LITERARY NOTICES. 



279 



Assessment " systems, each of them hav- 

 ing advantages peculiar to itself, and being 

 adapted to the wants of different classes of in- 

 sured. The merits and workings of each are 

 explained in detail, and their especial adap- 

 tations arc elucidated. Besides the matter 

 bearing immediately upon these points and 

 also upon endowment, tontine, and semi- 

 tontine insurance, the book contains the 

 two leading mortality tables in use in this 

 country ; definitions and explanations, with 

 illustrative examples, of the technical terms 

 and expressions often used by agents and 

 solicitors ; articles on the failures of life- 

 insurance companies, and their expenses in 

 comparison with those of fire-insurance and 

 railroad companies ; interest and discount 

 tables ; an explanation of the construction 

 of mortality tables ; an article on the law 

 of mortality and the wonderful precision 

 with which it operates ; and much other 

 matter appropriate to the general subject 

 of the book. 



A Directory of Authors, including Writ- 

 ers for the Literary Magazines. Com- 

 piled by W. M. Griswold. Bangor, 

 Maine : Office of the " Monthly Index." 

 Pp. 16. Price, 50 cents. 



This edition contains the additions and 

 emendations to the list of authors published 

 in the first edition of the Directory. Five 

 hundred and ninety-six names of authors 

 are enrolled, only the names of many of 

 them being given, the accounts of whom 

 can be found in the former edition. The 

 compiler acknowledges that his Directory is 

 incomplete — it is not within human possi- 

 bilities to give such a work an approach to 

 perfection till after many repeated efforts. 

 He depends upon the authors themselves to 

 remedy its defects, by furnishing him an- 

 swers to the inquiries which he has sent out 

 in his circular. 



A New Philosophy of the Stn. By Henry 

 Raymond Rogers, M. D. Dunkirk, X. Y. 

 Pp. 27. 



This is the substance of a paper which 

 was read before the Chautauqua Society of 

 History and Natural Science. It presents a 

 theory that the sun is not hot or brilliant, 

 but is simply a propagator of force — pre- 

 sumably electric force — the working of 

 which in our atmosphere produces the calo- 



rific and luminous manifestations commonly 

 regarded as solar. 



A Navajo Skull, with an Additional Note 

 on the same. By Professor !-ir William 

 Turner. Pp. 4, with Plate, and 2 ; 

 Osteology of Conurus Caroliniensis. 

 Pp. 16, with Plate. By R. W. Shufeldt, 

 M. D. 



The first and second of these mono- 

 graphs relate to the examination of the 

 skull of a Navajo Indian of about forty 

 years of age, who came to his death by a 

 gun-shot wound of the head. The third pa- 

 per is an investigation of the bony structure 

 of the Carolina parrot. 



PUBLICATIONS EECEITED. 



Garrison, F. Lynwood, Philadelphia. The Mi- 

 croscopic Structure of Car-Wheel Iron, pp. 7. The 

 Microscopic Structure of Iron and Steel, pp. 12. 



Martin, Lillie J., Indianapolis, Ind. Chemistry 

 in the High-Schools. Pp. 12. 



Hale, Horatio. The Origin of Languages, and 

 the Antiquity of Speaking Man. Pp. 4S. 



Jastrow, Joseph, Johns Hopkins University. 

 The Perception of Space by Disparate Senses. Pp. 

 16. 



Bell, Clark. Report on Classification of Mental 

 Diseases. Pp. 14. 



Packard. S. W.. Chicago. Review of the Anti- 

 Saloon Republican Convention. Pp. 10. 



Crothers, T. D., Hartford, Conn. Temperance, 

 Parties, and Politics. Pp. 3. 



Peabody Museum of American Archa?ology and 

 Ethnology. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Annual 

 Reports of the Trustees. Cambridge, Mass. Pp. 

 12S. 



Agricultural College of Michigan. Notes on To- 

 matoes. Pp. 15. 



Levermore, Charles H. The Town and City 

 Government of New Haven. Baltimore : N. Mur- 

 ray. Pp. 103. 50 cents. 



Munroe, Charles E. Index to the Literature of 

 Explosives. Part I. Baltimore : Isaac Frieden- 

 wald. Pp. 42. 50 cents. 



Dulles, Charles W„ M. D. The Mechanism of 

 Indirect Fractures of the Skull. Philadelphia: P. 

 Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 55, with Plates. 



Smith, Eugene A.. Ph. D., State Geologist. Geo- 

 logical Survey of Alabama. Bulletin No. 1. Pp. s6, 

 with Nine Plates. 



Commissioners of Fisheries, State of New York. 

 Fourteenth Report. Albany : Weed, Parsons & 

 Co. Pp. 209. 



Sechrist. S. P. Sechrist's Hand-Book and Rail- 

 way Equipment and Mileage Guide. Monthly. 

 Cleveland, Ohio : J. B. Savage. Pp. 190. 



Bell, Alexander Melville. English Line Writing 

 (Phonetic). New York : Edward S. Werner. Pp. 

 52. 60 cents. 



Stephenson, F. B., M. D. Arabic and Hebrew in 

 Anatomv. Pp. 10. Sydenham and Hahnemann. 

 Pp. 6. 



Stowell, T. B. The Vagus Nerve in the Do- 

 mestic Cat. pp. 16. The Trigeminus Nerve in the 

 Domestic Cat, pp. 20. 



Commissioner of Pensions. Annual Report, to 

 June Sit. IsS'i. Washington : Government Print- 

 ing-Office. Pp. 70. 



