128 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



waters is a more potent curative agency than drugs. He believes that 

 Americans have within their own borders the close counterparts of the 

 best foreign springs, and that in charms of scenery and surroundings, 

 salubrity of climate and facilities for comfort, many of our spas will 

 compare as resorts with the most highly developed ones of Europe. The 

 purpose of the present volume is to set forth the qualities and attrac- 

 tions of American springs, of which we have a large number and va- 

 riety, and the author has aimed to present the most complete and ad- 

 vanced work on the subject yet prepared. To make it so, he has care- 

 fully examined all the available literature on the subject, has addressed 

 letters of inquiry to propi-ietors and other persons cognizant of spring 

 resorts and commercial springs, and has made personal visits. While 

 a considerable number of the 2,822 springs enumerated by Dr. A. C. Peale 

 in his report to the United States Geological Survey have dropped out 

 tlirough non-use or non-development, more than two hundred mineral- 

 spring localities are here described for the first time in a book of this 

 kind. Every known variety of mineral water is represented. The sub- 

 ject is introduced by chapters on what might be called the science of 

 mineral waters and their therapeutic uses, including the definition, the 

 origin of mineral waters, and the sources whence they are mineralized; 

 the classification, the discussion of their value, and mode of action; 

 their solid and gaseous components; their therapeutics or applications 

 to different disorders; and baths and douches and their medicinal uses. 

 The springs are then described severally by States. The treatise on 

 potable waters in the appendix is brief, but contains much. 



GENERAL NOTICES. 



In Every-Bay Butterflies * Mr. Seud- 

 der relates the story of the very com- 

 monest butterflies — " those which every 

 rambler at all observant sees about him 

 at one time or another, inciting his curi- 

 osity or pleasing his eye." The sequence 

 of the stories is mainly the order of ap- 

 pearance of the different subjects treated 

 — which the author compares to the 

 flowers in that each kind has its own 

 season for appearing in perfect bloom, 

 both together variegating the landscape 

 in the open season of the year. This 

 order of description is modified occasion- 

 ally by the substituti<m of a later ap- 

 pearance for the first, when the butterfly 

 is double or triple brooded. An illustra- 

 tions are furnished of each butterfly dis- 

 cussed, it is not necessary that the de- 

 scriptions should be long and minute, 

 hence they are given in brief and general 

 terms. But it must be remembered that 

 the describer is a thorough master of his 

 subject, and also a master in writing the 



• Every-Day Bntterfliee. A Group of Biogra- 

 phies. By Samuel ITubbard Sciidder. Bopton and 

 New York: Houghton, Mlfhin & Co. Pp. S8C. 

 Price, $2. 



English language, so that nothing will 

 be found lacking in his descriptions. 

 They are literature as well as butterfly 

 history. Of the illustrations, all of which 

 are good, a considerable number are in 

 colors. 



Dr. M. E. Gello's VAudition et ses 

 Oryancs * (The Hearing and its Organs) 

 is a full, not over-elaborate treatise on 

 the subject, in which prominence is given 

 to the pliysiological side. The first part 

 treats of the excitant of the sense of 

 hearing — sonorous vibrations — including 

 the vibrations themselves, the length of 

 the vibratory phenomena, the intensity 

 of sound, range of audition, tone, and 

 timbre of sounds. The .second chapter 

 relates to the organs of hearing, both 

 the peripheric organs and the acoustic 

 centers, the anatomy of which is de- 

 scribed in detail, with excellent and am- 

 ple illustrations. The third chapter is 

 devoted to the sensation of hearing 

 under its various aspects — the time 



* L'Andition et ses Orcanes. By Dr. M. E. 

 Gell6. PariB: F61i.^ Alcan (Bihliotheque Scien- 

 tiflque). Pp. 32C. Price, six francs. 



