June 5, 1891.J 



SCIENCE. 



319 



receive a hearty welcome from anatomists in all quarters of the 

 globe, as a most thorough and capable contribution to the subject 

 of vertebrate morphology. R. W. Shupeldt. 



Takoma, D.C., May 29. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



The Defences of Nornnibega. By Eben Norton Hoesfoed. Bos- 

 ton and New York, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., 1891. 



In this sumptuously published volume, with its numerous re- 

 productions of old maps, its photographic views and engravings. 

 Professor Horsford returns to the arena in defence of his favorite 

 theory that in the eleventh century the Northmen established an 

 important walled city on the site where Watertown, Mass., now 

 stands. He believes that he has discovered its stone-buUl walls, 

 its ancient stone-paved streets, and the remains of its docks and 

 wharves. Other local antiquaries see in these remains merely the 

 vestiges of some dams, drains, and stone fences of the early New 

 England farmers, and it appears that Professor Horsford has not 

 succeeded in persuading any of the resident investigators of the 

 interpretation he has so much at heart. Furthermore, the most 

 recent and careful study of the Sagas of the Northmen's voyages 

 to America — that by Professor Gustav Storm — declares that the 

 records do not admit of placing the southern limit of their ex- 

 plorations south of Nova Scotia. We must therefore return the 

 Scotch verdict of "not proven," on the evidence before us. ■ 

 Civilization : an Historical Review of its Elements. By Charles 

 Morris. Chicago, S. C. Grigg's & Co. 3 vols. 



Mr. Morris is known as a fertile writer on topics relating to 

 evolution, and as the author of " The Aryan Race " and some other 

 works. In the volumes before us he undertakes " to set forth the 

 philosophy of human progress and indicate the evolutionary steps 

 by which the world of man has passed upward from primitive 

 savagery to modern enlightment." 



In carrying out this plan he selects such subjects as government, 

 war, religion, law, commerce, literature, and the arts, and por- 

 trays their growth from a primitive form to that condition in 

 which we find them to-day. This is usually accomplished in a 

 comprehensive and satisfactory manner ; but tlie reader is not un- 

 frequently at a loss, as he is repeatedly in Mr. Morris's "Aryan 

 Race," to distinguish between fanciful hypotheses of the writer 

 and definite results of other investigators, for his pages offer no 

 references as guides, and his assertions usually go unsupported. 

 As a popular work, however, it deserves commendation. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



The first number of Pantobiblion has just been received from 

 the American publishers, Messrs D. Appleton & Co., New York. 

 This new periodical has its main office in St. Petersburg, and is 

 edited by A. Kersha, a civil engineer. The title-page of the num- 

 ber received is in English, but the text is printed in fifteen differ- 

 ent languages. The purpose of Pantobiblion is to help those con- 

 cerned with the applied sciences generally in securing information 

 of the current scientific literature in their specialities. To do this, 

 the journal contains a classified list of aU new books in all the 

 principal languages, a series of reviews of the leading scientific 

 publications, and a summary of the contents of current periodical 

 literature. It is intended to add to these, critical notices of the 

 principal articles in scientific periodicals, and a miscellaneous de- 

 partment to be devoted to short notes on current scientific litera- 

 ture. This first numbei- contains 1.200 titles of new publications, 

 80 reviews, and the " contents " of 370 periodicals. That it may 

 not be thought that this new venture is only for those interested 

 in applied science, it should be mentioned that the subjects in- 

 cluded cover a wide range in the physical sciences as well as in 

 engineering, and that botany and geology receive some attention. 

 There has been some delay in getting out this initial number, — a 

 delay which is by no means surprising considering the enormous 

 labor involved in the editing and manufacture of a periodical con- 

 taining such a mass of disconnected information, — but the follow- 

 ing numbers are promised to follow in rapid succession. Whether 

 Pantobiblion is to be a financial success or not is more than we 

 can say; but certainly every one interested should take the first 



opportunity for examining a copy, to see whether it meets his 

 needs. There is such an enormous amount of matter between the 

 covers that the first impression on us is somewhat appalling. 



