September 4, 1891.J 



SCIENCE. 



^2,7 



ciated with one of the leading opticians of London, and having 

 every facility and a great love for the work, has added much to 

 this fascinating method of making lectures attractive. It should 

 be stated that the experiments are most of them physical or 

 chemical. 



— Under the auspices of the Boston Society of Natural History, 

 there has been issued a series of " Guides for Science Teaching." 

 No. VIII., entitled "Insecta," is by Alplieus Hyatt and J. M. 

 Arms. This guide is intended to be a series of replies to ques- 

 tions which have arisen in the minds of its authors while teach- 

 ing. The book is well illustrated, and may prove useful to those 

 for whom it is intended, — teachers and not students. There is 

 something confusing about the arrangement of the book, even 

 repelling, but that conscientious work was put into its compiling 

 no One can doubt. The publishers are Heath & Co., Boston. 



— "Telephones: their Construction and Fitting," by F. C. All- 

 sop, just published by E. & F. N. Spon, New York, is a thor- 

 oughly practical book. It has to do with wires, magnets, and the 

 various parts of microphones and telephones, so that he that reads 

 may put the parts of a telephone line together properly, and may 

 find the cause of and remedy the various faults which so often 

 occur. The book is especially intended for the use of such per- 

 sons as wish to go into the construction of private telephone lines. 



— The introduction into the high schools of a more careful 

 study of physics, in consequence of the advancing requirements of 

 the college entrance examinations and the increasing importance 

 of this branch of science, has led to the writing of a number of 

 modern text-books, among which those by Dr. Alfred P. Gage are 

 favorably known. The " Physical Laboratory Manual and Note 

 Book" (Boston, Ginn & Co.) aims to give just those details which 

 the pupil should observe, unencumbered so far as .possible with 

 matter pertaining only to the construction of the apparatus. The 

 book is not a guide to the construction of apparatus, which sub- 

 ject is treated in " Physical Technics" by the same author. 



— F. A. Davis, Philadelphia, has published a second edition of 

 the "Text-book of Hygiene," by George H. Robe, M.D. Dr. 

 Rohe is connected with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 Baltimore, and is well known among scientific men. Air and 

 water naturally come in for first consideration in this book. Un- 

 der air is considered not solely the effect of any impurities that 

 may be contained in it, but al?o what influences, good or bad, are 

 involved in changes of the atmospheric pressure, temperature, and 

 humidity. In this connection the author is able to show the 

 worthlessness of a superstition of surgeons that it is best to per- 

 form operations when the barometer is rising. The diagrams 

 showing the variability of the fatality of certain diseases with the 

 season are especially interesting. The moderation of the author 

 throughout is pleasing, and is likely to lead to his book having 

 even greater influence iu the future than in the past. After air 

 and water, foods are discussed. The use of alcoholic beverages 

 our author discourages, though he appreciates their use imder 

 some circumstances, and is sufficiently scientific to comprehend 

 the facts so far as known. Alcohol is a true resplratoi-y food, not 

 that it contributes nutritive material to the body, but it saves that 

 which is stored up for otiier uses, by furnishing easily oxidizable 

 material for carrying on the respiratory process and supplying 

 animal heat. Chapters are devoted to the soil, sewerage, and the 

 construction of habitations respectively, at lea--t in the last case 

 so far as any thing about them has an efiect on the physical well- 

 being of their inmates. The school-house is next considered, and 

 due attention is paid to the effect on the health of school children 

 of the air they breathe, the light they read by, and the positions 

 they assume at their desks. The soldier's health, that of the pris- 

 oner and the factory operative, each have consideration. The 

 maintenance of good health through indulging in due exercise 

 and in cleanly habits, and the use of vi'ell ordered clothing, are 

 subjects treated before our author touches on the disposal of the 

 dead and the modern theories of contagion and infection. There 

 are chapters on naval hygiene, by Medical Director Albert L. 

