850 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



matters more intimately associated with the 

 chemical laboratory there is less to criticise. 

 Sprengel's air-pump is illustrated and de- 

 scribed (Bunsen's modification is not) ; the 

 modern methods of determining vapor den- 

 sities, devised by Ilof mann and Victor Meyer, 

 are illustrated and explained. The theoreti- 

 cal portions have been mostly rewritten, and 

 many improvements are noticed. The order 

 of studying the non-metals has been changed 

 so that the halogens precede oxygen and 

 other dyads. The metals are grouped in 

 their natural order, so that silver no longer 

 finds itself in the same box with sodium, as 

 it did in the artificial grouping according to 

 quantivalence adopted in previous editions. 



Abstract of IIkport on the Geology of 

 THE Eureka District, Nevada. By 

 Arnold IIagce. Washington: Gov- 

 ernment Printing-OfBce. Pp. 48, with 

 Map and Sections. 



The Eureka District embraces a region 

 about twenty miles square, situated on the 

 Nevada Plateau, in Central Nevada, midway 

 between the basins of Lake Lahontan and 

 Lake Bonneville. It is doubtful, in the 

 opinion of Mr. Hague, if there is any region 

 of equally restricted area in the Great 

 Basin that surpasses it in its grand expos- 

 ures of palaeozoic formations, especially of 

 the lower and middle portions of the series. 

 It also possesses a great economic interest 

 as the seat of an active mining industry, 

 and has been, moreover, the center of in- 

 tense volcanic action. It is therefore se- 

 lected for a more careful survey and study 

 than had heretofore been given to any re- 

 gion of sedimentary rocks in Nevada, The 

 results of this survey and study are recorded 

 in the present memoir. 



United States Geological Survey. Sec- 

 ond Annual Report, 1«80-'81. Pp. 588, 

 with 61 Plates; Third Annual Report, 

 1881-'82. Pp. 564, with 32 Plates. By 

 J. \V. PowKLL, Director. Washington: 

 Government Printing-Office. 

 Many of the special papers included in 

 the second volume of the report have al- 

 ready been noticed in the "Monthly," as 

 monographs. The whole list includes Cap- 

 tain Dutton's " Tertiary Ilistory of the 

 Grand Canon District," Mr. Gilbert's " His- 

 tory of Lake Bonneville," Mr. Hague's 

 "Geology of the Eureka District," Mr, S. 



F.Emmons's "Geology of Leadville," Mr, 

 G. F. Becker's " Geology of the Comstock 

 Lode," Professor Pumpelly's "Statistics of 

 Coal and Iron," Dr. Irving's Copper-bear- 

 ing Rocks of Lake Superior," Mr. Clarence 

 King's " Precious Metal Statistics," Mr. 

 Eliot Lord's " History of the Comstock 

 Lode," and Mr. G. K. Gilbert's " New Meth- 

 od of Hypsometry." The other volume 

 (third report) contains papers on " Birds 

 with Teeth," by Professor 0. C. Marsh; 

 " The Copper-bearing Rocks of Lake Supe- 

 rior," by Roland D. Irving ; the " Geologi- 

 cal Ilistory of Lake Lahontan," by Israel C. 

 Russell ; " The Geology of the Eureka Dis- 

 trict, Nevada," by Arnold Hague ; a pre- 

 liminary paper " On the Terminal Moraine 

 of the Second Glacial Epoch," by Thomas 

 C. Chamberlin ; and " A Review of the 

 Non-Marine Fossil MoUusca of North Ameri- 

 ca," by Dr. C. A. White. 



The Natural Genesis. By Gerald Mas- 

 sey. New York : Scribner & Welford, 

 2 vols. Pp. 552 and 535. 

 Mr. Massey has given his critics a hard 

 task to perform. He states that Mr. Alfred 

 Russel Wallace, having read the previous 

 volumes of his series, expressed the fear 

 that there might not be a score of people in 

 England who were prepared by their pre- 

 vious education to understand the book ; 

 and he intimates that few of its review- 

 ers could be included among that number. 

 Hcrr Pietschmann, a German Egyptologist, 

 was startled by the " unheard-of sugges- 

 tions " the book contained, and thought it 

 was " inspired by an unrestrained lust for 

 discovery." " The Natural Genesis " is the 

 second part of " A Book of the Beginnings," 

 of which two volumes had previously been 

 published, the whole containing "an at- 

 tempt to recover and reconstitute the lost 

 origins of the myths and mysteries, types 

 and symbols, religion and language, with 

 Egypt for the mouth-piece and Africa as 

 the 'birthplace." It is written " by an evo- 

 lutionist for evolutionists," is intended to 

 trace the natural origins and teach the doc- 

 trine of development, and is based upon the 

 new matter supplied by the ancient monu- 

 ments. The predominant argument of the 

 book is, that Africa and not Asia was the 

 birthplace of articulate man, and therefore 

 the primordial home of all things human; 



