THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Soils : tbelr Origin, Composition, and Characteristics. 

 New York : Johu Wiley & Sons. Pp. ^39. 



Shepherd, Henry A. Antiquities of the State of 

 Ohio. Cincinnati : John C. Yorston &, Co. Pp. 189. 



Shufftldt, K. W., M. I). Observations upon the 

 Morpholog'y of Gallus Bankiana. Pp. 34 



Starr, Louis, M. D. Hygiene of the Nursery. 

 Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 2V2. 

 $1. 50. 



Tuckerman. Frederick, Amherst, Mass. Two 

 Papers on Tania Saginata. Pp. 2 each — The Anato- 

 my of the Papilla Foliata of the Human Infant. Pp. 

 3. with Plates. — Observations on the Structure of 

 the Gustatory Organs of the Bat. Boston : Uinn & 

 Co. Pp. 6, with Plates. 



Watts, Charles A. The Agnostic Annual for 

 1SS9. London : W. Stewart & Co. Pp. -IS. 



Wells, David A. Relation of the Tariff to 

 "Wages. New Y'ork : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 45. 



Whelpley, H. M. Chemical Lecture. Notes 

 from C. O. Curtman's Lectures. St. Louis. Pp. 211. 



Whitlock, L. L.. Editor. "The Soul." Monthly. 

 Facts Publishing Company. Boston. $1.50 a year. 



Williams College, Hopkins Observatory. Com- 

 memoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary. Pp. 82. 



Winlock, William C. Bibliography of Astrono- 

 my for the Y'ear 1SS7. Washington : Smithsonian 

 Institution. Pp. U. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



The International Geological Congress. 



— The fourth session of the International 

 Geological Congress was held in London, be- 

 ginning September 16th, under the presi- 

 dency of Prof. Prestwich. The United 

 States was represented in the list of vice- 

 presidents by Prof. Frazer, of Philadelphia. 

 The meeting was the largest in attendance, 

 both of home and foreign geologists, that 

 has been held. It differed from the previ- 

 ous meetings in the point that no votes were 

 taken bearing upon the subjects under dis- 

 cussion ; but a report was adopted recom- 

 mending that in future the members from 

 the country in which the Congress meets 

 shall vote separately from the foreign geolo- 

 gists : if the two groups agree, the question 

 to be considered settled ; if not, deferred ; 

 and that votes should not be taken on ques- 

 tions that are purely theoretical. The clas- 

 sification of the Cambrian and Silurian strata 

 was fully discussed, and the questions of the 

 nature and origin of the crystalline schists, 

 and of the upper limit of the Tertiary sys- 

 tem, were considered in some detail. To the 

 second discussion essays were contributed 

 by five officers of the United States Geologi- 

 ical Survey, with an introduction by Major 

 Powell, and by Mr. Lawson, of Canada. The 

 committee on nomenclature and classification 

 has obtained reports from the committees of 

 the different countries, embodying their views 



on the subject. It now remains to discuss 

 these. Another commission was appointed 

 under the new aspect of the subject, on 

 which Prof . Hall represents the United States. 

 Four or five sheets of the geological map of 

 Europe, relating to central Europe, will be 

 ready for publication within the next two 

 years, and will be given out at once, each 

 with its own title and index, without wait- 

 ing for the completion of the whole. The 

 Congress decided to hold its fifth meeting, 

 in 1S91, in Philadelphia ; and Messrs. J. Hall, 

 Dana, Newberry, Frazer, Gilbert, Hunt, 

 Marsh, and Walcott were appointed the com- 

 mittee of arrangements. 



Interglacial Man in Ohio. — Until re- 

 cently it has been a question whether " in- 

 terglacial " man existed in the Mississippi 

 Valley. Dr. Abbott had even made the sug- 

 gestion that this race may have lived only 

 in the neighborhood of the sea-coast, and 

 had not spread so far as even to the eastern 

 slope of the Alleghanies. Flint implements 

 paleolithic in character were found in abun- 

 dance — the work of Indians — but none that 

 could be proved to be of palaeolithic age. 

 Some three years ago, however, genuine pa- 

 laeolithic flints were found by Dr. Metz at 

 Madisonville and Loveland, Ohio. The sites 

 of these discoveries have been carefully ex- 

 amined by the Kev. G. F. Wright, who, tak- 

 ing the whole configuration and geological 

 character of the region, with its peculiar 

 formations, into account, pronounces the 

 beds to be unquestionably virgin glacial de- 

 posits, in situations where there can have 

 been no subsequent deposition. The discov- 

 eries, therefore, show that in Ohio, as well as 

 on the Atlantic coast, man was an inhabitant 

 before the close of the glacial period. A 

 discovery of implements of quartz, situated 

 likewise in gravels and sands that could only 

 be glacial, made by Miss Babbitt at Little 

 Falls, Minn., is confirmed by the researches 

 of Mr. Warren Upham. 



Our Indians and the Mongolians. — Dr. 



Brinton, in a paper read at the American As- 

 sociation, maintained that the resemblances 

 alleged by various writers to exist in lan- 

 guage, culture, and physical appearance be- 

 tween American Indians and Mongolians are 

 not supported by recent researches. The 



