3$9 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 46^ 



athletics and heart disease. Mr. Thomas Davidson traces the de- 

 velopment of the so-called "seven liheral arts." Other articles 

 are by Colonel Francis W. Parker, Principal E. H. Russell of the 

 Worcester, Mass., Normal School, and Superintendent T. H. Bal- 

 liet of Spring6eld, Mass. The English educator, Dr. J. G. Fitch, 

 in his letter from London, tells of the educational topics that are 

 interesting Great Britain. An article by Professor S. S. Laurie of 

 Edinburgh touches upon the secondary school curriculum and the 

 question of Greek in colleges and universities. 



— D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, have just published an " Italian 

 Composition," by C. H. Grandgent, author of their Italian 

 Grammar. Part I. supplements the Grammar by giving addi- 

 tional exercise work with references. Part II. comprises selec- 

 tions of simple Italian with exercises based on each. Part III. 

 consists of additional exercises in composition and formulas used 

 in letter-writing. A vocabulary, together with an appendix con- 

 taining notes on pronunciation, and a list of irregular verbs fol- 

 low. 



• 



— The eighth volume of the new "Chambers's Encyclopaedia' 

 will be issued by J. B. Lippincott Company in the course of a few 

 daj s. It extends from Peasant to Roumelia, and contains copy- 

 right American articles on Pennsylvania, Petroleum, Philadelphia, 

 Phonograph, William Pitt, Pittsburgh, Poetry, Prisons, Protec- 

 tion, Edgar Allen Poe, Railways, Rhode Island, Rocky Mountains, 

 Roman Catholic Church, etc., together with new maps of Penn- 

 sylvRnia, Queensland, Rhode Island, and Roman Empire. The 

 articles are concise yet thorough, and omit nothing that will be of 

 practical value to the reader ; the letter press is up to the high 

 standard of the previous volumes, and the illustrations are accurate 

 and finished. 



— An important addition to chemical literature comes from the 

 press of J. B. Lippincott Company, entitleJ "The Tannins: a 

 Monograph on Vegetable Astringents," by Henry Trimble, Ph.D. 

 Dr. Trimble, who holds the chair of analytical chemistry in the 

 Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, began to prepare his book 

 about twelve jears ago, but it grew under his pen to greater pro- 

 portions than he at first intended, so that, as it stands before us 

 now, it comprises a nearly complete history of the subject of 

 which it treats. The author has had access to all the numberless 

 publications by others which touch upon vegetable astringents 

 and tbeir properties, and this fact is well attested by the exhaustive 

 bibliography which accompanies his book. The treatise, however, 

 is not a mere compilation of the writings of accepted authorities, 

 but it embraces the results of the author's own extensive original 

 research. 



— E. W. B. Nicholson, Bodley"s librarian, is about to issue, 

 through Mr. Quaritch in London, and the Clarendon Press De- 

 pository in Oxford, the first two of his Bodleian Facsimile Series, 

 which is to consist of faithful reproductions of some of the rarest 

 printed works in the Bodleian. Instead of pursuing the usual 

 course of issuing limited editions at the highest price at which a 

 comparatively small number will buy, he intends to issue unlimited 

 editions at the lowest prices which will allow a moderate profit. 

 If they cannot be sold at a profit, he is still ready to go on with 

 them, so long as they do not involve absolute loss. One of the 

 two first issues is a photo-lithograph of the unique and perfect 

 " Ars Moriendi; that is to saye the craft for to deye for the helthe 

 of mannes sowle," printed about 1491 by either Caxton or Wynken 

 de Worde. The original would probably sell for some hundreds 

 of pounds; the fac simile, with a bibliographical introduction, will 

 be published at eighteen pence. The other facsimile is a photo- 

 lithograph of a remarkable historical tract, printed at Rome in 

 1573, the year of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. The 

 title is "Ordine della solennissima prooessione fatta dal Sommo 

 Pontifice nell, alma citta di Roma, per la felicissima noua della 

 destruttione della setta Vgonotana." The Bodleian copy is the 

 only one mentioned by Brunet. or, so far as is known, by any one 

 else; and the fac simile will be published at a shilling. 



