LITERARY NOTICES. 



563 



quarters, has prepared a little book on IIow 

 to keep a Dog in the City, which is pub- 

 lished by William R. Jenkins, New York, 

 for 25 cents. It supplies information re- 

 specting the details of the management of 

 the dog from puppyhood up, including lodg- 

 ing, feeding, measures for cleanliness, care 

 of his skin, exercise, training, and treatment 

 of his ailments. 



How to make a Trial Balance represent- 

 ing any number of accounts in less time 

 than an hour is explained in a small book 

 written and published at Baltimore, by A. 

 Weinberg. The method is the result of 

 much thought and study, and may, the au- 

 thor claims, be applied to a business of five 

 thousand accounts as easily as to one of 

 fifty accounts, with great saving of time 

 and labor. 



Two series of twelve charts each, pub- 

 lished by the United States Signal Office, 

 show graphically the probability of rainy 

 days and the average cloudiness for each 

 month in all the regions of the United 

 States within the circle of observations of 

 the several local signal stations. They are 

 based on observations made from 1871 to 

 1888 inclusive, or for shorter periods at the 

 more recently established stations. The 

 percentages of rainy days (called such when 

 precipitation to the extent of '01 inch or 

 more occurs) are calculated for each station 

 and month from the average number of such 

 days. The cloudiness charts are made up 

 from eye-observations taken three times a 

 day. They are expected also to show the 

 sunshine by taking as sunshine the comple- 

 ment of the cloudiness. Such data, when 

 well matured, a- e of great value in the study 

 of cUmate and its adaptability to different 

 conditions and needs of health. 



Three numbers of Tlie Quarterly Register 

 of Current History (Evening News Associa- 

 tion, Detroit) have been published. The 

 first number, February, 1891, contained a re- 

 view of the history of the world during 1890. 

 The second number. May, and the third, 

 August, 1891, are devoted respectively to 

 the history of the first and second quarters 

 of the year. The matter is classified and 

 arranged under the heads of International 

 Affairs ; Affairs in Europe, in Asia, in Afri- 

 ca, and in America ; Record of Progress, and 

 Necrology. The idea of the publication is 



an excellent one. The short view we have 

 been able to take of the numbers does not 

 suggest that anything of value is omitted, 

 but shows several things of minor impor- 

 tance which, if they had been left out, would 

 not be missed a year or two hence ; and 

 there is room for improvement in pruning 

 and smoothing the articles, the present style 

 of which is more like that of a daily paper 

 than of a record made to last. 



To the attempts to teach foreign lan- 

 guages in the way they are learned in Na- 

 ture must be added the method of Dr. Ed- 

 toard Pick, in which the language itself is 

 employed as the instrument, and is taught 

 by comparison with the English before the 

 grammar is learned. The author holds that 

 remembrance is assisted most efficaciously in 

 the study if we take the known as the start- 

 ing-point of comparison with the unknown. 

 In the study of foreign languages the known 

 consists of those elements which we find in 

 our own language, or in any other language 

 familiar to us. Thus the knowledge of one 

 foreign language facilitates the study of 

 others. The usual method of studying for- 

 eign languages — beginning with grammar — 

 " is contrary to the nature of the mind, be- 

 cause we begin with the unknown — nay, 

 more, we begin with details unknown to us 

 (the grammatical rules) of a thing equally 

 unknown (the language)." In Dr. Pick^s 

 Method applied to acquiring the French 

 Language (C. W. Bardeen, Syracuse, New 

 York), the pupil is introduced to Voltaire's 

 History of Charles XII, for the study of the 

 French text, word for word and form for 

 form, with the English translation. 



I'D^LICATIONS RECEIVED. 



Ashley, J. M. The Impendinq- Political Epoch. 

 New York : Evening Post. Pp. 87. 25 cents. 



Bill, Robert. Star Linrt. London and New 

 York : Cassell & Co. Pp. 876. Illu.strated. 



Ball, Robert. The Cause of an Tee Ape. New 

 York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 180. $1. Illus- 

 trated. 



Bennett, T. J. Texas Sanitarian. Austin : Tex- 

 as Sanitarian Publishing Co. Monthly. Pp. 72. $2 

 a year. 



Bronpon, T. B. Collnqnial Oerman. Now York: 

 Henry Molt & Co. Pp. 147. C) cents. 



Call, R. E. Tertiary Silicifled Woods of Eastern 

 Arkansas. Pp. 9. Reprint. 



Cannizzaro, 8.. and Fabris, O. Tests for the 

 Purity of Olive Oil. Boston : J. A. Ilaj'es & Co. 

 Pp. 41. 



Carpenter, W. B. The ^fieroscope. Seventh 

 edition. Edited bv W. H. Dallinger. Philadelphia : 

 P. Blakiston, Son ■& Co. Pp. lo'J9. Illustrated. 



Charts showing the Isobars, Isolherois, and Winda 



