Septemeee 11, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



363 



scopic lithology he has ever seen, and wonders 

 how such a book could have been written by 

 any man who had the slightest comprehension 

 of a beginner's needs or who ever spent a day 

 in a lithological laboratory. 



Most of the plates that illustrate the book 

 are of no use to the beginner, since, as a rule, no 

 one except an expert could tell what rock they 

 were intended to represent. The craze for 

 photographic illustration in students' text- 

 books, started by Eosenbusch, is one that 

 should be frowned upon, in every case, except 

 when the characters stand out boldly. The 

 true way to assist the student is to have the 

 plate show him what he is to look for. For this 

 purpose it needs to be diagrammatic and exag- 

 gerated, so that the salient points will be grasped 

 readily. In the present system the picture is 

 commonly far more confusing than the original. 

 A text-book is one thing, a volume illustrating 

 original investigations another. The plates, 

 poor as many of them are, in Harker's excellent 

 little book, are of far more real value to a be- 

 ginner than are any series of photographic 

 prints ever published. 



Turning to the engineer's side of this work, 

 he will find it limited to a trifle over eight 

 pages. This contains, for its space, quite a 

 little useful information, but it is altogether 

 too brief to be of much value. It is a great 

 pity that this part could not have been enlarged 

 and the remaining portions condensed. 



No attempt is here made to point out the lame 

 system of classification, the evident want of ac- 

 curate acquaintance with lithological literature, 

 or even with the rocks themselves. The re- 

 viewer's duty is not to criticize the book as a 

 scientific treatise, but as a text-book for students 

 wishing to obtain a working knowledge of 

 rocks. The critic can but consider the work as 

 a paste pot and scissors production, in which 

 the materials were culled without judgment or 

 real knowledge ; and is the natural and legiti- 

 mate result of a system in this country which 

 allows in a university one man to hold two 

 chairs, each of which demands all of his time 

 and energy, however able he may be. Partic- 

 ularly is the- system wrong when the two chairs 

 are so diverse as mining engineering and geol- 

 ogy. The subject of geology alone is too vast 



even for a Baconian genius to do justice to it. 

 It contains within its limits two parts or two 

 sciences so different and so great that no col- 

 lege or technical school, and far less a univer- 

 sity, can hope for a creditable standing in the 

 geological world, which permits its geological 

 department alone to be covered by one man 

 however eminent he may be. The butter has 

 to be spread too infinitesimally thin for such a 

 tremendous slice of bread. 



The author of the work in question is not to 

 blame, since nothing different ought to or 

 could, have been expected under the circum- 

 stances. 



The only thing that the work can here be 

 recommended for is, as a convenient manual in 

 English, for the experienced lithologist to re- 

 fresh his memory on some points. 



M. E. Wads WORTH. 

 Michigan Mining School. 



AMERICAN linguistics. 



Langue Tarasque; Qrammaire, Dictionaire, Tex- 



tes. Par Eaoul de la Grasserie et 



Nicolas Leon. Bibliotheque Lingmstique 



Americaine. Tome XIX. pp. 293, Paris 



Maisonneuve. 1896. 

 Die Maya-Sprachen der Pokom- Gruppe. Z weiter 



Theil. Die Sprache der K^ ekcJii Indianer. 



Von Dr. Otto Stoll. Pp. 221. Leipzig, 



Kohler. 1896. 



The above are unusually valuable additions 

 to the science of American linguistics. They 

 present two North American languages hitherto 

 little known to scholars, by careful analyses, 

 according to the most approved methods of 

 modern research. 



The Tarascas were the native population of 

 the State of Michoacan in Mexico when it was 

 first discovered by the whites. They belonged 

 among the semi-civilized tribes, though the lan- 

 guage they spoke had no relationship to the 

 Nahuatl, nor to any other on the continent. 

 They erected important structures of stone, 

 brick and mortar, and were sedentary and ag-^ 

 ricultural in habit. 



Their language is characterized by the pres- 

 ent writers as ' elegant and harmonious, rich and 

 poetic' Its phonetics are not difficult and its 



