446 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 331 



years of school-life ; and his biographer expressly says that older 

 pupils who came to him for instruction went away disappointed. 

 In short, his method, as modified and applied by his successors, 

 has proved a useful auxiliary in early childhood to the regular sys- 

 tem of education ; but that is all that can be claimed for it. His 

 love of children, however, and his ardent interest in the poor and 

 ignorant, with his lifelong efforts for their improvement and eleva- 

 tion, are worthy of all praise. It is these noble qualities of the 

 man that give the chief interest to his biography ; and there is not 

 a teacher anywhere that cannot learn something in this respect by 

 a perusal of this work. 



The Electric Motor a7id its Applications. By Martin and 

 Wetzler. New York, W. J. Johnston. 4°. S3. 

 This is a revised and enlarged edition of a work first published 

 about two years ago, and reviewed in these columns at that time. 

 While considerable space is given to the theoretical and historical 

 views of the electric motor, the book is mainly devoted to its more 

 modern development and application. The present work is in 

 great part a reprint of the first edition, to which have been added 

 nearly a hundred pages of new matter, thus giving a complete re- 

 view of the subject treated down to the end of 1888. The new 

 chapters contain a description of all the noteworthy motors and 

 electric-railway systems introduced since the puljlication of the 

 earlier edition, as well as a discussion of alternating-current and 

 thermomagnetic motors. Thus the new portion of the book not 

 only comprises instances in which electric power has advanced 

 from the experimental stage to that of successful practice, but also 

 casts a glance at the results which the future may be expected to 

 yield. The book is worthy a place in the library of every electri- 

 cian, and to the general reader it is not without interest. 



Examination of Water for Sanitary and Technical Purposes. 

 By Henry Leffmann and William Beam, Philadelphia, 

 Blakiston. $1.25. 



This is an admirable little manual of one hundred and six pages, 

 giving in clear and concise language the most trustworthy and 

 practicable processes for the examination of water. The soap-test 

 for the determination of the hardness of water, which has been so 

 long in use by chemists, has been abandoned by the authors as 

 inaccurate, and in its place they have recommended the method 

 devised by Hehner, in which sodium carbonate and sulphuric acid 

 are employed. For the determination of nitrate and nitrites the 

 calorimetric tests are advised to the exclusion of the more trouble- 

 some and uncertain processes heretofore in use. In order to have 

 the advanced nomenclature and notation of the present time kept 

 constantly in mind, a set of labels for the re-agents has been pro- 

 vided, and is furnished with the book. Among the special features 

 of this volume are the chapters describing the action of water on 

 lead, and the technicalapplication to be deduced from an analysis of 

 a given specimen of water, its action on boilers, etc. 



The Bacteria in Asiatic Cholera. By E. Klein, M.D. London 

 and New York, Macmillan. ib" . $1.25. 



