July 10, 1896,] 



SCIENCE. 



55 



It will be observed tbat the book differs 

 greatly from most books on general botany in 

 the great emphasis laid on the chemistry, phy- 

 sics and physiology of plants, less stress being 

 put on the morphology and development. This 

 is in accordance with what we should judge to 

 be the taste of the author, who was long a 

 pupil of Schwendener. In the general treat- 

 ment of the subject-matter the author makes 

 frequent use of and reference to the works of 

 Naegeli, Sachs, Pfeffer, de Bary, Frank, Goebel 

 and Warming, but more especially to those 

 of Schwendener, Haberlandt and others of 

 Schwendener' s i^upils. For this reason the 

 book will be a welcome addition as a con- 

 densed reference book of the work of these 

 investigators. 



The author is a fervent disciple of the ideal- 

 istic school of special creation, and accepts only 

 those processes to be governed by natural law 

 which have been revealed by scientific investi- 

 gation as facts. Relationship and relative po- 

 sition of groups of plants is, in the mincj of the 

 author, only ' ' a process of thought which the 

 comparative study of the plant series creates in 

 our minds; that such a series is genetic is an 

 unverified postulate of the dogmatic teaching 

 of descent, which allows fantasy to supplant 

 that which empirical investigations leave un- 

 answered." Hypnotized by the fathomless 

 depth of life, he accepts the miraculous creation, 

 under the influence of which the mind is closed 

 to the philosophical consideration of funda- 

 mental relationships and modes of progress as 

 suggested by phylogenetic evolution, and it 

 does not appear to be realized that God work- 

 ing through natural law, and by processes of 

 evolution through time, has develoiDed the uni- 

 verse in accordance with the same plan which 

 is wonderfully shown in the ontogenj^ of the 

 present. Geo. F. Atkinson. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 



AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



The July number opens with an article by 

 Carl Barus, describing the lecture-room experi- 

 ment with carbon dioxide, showing the passage 

 of the liquid through the critical temperature. 

 Suggestions are given in regard to the arrange- 

 ment of the tube with respect to the sunlight 



used for illumination and the projecting lens, 

 in order to give the best results. The exiDeri- 

 ments performed by the author seem to prove 

 that there is no " real continuity between COj 

 gas and COj liquid at the critical temperature. 

 There is continuity Ibetween the liquid and a 

 gas which preserves the same molecule, the same 

 molecufar structure as the liquid from which it 

 issues. Doubtless at still higher temperature 

 the gas with the liquid molecule will break up 

 into the true gas with the gaseous molecule." 



H. H. Clayton discusses in detail the ques- 

 tion of a seven-day weather period. The in- 

 vestigation, the results of which are here de- 

 tailed, was carried on under the auspices of the 

 Elizabeth Thompson fund, and is a continua- 

 tion of an earlier work by the same author, 

 published in the Journal for March, 1894. In 

 all, twenty-one stations were selected for the 

 discussion; three in the Arctic regions, four in 

 the United States, five in Europe, two in Asia, 

 two in Oceanica near the Equator, three in 

 middle South America, one in Mauritius, and 

 one in Australia. The results of the investiga- 

 tion show that in general there are two maxima 

 and two minima frequencies during the seven 

 days, and at some stations there appear to be 

 three. Charts are introduced showing the pro- 

 gression of these periods around the world. 

 The author regards this department of investi- 

 gation as a promising and important one in 

 connection with weather forecasting, since "it 

 is possible to say that in all parts of the world 

 barometric minima will be from 10 to 20 per 

 cent, more frequent on certain days than on 

 certain other days, provided the interval taken 

 is sufiiciently long. It is also possible to say 

 that certain days will average colder than 

 other days." 



S. L. Penfield describes a sulpharsenite of 

 silver, AggAsSg or 9Ag2S, AsjSg, analogous to 

 polybasite AggSbSg, to which the name pearceite 

 is given. He calls attention to the fact that ar- 

 senical varieties of the species polybasite have 

 long been recognized, but regards it as advisa- 

 ble that they should be grouped together as an 

 independent species, in accordance with the 

 general method of distinguishing between the 

 antimonial and arsenical members of this series 

 of minerals. The pearceite here described was 



