SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



the Great Lakes, by J. W. Spencer. The 

 computation of the age of the river is made 

 by the measured rate of recession of the falls 

 during forty- eight years, and leads to the 

 conclusion that the falls are 31,000 and the 

 river 32,000 years old. At the estimated 

 rate of terrestrial elevation in the Niagara 

 district, it will require between 5,000 and 

 6,000 years for a sufficient rise to divert the 

 waters of Lake Erie through the divide at 

 Chicago, and thus end the falls. Mr. Spen- 

 cer's paper has been reprinted separately. 

 In the commissioners' report considerable 

 space is given to an account of the efforts 

 which they have made to protect the beauty 

 of the falls and its surroundings from de- 

 struction through commercial enterprise. 

 They have not as yet been able to influence 

 the State Legislature in any effective way, 

 and, while the water privileges on the Cana- 

 dian side are a source of revenue to Canada, 

 the American privileges are being legislated 

 away for nothing, and, what is far worse, 

 there seems great danger of serious injury 

 to the natural features of the falls and the 

 park. 



A picturesque sketch of Constantinople, 

 has been written by F. Marion Crawford 

 and copiously illustrated by Edwin L. Weeks 

 (Scribners, $1.50). The author finds much 

 that is attractive in this unique city and its 

 environs while the Turk appears to him a 

 much better specimen of humanity than the 

 wily Greek or Armenian will admit. 



The Outline Study of United States His- 

 tory, prepared by Harlow Godard (Bardeen, 

 50 cents), consists of a list of topics extend- 

 ing from the discovery of America to Cleve- 

 land's second administration, with directions 

 for studying, lists of reference books, and 

 reviews. 



The Report of the United States Life-sav- 

 ing Service for 1894 presents the usual 

 record of laborious and often heroic service. 

 The year was one of violent tempests and 

 many disasters, while timely warning signals 

 were given to over two hundred vessels, a 

 large portion of which undoubtedly would 

 have otherwise met with destruction. An ex- 

 amination of this record should convince any 

 one that the maximum pay of sixty-five dollars 

 a month ought not to be withheld from those 

 surfmen who are employed for more than 



eight months in the year. The report con- 

 tains a list of life-saving medals awarded by 

 the Secretary of the Treasury since 1874. 

 Severnl names of New York policemen ap- 

 pear in this list, but none of those of any 

 other city, which apparently gives support 

 to the claim that New York's force is " the 

 finest." 



Reconstruction during the Civil War, by 

 E. G. Scott (Houghton, $2), is a political 

 history of the so-called period of reconstruc- 

 tion. The years during which the process 

 of renewal of the former Confederate States 

 was taking place are called in popular speech 

 the reconstruction period, and this name re- 

 fers somewhat indefinitely to the time occu- 

 pied by the single term of President Johnson 

 and the succeeding two terms of President 

 Grant. The author begins in Revolutionary 

 times and, roughly sketching the origin, 

 growth, and history of the various political 

 parties up to the time of the civil war, gives 

 the reader a clear notion of the causes, both 

 immediate and remote, which led up to this 

 event. Then he takes up the proposed 

 methods of reconstruction, and gives an ac- 

 count of the disagreement between Congress 

 and the President on this question. The 

 last five chapters contain accounts of recon- 

 struction as carried out in Tennessee, Ar- 

 kansas, and Louisiana, and a discussion of 

 what constitutes a State of the American 

 Union. 



Dr. M. L. Holbrook has issued a volume 

 on the Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Ad- 

 vantages of Chastity (Holbrook & Co., New 

 York, $1), in which he exhorts his readers 

 to live a chaste life, and depicts the beauty 

 and nobleness of chastity with the aid of 

 many quotations from poets and essayists. 

 He also denies the reality of alleged disad- 

 vantages of chastity. 



Weather and Disease^ by A. B. MacDowall 

 (The Graphotone Co., London, 2s. 6d), is the 

 title of a book on the influence of weather on 

 health. This is a subject which has received 

 too little attention from physicians, and yet 

 every one knows how immediately a sudden 

 change in the weather affects even a healthy 

 person's spirits and bodily well-being ; how 

 much more susceptible must a broken- 

 down, or even an only temporarily weakened 

 system, be to such changes ! The primary 



