418 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ber of arbitrary word signs has been reduced 

 to a minimum consistent with requirements 

 for all purposes, and the entire system has 

 been rearranged into a series of easy and 

 progressive lessons. ... It contains a com- 

 plete exposition of all the principles, word 

 signs, and contractions that are requisite for 

 the most difficult reporting purposes." 



In the bulletin on Farmers' Institutes in 

 18 94-' 9 5, issued by the Michigan State 

 Agricultural College, there are reported nine 

 institutes abstracts of the papers read, and 

 brief summaries of the discussions held at 

 each, being given. These reports have a 

 liveliness and meatiness that mark the meet- 

 ings as occasions of much profit. 



Whittaker, in London, and Macmillan, in 

 New York, publish The ChemisCs Compen- 

 dium, compiled by C. J. S. Thompson (price, 

 $1). It is a handbook of information for 

 druggists, containing the formulas of the 

 British Pharmacopoeia given briefly and ar- 

 ranged alphabetically, a posological table, 

 the unofficial formulary of the British Phar- 

 maceutical Conference, some directions for 

 dispensing French and German prescriptions, 

 besides many lists and tables relating to 

 analysis, poisons, photographic chemicals, 

 freezing mixtures, doses for domestic ani- 

 mals, artificial fruit essences, solubilities, 

 etc., etc. 



Volume XXXIV of the Annals of the 

 Harvard Observatory is devoted to a Cata- 

 logue of 7,922 Southern Stars, by Solon I. 

 Bailey. These observations were made from 

 the top of Mount Harvard, near Lima, Peru, 

 and are intended to furnish magnitudes for 

 the southern stars on the same scale as that 

 on which the magnitudes of the northern stars 

 are expressed in Volumes XIV and XXIV. 

 Two chapters describing respectively the 

 plan and the reduction of the observations 

 are prefixed, and another, giving a history 

 of the expedition, in which the obstacles 

 encountered are described and information 

 as to the suitability of a number of sites for 

 astronomical work is given. Part IV of 

 Volume XL and Part in of Volume XLI of 

 the Annals are devoted to meteorology. 

 The former is a report on the Observations 

 made at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observa- 

 tory in 1894, under the direction of A > Law- 

 rence Botch. An appendix to the tables 



gives the results of a series of comparisons 

 of anemometers begun in 1892. The latter 

 of these publications embodies the Observa- 

 tions of the New England Weatlter Service, 

 which has one hundred and ninety-two vol- 

 unteer observers, with J. Warren Smith as 

 director. Accompanying the tabulated ob- 

 servations and based upon them are a de- 

 scription of the weather month by month, a 

 list of severe storms, and a map showing the 

 mean annual isotherms in New England for 

 1894. 



Terrestrial Magnetism is a quarterly 

 journal which has been added to the list of 

 periodical publications of the University of 

 Chicago. It is edited by Dr. L. A. Bauer 

 and a corps of associates representing most 

 of the countries of Europe, the United States, 

 China, Java, and Australia, the intention be- 

 ing to give it an international character. All 

 languages that can be printed with Roman 

 characters will be admitted to its pages. 

 The chief contributions to the first number 

 (January, 1896) are: On Electric Currents 

 induced by Rotating Magnets, and their Ap- 

 plication to Some Phenomena of Terrestrial 

 Magnetism, by Arthur Schuster, F. R. S. ; 

 and Die Vertheilung des erdmagnetischen 

 Potentials in Bezug auf beliebige Durch- 

 messer der Erde, by Dr. Ad. Schmidt. This 

 number contains also a photographic repro- 

 duction of Halley's earliest equal variation 

 chart, with a brief history by the editor. 

 (University of Chicago press, $2 a year.) 



Tlie Bachelor and the Chafing Dish is 

 the title of a little book for the gourmet, by 

 Beshler Welch. The work consists of a num- 

 ber of " informal " receipts for preparations 

 which can be cooked in a chafing dish. 

 There is considerable somewhat amusing and 

 desultory talk interlarded, most of the re- 

 ceipts being given after the description of 

 an appropriate situation, such as a camp 

 in the woods or at a sick friend's bedside. 

 There is appended a glossary of the various 

 terms used in cooking. (F. Tennyson Neeley, 

 Chicago.) 



On account of its covering part of the 

 year of the Columbian Exposition, the Be- 

 port of the Commissioner of Education for 

 1892-93 contains an unusually wide range 

 of interesting matter. The Exposition ma- 

 terial includes essays on the educational 



