248 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 430 



summary of a scientific study, by William K. Brooks, Ph.D., 

 professor of animal morphology in the Johns Hopkins University 

 of Baltimore, and director of the Chesapeake Zoological Labora- 

 tory. The danger to our oyster interest, this great natural source 

 of prosperity, is now generally admitted, and the methods of re- 

 storing and developing depleted beds which were advocated by 

 Professor Brooks attract more and more attention. The author 

 has been urged to prepare a new work on this subject, as his re- 

 ports on the "Embryology of the Oyster" and on " The Oyster 

 Industry of Maryland," which were published by the Johns Hop- 

 kins University in 1879 and 1884, are now out of print. In ac- 

 cordance with these requests, a complete revision of the former 

 reports, with the addition of new matter, has been prepared. Dr. 

 Brooks served as one of the Oyster Commission of the State of 

 Maryland in the years 1883-84, and received from the Societe 

 d'Acclimatation of Paris, in 1880, its medal for his researches on 

 the development of the oyster. 



— Charles W. Dulles, M.D., retires this week from the editor- 

 ship of the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter. 



— From Thomas Whittaker, publisher, we have received " The 

 Life Story of Our Earth " and "The Story of Early Man," by N. 

 D'Anvers. These small volumes, of about one hundred and fifty 

 pages each, belong to the Science Ladders Series, — a series of 

 handy volumes intended to give young people some knowledge of 

 the laws of nature and the progress of science. The books are 

 written in language simple and easily understood, yet sufficiently 

 accurate for the purpose in view ; and the illustrations, though 

 not as good as might be expected in books of the kind, are well 

 chosen and plentiful. , 



— The March number of the new T^eaXaxiA Journal of Science, 

 which is the second number of the new issue, contains " The 

 Forthcoming ' Flora ' of New Zealand ; " " Some Notes on the 

 Occurrence of the Trap-door Spider at Lyttelton," by Robert M. 

 Laing; " An Edible Fungus of New Zealand ; " " New Caledonia 

 Nickel Ores," by Thomas Moore; "On the Discovery of the 

 Nickel-Iron Alloy Awaruite," by G. H. F. Ulrich; "On the 

 History of the Kiwi," by T. J. Parker; " Botanical Notes," by D. 

 Petrie; "Effects of Thunder on Milk;" " Escallonia macrantha 

 and Bees;" "Fertilization of Native Flowers by Honey-bees;" 

 ''On the Preservation of Solution of Sulphuretted Hydrogen ; " 

 "The Anatomy of a New Zealand Earth-worm;" "Recent 

 Papers on the Natural History of New Zealand ; " " Occurrence of 

 Glow-worms ina Deep Cave;" " Humble bees ; " "Australasian 

 Association for the Advancement of Science ; " " On the Preser- 

 vation of the Native Fauna and Flora of New Zealand; " "The 

 Bull-roarer of some Australian Tribes ; " and ' ' Linnean Society of 

 New South Wales." The magazine is published by Matthews, 

 Baxter, & Co., Dunedin, N. Z. 



— Among the new books of Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triib- 

 ner, & Co. are " The History of Canada," by William Kingsford, 

 LL.D. ; " Essays in Politics," wherein some of the political ques- 

 tions of the day are reviewed from a constitutional and historical 

 standpoint, by C. B. Roy lance Kent (the word " politics" is used 

 by the author in the wide sense as including all those questions 

 which affect the hfe of men as members of society ; and he dis- 

 cusses some of the more important questions of modern politics 

 from a constitutional and historical standpoint, and gives them 

 their due place in the larger sphere or area of the political science 

 to which they belong, grouping them under such general headings 

 as "Questions of Sovereignty," " Federal Government," " Politi- 

 cal Institutions of Switzerland," "Progress of the 'Masses,'" 

 "Socialistic Legislation," "Science and Politics"); "Alone 

 through Syria," by Ellen E. Miller; "Sketches from a Nile 

 Steamer," by Mrs. Tirard; "Buried Cities and Bible Countries," 

 by George St. Clair; " Pessimism : A History and a Criticism," by 

 James Sully (second edition, with new preface); "Principles of 

 Natural and Supernatural Morals," Vol. II. "Supernatural Mor- 

 als," by the Rev. Henry Hughes; "Body, Parentage, and Char- 

 acter in History," notes on the Tudor period, by Furneaux Jordan ; 

 and " Simplified Grammar of the Telugu Language," by Henry 

 Morris, with a map of India showing the Telugu country. 



