December iq, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



347 



from the unstable state in which the air in ascending becomes 

 lighter than the surrounding air as it rises, or is it heavier in this 

 case also, and has to be pushed up, as in the case of cyclones, by 

 some external centripetal force on all sides at the base, originating 

 in the steep gradients of the upper part of the atmosphere in high 

 latitudes ? for it must be remembered that by the new theory 

 cyclones originate here. If the former, as is admitted in the case 

 of tropical cyclones, then it is evident that the unstable state of 

 the air can take place; and, if so, why can it not exist in the case 

 of cyclones, in America at least, notwithstanding that the tem- 

 perature of the air over the Alps, under some peculiar circum- 

 stances, sometimes becomes greater than the normal temperature, 

 and than the mere surface temperatures on the Alps in a cyclone 

 immediately after a recent fall of snow ? As Professor Davis is 

 the first one in America to adopt the new theory, if it can be so 

 called, he must be regarded as its exponent here, and so feel 

 bound to answer all pertinent questions and to give all necessary 

 explanations; for it is to be presumed, that, during the two or 

 three weeks of the transition period, he thoroughly studied it in 

 all its bearings and applications. Wm. Fekeel. 



MartiBsburg, W.Va., Dec. 13. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



Electricity in Daily Life. New York, Scribner. 8°. $3. 



From whatever point of view this book may be regarded, the 

 effect cannot fail to be satisfactory. The expert electrician will 

 find in it a succinct yet comprehensive survey of the whole field 

 of electrical progress, from the earliest experiments down to the 

 latest applications, with invaluable data made readily available 

 by a copious index; the student will find it a guide to the par- 

 ticular branch of the science he may be specially interested in ; 

 and the general reader will find in it all that he may desire in the 

 way of general information upon a subject comparatively new, 

 fascinating in itself, and the results of which he is forced into 

 contact with at almost every turn. 



The volume is the joint production of Cyrus F. Brackett, 

 Franklin L. Pope. Joseph Wetzler, Professor Morton, Charles L. 

 Buckingham, Herbert L. Webb. W. S. Hughes, John Slillis, A. 

 E. Kennelly, and M. Allen Starr, M.D., each an authority on the 

 special branch of which he treats. The publishers have done 

 their part handsomely, the illustrations and typography being 

 excellent, and the general make-up and finish of the volume set- 

 ting otf to the best advantage the work of its several writers. 

 Even in the embellishment of the cover the artists have drawn 

 their inspiration from the text, the ornamentation being worked 

 up from fragments of telegraphic messages as recorded by the 

 Morse instrument and the siphon recorder, and as prepared on a 

 perforated ribbon for transmission by the Wheatstone instrument, 

 together with artistic groupings of incandescent lamps and cables 

 in outline and section. 



In the opening chapter Mr. C. F. Brackett, professor of physics 

 in Princeton College, briefly surveys the whole field of electrical 

 science, tracing its history, explaining its technicalities, and 

 making clear the principles involved in the use of conductors and 

 insulators, and in the construction and operation of galvanome- 

 ters, electro-magnets, dynamos and motors, transformers, and 

 storage- batteries. In the second chapter Mr. Pope, past president 

 of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, treats of the 

 electric motor and its applications, giving some account of every 

 thing of importance in that department, beginning with Faraday's 

 first motor, touching on the experiments of Ampere and Arago, 

 Professors Henry and Jacobi, Dr. Page, and others, and going 

 into greater detail on the evolution of the dynamos and motors of 

 to-day. Joseph Wetzler of the Electrical Engineer makes an in- 

 teresting chapter on the electric railway, explaining the three 

 methods of applying the current to the railway motor, — the over- 

 head-wire system, the underground-conduit 83'stem, and the 

 storage-battery system ; besides which he recounts the many ad- 

 vantages claimed for electrical over other roads, shows the com- 

 parative cost of construction, gives some electric-railway statistics 

 for the United Slates, and points out the possibilities of the future 

 in that direction. Electricity in lighting is ably treated by President 



Morton of the Stevens Institute, who touches all the salient points 

 of that application of electrical energy, from Sir Humphry Davy's 

 first electric light in 1808, down to the present time, when, as he 

 states on p. 123, the daily output of incandescent electric lamps 

 in this country alone is fifteen thousand, or at the rate of four 

 million and a half lamps a year. 



