692 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 592. 



Areas.' ^ This, in general, is the synthetic 

 law putting seisms into direct dependence 

 upon the principal recent movements of the 

 earth's crust, since it is along those zones that 

 they have attained their greatest amplitudes, 

 positive or negative. As a consequence of 

 pure statistics and pure observation, without 

 introducing any hypothesis, this law may be 

 formulated as follows : " The geosynclinals, 

 where the sediments deposited in the greatest 

 mass have been energetically folded, dislocated 

 and elevated in Tertiary time with the forma- 

 tion of the principal existing mountain chains 

 (or geanticlinals), contain within themselves 

 alone, with two or three doubtful exceptions, 

 all the seismic regions, which consequently 

 characterize them." 



The geosynclinals more ancient than Meso- 

 zoic, which at various epochs have given place 

 to plicated mountain chains, now eroded and 

 hardly discernible in their present state of 

 peneplains, present the peneseismic regions — ■ 

 the remains of ancient seismic regions which 

 are now tending to stability. The continental 

 areas (in the sense in which Haug uses the 

 term), whose tabular architecture proves them 

 to have always been the seat of collective 

 movements of small amplitude and without 

 large derangements of the subjacent strata, 

 are very generally aseismic or barely pene- 

 seismic. In fact, one may say tersely, " The 

 folded architecture of the geosynclinals is 

 unstable, and the reverse is true of the conti- 

 nental areas, and the same has probably been 

 true of all geological periods." 



The body of the book is occupied with the 

 discussion of the earthquakes of the different 

 regions of the world, chiefly in their geolog- 

 ical relations. It is a wonderful display of 

 learning. To give any idea of it is entirely 

 beyond the scope , of this article. The only 

 way is to buy the book and read it. 



C. E. Button. 



Electricity in Every-day Life. By Edwin 

 J. Houston, Ph.D. 3 vols., 5J by 8 inches, 

 containing respectively 584, 566 and 609 

 pages. New York, P. F. Collier & Son. 



'Bull. 8oc. Oeol. France, III., Series XXVIII., 

 633. 



This book has been prepared with the evi- 

 dent purpose of being sold to the lay public 

 irrespective of its possession of scientific 

 knowledge, of education, or of taste for books 

 that improve the mind. It is, therefore, a 

 good example of the modern art of book- 

 making. It is attractively bound in cloth, 

 much as would be a modern novel. It is 

 illustrated by a few full-page plates in color, 

 by a number of full-page half-tones in black 

 and white and by a profusion of ordinary cuts. 

 The subjects of the color plates are ' Edison in 

 his laboratory,' ' Franklin and his kite,' 

 ' aurora borealis,' ' a central station,' ' the 

 broomstick train,' ' electricity on the stage,' 

 ' Holz-machines in electro-therapeutics ' and 

 ' landing a sub-marine cable.' The black and 

 white plates are of such subjects as electricity 

 in the kitchen, the hat factory, the dairy, the 

 tailor-shop, the mine and the composing-room. 

 The other cuts will, many of them, be familiar 

 to all those versed in the art, having many of 

 them originated in S. P. Thompson's ' Ele- 

 mentary Lessons on Electricity and Magnet- 

 ism,' in Ganot's ' Physics ' or the catalogues 

 of the makers of philosophical and scientific 

 instruments. The first volume treats of the 

 ' Generation of Electricity and Magnetism,' 

 and the remaining two of the ' Electric Arts 

 and Sciences.' The second volume treats of 

 dynamos, electric lighting and electric power, 

 and the third volume of electro-chemistry, 

 telephony, telegraphy, annunciators and 

 alarms, electric heating and electro-thera- 

 peutics. The style is popular, non-mathe- 

 matical, clear, easy and attractive, considering 

 the subject matter. Each chapter is intro- 

 duced by a pertinent quotation from the 

 classics or from the writings of raen eminent 

 in the profession. Marginal subject notes ac- 

 company the more important paragraphs and 

 are of great service to the reader. Each 

 volume has a very complete index. The early 

 history of the various subjects treated is em- 

 phasized and because of the giving of dates, 

 references and frequent extensive quotations 

 should render the book of considerable ser- 

 vice to those interested in patent litigation. 



Samuel Sheldon. 



