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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



largely into the composition of vital ac- 

 tivity, there is much in the living organ- 

 ism that is outside the range of these 

 operations." The first three chapters dis- 

 cuss general conceptions, and are chiefly 

 psychologj'. A discussion of the struc- 

 tures accessory to alimentation in man 

 and the higher animals occupies Chapters 

 IV and V. The Object of Classification, 

 Certain General Statements concerning 

 Organisms, A Description of the Organ- 

 ism as related to its Surroundings, The 

 Material JJasis of Life, The Organism as 

 a Chemical Aggregate and as a Center 

 for the Transformation of Energy, Cer- 

 tain Aspects of Form and Development, 

 The Meaning of Sensation, and, finally. 

 Some of the Problems presented by the 

 Organism, are the remaining chapter 

 headings. The volume contains many 

 interesting suggestions, and might per- 

 haps most appropriately be described as 

 a Theoretical Biology. 



" Stars and Telescopes" * Professor 

 Todd says, " is intended to meet an 

 American demand for a plain, unrhetor- 

 ical statement of the astronomy of to- 

 day." We might state the purpose to be 

 to bring astronomy and all that pertains 

 to it up to date. It is hard to do this, 

 for the author has been obliged to put 

 what was then the latest discovery, 

 made while the book was going through 

 the press, in a footnote at the end of the 

 preface. The information embodied in 

 the volume is comprehensive, and is con- 

 veyed in a very intelligible style. The 

 treatise begins with a running commen- 

 tary or histoiical outline of astronomical 

 discovery, with a rigid exclusion of all 

 detail. The account of the earth and 

 moon is followed by chapters on the Cal- 

 endar and the Astronomical Relations of 

 Light. The other members of the solar 

 system are described and their relations 

 reviewed, and then the comets and the 

 stars. Closely associated with these sub- 

 jects are the men who have contributed 

 to knowledge respecting them, and con- 

 sequently the names of the great discov- 

 erers and others who have helped in the 

 advancement of astronomy are intro- 

 duced in immediate connection with 

 their work, in brief sketches and often 

 with their portraits. Much importance 



* stirs and Teloscopes A riandhonk of Popu- 

 lar Astronom v. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. Pp. 

 419. Price, §2. 



is attributed by Professor Todd to the 

 instruments with which astronomical 

 discovery is carried on, and the book 

 may be said to culminate in an account 

 of the famous instruments, their con- 

 struction, mounting, and use. The de- 

 visers of these instruments are entitled 

 to more credit than the unthinking are 

 always inclined to give them, for the 

 value of an observation depends on the 

 accuracy of the instrument as well as 

 on the skill of the observer, and the skill 

 which makes the instrument accurate is 

 not to be underrated. So the makers 

 of the instruments are given their place. 

 Then the recent and improved processes 

 have to be considered, and, altogether. 

 Professor Todd has found material for a 

 full and somewhat novel book, and has 

 used it to good advantage. 



Some Ohscrcations on the Fundamen- 

 tal Principles of Natnre is the title of 

 an essay by Henry Witt, which, though 

 very brief, takes the world of matter, 

 mind, and society within its scope. One 

 of the features of the treatment is that 

 instead of the present theory of an order 

 of things resulting from the condensa- 

 tion of more rarefied matter, one of the 

 organization of converging waves of in- 

 tinitesimal atoms lilling all space is sub- 

 stituted. With this point prominently 

 in view, the various factors and prop- 

 erties of the material universe — biology, 

 psychology, sociology, ethics, and the fu- 

 ture — are treated of. 



Among the later monographs pub- 

 lished by the Field Columbian Museum, 

 Chicago, is a paper in the Geological Se- 

 ries (No. 3) on The Ores of Colomhia, 

 from Mines in Operation in 1S92, by 

 H. W. Nichols. It describes the collec- 

 tion prepared for the Columbian Exposi- 

 tion by F. Pereira Gamba and after- 

 ward given to the museum — a collection 

 which merits attention for the light it 

 throws upon the nature and mode of oc- 

 currence of the ores of one of the most 

 important gold-producing countries of 

 the world, and also because it approaches 

 more nearly than is usual the ideal of 

 what a collection in economic geology 

 should be. Other publications in the 

 museum's Geological Scries are The My- 

 huiavlidir, an E.rtinet Family of Seiiiro- 

 morph Rodents (No. 4), by E. S. Riggs, 

 describing some aquirrcl-like animals 

 from the Deep lliver beds, near White 



