LITERARY NOTICES. 



565 



po3its of fossils, the idea of homotaxy, as 

 proposed by Professor Iluxlcy to express 

 the existence of close biological relationship 

 between formations in different parts of the 

 world which might not, or could not, have 

 been contemporaneously deposited. Dr. 

 Goode's address we have found extremely 

 interesting. It gives a clear account of 

 the progress of observation and the 

 growth of science in this country from 

 the first observations of Oviedo y Valdes 

 in 1525, and Thomas Harriott, of Virginia, 

 in 1590, through a considerable list of origi- 

 nal contributors, to the end of the last cent- 

 ury. The men whose names are mentioned, 

 the author says, " were the intellectual an- 

 cestors of the naturalists of to-day." The 

 volume also contains lists additional and 

 supplementary to those heretofore published, 

 of flora of Washington and vicinity. 



United States Department of Agricult- 

 ure. Report of the Entomologist for 

 1886. By C. V. Riley. Pp. 144, with 

 Plates. Reports op Experiments with 

 Various Insecticide Substances. Pp. 

 34. Our ShxVde Trees and their Insect 

 Defoliators. By C. V. Rilet. Pp. 

 69. Washington : Government Printing- 

 office. 



Besides the general review of the work 

 of his bureau by the Entomologist, the 

 " Report " contains papers on the " Cottony 

 Cushion Scale," " Buffalo Gnats," the " Fall 

 Web-worra," and " Joint-worms " ; each pa- 

 per embodying a description of the insect, 

 an account of its depredations, and sugges- 

 tions of remedies. A paper on " Silk Cult- 

 ure " represents the prospects of this busi- 

 ness in the United States as not yet hopeful, 

 but speaks well of the Osage orange as a 

 food-plant for the silk-worm. Reports of 

 agents are given upon various insects affect- 

 ing small grains and grasses ; and the last 

 paper is a " Report on Experiments in Agri- 

 culture." The experiments with insecticide 

 substances of which the second pamphlet 

 gives accounts, were directed chiefly to in- 

 sects affecting garden-crops, and were per- 

 formed at Ames, Iowa, Lafayette, Indiana, 

 and Trenton, New Jersey, with ice-water, 

 chemical solutions, and vegetable decoc- 

 tions. They are described in detail. The 

 insect defoliators of shade-trees whose cases 

 are considered in the third pamphlet are the 

 imported elm-leaf beetle, the bag-worm. 



the white-marked tussock-moth, and the 

 fall web-worm. The information given is 

 full. As "one simple preventive remedy 

 for all," spraying the trees with arsenical 

 mixtures in the middle of May, and once or 

 twice at intervals of a fortnight later in the 

 season, is recommended. 



Modern American Methods of Copper- 

 Smelting. By Edward D. Peters, Jr. 

 Illustrated. New York : Scientific Pub- 

 lishing Co. Pp. 342. 



It has been the intention of the author 

 of this book to confine what he wrote, with 

 few exceptions, to his own experience, and 

 to present no more of the theory of the sub- 

 ject than is essential for understanding 

 practical operations. A feature of the 

 work is the estimates of cost, both of plant 

 and of operating, which the author has 

 presented in considerable detail. In order 

 to keep the volume within moderate size, 

 the so-called " wet methods " have been ex- 

 cluded. After a description of the methods 

 of copper-assaying practiced in this coun- 

 try, he describes the several ways of roast- 

 ing lump-ore and matte, recommending for 

 the building of roasting-stalls " slag-brick " 

 molded in sand. The calcining of fine ore 

 and matte is then treated, and a short chap- 

 ter is given to the chemistry of the calcining 

 process. The smelting of copper comes 

 next in order, and this naturally falls into 

 the divisions of smelting in blast-furnaces 

 and in reverberatory furnaces. Dr. Peters 

 maintains the general excellence of the 

 American form of the blast-furnace pro- 

 cess, while admitting the necessity of using 

 reverberatories for certain portions of the 

 matte concentration in many cases. A few 

 pages on separating the precious metals 

 from copper, and on Bessemerizing copper 

 mattes are added. 



The Conception of Love in Some American 

 Languages. By Daniel G. Brinton. 

 Philadelphia: McCalla & Stavely. Pp. 

 18. 



Premising that the words which denote 

 love picture the heart of those who use 

 them, the author has studied their history 

 and derivation in the American languages 

 as furnishing evidence of the development 

 of the altruistic principle among the races, 

 and as illustrating the wonderful parallelism 



