SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



277 



tion about clubs that have given some at 

 tention to this field are appended. 



This monograph * gives, in some eighty 

 pages, a list of the published maps of Vir 

 ginia. The first map, made in manuscrip 

 about the year 1585, bears the name of John 

 With, a painter who was sent into the colo- 

 nies by Walter Raleigh to paint the red 

 skins and the other curiosities of the new 

 found country. Captain John Smith drew up 

 his famous map in 1608. " In the boundary 

 dispute between Virginia and Maryland in 

 1 873 Smith's map was used as an authority 

 and prior to that it was the foundation upon 

 which all the maps of Virginia were con- 

 structed." From 1608 onward the maps 

 multiply, down to the last one, a railroad 

 pocket guide published in 1893. Specimen 

 reproductions, especially of the quaint older 

 maps, would have enlivened this catalogue. 



The greater part of the Twelfth Annual 

 Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of 

 the State of Connecticut is devoted to the 

 practices prevailing in the various towns and 

 cities of the State with regard to assessments 

 for the purpose of taxation. The bureau 

 has evidently investigated the matter 

 thoroughly, and has discovered considerable 

 foundation for the always current rumors as 

 to inequalities. The information gathered, 

 including suggestions from local assessors, is 

 conveniently arranged, and besides its value 

 within the State may well serve as a guide 

 and model to officials of other States. The 

 bureau has also collected the appraised 

 values of over seven hundred probated 

 estates, finding them to confirm closely the 

 figures given by assessors. For purposes of 

 comparison the tax laws of Connecticut, New 

 York, and Massachusetts are here printed. 

 Other investigations whose results are given 

 in this volume are on the taxation of corpo- 

 rations, the condition of bakeshops, and the 

 wages of factory hands. 



A wonderful quantity of information con- 

 cerning the various materials, processes, and 

 applications of the photographic art is con- 

 tained in the eleventh American Annual of 

 Photography (Scovill & Adams Co., New 



* Virginia Cartography. A Bibliographical De- 

 scription. By P. Lee Phillips. Smithsonian Mis 

 cellaueous Collections. 



York ; paper 75, cents ; cloth, $1). The aid 

 that photography can give in surgery, min- 

 ing, detecting forgery, etc., is told in special 

 articles. Directions from which the amateur 

 can use his prints to make a number of tasty 

 and pleasing objects are another feature. 

 Work with the X rays and color photography 

 are two important recent developments that 

 find place in the volume. There are also 

 standard formulas, useful recipes, tables of 

 chemicals, of capacities of lenses, of conju- 

 gate foci, of enlargement and reduction, of 

 comparative exposures, etc., lists of photo- 

 graphic books and patents of the preceding 

 year, and of American and foreign photo- 

 graphic societies. There are also a full 

 almanac for 1897, postal and patent infor- 

 mation, etc., while the large number of ad- 

 vertisements add no little value to the book. 

 The volume contains over three hundred 

 illustrations from photographs of pleasing 

 and interesting subjects. 



In his First Year in German, Mr. /. Kel- 

 ler has sought to avoid the defects and com- 

 bine the advantages of the grammatical and 

 "natural" methods of teaching the lan- 

 guage. His method is simple, and includes 

 practical exercises in which the grammatical 

 features are explained as they occur. They 

 consist of progressive reading lessons, trans- 

 lating from German to English and from 

 English to German, with explanatory notes, 

 oral and written exercises, and conversation 

 exercises, with grammatical paradigms in the 

 appendix. (American Book Company, $1.) 



The Report of the United States Commis- 

 sioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1892-^93 is 

 accompanied by three special reports of as- 

 sistants in charge of especial inquiries. One 

 of these deals with food fishes and the fish- 

 ng grounds, and reports investigations into 

 the physical and other conditions of the in- 

 and and coast waters of the United States. 

 Another is occupied with the statistics and 

 methods of the commercial fisheries, and the 

 third details the operations of the commis- 

 sion in propagating and distributing food 

 ishes. Following these is an extended ac- 

 count by William A. Wilcox of the Fisheries 

 f the Pacific Coast, which have recently 

 ;rown to importance, especially the catching 

 if salmon for canning. The whaling and 

 ealing of the Pacific are also important. 



