564 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the Spanish rule in South America. The 

 battles of Prorac, in Burmah, and of Staou- 

 eli, in Algiers, and the siege of Silistiia, on 

 the Danube, are among the less known 

 operations which are included. Four bat- 

 tles of our civil war are ranked as decisive, 

 viz., that between the Monitor and the ilerri- 

 mac, Gettysburg, the capture of Vicksburg, 

 and Five Forks ; two of the Franco-Prussian 

 war, Gravelotte and Sedan ; and two recent 

 British disasters in Egypt, El Obeid, and 

 the fall of Khartoum. The author partly 

 disarms criticism as to his selection, by say- 

 ing that it is unlikely that any unanimity of 

 opinion could be found among historical 

 Btudents of the present day on this subject. 

 Mr. Knox is best known as a writer of ju- 

 venile books of travel and biography, and 

 his style in this volume is popular, display- 

 ing much of the picturesqueness which 

 fascinates his younger readers. A general 

 statement of his sources of information is 

 given in the preface, but there are no spe- 

 cific references to authorities in the text. 

 The volume has no index. 



United States Commission of Fish and 

 Fisheries. Part XIII. Keport of the 

 Commissioner for 18S5. Washington: 

 Government Printing-Office. Pp. 112 

 -f 1108. 



This bulky volume testifies to the indus- 

 try of the Fish Commission during 1885. 

 The report gives a general survey of the 

 work of the year, and to it are appended 

 thirteen reports of steamers and stations, 

 including one on the thermometers used by 

 the Commission, by Dr. J. H. Kidder, and 

 twelve other papers on special topics. 

 Among the latter is an account, by Captain 

 J. W. Collins, of the fishing-grounds ex- 

 amined during a cruise along the coast of 

 the South Atlantic States and in the Gulf of 

 Mexico. This paper contains much informa- 

 tion in regard to the methods and results of 

 the sponge, turtle, and other fisheries of 

 Key West and the fisheries of Western 

 Florida, in which the red snapper, pompano, 

 sheep's-head, Spanish mackerel, mullet, etc., 

 are caught. Under the head of scientific 

 investigation are two papers on the devel- 

 opment of the cetacea; and of osseous fishes, 

 by John A. Ryder ; one on the decapod 

 Crustacea of the Albatross dredgings, by 

 Sidney L Smith ; one on the Annelida 



chcctopoda from Eastport, Maine, by H. E. 

 Webster and James E. Benedict, and an- 

 other by John Murray and A. Renard, read 

 before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, on 

 the nomenclature, origin, and distribution of 

 deep-sea deposits. There is a catalogue by 

 David S. Johnson, supplementary to the 

 " Synopsis of the Fishes of North America," 

 issued in 1883, and comprising additions 

 and corrections accumulated during 1883 

 and 1884, and also a list, with descriptions, 

 of patents of 1882-84 relating to fish and 

 fisheries, illustrated with one hundred and 

 fifty plates. Many of the other papers are 

 copiously illustrated. 



Second Annual Report of the School of 

 Expression, Boston : S. S. Cuery, Dean. 

 Pp. 3. 



The School of Expression has grown out 

 of the work of the School of Oratory which 

 was opened at Boston University some four- 

 teen years ago. Its aim is not merely to 

 educate one phase of the delivery, but to 

 include training for the complete control of 

 the body and the whole mechanism used in 

 speech, and also to give practical discipline 

 of the imaginative, sympathetic, logical, and 

 dramatic instincts. The first endeavor is to 

 secure correct intellectual, emotional, and, 

 volitional action in all kinds of reading and 

 speaking. The mechanism used in speech 

 is developed, and ease, agility, and precision 

 of action without waste of the vital force 

 are sought through careful and thorough 

 vocal training ; while other exercises look 

 to the development of poise, ease, precision, 

 and harmony, flexibility, and strength in the 

 whole organism. The theory of the school 

 is, in short, " to secure control of every 

 agent and develop its distinct function in 

 expression." 



Proceedings of the Biological Society op 

 Washington. Vol. III., July 1, 1884, 

 to February 6, 1886. Pp. 180. 



Besides the journals of the several meet- 

 ings of the society, this volume contains tlie 

 annual presidential addresses of Dr. C. A. 

 White (1883) on " The Application of Biol- 

 ogy to Geological History," and of G. Brown 

 Goode (188G) on " The Beginnings of Nat- 

 ural History in America." Dr. White eluci- 

 dates, in opposition to the European theory 

 of the synchronous character of similar de- 



