416 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Life of Rohert Fulton, and TnE IIis- 

 tory of Steam Navigation. New York : 

 (i. W. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 507. Price, 

 $1.75. 



In this book a great deal of information 

 of an interesting character is packed into 

 a moderate space; and the packing has 

 been well done. Fulton's life is itself full 

 of incident and adventure, illustrating the 

 strong bent of his genius toward a particular 

 line of experiment, and the persistency with 

 which he kept his attention fixed on carry- 

 ing the objects he had in view to a successful 

 result. The materials for the life have been 

 drawn from many sources, and his career as 

 a whole is presented in an attractive light » 

 and in its main features as an example of 

 well-directed effort, The life of Fulton serves 

 as an introduction, but an important one, 

 to the history of steam navigation, which is 

 very comprehensive. Beginning with Ful- 

 ton's earliest experiments, as related in the 

 " Life," it traces the history of the Hudson 

 Eivcr steamboats, of steamboat navigation 

 on the Mississippi and Ohio, the Great Lakes, 

 Long Island Sound, Englisb, and other for- 

 eign waters, from the earliest efforts of each 

 down to the present time ; relates the his- 

 tories, severally, of the various great lines 

 of steamers that have sailed or are now 

 sailing on the ocean between the ports of 

 the different continents, and closes with no- 

 tices of war-steamers and ironclads. The 

 illustrations represent numerous steamers 

 and parts of steamers, beginning with Jona- 

 than Hill's tow-boat in 1736, and ending 

 with such vessels as the City of Peking, 

 the Pilgrim, and the Alaska. 



General Biology. By William T. Sedg- 

 wick, Ph. D., and Edmund B. Wilson, 

 Ph. D. Part I. Introductory. New 

 York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. l'J3. 

 TnE authors of this book acknowledge 

 that it owes its origin to the influence of 

 Huxley and Martin, authors of the " Ele- 

 mentary Biology." Their aim has been, 

 not to prepare an exhaustive treatise, but 

 rather to lead beginners in biology from 

 familiar facts to a better knowledge of how 

 living things are built and how they act, 

 such as may rightly take a place in general 

 education, or may afford a basis for further 

 studies in particular branches. " It is still 

 an open question," they say, " whether the 



beginner should pursue the logical, but dif- 

 ficult course of working upward from the 

 simple to the complex, or adopt the easier 

 and more practical method of working down- 

 ward from familiar higher forms. Every 

 teacher of the subject knows how great are 

 the practical difficulties besetting the novice, 

 who, provided for the first time with a com- 

 pound microscope, is confronted with yeast, 

 protococcus, or amoeba ; and, on the other 

 hand, how hard it is to sift out what is gen- 

 eral and essential from the heterogeneous 

 details of a mammal or flowering plant. In 

 the hope of lessening the practical difficul- 

 ties of the logical method, we venture to 

 submit a course of preliminary study, which 

 we have used for some time with our own 

 classes, and have found practical and ef- 

 fective. Believing that biology should fol- 

 low the example of physics and chemistry 

 in discussing at the outset the fundamental 

 properties of matter and energy, we have 

 devoted the first four chapters to an ele- 

 mentary account of living matter and vital 

 energy. In the six chapters which follow, 

 these facts are applied to a fairly exhaust- 

 ive study of a representative plant and ani- 

 mal, of considerable though not extreme 

 complexity." The fern is selected as the 

 plant, and the earth-worm as the animal. 

 The last chapter comprises a brief account 

 of the principles and outlines of classifica- 

 tion as a guide in subsequent studies. 

 From this the pupil may pass to other 

 books, or to the second part of this one, 

 which is to be published in the course of the 

 following year. 



J The MENORAn. A Monthly Magazine. Edited 

 by Benjamin F. Peixotto. Vol. I, No. 

 2. Pp. 48. Price, 25 cents ; $2 a year. 



" TnE Menorah " is the organ of the Or- 

 der of the B'ne B'rith, which was estab- 

 lished in 1843, to provide a bond of philan- 

 thropic and patriotic feeling among persons 

 of the Hebrew race in the United States, 

 and which has now more than four hundred 

 lodges and nearly thirty thousand members. 

 It contains a variety of literary articles, in- 

 cluding a history of the order, to most of 

 which a peculiar Jewish interest is attached ; 

 is divided into an English and a German 

 part ; and has departments devoted to He- 

 brew affairs at large, and to the order which 



