506 
decisions of the courts, His work in connec- 
tion with the harmonic telegraph, a very inter- 
esting invention which belongs to him, led him 
to an understanding of the principles under- 
lying the telephone, and the caveat which he 
filed in the patent office showed that he was 
very close to the realization of his ideas in this 
direction. Nevertheless, the fact that Mr. Bell 
had shown and described an apparatus capable 
of actually transmitting speech and one which 
survives to-day as the receiving instrument, gave 
him a more positive claim which, in connec- 
tion with other technical and legal facts, 
resulted in a final decision in his favor. The 
telautograph, like the harmonic telegraph, has 
not yet become of great practical value, al- 
though both are ingenious and beautiful de- 
vices. It would seem that Dr. Gray had been 
most unfortunate with his inventions in spite of 
his natural genius. It was not due, however, 
to lack of mental clearness or grasp, but more 
likely resulted from insufficient business ability. 
The books which he has recently written reflect 
very faithfully the mind of the man. To him 
science was not abstruse or formal, but a famil- 
iar, matter-of-fact and attractive subject. In 
a clear and picturesque style, he treats the 
principles and applications of electricity as well 
as other branches of science. These books 
could be understood sufficiently to be interest- 
ing even by the least technical of readers. On 
the other hand those well acquainted with the 
subjects would find at least a new point of 
view. It is notoriously difficult to write a 
really satisfactory scientific book of an ele- 
mentary character. This inherent difficulty is 
magnified by the fact that most persons who 
undertake it are not masters of their subject. 
No such criticism can be made of Dr. Gray, and 
the lucidity of his ideas and his language are 
adapted to the task. The writer was well 
acquainted with Dr. Gray personally and 
knew his great enthusiasm for science, which 
is another quality necessary in the writer of an 
elementary work, in order to inspire his readers 
who are beginners or those who have compara- 
tively little taste for such matters. For these 
reasons the series of books that Dr. Gray has 
written are to be recommended as interesting 
and instructive to the general or even casual 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 326. 
reader, but they are too conversational for use 
as text-books, except perhaps to supplement 
other more formal works. 
F. B. Crocker. 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 
March 6, 1901. 
BOOKS RECEIVED. 
Hygiene and Public Health. Louis PARKES and 
HENRY KENWoop. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston’s 
Son & Co.; London, H. K. Lewis. 1901. Pp. 
xix + 732. 
The Agricultural Experiment Stations in the United 
States. A.C. TRUE and VY. A. CLARK. Washing- 
ton Government Printing Office. 1900. Pp. 636. 
Experimental Psychology, a Manual of Laboratory Prac- 
tice. EDWARD BRADFORD TITCHENER. New York 
and London, The Macmillan Company. 1901. Pp. 
xviii 214. 
The Human Nature Club. EDWARD THORNDIKE. 
New York, London and Bombay, Longmans, 
Green & Co. 1901. Pp. vii + 235. 
Practical Organic Chemistry. JULIUS B.COHEN. New 
York and London, The MacmillanCompany. 1899. 
Pp. xiii + 200. 
Practical Gas-Fitting. PAuL N., HAstuck. London, 
Paris, New York and Melbourne, Cassell & Com- 
pany, Limited. 1900. Pp. 160. 
A Manual of Elementary Science. R. A. GREGORY 
and A. T. Simmons. New York and London, The 
Macmillan Company. 1901. Pp. viii 429. 
The Industrial Revolution. CHARLES BEARD. New 
York, The Macmillan Company. 1901. Pp. 
x+105. 40 cts. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
THE 336th regular meeting was held on Sat- 
urday evening, March 9th. 
C. W. Stiles presented a note on a recent 
visit to Texas, whither he had been called to 
investigate a disease of cattle ascribed to the 
presence of a parasite in the lungs. He had 
discovered that the disease was really due to a 
parasite of the genus Strongylus which infested 
the fourth stomach of the animals infected. 
Barton W. Evermann read a paper on ‘The 
Feeding Habits of the Coot and other Water 
Birds,’ based upon observations made at Lake 
Maxinkuckee, Indiana, by Dr. Evermann and 
Mr. H. Walton Clark. In1899 the observations 
