484 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 197, 



cleared up are as in the case of the nerve cord, 

 such as will require the free use of macera- 

 tions and surface preparations of fresh tissue. 

 H. V. Wilson. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 



The American Journal of Science for October 

 opens with an important article by Professor 

 C. Barus, describing experiments on the im- 

 pressibility of celloids. The author points out 

 that as with gelatine the same body may mani- 

 fest itself both as a liquid and a solid, so the 

 same ether may act, as the case may be, either 

 as a liquid or as a solid. Professor C. E. 

 Beecher concludes his series of articles on the 

 origin and significance of spines. He has 

 shown that spinose forms were all derived from 

 non-spinose ancestors, and were simple and in- 

 ornate during their young stages. Spines rep- 

 resent an extreme of superficial diflferentiation 

 and out of spinose types no new types are de- 

 veloped. Director Chas D. Walcott writes on 

 the brachiopod fauna of the quartzitic pebbles of 

 the Carboniferous conglomerates of the Narra- 

 gansett Basin and Rhode Island. The number 

 also includes articles on the eolian origin of 

 loess, by C. R. Keyes ; on dikes of felsophyre 

 and basalt in Paleozoic rocks in central Appa- 

 lachian Virginia, by N. H. Darton and A. 

 Keith ; on diaphorite from Montana and Mexico, 

 by L. J. Spencer ; on the detection of sulphides, 

 sulphates, sulphites and thiosulphates in the 

 presence of each other, by P. E. Browning 

 and E. Howe, and on twinned crystals of zircon 

 from North Carolina, by W. E. Hidden and J. 

 H. Pratt. 



The American Naturalist for September pub- 

 lishes the Vice-Presidential addresses at Boston 

 of Professors Packard and Farlow and contains 

 in addition an article by Mr. E. O. Hovey, de- 

 scribing the museums he visited last year when 

 in Europe attending the International Geolog- 

 ical Congress. Si^ecial attention is paid to 

 geology, mineralogy and paleontology. 



Professor H. Poincare, of the University 

 of Paris, contributes to the October Monist an 

 article 'On the Foundations of Geometry,' in 

 which he considers the questions of the origin 

 of space and the feeling of direction, of the 



classification of displacements, of the properties 

 of groups and sub-groups, of continuity and dis- 

 continuity, of the notion of point and number of 

 dimensions, etc. In the same number Professor 

 Ernst Schroeder, of Karlsruhe, has an article 'On 

 Pasigraphy,' in which he sums up the history 

 of the movement, and briefly characterizes the 

 present state of research in this department. 

 Dr. Topinard concludes his series, ' Science 

 and Faith,' with an article on 'The Social 

 Problem,' iu which he outlines a plan for the 

 rehabilitation of society by systematic interfer- 

 ence with the workings of so-called ' natural ' 

 evolution. 



The Educational Review for October contains 

 the following articles : ' The Public Education 

 Association of New York,' by Mrs. S. Van 

 Rensselaer ; ' Study of Education at the Ger- 

 man Universities, ' by Walter L. Hervey ; ' Her- 

 bartian Philosophy and Educational Theory,' by 

 Arnold Thompkins ; ' Why College Graduates 

 are Deficient in English,' by Annie E. P. Sear- 

 ing ; ' The New Jersey System of Public In- 

 struction,' by James M. Green, and 'What 

 Modern Philosophy Offers Secondary Educa- 

 tion,' by O. L. Manchester and H. H. Manches- 

 ter. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Thermodynamics of the Steam-engine and other 

 Heat-engines. Cecil H. Peabody. New 

 York, John Wiley & Sons ; London, Chap- 

 man & Hall, Ltd. 1898. 4th Edition. Re- 

 written and Reset. Pp. iv + 522. $5.00. 



The Discharge of Electricity through Gases. J, 

 J. Thomson. New York, Charles Scribner's 

 Sons. 1898. Pp. x + 203. fl.OO. 



Theories of the Will in the History of Philosophy. 

 Archibald Alexander. New York, Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. 1898. Pp. viii + 357. $1.50. 



Four-footed Americans and Their Kin. Mabel 

 Osgood Wright. Edited by Frank M. 

 Chapman. New York and London, The 

 Macmillan Company. 1898. Pp. xii -f- 432. 



Differential and Integral Calculus. P. A. Lam- 

 bert. New York and London, The Macmil- 

 lan Company. 1898. Pp. x + 245. $1.50. 



An Introductory Logic. James Edward Ceeigh- 

 TON. New York and London, The Macmil- 

 lan Company. 1898. Pp. xiv + 392. $1.10. 