— The latest of the Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and 

 Political Science is a pamphlet by Professor Frederick J. Turner on 

 '' The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin," 



originally presented as an address before the Hiistorioat Society of 

 that State, and since rewritten and enlarged. It opens with soma 

 good remarks on the importance of trading expeditions in the 

 history of nations, commerce having often been the pioneer in 

 preparing the way for religion and the other higher agencies of 

 civilization. Bancroft's assertion that the Jesuits led the way in 

 the discovery and settlement of the North-west is contested by 

 Professor Turner, and apparently with good reason, and he aflSrms 

 that " the Jesuits followed the traders," who had already estab- 

 lished their posts. His account of the Indian trade in his own 

 State begins with the early French voyages, then relates the 

 struggles between the French and the English, and afterwards 

 between the English and the Americans for the control of that 

 trade, and gives a brief sketch of what our Federal government 

 afterwards did tc foster and regulate the trade. He shows how 

 important was the influence of the Indian trade in colonial times, 

 and brings out the fact that in war time the Indians were allies of 

 the party with whom they traded. Professor Turner's work is 

 written in better style than many of the papers in the series to 

 which it belongs, and it cannot fail to be of interest to all students 

 of our Western history. The Hopkins Studies for 1892 will em- 

 brace the following: The Bishop Hill Colony, a Religious Com- 

 munistic Settlement in Henry County, Illinois; Church and State 

 in New England; Church and State in Early Maryland; The Re- 

 ligious Development in the Province of North Carolina; Causes of 

 the American Revolution; Maryland's Attitude in the Struggle for 

 Canada; Local Government in the South and South-west; and The 

 Quakers in Pennsylvania. 



— The Grolier Club's edition of Mr. George William Curtiss 

 " Washington Irving," which will be ready for subscribers about 

 Dec. 15, will contain portraits of Irving and Matilda Hoffman. 



— The November issue of Insect Life (Vol IV., Nos. 3 and 4), 

 the periodical bulletin of the Division of Entomology of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, contains an illustrated article 

 by Professor C. V. Riley, on the habits and hfe history of the 

 twelve-spotted diabrotica, an insect long familiar to gardeners as 

 an enemy of squashes and melons, but which has within recent 

 years been found to attack in the larva state and damage seriously 

 young corn. A history of the facts bearing on this phase of the 

 habits of the insect is given, together' with a full account of its 

 habits and development from the egg to the adult insect. It also 

 contains an editorial article by Mr. L. O. Howard on " The Larger 

 Corn Stalk-borer " (Diatrcea saccharalis F.), an insect which for 

 the past three-quarters of a century has been recognized as a se- 

 rious enemy of the sugar cane in the West Indies and for a less 

 period as an enemy of cane and corn in the Southern States, and 

 which has been particularly abundant in the cornfields of Louisi- 

 ana, where it was first recorded as early as 1857. It has since 

 that period slowly spread throughout the Cotton Belt, and with 

 the present season has rather suddenly appeared in Maryland and 

 Virginia, seriously injuring corn. A full bibliographical history 

 of the insect is given, together with a careful account of its life 

 history and habits, illustrated by a number of text figures. This 

 article will be of particular interest and value to the Southern 

 planter, and also to the corn-grower of the Mississippi Valley, as 

 the insect manifests a tendency to migrate northward, as evU 

 denced by its appearance in Virginia and Maryland. 



— Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. have published a "School 

 Atlas of English History," prepared by Samuel Rawson Gardiner 

 as a companion to his " Student's History of England." It con- 

 sists of sixty-six maps and twenty-two plans of battles and sieges, 

 all well executed and neatly colored, and illustrating every im- 

 portant phase of English history from the time of the Roman 

 occupation to the present day. A large number of the earlier 

 maps are necessarily devoted to showing the growth and later 

 amalgamation of the various Anglish and Saxon kingdoms and 

 the long-continued struggle for possessions in France, the shifting 

 and ofi en puzzling aspects of those events being elucidated in a 

 clear and intelligible manner. The civil wars of the seventeenth 

 century, too, are well illustrated by both maps and plans; and 

 the growth of England's colonial and Indian empire receives 

 careful attention. There is also a large number of maps showing 



