SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



563 



1850. The work closes with the decline of 

 the romantic movement, leaving the natural- 

 ism of the present rather a subject for cur- 

 rent criticism. Proven9al literature is not 

 included. The index id commendably full. 



The Bibliography of Education* is the 

 outgrowth of an educational library which 

 the author, Will S. Monroe, of the State Nor- 

 mal School, Westfield, Mass., has been col- 

 lecting for sixteen years. When, a few 

 years ago, he undertook to catalogue the col- 

 lection, then numbering about twelve hun- 

 dred volumes and pamphlets, with a view to 

 publication for the benefit of other persons 

 engaged in educational work, it was thought 

 best to enlarge the list and include other 

 works bearing on the subject The present 

 catalogue, the resultant of this idea, contains 

 the titles of thirty-two hundred books and 

 pamphlets, nearly all in the English language 

 and obtainable in the ordinary course of trade. 

 The exceptions to this rule are works of ref- 

 erence encyclopaedias and bibliographies, 

 which are also included. The standard foreign 

 works of reference are given, and sources of 

 information are indicated respecting the edu- 

 cational literature of France and Germany. 

 As much care has been taken to secure titles 

 of English books as of American. The in- 

 dexing of periodical literature is not attempt- 

 ed. The titles are grouped into classes, and 

 these broken into sections and subsections, 

 the shape of which has been largely con- 

 trolled by the nature of the materials, and an 

 index of twenty pages is provided. 



Prof. Sylvanus P. Thompson's Light Vis- 

 ible and Invisible f is a work of real popular 

 interest, and at the same time presents in its 

 appendices to chapters brief discussions in 

 exact science. It embodies the Christmas 

 lectures delivered by the author to the peo- 

 ple at the Royal Institution in 1896, which 

 were liberally supplemented by experiments, 

 and in which pains were taken to present 

 the most recent progress in science. The 

 wave theory is kept in special prominence, 

 and the language is adapted to it. In the 



* Bibliography of Education. By Will 8. 

 Monroe. New York : D. Appleton and Company. 

 (International Education Series.) Pp. 202. 



t Light Visible and Invisible. A Series of Lec- 

 tures delivered at the Royal Institution of Great 

 Britain, at Christmas, 1896. New York : The 

 Macmillan Company. Pp. 294. Price, $1.50. 



lecture relating to the invisible light of the 

 infra red some of the experimental points r n 

 which the demonstration of the electro mag- 

 netic nature of light rests are introduced. 

 Having learned by his experience that po- 

 larization is not hard to understand when 

 properly explained, the author has presented 

 the subject " in a model way, devoid of pe- 

 dantic terms, and illustrated by appropriate 

 models." The topics treated are light and 

 shadow, the visible spectrum, and the eye, 

 polarization, the invisible spectrum of the 

 ultra-violet and the infra-red, and Rontgen 

 light. Interference and diffraction are bare- 

 ly alluded to, and spectrum analysis and 

 the greater part of the subject of color vision 

 are necessarily omitted. In the appendices 

 to chapters the general method of geomet- 

 rical optics, anomalous refraction and dis- 

 persion, the elastic solid, and the electro- 

 magnetic theories of light are briefly ex- 

 plained, and "other kinds of invisible light " 

 are described or mentioned. 



To the man who speculates on the origin 

 and ultimate goal of the human race; and 

 who of us does not? the geological peiiods 

 when we first begin to find evidence of man's 

 existence in anything like his present form 

 can not fail to be of exceeding interest. The 

 treatment which the human society of these 

 remote days usually receives is not of a 

 popular character, although it is frequently 

 closely allied to pure fiction. But now Mr. 

 Stanley Waterloo has given us a novel* 

 whose plot is laid in the time of the cave 

 men, the earliest period from which any 

 human remains have been obtained. The 

 hero of the story, Ab, is one of the u great 

 men " of his time, and the story is chiefly a 

 history of his career. We are first intro- 

 duced to him at the age of one year, the 

 opening incident of the story recounting his 

 narrow escape from the maw of a cave 

 hyena, a beast which in those days was 

 large and dangerous and a great contrast in 

 all ways to his modern representative. The 

 father and mother of Ab are carefully de- 

 scribed, as well as the cave in which the 

 family live. The cave man's probable daily 

 life (which consisted principally of getting 



* The Story of Ab. By Stanley Waterloo. 

 Chicago: Way & Williams. Pp. 351. Price, 

 $1.50. 



