May 21, 1897.] 



SGIENGE. 



805 



so that the work ought to be clone over before 

 the conclusion can be accepted. 



Since Professor Chamberlin has again and 

 again mistalcen my position, or has otherwise 

 changed the point at issue, and since little of 

 scientific value is likely to come of this discus- 

 sion, I shall write no more upon this point. 

 Ealph S. Tare, 



COENELL UNIVEESITY. 



POUDEfi. 



To THE Editoe op SCIENCE : Mr. Goode's 

 description of what he calls Pseudo-Aurora 

 (Science, January 29, 1897), as seen by him at 

 Moorhead, Minn., is abundantly confirmed 

 by my own observations at this place. The 

 complete manifestation of the phenomena is 

 comparatively rare. The finest I ever saw was 

 on January 22, 1890, an account of which was 

 furnished by me at that time to the American 

 Meteorological Journal, and published in the 

 February number, and to which the title of this 

 article was given by the editor, Mr. M. W. 

 Harrington. From this article I condense the 

 following extract : After a ten days' period of 

 continued cold weather the thermometer reach- 

 ing — 20° to — 32° at night, a south wind set in 

 on the 22d, and the temperature rose to +10°. 

 During the afternoon and evening the air 

 seemed full of small ice crystals; and my recol- 

 lection is that I examined them, and found 

 them to be, as Goode describes them minute, 

 thin, perfectly clear, hexagonal ice-crystals. 

 The reflection of street lamps and electric lights 

 made long streams of light, all tending to the 

 zenith of the observer; that produced by the 

 electric light being so nearly like the Aurora 

 Borealis as readily to be mistaken for it. 



LUDOVIC ESTBS. 



Univbesity of Noeth Dakota, April 28, 1897. 

 eaeliest published note op the late 



CHAS. E. BENDIEE. 



In my obituary of Major Bendire, published 

 in Science of February 12, 1897 (pp. 261-262), 

 I stated that ' ' his earliest published writings are 

 in the form of letters to well-known naturalists, 

 chiefly Allen, Baird and Brewer." While this 

 statement is correct as it stands, the first letters 

 mentioned by me were published in 1876. Dr. 



Coues calls my attention to an earlier note I had 

 overlooked, one by himself in the American Nat- 

 uralist for June, 1872 (p. 370), in which a quo- 

 tation is given from a letter about a small owl, 

 written by Bendire, from Tucson, Arizona. So 

 far as I am aware, this is the earliest publica- 

 tion of any of Bendire's notes. 



C. H. M.' 



SCIENTIFIC LIIEBATVRE. 

 EECENT TEXT-BOOKS IN PHYSICS. 



Elementary Text-books on Physics. Anthony 



AND Beaceett. Revised by W. F. Magie. 



John Wiley & Son. Eighth edition. 1897. 

 Hie Elements of Physics. Nichols and Feank- 



LiN. Volume III., Light and Sound. The 



Macmillan Co. 1897. 

 Tlie Outlines of Physics. E. L. NiCHOLS. The 



Macmillan Company. 1897. 

 Problems and Questions in Physics. Matthews 



AND Sheaeee. The Macmillan Company. 



1897. 

 Intermediate Course of Practical Physics. 



Schustee and Sees. The Macmillan Com- 

 pany. 1896. 

 Experimental Physics. W. A. Stone. Ginn & 



Company. 1897. 

 First Principles of Natural Philosophy. A. E. 



DoLBEAE. Ginn & Company. 1897. 



In view of the enormous number of new 

 books, on all sorts of subjects, which are con 

 tinually making their appearance, it is impor- 

 tant to inquire whether book-makers, publishers 

 and authors are not increasing at an abnormal 

 rate. Indeed, it begins to look as if some 

 check on their activity would shortly be neces- 

 sary for the protection of those old fashioned 

 people whose pleasure it is to read rather than 

 to write books. At the present rate of book pro- 

 duction it will not be long before that day, 

 which has often been foretold, is actually at 

 hand when every man will have time to read 

 only his own works, and even now there must 

 be some authors who are too busy for that. 



The intellectual, and especially the scientific, 

 activity of the present period is in some meas- 

 ure finding an outlet in the preparation of text- 

 books for schools and colleges, and this is par- 

 ticularly true in the domain of the physical 

 sciences. 



