854 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sponsibilities, with stirring scenes in the 

 councils at the Capitol and in battle at 

 the front, and with personal incidents of 

 the men whose names the nation loves 

 and delights to honor. All is related in 

 the straightforward, fluent style, touch- 

 ing only the facts, of a writer who has 

 a story to tell and makes it his business 

 to tell it. The result of the reading of 

 the book is to arouse a new appreciation 

 of the abilities and virtues of those great 

 men in their various walks of civil, polit- 

 ical, and military life, who took our 

 country through its supreme trial. 



Mrs. Arabella B. Buckley's Fairy- 

 Land of Science has stood the test of 

 about thirty years' publication as one 

 of the simplest, clearest, and best popu- 

 lar introductions to physical science. 

 Originating in a course of lectures deliv- 

 ered to children and their friends, the 

 thought of publishing the book was sug- 

 gested by the interest taken in the lec- 

 tures by all the hearers. It was a happy 

 thought, and the carrying of it out is 

 fully justified by the result. But thirty 

 years is a long time in so rapidly ad- 

 vancing a pursuit as the study of sci- 

 ence, and makes changes necessary in all 

 books treating of it. The publishers of 

 this work,* therefore, with the assist- 

 ance of the author, have considerably 

 extended the original volume, adding to 

 it notices of the latest scientific discov- 

 eries in the departments treated, and 

 amplifying with fuller detail such parts 

 as have grown in importance and inter- 

 est. A few changes have been made in 

 the interest of American readers, such as 

 the substitution, where it seemed proper, 

 of words familiar here for terms almost 

 exclusively used in England, and the in- 

 troduction of American instead of Eng- 

 lish examples to illustrate great scien- 

 tific truths. The book has also been 

 largely reillustrated. 



Some of the essays in Miss Badenoch's 

 True Tales of the Insects t have already 

 appeared in serials — -two of them in 

 the Poprdar Science Monthly. The es- 

 says are not intended to present a view 

 of entomology or of any department 

 of it, but to describe, in an attract- 

 ive and at the same time an accurate 



• The Falry-Land of Science. New York : D. 

 Appletnn nnd Company. Pp. 2.52. 



t True Taleu of the InacctB. By L. N. Bade- 

 Doch. London: Chapman & Hall. Pp. 25.3. 



manner, a few special features of insect 

 life and some of what we might call its 

 remarkable curiosities. The author is 

 well qualified for her undertaking, for, 

 while being an entomologist of recog- 

 nized position, she has those qualities of 

 enthusiasm in her pursuit and literary 

 training that enable her to present her 

 subject in its most attractive aspect. 

 From the great variety of insect forms 

 she has selected only a few for this spe- 

 cial presentation, including some of ec- 

 centric shape and some of genuine uni- 

 versal interest. She begins with the 

 strange-looking creatures of the family 

 of the Mantidw, or praying insects, or, as 

 the Brazilians call the Mantis, more fit- 

 ly, the author thinks, the devil's riding 

 horse, which is characterized as " the 

 tiger, not the saint, of the insect world." 

 The walking-stick and walking-leaf in- 

 sects, of equally strange appearance, but 

 peaceful, naturally follow these. Then 

 come the locusts and grasshoppers, which 

 are more familiar, and the butterfiies 

 and moths, which attract the most at- 

 tention and present such remarkable 

 forms as the case-moths and the hawk 

 and death's-head moths. The insects 

 made subjects of treatment are described 

 with fullness of detail, and the record of 

 their life histories. The book is pub- 

 lished in an attractive outer style, on 

 thick paper, with thirty-four illustra- 

 tions by Margaret J. D. Badenoch. 



Prof. Charles C. James, now Deputy 

 ]\Iinister of Agriculture for Ontario, de- 

 fines the purpose of his book, Practical 

 Agricnltnrc,* to be to aid the reader and 

 student in acquiring a knowledge of the 

 science as distinguished from the art of 

 agriculture — " that is, a knowledge of 

 the ' wdiy,' rather than a knowledge of 

 the ' how.' " The author believes, from 

 his experience of several years' teaching 

 at the Ontario Agricultural College, that 

 the rational teaching of agriculture in 

 public and high schools is possible and 

 would be exceedingly profitable, and that 

 an intelligent knowledge of the science 

 underlying the art would add much in- 

 terest to the work and greatly increase 

 the pleasure in it. The science of agri- 

 culture is understood by him to consist 



* Prnctical ApTicnlture. By Charles C. James. 

 American edition edited by .John Craig. New 

 York: D. .\ppleton and Company. Pp.203. Price, 

 80 cents. 



