562 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in translations through the French or in 

 direct translations by persons who know 

 Russian only imperfectly. The jSrst of the 

 stories, Ivan the Fool, portrays Tolstoi's 

 communistic ideas and the ideal kingdom 

 he would establish in which each and every 

 person should be a worker and a producer. 

 A Lost Opportunity pictures Russian peas- 

 ant life, with many of its peculiar customs. 

 Polikushka describes the life led by a ser- 

 vant in a nobleman's court household, and 

 marks the difference in the conditions and 

 surroundings of such sei'vants from those 

 of ordinary peasants. 



An exhibition of ten years' progress of 

 the " New Learning " is made in Prof. A. 

 F. Chamberlain'' s pamphlet on Modern Lan- 

 guages and Classics in America and Eu- 

 rope since 18S0. It presents the views of 

 numerous teachers and persons interested 

 in education concerning the success with 

 which the scheme for giving more relative 

 attention to the modern languages has met 

 in the United States, Great Britain, France, 

 Italy, Hungary, Germany, and Norway and 

 Sweden. Published at the office of The 

 Week, Toronto. 



Mr. Henry George's Open Letter to Pope 

 Leo XIII on The Condition of Labor is a 

 respectful, temperate reply to those parts of 

 his Holiness's Labor Encyclical which bear 

 on the doctrines held by the school of pub- 

 licists of which the author is the most con- 

 spicuous representative. It is of value and 

 interest to us chiefly because it presents a 

 clear, succinct, and precise statement of 

 what the doctrines of that school are, what 

 they are seeking, and of the manner in 

 which they purpose to promote their objects 

 by peaceful agitation. 



In a manual on Tlie Sextant and othei' 

 Reflecting Mathematical Instrumejits (D. Van 

 Nostrand Company, 50 cents), Mr. F. R. 

 Brainard, of the United States Navy, pre- 

 sents a compilation from various sources on 

 the instruments concerned, and adds a few 

 ideas and suggestions of his own, and of offi- 

 cers who have been associated with him ; era- 

 bodying also practical hints on the errors, 

 adjustments, and use of the instruments. 



In a manual of the handy Van Nostrand 

 Science Series, How to become an Engineer, 

 the theoretical and practical training neces- 

 sary in fitting for the duties of a civil engi- 



neer are set forth by Prof. George W. 

 Plympton, who supplements his views by 

 quotations from the opinions of eminent au- 

 thorities and full lists of the courses of 

 study in the technical schools — including 

 the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as an 

 example of American schools, and several 

 schools of England and the European con- 

 tinent. Price, 50 cents. 



Light, an Elementary Treatise (Macmil- 

 lan & Co., I0 cents), has been prepared by 

 Sir Henry Trueman Wood with a view of 

 providing such information as an intelligent 

 student unfamiliar with natural science 

 would require. In it are given an explana- 

 tion of the modern theory of light and of 

 the phenomena which are matters of com- 

 mon observation ; descriptions of the na- 

 ture of color and the manner of its produc- 

 tion ; accounts of the more important opti- 

 cal instruments and the principles of their 

 action; an exposition of the chemical ef- 

 fects of light and their application in pho- 

 tography ; and descriptions of the phenom- 

 ena produced by polarized light and by fluo- 

 rescence. The book is one of the numbers 

 of Whittaker's Libraiy of Popular Science. 



Information about electric lighting, prac- 

 tical and theoretical, is given in the Practi- 

 cal Treatise on the Incandescent Lamp, pre- 

 pared by J. E. Randcdl, Electrician of the 

 Thomson-Houston Company, and published 

 by the Bubier Publishing Company, Lynn, 

 Massachusetts. It contains, in brief, the 

 history of incandescent lighting, the philoso- 

 phy and construction, with details, of the 

 incandescent lamp, and observations on pho- 

 tometers and their use. The author esti- 

 mates that 25.000 incandescent lights are 

 made in the United States daily, or 7,500,- 

 000 a year, and he believes that the " life " 

 of the lamp is more likely to be abbreviated 

 than increased in the future, because con- 

 sumers will grow more particular about the 

 quality of their light, and will change their 

 burners when they cease to be efficient in- 

 stead of using them till they burn out. 



Prof. Wesley Mills, believing that a dog 

 is a useful member of the household and es- 

 pecially valuable in the city as a companion 

 and means of instruction for the children, 

 and recognizing the embarrassment city fam- 

 ilies labor under through not knowing how 

 to manage with the animal in their narrow 



