262 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [November, 



OBITUARY NOTICES. 



F. S. Newcomer, M. D., of Indianapolis, Ind., died September 

 13, at Lake Bluff, 111. Dr. Newcomer was a noble man, loved and 

 respected most by those who knew him best. He was a charter mem- 

 ber of the American Society of Microscopists, and also a member of 

 the Royal Microscopical Society of London. Many valuable and beau- 

 tiful specimens of his handiwork have been contributed to the cause 

 of science. He leaves a wife and three children. 



Benjamin Braman, of New York, died January 20, 1889, after a 

 long illness. In 1879 he became a member of the New York Micro- 

 scopical Society, and during 1S83 and 18S4 served as its president. In 

 1884 and 1885 he edited its Journal. Prof. Braman paid especial at- 

 tention to mental philosophy and the science of perspective, ancient 

 literature, and botanical physiology, and, although performing no origi- 

 nal work, he was instrumental in disseminating much valuable knowl- 

 edge through the medium of his lectures. His life was pure and un- 

 selfish, child-like in its reverence for matters of faith and religion, and 

 presented an example which was as effective in the promotion of good 

 among his fellows as were his intellectual labors successful in impart- 

 ing knowledge. The jfournal of the New York Microscopical Society 

 for July, 1889, contains an excellent likeness of Prof. Benjamin Braman. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Myers 1 General History. By P. V. N. Myers, President of Belmont 

 College. Ginn & Co., Boston. 8°, pp. 759- 



This book is based upon the author's Ancient History and Mediczval 

 and Modern History. The difficult task which the author set for him- 

 self, of compressing the fourteen hundred or more pages comprising 

 the two text-books mentioned into a single volume of about seven hun- 

 dred pages has been accomplished without serious impairment either 

 of the interest or of the easy flow of the narration. The greatest care 

 has been taken to verify every statement and to give the latest results 

 of discovery and criticism. 



Most general historians have based their opening chapters upon what 

 they could find in Genesis. This author has shown his ability to write 

 ancient history from a scholar's standpoint, and hence does not come to 

 the Hebrews until page 63. He frankly says we do not know when 

 man came into possession of the earth. The same good sense is dis- 

 played all through. 



The book is designed simply for class-room use and presupposes a 

 knowledge of American History. Hence the history of our own and 

 sister nations of the western hemisphei'e is omitted. The book is con- 

 sequently a history of European and Eastern nations from the earliest 

 to the present time. That ground is well covered, and we take no ex- 

 ception to the limitation in a text-book prepared for the use above indi- 

 cated. But we think the title, " General History," better be reserved 

 for a resume of the history of the whole world, including the Western 

 continent. We hardly want to concede that a History of European 

 and Eastern Nations is a " General Historv." 