This volume is a reprint of a series of articles published in the 

 Practitioner in 1886 and 1887, together with a number of contri- 

 butions which have since been made to the knowledge of the 

 comma bacilli of Koch. Klein may be regarded as the most pro- 

 nounced opponent of Koch's theory that the comma bacillus is 

 the cause of Asiatic cholera. That he is, however, not the only 

 one, is shown by the statement in the volume before us, that 

 Baumgarten, Pettenkofer, and Emmerich in Germany ; Roy, Sher- 

 rington, and Brown in England ; and Shakspeare in America, — 

 hold the same opinion as Klein. While denying the causal relation 

 between the comma bacillus of Koch and Cholera Asiatica, Klein, 

 nevertheless, recognizes its diagnostic importance. On this point 

 he says he agrees to the proposition, that, if in any case of diarrhoea 

 the choleraic comma bacilli can be shown both by the microscope 

 and by culture-experiments to exist, then the suspicion that it may 

 be a case of Asiatic cholera is quite justified : for if it should be 

 found, that, in a locality which is in communication by sea or land 

 with an infected country, one or more suspicious cases of diarrhcea 

 had occurred, the demonstrations by culture-experiments of the 



presence in the intestinal discharges of the choleraic comma bacilli 

 would fully justify us in regarding such cases with grave suspicion 

 as being probably, though not necessarily, choleraic. At all events, 

 sanitary officers, for the sake of the public weal, would be justified 

 in treating these cases as cases of cholera, and in taking measures 

 of isolation and disinfection. It is impossible at the present time 

 to decide between such men as Koch and Klein and their adher- 

 ents. Each day new facts are being discovered, and views which 

 seemed to rest on a firm foundation have had to be abandoned in 

 the light of newly discovered evidence. Klein shows very plainly 

 that many of Koch's earlier statements in reference to the presence 

 or absence of the comma bacillus have already required great 

 modifications. Fortunate it is that all are agreed, that, whether 

 Koch's comma bacillus cause the Asiatic cholera or not, its pres- 

 ence is sufficient evidence of the existence of that disease to de- 

 mand of sanitary officials the most rigid isolation of the suspicious 

 case, and the most thorough disinfection of his clothing and sur- 

 roundings. 



First Book of Nature. By James E. Talmage. Salt Lake City 

 Utah, Contributor Company. 

 This little book is designed to assist in the elementary study of 

 the simplest objects of nature, — such as all people have more or 

 less necessity of dealing with, — ■ and as a help to mothers, and 

 teachers in primary schools, will prove of great assistance. It deals 

 with the simplest facts in the animal, vegetable, and mineral king- 

 doms, and such facts as every one ought to know. The ignorance 

 of many of these simple facts on the part of many persons who are 

 presumably educated is both lamentable and ridiculous. In a 

 legal trial which occurred some time since, in which complaint was 

 made that a crowing rooster was a nuisance, and kept in violation 

 of an ordinance prohibiting the keeping of noisy animals in the city, 

 it was maintained that an action could not lie, because a rooster 

 was not an animal. Had those who held this opinion read this 

 " First Book of Nature," such a blunder could not have been 

 made. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



" The Voltaic Accumulator," an elementary treatise by Emile 

 Reynier, translated from the French by J. A. Berly, C.E. (New 

 York, E. & F. N. Spon), describes in a didactic manner the whole 

 of the practical and scientific acquisitions made in the domain of 

 the voltaic accumulator from Plante to our days. It brings to- 

 gether, summarizes, explains, and classifies the notions, theories, 

 and inventions relating to secondary currents, and reviews the prin- 

 cipal applications of the latter. 



— " Eight Hundred Miles in an Ambulance " is the title of a 

 little volume of papers republished from Lippijtcott' s Magazine, 

 and describing the adventures of Mrs. Laura Winthrop Johnson in 

 a journey across the Western plains with an army paymaster. 



— Mr. B. P. Shillaber (Mrs. Partington) is writing his reminis- 

 cences of the last half-century. 



— P. Blakiston, Son, & Co., medical and scientific publishers, 

 booksellers, and importers, 1012 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, have 

 just published the " Medical Directory of Philadelphia and Cam- 

 den, 1889," containing lists of physicians of all schools of practice, 

 dentists, druggists, veterinarians, and chemists, with information 

 concerning medical societies, colleges, and associations, hospitals, 

 asylums, charities, etc. ; and " A Manual of Chemistry," for the 

 use of medical students, by Brandreth Symonds, A.M., M.D., 

 assistant physician Roosevelt Hospital, out-patient department, 

 and attending physician Northwestern Dispensary, New York. 



— Robert Carter & Brothers will publish, by arrangement with 

 the author and English publisher, the autobiography of John G. 

 Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides. 



— John Wiley & Sons announce " Philosophy of the Steam-En- 

 gine Developed," by Professor Robert H. Thurston ; " Composi- 

 tion, Digestibility, and Nutritive Value of Food," by Professor H. 

 A. Mott ; and " General Motions of the Atmosphere, Cyclones, 

 Tornadoes, Water-Spouts, Hail-Stones, etc.," by Professor William 

 Ferrel. 



