May 31, 1901.] 
information which it contains compared with 
other books of its size; indeed, it might be 
criticized as giving too much for a text-book 
for beginners, too little for advanced students ; 
yet as this has always been the characteristic 
of the book through the different editions, the 
popularity of the work may be held to answer 
such criticism. 
E. RENOUF. 
BOOKS RECEIVED. 
Water Filtration Works. JAMES H. FUERTES. New 
York, John Wiley &Sons. 1901. Pp. xviii 283. 
Legons sur les séries divergentes. EMILE BorEL. Paris, 
Gauthier-Villars. 1901. Pp. 183. 4 fr. 50 cts. 
Essai sur les fondements de la geometrie. A. W. RUS- 
SELL. Translated into French byALBERT CADENAT. 
Paris, Gauthier-Villars. 1901. Pp.x-+274. 9 fr. 
Moteurs synchrones a courants alternatifs. A. BLONDEL. 
Paris, Gauthier-Villars. 1901. Pp. 241. 3 fr. 
~The Sea-beach at Ebb-tide. A. F. ARNOLD. New 
York, The Century Co. 1901. Pp.x+ 490. $2.40. 
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 
The Journal of Comparative Neurology for April 
opens with two articles from the Neurological 
Laboratory of the University of Chicago, by 
Shinkishi Hatai. The first on ‘ The Finer Struc- 
ture of the Spinal Ganglion Cells in the White 
Rat,’ describes and figures two varieties of 
spinal ganglion cells and considers the smaller 
variety, the chromophilic cells of Nissl, to be 
an immature stage in the development of the 
larger variety. In the second paper, ‘On the 
Presence of the Centrosome in Certain Nerve 
Cells of the White Rat,’ the centrosome is de- 
scribed in nerve cells of new-born rats from the 
following localities: great pyramids of the cer- 
ebral cortex, Purkinje’s cells, nucleus denta- 
tus, ventral horn of spinal cord and spinal 
ganglion cells. The centrosomes were less 
easily demonstrated in the adult and were not 
found at all in some of these localities. Earl 
EH. Ramsey, of Indiana University, describes 
‘The Optic Lobes and Optic Tracts of Am- 
blyopsis speleus DeKay,’ a blind fish from the 
limestone caves of the Ohio Valley in which 
the eye and optic nerve are almost wholly de- 
generate. The optic lobes of the brain are 
greatly shrunken, the optic tracts and all parts 
of the optic tectum directly related to them are 
SCIENCE. 
863 
entirely wanting and the remaining layers are 
generally reduced in thickness. G. H. Coghill, 
of Brown University, discusses ‘The Rami of 
the Fifth Nerve in Amphibia.’ In the course 
of an examination of the nerve components of 
Amblystoma, he clears up the morphology and 
homologies of the maxillary and ophthalmic 
branches of this Urodele and of the frog. Dr. 
Strong (Columbia University) presents a ‘ Pre- 
liminary Report upon a Case of Unilateral 
Atrophy of the Cerebellum,’ in which the left 
hemisphere of the cerebellum was almost com- 
pletely wanting. Finally, ‘A Bibliography of 
the Literature on the Organ and Sense of Smell’ 
is given by Dr. H. Heath Bawden, of the Uni- 
versity of Iowa. This list contains 885 titles, 
including anatomical, physiological and psy- 
chological subjects. 
The Popular Science Monthly for May begins 
with an account of ‘The Carnegie Museum,’ by 
W. J. Holland. Frederick A. Cook describes 
‘The Aurora Australis,’ as observed from the 
Belgica, with illustrations showing some of 
the many forms assumed by this interesting 
phenomenon, and we have the first instalment of 
a paper on the ‘ Progress and Tendency of Me- 
chanical Engineering during the Nineteenth . 
Century,’ by Robert H. Thurston. An article 
on ‘Primitive Color Vision,’ by W. H. R. Rivers, 
gives a very good résumé of the evidence on 
which is based the deduction that color vision 
has been a comparatively recent acquirement of 
the human race, and the fifth portion of ‘A 
Study of British Genius,’ by Havelock Ellis, is 
devoted to childhood and youth. Under the 
title ‘The Frog as Parent,’ E. A. Andrews gives 
an interesting account of some of the curious 
breeding habits to be found among the frogs. 
In ‘Recent Physiology,’ G. N. Stewart tells of 
some of the lines of modern investigation and 
their results. The final paper, by David Starr 
Jordan, on ‘ The Blood of the Nation,’ isa study 
of the decay of race through the survival of the 
unfit. 
The Plant Woyld for April contains the follow- 
ing articles: ‘Hints on Herborizine,’ by A. H. 
Curtise; ‘Notes on the Flora about Nome City,’ 
by J. B. Flett; ‘The Native Oak Groves of 
Iowa,’ by T. J. and M. F. L. Fitzpatrick, be- 
