848 



THE POPULAR SCIEJ^rCB MONTHLY. 



not, however, put so strong an infusion of 

 science into the book as to make it distaste- 

 ful to those who read cliiefly for pleasure. 

 The first part of the book is descriptive, 

 dealing with "the mountains as they are," 

 and in the latter part is told " how the 

 mountains were made." Throughout the 

 volume are scattered bits of picturesque 

 description quoted from enthusiastic lovers 

 of mountains, illustrative anecdotes, and 

 fragments of verse. The style is every 

 where clear, and the language is simple, few 

 terras being employed that are not in the 

 vocabulary of every cultivated person. The 

 text is illustrated with sixteen full-page 

 pictures from photographs by W. Donkin, J. 

 Valentine, and others. The Story of the 

 Hills will add much to the reputation which 

 the author has gained through his Autobi- 

 ography of the Earth. 



Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad. 

 By Archibald Geikie. New York : Mac- 

 millan & Co. Pp. 3b2. Price, $1.50. 



These fourteen papers consist of popular 

 accounts of geological explorations, with a 

 few essays and addresses on geological sub- 

 jects. Several of them have been thought 

 of sufficient general interest for publication 

 in the popular periodicals Good Words and 

 Macmillan's Magazine. The first of these 

 sketches describes the author's earliest geo- 

 logical excursion, and contains some striking 

 testimony as to how science was taught when 

 Prof. Geikie was a boy. Other papers de- 

 ecribe excursions in Scotland, France, Nor- 

 way, the Yellowstone Park, and Wyoming. 

 The text is iUustrated with views of many 

 of the places visited, and with geological 

 diagrams. 



School and College. Edited by Rat Greene 

 HuLiNG. Jlonthly. Boston : Ginn & Co. 

 Price, $1.50 a year. 



The first number of an educational maga- 

 zine with the above name appeared in Janu- 

 ary. It starts as a periodical of high grade, 

 under the editorship of the principal of the 

 high school at New Bedford, Ifass., who is 

 well known as an educator and a writer on 

 educational topics. The opening article of 

 the January number is by E. Benjamin An- 

 drews, President of Brown University, on 

 Some of the Next Steps forward in Educa- 

 tion, and is characterized by a fullness of 



progressive spirit. James H. Blodgett, of 

 the Census Office, contributes a statistical 

 paper on Secondary Education in Census 

 Years. There is a descriptive article on The 

 Greek Method of performing Arithmetical 

 Operations, by John Tetlow, head master of 

 the Girls' High and Latin Schools, of Boston, 

 which is illustrated with diagrams. B. C. 

 Burt, of Ann Arbor, discusses the question 

 When should the Study of Philosophy be- 

 gin ? There is also an editorial department, 

 in which Co-operation in Entrance Exami- 

 nations and Compulsory Greek in England 

 are discussed ; departments of News from 

 Abroad, and Home News, the latter contain- 

 ing statistics of college attendance in 1890- 

 '91 ; also departments for Letters and Re- 

 views. 



Star-land. By Sir Robert Stawell Ball, 

 F. R. S. New York : Cassell & Co. Pp. 

 388. 



The Royal Institution of Great Britain 

 provides at each Christmas season a course 

 of juvenile lectures. In 1881, and again in 

 188T, the course was given by the Royal 

 Astronomer of Ireland, who has embodied 

 his lectures in the present volume. The 

 several lectures deal with the sun, the moon, 

 the inner planets, the giant planets, comets 

 and shooting-stars, stars, and to these has 

 been added a chapter, with the title How to 

 name the Stars, telling how to recognize the 

 constellations. Since the lectures were pre- 

 pared for an audience of children, their 

 style is simple, though not childish, and 

 many adults could get a better understand- 

 ing of the outlines of astronomy from this 

 little book than from more dignified treatises. 

 The text is illustrated with nearly a hundred 

 pictures. 



The Microscope and its Revelations. By 

 the late William B. Carpenter, M. D., 

 F. R. S. Seventh edition. Pieviscd by 

 W. II. Pallinger, F. R. S. Philadelphia : 

 P. Blakiston, Son h Co. Pp. 1117. 



The great advances in the application of 

 mathematical optics to the construction of 

 microscopes since the appearance of the 

 sixth edition of this cyclopedic work have 

 made necessary a recasting of a large part 

 of the treatise. The editor states in the 

 preface, somewhat paradoxically, that the 

 first five chapters of the last edition are rep- 



