96 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 393 



amusement or instruction from the pages of this book, but we 

 don't admire the mental equipment of the man who can do so. 



— ^A readable account of the building up and washing away of 

 the narrow sandy islands near Sandy Hook, Long Branch, and 

 Cape May, illustrating similar action that is going on all along our 

 eastern shores, will appear in the Popular Science Monthly for 

 September. The article is by F. J. H. Merrill, and is entitled 

 " Barrier Beaches of the Atlantic Coast." 



— The Open Court Publishing Company haTe published " Three 

 Lectures on the Science of Language,"' by F. Max Muller. They 

 were originally delivered at the Oxford UniTersity extension meet- 

 ing in 1889, and are, of course, of a somewhat elementary charac- 

 ter. They give a brief summary of the leading facts about the 

 nature of language, witli remarks on the importance of studying 

 it; and are specially designed to awaken an interest in the subject 

 on the part of inquiring minds. The most interesting part of the 

 book to scientific readers will be the j)assage in which the author 

 discusses the relative merits of the two methods of classifying the 

 races of men, by language and by physiological characteristics. 

 He maintains that physiological classification has proved a fail- 

 ure, and that classification by language must be adopted, though 

 ■with some reservations. Professor Miiller reafiSrms his theory of 

 the origin of the Aryans in Central Asia, but without presenting 

 anything new. The concluding paper in the book is a brief ac- 

 count of the earlier thinkers who have held Professor Miiller's 

 views as to the identity of language and thought. We may note 

 in conclusion that the book is printed throughout in blue ink. 



— D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, will publish in September a 

 "Brief Course in the Elements of Chemistry," by James H. Shep- 

 ard, professor of chemistry, South Dakota Agricultural College, 

 and chemist to the United States Experiment Station. This book 

 will be on the same plan as the author's "Elements of Inorganic 

 Chemistry." It is not a fragmentary compilation, but gives the 



student a concise and comprehensive view of the main formulas 

 of chemical science. The experiments are easily performed and 

 bear directly upon the subjects under consideration, while the 

 apparatus and chemicals required are as inexpensive as thorough 

 work will permit. The book is well adapted to the needs of 

 schools where the time is limited and where the teacher aims to 

 do most of the work, but it will find a warm welcome in schools 

 posses-ing working laboratories. The carbon compounds are 

 tersely treated, thus giving the student an insight into the funda- 

 mentals of organic chemistry. 



— The yield of gold in New South Wales in 1889, as shown by 

 the " Annual Report of the Department of Mines," was larger 

 than that for any year since 1883, amounting to over 182 million 

 dollars. 



— The United States Steamer " Thetis," Lieut Commander 

 Stockton commanding, was detailed by the Navy Department to 

 cruise, during the summer and autumn of 1889, in Behring Sea and 

 the Arctic Ocean. During this cruise, in order to make its results 

 as useful as possible, several of the officers on board the "Thetis" 

 were directed to prepare reports upon subjects connected with the 

 waters and regions visited by the ship, from their observation 

 and from other reliable sources. One of these reports, by John 

 W. Kelly, is on the ethnography of the Eskimos; and another, by 

 Ensign Roger Wells, jr., is an Eskimo vocabulary, prepared 

 almost entirely from information and material furnished by John 

 W. Kelly, who spent three winters among the north-western 

 Eskimos, and who has been engaged for seven years, at various 

 times, in acquiring a knowledge of their language. The manu- 

 scripts of these two reports were presented to the Bureau of Educa- 

 tion at Washington by Commander Stockton, to whose intelligent 

 foresight the preparation of the reports was due. The Bureau, 

 being charged with the supervision of education in Alaska, and 

 the Commissioner of Education, W. T. Harris, appreciating the 



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