 Gihon, U. S. N., and on "quarantine, by Surgeon Walter Wyman, 

 U. S. M.-H. S,. 



— The closing volume (HI.) of the fourth edition of Chambers's 

 " Handbook of Descriptive and Practical Astronomy," which has 

 been issued during the past year or two by the Clarenden Press 

 (New York, Macmillan), is on " The Starry Heavens." It might, 

 perhaps, be said that the whole work is on the starry heavens, but 

 while the other volumes are devoted to the mea7is and methods 

 of astronomical work, this volume describes what can be seen in 

 the heavens, in contradistinction to how to see it. Perhaps the pole- 

 star is that most familiar to most persons, at least the one to which 

 more persons can give a name than to any other; so starting from 

 this the author passes on to tell how the pole-star has not always 

 been the same, and of its possible recognition by the ancient 

 Egyptians. The classification of stars according to magnitude is 

 described, the results of determinations of stellar parallax, and the 

 consequent distances of a few fixed stars, the modes of designating 

 stars, their proper motion, and the distribation of stars in space, 

 are among the subjects treated in the early part of the volume. 

 Several chapters are devoted to multiple and variable stars and to- 

 clusters and nebulse, giving in each case some account of their dis- 

 covery and of the problems to which their existence has given rise. 

 The Milky Way and the constellations are treated in two chapters. 

 The main portion of the book is taken up with the valuable cata- 

 logues of stars which make it so useful to all astronomers, and, since 

 their needs have been specially considered, to the many amateur 

 astronomers, possessors of telescopes of low power. Additional ob- 

 jects have been described as types in connection with the chapters 

 on clusters and nebulae. Most important new features are the 

 photometric catalogue of naked eye stars and the descriptions of 

 ways of finding the constellations during the different months of 

 the year. 



— The Political Science Quarterly for September is equally strong 

 on the American and the foreign side. Frederic Bancroft of the 

 United States State Department describes "The Pinal Attempts 

 at Compromise" during the winter of 1860-81. He shows that 

 none of the proposed solutions of the slavery question could possi- 

 bly satisfy even the more moderate representatives of both sections, 

 and that none of the proposed compromises could have settled the ' 

 question between the free and the slave States. Thomas L. Greene 

 discusses "Railroad Stock-Watering" and railroad rates. He 

 maintains that high dividends are not usually associated with high 

 rates, and that the increase of the capital stock of a railroad is no 

 sufficient ground for governmental interference to reduce rates. 

 He distinguishes between innocent stock-watering, which seeks to 

 bring railroad capitalization into accord v^ith the laws of finance, 

 and that which is not innocent. The latter, he thinks, can best 

 be checked by enforced publicity, as is done in New York. Pro- 

 fessor F. J. Goodnow of Columbia College traces the development 

 of " The Writ of Certiorari " in England and the United States. 

 He shows how the province of the writ has been modified and its 

 application extended until it has become the chief means of pro- 

 tecting private rights against the arbitrary action of administrative 

 authorities, the ordinary courts assuming that control over the 

 administration which on the continent of Europe is vested in spe- 

 cial tribunals. Three articles deal with foreign questions. Pro- 

 fessor Richard Hudson of the University of Michigan takes " The 

 Formation of the North German Confederation " as the text for an 

 acute and su,ggestive criticism of all the legal theories regarding 

 the federal state. He demonstrates that the formation of such a 

 state is not susceptible of juristic explanation. Professor Ugo 

 Rabbeno of Bologna, one of the best of Italy's younger economists, 

 gives an extended resume of " The Present Condition of Political 

 Economy in Italy." This article contains a mass of information 

 not elsewhere accessible, and will therefore be invaluable to all 

 students of economic science. Finally Professor W. J. Ashley of 

 Toronto University, Canada, subjects Gen. Booth's scheme for the 

 social regeneration of England through Salvation Army " colonies " 

 to a destructive scientific criticism. The " Reviews" and " Book 

 Notes " contain about forty titles. 



— John R. Spears, the author of a recent article on the devastating 

 sand-waves at Gapes Henlopen and Hatteras, has made a rejiula- 

 tion as a traveller in out-of-the-way places. An article by Mr. 

 Spears on " Odd American Homes'' in the September number of 



