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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



latter are described in a chapter by G. Brown Goode. The Bureau of Amer- 

 ican Ethnology, one of the most efficient of the Government's scientific 

 departments, is treated of by W J McGee. Several other papers calling 

 attention to various outside scientific enterprises instituted by the Smith- 

 sonian, the international exchange system, the National Zoological Park, 

 etc., are concluded by an appreciative sketch of G. Brown Goode by David 

 Starr Jordan ; and finally we have a series of papers under the heading. Ap- 

 preciations of the Work of the Smithsonian Institution, which occupy the 

 last three hundred pages. A number of excellently executed portraits add 

 much to the attractiveness of the volume, which is in purpose, contents, and 

 mechanical execution a worthy monument to the institution which it 

 describes. 



. GENERAL NOTICES. 



By the Sunh Place in Nature * Sir Nor- 

 man Locl\i/er means the stage of stellar evo- 

 lution through which the sun is passing. 

 This subject and the constitution of the sun, 

 the source of its light and heat, and the na- 

 ture and history of meteorites, stars, and 

 nebulae, as they may throw light upon what 

 is going on in the sun, have been the objects 

 of Professor Lockyer's studies for a long 

 period. The results of twenty -five years' 

 investigation of the subject and the conclu- 

 sions the author had matured have been 

 published in the books The Chemistry of the 

 Sun and The Meteoric Hypothesis. Their 

 most important points were, as regards the 

 general question, that there is the closest 

 possible connection between nebulae and 

 stars, they representing two stages in an 

 evolutionary series: that the first or nebu- 

 lous stage in the development of cosmical 

 bodies is not a mass of hot gas, but a swarm 

 of cold meteorites ; that some of the heav- 

 enly bodies must be increasing their tem- 

 perature, while others are decreasing; and 

 that therefore a new classification is de- 

 manded, based on the varying states of con- 

 densation of the meteoric swarms. Great 

 advances have been made in physical astron- 

 omy since these books were published. Larger 

 telescopes have been in operation ; the sys- 

 tem of mountain observations has been estab- 

 lished and carried on; spectroscopic obser- 

 vations and astronomical photography have 

 been energetically prosecuted ; novce or new 

 stars have come and gone ; and the mysteri- 

 ous element, helium, of the solar spectrum, 



* The Sun's Place in Nature. By Sir Norman 

 Lockyer. New York : The Macmihan Company. 

 Pp. 3u0. Price, $2 75. 



has been found on the earth. A new dis- 

 cussion seems to be required in view of these 

 recent developments, and is given in the pres- 

 ent work. Vogel's classification of stars 

 based upon the supposition that all the stars 

 are cooling is set by the side of the author's 

 view in the face of the new evidence, and the 

 conclusion is reached that the result of the 

 test is in favor of the latter ; that some stel- 

 lar bodies are increasing their temperature, 

 while others are reducing it; that the sun is 

 cooling in a similar stage with that of Arctu- 

 rus and Capella ; that the theory that the 

 primal nebula of the sun was not exclusively 

 gaseous, but only contained gases among its 

 constituents ; and also that in general, " along 

 all lines, the fundamental requirements of the 

 meteoric hypothesis have been strengthened 

 by the later work." 



Professor Curtis^s Text-Book of General 

 Botany * is intended as an introduction to 

 the study of the science, and not as a substi- 

 tute for any of the books designed for persons 

 who would know something of botany and 

 have but little time at their disposal. The 

 text is based upon the laboratory work re- 

 quired of beginners at Columbia University. 

 The book being intended for a single year's 

 work, rigid compression and broad gener- 

 alization have been compelled. The author 

 emphasizes the importance of guarding the 

 student " against the peril of making him 

 dependent upon directions and so defeating 

 one aim of the work, the making of self- 

 reliant, intelligent observers. The student 

 should see everything, but first and clearly 



* A Text-Book of General Botany. By Carlton 

 C. Curtis. New York : Longmaus, Green & Co. 

 Pp. 359. Price, $3. 