— In the May issue of the Magazine of American History we note, 

 " A Great Public Character," in which the career of William H. 

 Seward is traced. The second paper is " An Early West Pointer," 

 by Hon. Charles Aldrich of Iowa. Then comes a treatise entitled 

 " A Lost Chapter in American History," by Rev. Dr. George 

 Patterson of Glasgow, in which the early attempts of the Portu- 

 guese to colonize the north-eastern coast of America are pointed 

 out. " The First American Ship," a brief article by Professor G. 

 Brown Goode of the Smithsonian Institute; "Some California 

 Documents," from Charles Howard Shinn of San Francisco; and 

 "General Varnum on a Constitution of Government, in 1787," 

 from Gen. James M. Varnum of New York, — are valuable con- 

 tributions. 



— In the Forum for May are three scientific articles likely to 

 interest our readers, in addition to many others, of course, which 

 cannot be classed strictly as scientific. One of the three is on 

 " The Transmission of Culture," by Professor Lester F. Ward ; the 

 second is on " Chemistry To-day, and its Problems," by Professor 

 William Crookes; and the third is on "The Bertillon System of 

 Identification," by Alphonse Bertillon. Professor Crookes does 

 not approve of speaking of a new and an old chemistry, yet points 

 out important advances. 



— The May number of the Educational Review will have an in- 

 terest to many because of its containing probably the last public 

 expression of the late Dr. Howard Crosby, — a brief article on 

 " Religion in the Common Schools; " and also an article on " My 

 Pedagogic Autobiography," left unfinished by the late R. H. 

 Quick, the author of " Educational Reformers." The other 

 features of the number are articles on " The Limitations of State 

 Universities," by Ex-President Horace Davis of the University of 

 California, and on " The Teaching of History in the Elementary 

 Schools," by Professor Salmon of Vassar; the last of Professor De 

 Garmo's papers on Herbart ; a letter from Friedrioh Kirchner on 

 educational matters in Prussia ; the Bishop of Durham's recent 

 address before the University Extension Society, on " Ideals ; " 

 and reviews by Professors Tracy Peck of Yale, A. B. Hart of Har- 

 vard, John Dewey of the University of Michigan, William North 

 Rice of Wesleyan, Dr. J. H. Hyslop of Columbia, and Hon. D. H. 

 Chamberlain. 



— At the meeting of the Royal Geological Society, Feb. 20, the 

 Bigsby medal was awarded to Dr. G. M. Dawson, F.G.S., of 

 Ottawa. On handing the medal to Dr. Hicks, F.R.S., for trans- 

 mission to the recipient, the president addressed him as follows : 

 " In asking you to transmit the Bigsby medal to Dr. George M. 

 Dawson, I request you to convey to him at the same time an as- 

 sm-ance of how fully the council appreciates the value of his re- 

 searches into the geological structure of Canada, and how cordially 

 we hope that he may live long to prosecute the explorations which 

 have shed so much lustre on the Geological Survey of his native 

 country." 



— The following is a complete list of the papers read at the 

 April meeting of the National Academy of Sciences: "Further 

 Sttidies on the Brain of Limulus Polyphemus," by A. S. Packard; 

 "On Aerodromics," by S. P. Langley; "The Solar Corona, an 

 Instance of the Newtonian Potential in the Case of Repulsion," by 

 F. H. Bigelow; " Report on the Human Bones of the Hemenway 

 Collection in the United States Army Medical Museum, prepared! 

 by Dr. Washington Matthews, U.S.A.," by J. S. Billings; "Ap- 

 plication of Interference Methods to Spectroscopic Measurements," 

 by A. A. Michelson; "The Corona from Photographs of the 

 Eclipse of Jan. 1, 1889," by H. S. Pritchett; "Stellar Motion 

 Problems," by Lewis Boss; " Effect of Pressure and Temperature 

 on the Decomposition of Diazo-Compounds," and " Researches on 

 the Double Halides," by Ira Remsen; " AUotropic Silver," and 

 " Note on a Paper by M. G. Lippmann," by M. Carey Lea; " On 

 the Yttrium Etirths, and a Method of making Pure Yttrium," by 

 H. A. Rowland; report of the Watson trustees, and presentation 

 of the Watson Medal to Professor Arthur Auwers of Berlin; "On 

 the Distribution of Colors in Certain North American Reptiles," 

 by E. D. Cope; " The Taxonomy of the Apodal Fishes," by Theo. 

 Gill; "Researches on the Embryology of Mollusks," by W. K. 

 Brooks and E. G. Conklin. 



