7o8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



across the Atlantic Ocean ? how are cars 

 on electric railroads worked ? and under 

 what conditions can a fatal shock of elec- 

 tricity be received ? The text is illustrated 

 with twenty-nine tigures. 



The Story of our Continent. By N. S. 

 Shaler. Boston : Ginn & Co. Pp. 290. 

 Price, 85 cents. 



The study of the ordinary text-books on 

 geography gives pupils a minute acquaint- 

 ance with the features of each division of a 

 country, but leaves them without any broad 

 view of the country as a whole, and without 

 any appreciation of the relations of one sec- 

 tion to another. This lack with respect to 

 North America Prof. Shaler has aimed to 

 supply by means of a reader in geography 

 and geology telling how this continent grew 

 into its present form, what aboriginal peoples 

 are known to have inhabited North America, 

 how the form of the continent has affected 

 the history of its several groups of colonists, 

 and what are its resources and commercial 

 condition. Comparisons with some features 

 of the Eastern Continent are introduced in 

 the course of the description. The volume 

 is illustrated and has an index. 



Part XIX (July, 1891) of the Proceedings 

 of the Society for Psychical Research contains 

 three principal papers, all of which embody 

 reports, confirmed by several witnesses, of 

 so-called psychic phenomena. The first pa- 

 per, by Mr. F. W. H. Myers, is On Alleged 

 Movements of Objects, without Contact, oc- 

 curring not in the Presence of a Paid Me- 

 dium. These movements include the rising 

 of tables from the floor, knockings, ringing 

 of bells, writing on slates, and the moving of 

 chairs and various smaller articles. A rec- 

 ord of Experiments in Clairvoyance is con- 

 tributed by Dr. Alfred Backman, of Kalmar, 

 Sweden. The cases given include seeing or- 

 dinary actions at a distance, describing a 

 murderer and his house, describing Christ- 

 mas presents some days before Christmas 

 that the King of Sweden was to receive, and 

 finding a miniature revolver that had been 

 lost in a field. Dr. Richard Hodgson de- 

 scribes A Case of Double Consciousness oc- 

 curring in a preacher named Bourne, living 

 in Rhode Island. Mr. Bourne wandered from 

 his home in 1887 and set up a small store in 



Norristown, Pa., which he kept for six weeks 

 before recovering his identity. Mr. Bourne 

 has been several times hypnotized and ques- 

 tioned by Dr. Hodgson, Prof. James, and Dr. 

 Morton Prince. A supplement contains a 

 Third ad interim Report on the Census of 

 Hallucinations, covering returns received in 

 England and in France, a reply to Mr. A. R. 

 Wallace on Spirit Photographs, by Mrs. Hen- 

 ry Sidgwick, and two notices of books. Dr. 

 Richard Hodgson, 5 Boylston Place, Boston, 

 is the agent of the society in America. 



A laboratory manual has been published 

 by Prof. Delos Fall, of Albion, Mich., under 

 the title An Introduction to Qualitative Chem- 

 ical Analysis. It is intended to lead students 

 to learn analysis by the inductive method. 

 That this method of study " produces strong, 

 accurate, enthusiastic, and independent stu- 

 dents " is attested by the author's experi- 

 ence of several years with it. An introduc- 

 tion contains an outline of the mode of 

 teaching for which the book is adapted ; the 

 tests are interspersed with practical hints 

 and with questions that draw the student's 

 attention to the essential features of what he 

 is doing ; lists of apparatus and reagents re- 

 quired are given, and also forms for record- 

 ing the results, which to the student are dis- 

 coveries. 



The Legislature of the new State of "Wyo- 

 ming, in January, 1891, established the 11^- 

 oming Experiment Station, which, under date 

 of May, 1891, issued its first Bulletin. This 

 document describes the organization and the 

 proposed work of the station. The arrange- 

 ments for agricultural experiments include 

 six farms, at altitudes from four thousand 

 to seven thousand feet above sea-level, four 

 fifths of the State being between four thou- 

 sand and eight thousand feet. All but one 

 of these farms are under irrigation. Special 

 experiments on grasses ai'e also being car- 

 ried on under the direction of the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture. 



Bulletin No. 33, Neio Series, of the New 

 York Agricultural Experiment Station is de- 

 voted to fertilizers. It contains one paper 

 that can not be too highly praised ; this is 

 an Explanation of Terms of Chemical Analy- 

 sis. A great part of the literature of agri- 

 cultural stations is made entirely useless for 

 the farmers that are taxed to pay for it by 

 the use of chemical and other technical 



