LITERARY NOTICES. 



the large collection of pamphlets has been 

 put in shape for permanent preservation. 

 Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant has presented to the 

 garden his extensive and valuable collection 

 of specimens, manuscripts, and illustrations, 

 largely in color, of the genus Capsicum, on 

 condition that the genus should be studied 

 with reference to an ultimate monograph of 

 the wild and cultivated forms ; and prepara- 

 tions have been made to supply living mate- 

 rial for this study. He has further presented 

 his entire botanical library, including the 

 scrapbooks of his own writings and his 

 manuscript notes on edible plants, on condi- 

 tion that he enjoy the use of the books dur- 

 ing his life or so long as he wishes them. 

 This library is said to be the most complete 

 and valuable American collection of pre- 

 Linnaean botanical books. The course of 

 study for garden pupils has been shortened 

 to four years, without omitting any of the 

 manual work or any of the studies originally 

 included. Undergraduate engineering stu- 

 dents have been secured in the School of 

 Botany for a study of the histological and 

 other means of distinguishing timbers. The 

 volume of the report contains the three regu- 

 lar anniversary publications the Flower Ser- 

 mon, which was preached by the Rev. Cam- 

 eron Mann ; the proceedings of the Banquets 

 to the Trustees of the Garden and to Gar- 

 deners, Florists, and Nurserymen ; a list of 

 Plants collected in the Bahamas, Jamaica, 

 and Grand Cayman ; and Additional Notes 

 on Yuccas and their Pollination, by Prof. 

 Trelease, to which most of the twenty-three 

 photogravure plates are illustrations. 



HOUSEHOLD NEWS. Monthly. Edited by Mrs. 

 S. T. RORER. Philadelphia: Household 

 News Company, Limited. Price, $1 a 

 year. 



THE first number of this new household 

 magazine was issued in July. Its editor is 

 the head of the Philadelphia Cooking School 

 and author of a successful cook-book, besides 

 smaller special manuals on Hot Weather 

 Dishes and Canning and Preserving. Cook- 

 ery, Mrs. Rorer's specialty, occupies most 

 space in the magazine. Under this head hi 

 the first number is a series of seventeen 

 bills of fare, with explanations of their novel 

 features, an account of the corn kitchen at 

 the World's Fair presided over by Mrs. 



Rorer, answers to inquirers, and miscellane- 

 ous recipes. The Department of Diet and 

 Hygiene, in charge of Dr. Charles M. Seltzer, 

 contains a leading article and answers to in- 

 quirers. Dr. Henry Leffmann, widely known 

 as the author of books on chemical and 

 sanitary subjects, has a department of House- 

 hold Chemistry, to which he contributes an 

 article on Water in the Household. The 

 Nursery Department is under the guidance 

 of Dr. D. J. Milton Miller, physician to the 

 Children's Hospital and to the Episcopal 

 Hospital in Philadelphia. Other departments 

 are the Kindergarten, conducted by Mrs. M. 

 L. Van Kirk and Miss M. G. Clark ; Decora- 

 tion, by Mrs. Hester M. Poole ; Architecture, 

 by Isaac Pursell; and Literature, by Miss 

 Elizabeth Carpenter. A department on the 

 Nurse is to be added. The field of dress is 

 left to magazines devoted exclusively to that 

 subject. There seems to be no room in this 

 periodical for the trash that is too common 

 in so-called " ladies' journals." Its tone is 

 eminently practical, and as there are plenty 

 of housewives who prefer sense to nonsense 

 it has good prospects for generous support. 



SOAP MANUFACTURE. A Practical Treatise 

 on the Fabrication of Hard and Soft 

 Soaps, etc. By W. LAWRENCE GADD, 

 F. I. C., F. C. S. New York : George Bell 

 & Sons (Macmillan & Co.). Pp.218. Price, 

 $1.50. 



THERE is probably no manufactured arti- 

 cle that is used more generally and is of 

 more importance in the household than soap, 

 and yet there is perhaps no substance about 

 which the ordinary consumer knows so little, 

 either as regards composition, methods of 

 manufacture, or adaptation to its various 

 uses. The prevalence of the minor forms of 

 skin diseases, for example, is very general, 

 and there is little doubt that many cases are 

 due, in part at any rate, to the use of im- 

 properly prepared soaps, while others are ren- 

 dered more serious by applications of some 

 of the various medicated soaps, which are so 

 numerous, and often of no medicinal value. 



The first chapter of the book introduces 

 the reader to the chemical reactions in soap- 

 making, a knowledge of which is necessary 

 for understanding the subsequent processes, 

 and also gives a few words on the antiquity 

 of the manufacture of soap and its growth 

 as an industry. 