In the succeeding chapters the electric telegraph is treated of 

 by Charles L. Buckingham of the Western Union Telegraph Com- 

 pany; the making and laying of submarine and other cables, by 

 Herbert Laws Webb of the Metropolitan Telephone Company; 

 electricity in naval and land warfare, by Lieut. Hughes of the 

 navy, and Lieut. Millis of the army, respectively; electricity in 

 the household, by Electrician Kennelly of Edison's laboratory; 

 and electricity in relation to the human body, by M. Allen Starr, 

 M.D., professor of nervous diseases in the College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons of New York. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



The ( hristmas number of the American edition of the Illus- 

 trated London I^'ews contains three well-executed colored plates 

 which have become a feature of a few of the largest weekly illus- 

 trated papers at the holiday season. 



— Messrs. E. & F. N. Spon announce the following new books : 

 "Electric Bell Consti-uction : a Treatise on the Construction of 

 Electric Bells, Indicators, and Similar Apparatus," by F. C. Allsop; 

 '•The Steam-Eugine considered as a Thermo-dynamic Engine"* 

 (second edition, revised and enlarged), by J. H. Cotterill; "Smoke- 

 less Powder and its Infiuence on Gun Construction," by J. A. 

 Longridge; "Modern Cotton Spinning Machinery, its Principles 

 and Construction," by J. Nasmith; and The Journal of the Iron 

 and Steel Institute, No. 1, 1890. 



— One of the most remarkable lists of famous contributors ever 

 brought together in a single number of a magazine will be pre- 

 sented in the January issue of The Ladies' Home Journal of 

 Philadelphia. The authors in that number will include Henry M. 

 Stanley, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ex-President Hayes, Hon. 

 John Wanamaker, Joseph Jetferson, Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, 

 Madame Albani, James Whitcomb Riley, Gen, Lew Wallace, 

 George W. Childs, Dr. T. De Witt Talmage, Mrs. A. D. T. Whit- 

 ney, Robert J. Burdette, Edward Bellamy, Will Carleton, Charles 

 A. Dana, Sarah Orne Jewett, George W. Cable, Julian Hawthorne, 

 Mrs. Lyman Abbott, Mrs. Margaret Bottome, and nearly twenty 

 others. 



— Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce to be published in February 

 " Mechanism and Personality," by Francis A. Shoup, D.D., pro- 

 fessor of analytical physics, University of the South. This book 

 is an outline of philosophy in the light of the latest scientific re- 

 search. It deals candidly and simply with the burning questions 

 of the day, the object being to help the general reader and stu- 

 dents of philosophy find their way to something like definite 

 standing ground among the uncertainties of science and meta- 

 physics. It begins with physiological psychology, treats of the 

 development of the several modes of personality, passes on into 

 metaphysics, and ends in ethics, following, in a general way, the 

 thought of Lotze. It is strictly in line with the remark of Pro- 

 fessor Huxley, that the reconciliation of physics and metaphysics 

 lies in the acknowledgment of faults upon both sides, in the con- 

 fession by physics that all the phenomena of nature are, in their 

 ultimate analysis, known to us only as facts of consciousness, 

 in the admission by metaphysics that the facts of consciousness 

 are practically interpretable only by the methods and the formula 

 of physics. 



— The late Professor Austin Phelps had just previous to bis 

 death completed preparations for a new volume somewhat similar in 

 character to his " My Study " and " My Portfolio." It is entitled 

 "My Note Book," and is to be issued immediately by the Scrib- 

 ners It contains a number of the author's briefer essays, with 

 some detached thoughts, somewhat of the nature of table-talk. 

 Professor A. L. Perry of Williams College, the well-known author 

 of works on political economy, has just completed a new work 

 entitled "Principles of Political Economy," which will also be 