— The University Extension movement takes so prominent a 

 place among the educational influences of the age, says Nature, 

 that a good account of the system has for some time been needed. 

 This is supplied in " Eighteen Years of University Extension," by 

 R. D. Roberts (Cambridge, University Press). Mr. Roberts, first 

 as lecturer, then since 1881 as assistant and organizing secretary 

 to tlie Cambridge Syndicate, and since 1886 as secretary to the 

 London Society, has had the best possible opportunities of study- 

 ing the new method, and of forming a judgment as to its fitness 

 for the uses to which it is applied. He begins with an account of 

 the origin and growth of the movement, then describes the char- 

 acter of the audiences, the reception of the idea by artisans, and 

 the signs of earnestness displayed by various classes of students. 

 Mr. Roberts also discusses the conditions of success, has a chapter 

 on the consolidation of the work, and presents a summary of re- 

 sults. No essential fact has been omitted, and the general impres- 

 sion which will be left on the minds of most readers probably is 

 that those connected with the movement have done much to 

 foster and to satisfy the desire of a very large number of persons 

 for intellectual training. There are certain rules— some of them 

 rather difficult— with vchich the system must lie brought into ac- 

 cord if it is to be capable of further development ; and these are 

 stated with much force and precision in the useful little volume. 



— With the June number the Educational Review begins its 

 second volume. At this season, when many young men are con- 

 sidering where they will study in Europe, the article on "The 

 Present Condition of the German Universities," by Professor Mat- 

 toon M. Curtis, has a timely interest. Other contributions to the 

 number are: " Applications of Psychology in Education," by Dr. 

 Mary Putnam Jacobi. illustrated with twenty-one diagrams; 

 "The American High School," by Ray Greene Huling, president 

 of the American Institute of Instruction ; and ' ' The Education of 

 the Will," by Professor J. Clark Murray; a discussion between 

 Mr. Albert L. Arey and Professor Fernando Sanford on " The Use 

 of Text-books in Teaching Elementary Science," and one by Su- 

 perintendent W. H. Maxwell on "Teachers' Salaries." The re- 

 views are by Professors Jastrow of the University of Wisconsin, 

 Waggener of the University of Texas, Venable of the University 

 of Virginia, Genung of Amherst, Chapin of Wollesley, Myers of 

 the University of Cincinnati, etc. The department of "Education 

 in Foreign Periodicals" includes " Some Characteristics of a Sound 

 Mind," " The School of the Future," and " The School for Orien- 

 tal Languages at BerUn." 



— The "Annual Report" of the Director of the Royal Alfred 

 Observatory, Mauritius, for the year 1889, as quoted in a recent 

 number of Nature, shows that the island has again enjoyed im- 

 munity from storms. The greatest hourly velocity of the wind 

 was 31 miles. The almost total absence of tropical cyclones in 

 the south Indian Ocean during the year is considered by Dr. Mel- 

 drum as another confirmation of the law that these cyclones are 

 fewest in number and least intense in the years of least solar 

 activity. The mean temperature was 0.7° below the average for 

 the last fifteen years, and below the average in every month except 

 July and October. The maximum shade temperature was 93.1" 

 on March 37, and the minimum 53.4° on June 18. The rainfall 

 was 8.56 inches above the average; the greatest fall in one day 

 was 3.88 inches on March 11, although this amount was much 

 exceeded in other parts of the island. On Jan. 1, a waterspout 

 burst on the Pouce Mountain ; Port Louis was flooded, and some 

 persons were drowned. The collection of observations made at sea 

 is actively carried on ; 334 log-books were received, and the obser- 

 vations duly tabulated. The report also contains observations 

 made at the Seychelles and Rodriguez. 



— Silver, Burdett, & Co., Boston, announce "An Elementary 

 Handbook of Potable Water," by Floyd Davis, professor of chem- 

 istry in Drake University. Chapter I. of the volume treats of 

 pure water, and defines the terms pure and impure, wholesome 

 and unwholesome, from the sanitary standpoint. Chapter II. is 

 devoted to inorganic constituents; Chapter III., to vegetable con- 



