I30 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nence is given to accounts of injurious in- 

 sects, in regard to which, besides the matter 

 here furnished, references are made to de- 

 scriptive works and reports for fuller infor- 

 mation. Some changes are made in classifi- 

 cation. Believing that some of the lower 

 orders, such as the " Orthoptera " and " Pseu- 

 do-neuroptera " are heterogeneous, unnatural 

 groups, which ought to be broken up into 

 distinct orders, sixteen orders instead of 

 eight are formed. Considering that there 

 are probably about a million species, this 

 number is thought not to be too many. The 

 general principles and descriptions are fol- 

 lowed by particular accounts of insects in- 

 jurious to agriculture, with prescriptions of 

 remedies against them, and information on 

 collecting and rearing insects, dissecting, 

 preserving, and microscopic mounting, and 

 a bibliography — " The Entomologist's Li- 

 brary." 



Old and New Astronomy. By Richard A. 

 Proctor. London and New York : Long- 

 mans, Green & Co. In twelve monthly 

 parts. Pp. 64, with two Plates each. 

 Price, 2s. 6c?. each. 



The first five parts of this work have 

 been received. It was the design of the au- 

 thor to make it the great work of his life — 

 the one, as he himself has said, for which 

 all the treatises on astronomy that he had 

 hitherto produced, and also his astronomical 

 essays and lectures, were preparatory. The 

 chief object of it is to present in popular 

 yet scientifically sound form "those views 

 of the heavenly bodies which are included 

 in what, in his last poem, Tennyson calls the 

 ' New Astronomy ' " ; the life-histories of 

 worlds and suns, studies of the planets as 

 illustrating the stages of our own earth's 

 life, and of the record of the earth as illus- 

 trating the life-histories of the planets ; of 

 the sun as the one star we can examine, and 

 thus as telling us all we know in detail about 

 the nature of other suns, and of the stars as 

 illustrating the life of the solar system. 

 There are also presented points of detail in 

 which the astronomy of to-day differs from 

 the astronomy of a quarter of a century ago 

 — relating, among other things, to the struct- 

 ure of the galaxy, the sun's condition and 

 surroundings, the condition of the various 

 orders of bodies attending on the sun, the 

 recognition of the moon as presenting the 



history of our earth's past as well as future 

 life, and comets and meteors. Fuller expla- 

 nations than the old ones are given of the 

 tides and the precession of the equinoxes. The 

 illustrations are of prime excellence, and a 

 large number of them original. We are not 

 aware whether the author had completed his 

 work ; but, even if he has left it unfinished, 

 that which is already published may be re- 

 garded as a valuable addition to astronomi- 

 cal literature, and as giving the "latest news " 

 on the subject. 



VlERTELJAHRESSCHRIFT iJBER DIE FoRTSCHRIT- 

 TE AUF DEM GebIETE DEU ChKMIE DER NaH- 



KCNGS- cnd Genussmittel (Quarterly Re- 

 view of Progress in the Chemistry of 

 Foods and Condiments). Edited by Drs. 

 A. IIilger, J. KoNiG, R. Kayser, and E. 

 Sell. Vol. IL 1887. Berlin : Julius 

 Springer. New York : B. Westermann 

 & Co. Pp. 692. Price, 14 marks. 



The contents of this periodical, of which 

 we have here the four numbers of the year 

 stitched into one, hardly need any other de- 

 scription than the title. It is compactly filled 

 with reports, analyses, receipts, statistics, and 

 other matter related to the subject, given 

 under such headings as " Meat," " Peptone 

 and Meat Preparations," " Milk," " Oils," 

 " Sugars," " Spices," " Fermentation - Phe- 

 nomena," " Water and Water-Provision," 

 " Preserves and Preserving Media," " Useful 

 Articles," " Methods of Analysis," " Micro- 

 scopic Investigations," " Laws," " Litera- 

 ture," and others of similar character. Only 

 facts receive attention. 



A Sketch of the Germanic Constitution, 

 FROM Early Times to the Dissolution 

 OF the Empire. By Samuel Epes Tur- 

 ner, Ph. D. New York : G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons. Pp. 185. Price, $1.25. 



Though concerning only the political 

 changes achieved by a particular people 

 among the European powers, the history of 

 the Germanic Constitution at all epochs of 

 its development is of general interest — in 

 early times, because of the contributions 

 which the Germanic stock made to the blood, 

 language, laws, and customs of the various 

 states ; in later times, because of the contro- 

 versies and wars that turned around German 

 pretensions, and of the lead taken by Ger- 

 many in the Reformation ; and in the pres- 

 ent, because of the prominence that is ac- 



