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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Grev, Maxwell. The BUence of Dean Maltland, 

 Mew York: D. Appleton «fc Co. Pp.8T2. 50 cents. 



tlolbruok. M. 1... M. I>. How to Btreng 

 Memory. Mew York: M. L. llolbrook &, Co. Pp. 

 15-'. $1. 



Wilson. George. A Hand-Book of Hygiene and 

 Sanitary Science. Philadelphia: 1'. Blakiston, Sou 

 & Co. Pp. 520. $3.75. 



United States National Museum. Proceedings. 

 Vol. VIII, 1886. Washington : Government Print- 



ing-Office. l'[i 729, with Plates. 



Smithsonian Institution. Keport of the Board 

 ..I Regents for 1884. Washington: Government 

 Printing-Office. Part II. Pp.458. 



McLennan, the late John Ferguson. Studies in 

 Ancient History. .New York : Mucmillun <t Co. 

 Pp 887. $L 



Ayer, N. W. and Son American Newspaper 

 Annual, 1866. Philadelphia: X'. w. Aver oc Son. 

 Pp. 1010. $ ■:. 



Brown, Walter Lee. Manual of Assaying Gold, 

 Silver, Copper, and Lead Ores. Chicago : E. 11. 

 Sargent .i Co. Pp. 487. $2.50. 



Roscnkranz, Johann Karl Friedrich. The Phi- 

 losophy of Education. New York: D. Appleton & 

 Co. Pp. -.'>0. $1.50. 



Mallock. W H. The Old Order changes. New 

 York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.513. $1. 



Anders, J. M.. M D. House-Plants as Sanitary 

 Agents. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Company. 

 Pp. 334. $1.50. 



Owen, Catherine. Ten Dollars Enough. Bos- 

 ton and New York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 

 279. $1. 



Bert, Paul. First Seiies in Scientific Knowl- 

 edge. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. 

 Pp. 370. 60 cents. 



Johnson, J. B., C. E. The Theory and Practice 

 of Surveying. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 

 Pp. OS ;. 



Bancroft. Hubert Howe. History of the Pacific 

 States of North America. Vol. XXIV. Oregon. 

 Vol. I. 1884-1S4S. San Francisco: The History 

 Company. Pp. '-'J. 



Gore. J. Howard Elements of Geodesy. New 

 York : John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 2S2. 



Reed, Lieutenant Henry A. Topographical 

 Drawing and Sk itching, including Applications of 

 iphy. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 

 Pp. 129, with Plates. $8.50. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



The State and Public Health.— Profess- 

 or Edward Orton, in an address before the 

 Ohio State Medical Society, on " The Rela- 

 tion of the State to the Health of the Peo- 

 ple," asserts that " the manner in which we 

 are doing much of our sanitary work is far 

 below the best knowledge of our time, and 

 is a serious reproach upon our civilization. 

 We are expending enough, and more than 

 enough, to give us ample protection from 

 the diseases which threaten us, but our ill- 

 devised plans and our worse - constructed 

 work leave us still, to a large degree, with- 

 in their power." There is much truth in 

 this, and the reason for it is perhaps to be 

 found in the fact thai too much is done for 

 the sake of doing, without taking sufficient 



pains to do intelligently. Professor Orton 

 would remedy the evil by putting all local 

 sanitary work under the control of munici- 

 pal boards of health, " which should be 

 measurably permaneut bodies, and which 

 should be intrusted with large powers." 

 The quality of permanence should be in- 

 sisted upon, that the boards may profit by 

 their mistakes, and learn as they go, and 

 not, being renewed every little while, go on 

 repeating the mistakes of their predecessors 

 or blundering into new ones. Then Prof - 

 or Orton would have the work of these lo- 

 cal boards unified under a State Board — 

 an important matter, in consideration of 

 the extensive geographical fields that often 

 come under common sanitary relations. Such 

 general supervision is particularly called for 

 in a State situated as Ohio is, which, through 

 most of its area at least, must depend for 

 the future, as it does in the present, upon 

 its rivers and lakes for its water-supply; 

 and the question of guarding these sources 

 becomes one of the gravest importance, 

 which a State Board or its equivalent only 

 is competent to deal with. 



Bacterial Products as Antidotes for Bac- 

 teria. — D. E. Salmon communicated to the 

 American Association the results of experi- 

 ments which he had made in neutralizing 

 the pathic effects of bacteria by means of 

 the chemical products of bacterial action. 

 They had been made upon pigeons with the 

 bacteria of the swine-pla^ue virus and their 

 products. Since the demonstration of the 

 germ theory of disease, it has become evi- 

 dent that there are three possible explana- 

 tions of the action of these products : 1. 

 Something is deposited in the body during 

 the attack of disease that is unfavorable to 

 the specific germ. 2. Something is exhaust- 

 ed which is essential to the development of 

 the germ. 3. The living tissues acquire such 

 a tolerance for the germ, or for a poison 

 which it produces, that they arc no longer 

 affected by it. If either the first or the 

 third of these explanations is correct, it 

 would appear possible that immunity might 

 be pained by introducing into the tissues 

 the liquids in which the specific germs have 

 been cultivated, and from which they had 

 been removed by filtration, or in which they 

 have been killed by suitable methods. The 



