ters upon the view and is made a fact, 

 though informally. The two nations 

 together build the Nicaragua Canal, 

 and are about to celebrate its comple- 

 tion, when they are anticipated by the 

 precipitation of the war of the nations 

 through the simultaneous occurrence of 

 a number of slight international quar- 

 rels in different parts of the world. 

 Germany, Russia, the Scandinavians, 

 and the Latins are pitted on one side, 

 and the British and Americans, assisted 

 by the British colonies and the Japa- 

 nese, on the other; and the battle of 

 the combined fleets occurs near the 

 Canaries. The hero of the story has in- 

 vented an air ship which carries terrible 

 explosives to be dropped from a great 

 height into the midst of the enemy. 

 This engine does its work at the de- 

 cisive moment, and then follows the 

 grab game of negotiations, in Avhich 

 might rules, and Germany joins the 

 Anglo-Saxon alliance against the rest 

 of the world. Finally, the air-ship en- 

 gine of destruction has rendered war 

 henceforth forever impossible. 



Mr. James Reid Cole, president of a 

 classical and military school at Dallas, 

 Texas, has published under the title of 

 Miscellany what is substantially a pic- 

 ture or transcript of his own life. It 

 contains a variety of articles — literary 

 essays, school addresses, and even 

 schoolboy compositions — the chief inter- 

 est of which is to the author and his 

 close friends. Other papers, such as A 

 Bird's-eye View of Johnston's Surren- 

 der, the sketches of the Life of Lieuten- 

 ant C. C. Cole, the Looking Backward 

 over the course of the author's own life, 

 and political and legislative speeches 

 may have a more general value as par- 

 tial reflections of the times to which 

 they relate, more intimate than are 

 usually to be derived from ordinary 

 sketches and histories. 



The publications of the Neic York 

 Academy of Sciences now consist of 

 two series — the Annals (8vo) and the 

 Memoirs (4to). The Transactions, in 

 which the shorter papers and business 

 reports have hitherto appeared, are 

 abolished, and the matter appears in 

 the Annals. This publication, which 

 was begun in 1824, contains the scien- 

 tific contributions and reports of re- 



searches, together with the reports of 

 meetings. The complete volumes will 

 hereafter coincide with the calendar 

 year. Vol. X, Nos. 1 to 12, contains 

 three papers by H. S. Davis and one 

 by Frank Schesinger based on the 

 Rutherfurd photographs of the stars; 

 The Nature and Origin of Stipules, by 

 A. A. Tyler, and an examination of the 

 Ascidian Half-Embryo, by H. E. Cramp- 

 ton, Jr. Vol. XI, Part II, contains the 

 annual address of retiring President J. 

 J. Stevenson, February 28, 1898, on the 

 Debt of the World to Pure Science, 

 and six articles on special subjects in 

 biology. 



The Commissioner of Labor was au- 

 thorized by Congress in 1895 to make 

 an investigation, so far as it could be 

 done within the limits of the regular 

 appropriations to his department, rela- 

 tive to the economic aspects of the 

 liquor traffic. He interpreted such an 

 investigation to include the considera- 

 tion of monetary conditions; of the 

 agricultural and other products used in 

 the production of liquors; of the manu- 

 facture of liquors as a distinct indus- 

 try; of transportation, consumption, 

 and the traffic in them; of the revenue 

 derived from them and the laws regu- 

 lating its collection; and of the experi- 

 ence and practice of employers in rela- 

 tion to the use of intoxicants. In some 

 of these phases of the subject the facts 

 were not separable from those relating 

 to other matters; in others, they were 

 to be found in the reports of other de- 

 partments; and original inquiry was 

 necessary only with reference to the last 

 three items of the category. The re- 

 sults of this inquiry are given in the 

 Twelfth Annual lieport of the Commis- 

 sioner of Labor, JfiOl, under the heading 

 of Economic Aspects of the Liquor 

 Problem. 



A New Story of the Stars is an essay 

 in which A. W. Bicker ton, professor of 

 chemistry and physics in Christ Church 

 College, New Zealand, sets forth a 

 theory of the origin of universes or of 

 parts of universes by impact. Nebulae 

 already existing — but how existing we 

 are not informed — careering through 

 space, are supposed to collide, whereby 

 heat and light are developed. They 

 may meet in face, and would then 

 probably coalesce, but more likely the 



