December 13, 1894] 



NATURE 



159 



Magiieburgischen Zeitung during 1893. The volume is edited 

 by Herr A. W. GiUtzmacher, and is in its thirteenth year. 



The Bulletins of the Michigan State Agricultural College 

 Experiment Station, for October, contain an exhaustive paper 

 on the insects which attack clover, by Mr. G. C. Davis, and 

 one on rape as a (orage-plant, by Mr. C. D. Smith and Mr. F. 



B. Mumford. 



The eighth part of "The Natural History of Plants" has 

 been published by Messrs. Blackie and Son. It deals with the 

 genesis of plant-offspring, one section being devoted to asexual 

 reproduction, while the other refers to reproduction by means 

 of fruits. 



MM. J. B. B\iLLii;RE et Fils, of Paris, following other 

 firms of booksellers and publisher^, have commenced the issue 

 of a monthly list of new books, under the title Bibiiographie 

 des sciences naturdles. The list for November comprises the 

 titles and prices of important works on protozoa, sponges, 

 coelenterata, echinoderms, &c. 



The Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, 

 U.S.A., include a paper on Sclerolinia Libertiana, a fungus 

 parasite of the sunflower, by Prof. L. H. Pammel to which is 

 appended a bibliography of the fungus diseases of roots, 

 covering thirty- seven pages ; also a further instalment of Mr. 



C. Robertson's observations on the relationship between flowers 

 and insects in the process of pollination, the present paper 

 treating of American species of Rosacc^T and Composites. 



A VOLUME containing a number of important papers and 

 reports relating to the gold fields of New Zealand has just 

 reached this country. The mining industry has formed a large 

 factor in the advancement of the colony, and the statement issued 

 by the Government shows the direction in which further 

 developments should be made. The volume comprises reports 

 on the gold fields and cial mines, geological reports on the 

 older quartz-drifts in Central Otago, and a report on deep 

 quartz-mining in New Zealand. 



Mr. Edward Stanford has acted wisely in reissuing Dr. 

 A. R. Wallace's standard work on "Australasia" in a revised 

 and enlarged form. The first volume of the new edition, dealing 

 with Australia and New Zealand, was published a few months 

 ago. The second volume, which has just appeared, has for its 

 subject Malaysia and the Pacific Archipelagoes, being an 

 enlargement of the part devoted to that region in the original 

 work. Dr. F. H. H. GuiUemard is responsible for the new 

 work, and he has performed his task so thoroughly that the 

 present volume occupies nearly twice the number of pages pre- 

 viously allotted to the region with which it deals. The work 

 is certainly the most interesting and accurate account extant on 

 the tropical portion of the Eastern Archipelago. 



Stude.\ts of the anatomy of the horse will be glad to learn 

 that the second volume of the elaborate "Topographische 

 Anatomic des Pferdes," byDrs. \V. Fllenberger and H. Baum, 

 has been published by Paul Parey, Berlin. The first volume, 

 dealing with the structure of the limbs of the horse, appeared in 

 the spring of last year. The volume just received has for its 

 subject the head and shoulders ; while the third, which the pub- 

 lisher informs us will be issued early next year, will be devoted 

 to (he trunk. We shall review the work when it is completed. 

 So far as we can at present judge, it promises to be a useful 

 contribution to the literature of the subject, possessing both 

 scientific and practical importance. 



Prof. W. Nernst's important treatise on " Theoretical 

 Chemistry, from the Standpoint of Avogadro's Rule and 

 Thermodynamics," the German edition of which was enthusi- 

 astically received last year, has been translated by Prof. C. S. 



NO. 131 I, VOL. 51] 



Palmer, of the University of Colorado, and the translation will 

 shortly be published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. The work 

 is a development of Prof. Nernst's introduction to the " Hand- 

 buch der Anorganischen Chemie " of Dr. O. Dammer. It is, 

 however, quite an independent text-book for students of the 

 new physical chemistry, and includes the results of all recent 

 investigations bearing upon that science. The book will serve 

 at once both as a treatise in itself, and also as an introduction to, 

 and companion in, the larger field covered by the Zeitschrijt fUr 

 Physikalische Chemie and the related literature. 



Another scientific work which Messrs. Macmillan will 

 shortly issue, is " Steam and the Marine Steam Engine," by 

 Mr. John Yeo. The book is chiefly intended for naval 

 officers, and for students of engineering in the earlier part of 

 their training. It aims especially at giving a sound general 

 knowledge of the propelling machinery of ships, and of various 

 matters connected with its use and management. 



In "Darwinism and Race Progress," which Messrs. Swan 

 Sonnenschein and Co. will shortly publish. Prof. Haycraft 

 shows how the racial deterioration which would of necessity 

 ensue upon our modern care of the sickly and enfeebled, may 

 be counteracted by a keener public conscience. Our preserva- 

 tion of unworthy types by public and private charily is strongly 

 animadverted upon, and with regard to intellectual develop- 

 ment, it is pointed out that the present democratic movement, 

 while it gives a chance to the clever and capable of becoming 

 educated and well-to-do, entails upon them conditions which 

 generally imply late marriages and relative sterility. Without 

 supplementary action, nothing could be devised which would 

 more effectually breed capacity out of the race. 



Two volumes have lately been added to the comprehensive 

 engineering division of the Encyclopedie Scientifique des Aide- 

 Memoire, published jointly by Gauthier-Villars and Masson. 

 They are " Les Chronometres de Marine," by M. E. Caspari, 

 and " Torpilles Scches," by M. E. Hennebert. As is the case 

 with all the volumes in the same series, the two new ones aie 

 practical handbooks of a very instructive character. In the 

 former, the construction of chronometers, and the theory relat- 

 ing to it, are clearly described, and a deal of space is devoted 

 to the effects of various conditions upon the rate, and also to 

 the determination of the coefficients of the rate-formula. The 

 determination of longitude by means of chronometers, and the 

 methods of testing and comparing the instruments, are con- 

 cisely described. Both M. Caspari's work, and that by Lieut. - 

 Colonel Hennebert on torpedot-'s, bring together a lot of scattered 

 information of great use to students of the subjects with which 

 they respectively deal. 



Commercial geography is just the kind of subject to be 

 fostered by County Councillors, hence, from the time that 

 the Technical Instruction Act came into operation, there 

 has been an increasing demand for text-books upon it. 

 The first edition of Dr. H. R. Mill's "Elementary Com- 

 mercial Geography," in the Pitt Press Series (Cambridge 

 University Press), appeared in iSSS, when the boundary 

 line of commercial geography was in a more or less 

 nebulous condition. Thanks to the impetus that has been 

 given to the subject during the past few years, the book has 

 reached a second edition. The new issue is not, however, 

 merely the original work reprinted, for it has almost entirely 

 been rewritten. To quote the preface : " The book has been 

 revised throughout by the aid of official publications, and the 

 facts are as far as possible brought down to date. It is enlarged 

 by treating more fully of the.principles of commercial geography, 

 by describing the .\frican possessions of the European powers 

 in greater detail, and by many small additions in every chapter." 



