LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1879. 



and tin* instructors upon whom tho public 

 relies for scientific information ore most fre- 

 quently the writers and scientists of other lands, 

 particularly the English pppuluisorflol science. 

 Professor Ernst HaockeVs " Tho Evolution of 

 Man," published by D. Appleton & Co., is tho 

 great text-book on Darwinism, the accepted 

 and authoritative exposition of the theory of 

 descent. Professor Haeckel in preparing this 

 work hud the double object in view of present- 

 ing and elucidating in one orderly whole his doc- 

 trine of evolution, and collecting and coordinat- 

 ing tho evidence in its support, and that of 

 instructing and convincing the general public. 

 The task of rendering popularly intelligible a 

 scientific exposition of new theories is most 

 difficult to accomplish in any language, and is 

 rarely attempted in German ; but Haeckel, al- 

 though as a pioneer of science obliged to in- 

 vent many new terms, expounds his subject 

 with remarkable lucidity, which is well pre- 

 served in the translation. " The Human Spe- 

 cies," by Quatrefages, the distinguished French 

 anthropologist and geographer, forms the twen- 

 ty-seventh volume of the " International Scien- 

 tific Series," published by D. Appleton & Co. 

 of New York ; this volume not only bears the 

 impress of the author's unrivaled learning and 

 profound grasp of his subject, but, with the 

 exercise of a rare degree of literary skill, the 

 theme has been enveloped in a most attrac- 

 tive garb and rendered exceedingly fascinating. 

 Professor Rood's contribution to the "Inter- 

 national Scientific Series," " Modern Chromat- 

 ics," is more than a handbook of instruction ; 

 it is a work of original research in this difficult 

 and inchoate branch of science, and a guide as 

 well to the artistic use of color. Dr. B. Jay 

 Jeffries's " Color-Blindness, its Dangers and its 

 Detection " (Houghton, Osgood & Co.), is a 

 systematic treatise on this defect, which has 

 been the subject of much investigation of late 

 in different countries, the results of which are 

 digested in this volume. " The Multitudinous 

 Seas" (D. Appleton & Co.) is a picturesque 

 and scientific account of the ocean and its 

 phenomena, by 8. G. W. Benjamin. Elliott 

 Ooues's " Birds of the Colorado Valley," print- 

 ed at tho Government Printing-Office in Wash- 

 ington, is the first part of a great work on 

 American ornithology, entitled "Passeres to 

 Laniidee." The eminent naturalist who has 

 undertaken this task has wisely sought to ren- 

 der the work intelligible to non-scientific read- 

 ers by discarding the scientific nomenclature 

 in his account of the life-history of the birds. 

 Charles Pickering's " Chronological History of 

 Plants" (Boston, Little, Brown & Co.) is a 

 posthumous work containing a vast amount of 

 recondite information, but which is imperfectly 

 digested and faultily arranged, being published 

 without revision in the unfinished form in which 

 it was left by its author. 



In Mechanic and the applications of science 

 to tho practical uses of life, the American na- 

 tion is not behind the others, nor its literature 

 VOL. xix. 35 A 



poorer or less extensive. A description of late 

 electrical inventions is given in George 8. Pres- 

 cott's "Tho Speaking Telephone " (D. Appleton 

 & Co.). A valuable practical treatise on sur- 

 veying and locating railroads has been written 

 by William F. Shunk, entitled "The Field En- 

 gineer " (New York, D. Van Nostrand). " Rail- 

 road Accidents," by Charles Francis Adams, Jr. 

 (New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons), is an ac- 

 count of the more noteworthy catastrophes on', 

 railroads and a practical inquiry into the causes 

 and the means of preventing such accidents. 

 Other works on mechanical subjects are Wil- 

 liam M. Burr's manual on fuel combustion, pub- 

 lished by Yohn Brothers of Indianapolis ; Em- 

 ory Edwards's " Marine Steam-Engine" (Phil- 

 adelphia, II. C. Baird & Co.) ; W. Kent on the 

 " Strength of Materials " (New York, D. Van 

 Nostrand); "Manual of Power for Machines, 

 Shafts, and Belts," and " History of Cotton 

 Manufacture in the United States," by S. Web- 

 ber (D. Appleton & Co.). A systematic and 

 exhaustive treatise on breeding domestic ani- 

 mals to develop desired points and qualities, by 

 Dr. Manly Miles, is entitled " Stock- Breeding " 

 (D. Appleton & Co.). 



The medical profession of America is distin- 

 guished for its progressive activity. A very ex- 

 tensive special literature is published embody- 

 ing the latest researches in Medical Science^ 

 American and European. A popular literature 

 for the spread of medical and hygienic know- 

 ledge has lately appeared, which is more satis- 

 factory in its character and more effective in 

 its form than anything of the kind which has 

 preceded it. Besides the excellent " Health 

 Primers " published by D. Appleton & Co. (see 

 LITEHATURE, BBiTisH, IN 1879), a similar series 

 of " American Health Primers " has been is- 

 sued by the Philadelphia publishers, Lindsay 

 & Blakiston, the contributors to which are 

 American physicians exclusively : it includes 

 " Summer and its Diseases," by Dr. James 0. 

 Wilson ; " Winter and its Dangers," by Dr. 

 Hamilton Osgood; " TheThroat and the Voice," 

 by Dr. J. Solis Cohen ; " Eyesight, and How to 

 Care for it," by Dr. G. 0. Harlan ; " The Mouth 

 and the Teeth," by Dr. J.W. White ; and "Hear- 

 ing, and How to Keep it," by Dr. Charles H. 

 Burnett. Dr. Richard McSherry's "Health, 

 and How to Promote it " (D. Appleton & Co.), 

 is an excellent work of the same class, as is also 

 " Emergencies, and How to Meet them " (G. P. 

 Putnam's Sons), by Professor Burt C. Wilder. 

 "The National Dispensatory" (Philadelphia, 

 Henry C. Lea), by Drs. Alfred Stille" and John 

 M. Maisch, is a much-needed comprehensive, 

 critical digest of the material contained in the 

 last edition of the "United States Pharma- 

 copoeia," presenting the present condition and 

 reflecting the latest accepted principles of ma- 

 teria medica. A presentation of the homoeo- 

 pathic views on the action of medicinal reme- 

 dies is given by Dr. Carrol Dunham in " Lec- 

 tures on Materia Medica " (New York, Francis 

 Hart & Co.). Among the new works on special 



