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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 302 



each of the classes treated. With its enlarged scope, more ex- 

 tended diagnoses, and improved keys, the ' Manual ' must now 

 prove even a more efficient and satisfactory aid to both student and 

 teacher than heretofore, and prove fully worthy of the extended 

 patronage it is sure to have. 



Hygiene of the Nursery. By Louis Starr. Philadelphia, Blak- 

 iston. 8°. $1.50. 



Of the many books which have been published on this subject, 

 the one now before us is by far the best. The plan of the author 

 has been to point out a series of hygienic rules, which, if applied to 

 the nursery, can hardly fail to maintain good health, give vigor to 

 the frame, and so lessen susceptibility to disease. He has done his 

 part well, and if he shall receive the co-operation of the mothers 

 and of the physicians, his self-appointed task cannot but result in 

 much good everywhere, and, in many families, in a complete revo- 

 lution. While Dr. Starr has evidently had especially in mind, in 

 the preparation of this manual, the mother and the nurse, his book 

 is one which every physician should possess. In the opening chap- 

 ter the author describes the " features of health," by which term he 

 refers to the evidences which healthy children manifest of their well- 

 being. Of these, every mother should have a full knowledge ; so 

 that, by appreciating variations, she may anticipate the complete 

 development of disease, and early summon skilled aid at the time 

 when it is of most service. In speaking of the nursery. Dr. Starr 

 says that in every well-regulated house in which there are children 

 there should be two nurseries, — one for occupation by day, the 

 other by night, — and that the best and sunniest rooms should be 

 selected.. The size, lighting, furnishing, heating, and ventilating of 

 the nursery are described in detail. The qualifications of the nurse- 

 maid are mentioned, and the author then passes on to the kind of 

 clothing which children should wear at different periods of life. 

 Separate chapters are devoted to exercise and amusements, sleep, 

 bathing, food, dietary, and emergencies. We are glad to see that 

 Dr. Starr condemns the rubber and glass tubing in connection with 

 the nursing-bottle. He speaks of these appurtenances as " not only 

 an abomination, but a fruitful source of sickness and death." His 

 language is none too strong. Physicians and others connected with 

 dispensaries and summer homes for sick children regard these tubes 

 as intimately connected with the production and continuance of 

 bowel-troubles, and begin the treatment of such cases by discarding 

 the tube, and substituting a simple rubber nipple. The reason for 

 this is, that these tubes cannot be cleansed, and the milk which 

 passes through them becomes decomposed, and contaminates all 

 the milk which subsequently is drawn from the bottle by the child. 

 In the chapter on emergencies, the immediate treatment of bruises, 

 sprains, fractures, cuts, burns, scalds, stings of insects, foreign 

 bodies in the ear, eye, nose, and throat, ear-ache, nose-bleed, colic, 

 and convulsions, is described, as is also the method of disinfection 

 after contagious diseases. Taken as a whole, Dr. Starr has given 

 the public an exceedingly practical, and therefore valuable book. 

 His language is simple, and devoid of technicalities, and there is no 

 portion of it which cannot be readily understood by every intelligent 

 person. 



Names and Portraits of Birds which interest Gunners, with De- 

 scriptions in La7iguage understanded of the People. By 

 GURDON Trumbull. New York, Harper. 12°. 

 In some respects Mr. Trumbull's book covers new ground, its 

 two chief objects being to provide gunners with plain, non-techni- 

 cal descriptions and simple black-and-white figures (woodcuts) of 

 the birds in which they are interested, and an elucidation of the 

 vernacular names applied to our game-birds. This latter is per- 

 haps the true raison d'etre of the work. The labor and time the 

 author must have given to this phase of the subject are evidently 

 very great, and the results are of much interest, as well as of prac- 

 tical utility, not only to gunners and sportsmen, for whom the work 

 is primarily intended, but for ornithologists and philologists as well. 

 The quaint title very fully expresses the scope and purpose of the 

 work. The number of species treated is sixty-one, of which more 

 than half are ducks and geese, five are members of the rail family 

 {Rallilce), nine are shore-birds, plovers and sandpipers, and five are 

 grouse. Each species, including its various phases of plumage, is 



described fully in "language understanded of the people." He 

 says, possibly with some truth, " Few, even among our most intelli- 

 gent college-bred sportsmen, can form a clear idea of a bird's ap- 

 pearance from the ' shop-talk ' of scientists, even though provided 

 with a glossary." 



About ninety very beautiful woodcuts, drawn by the well-known 

 bird-artist, Edwin Sheppard of Philadelphia, effectually supplement 

 the text ; figures of both male and female being given, when, as among 

 the ducks, the sexes greatly differ in plumage. The technical 

 names are those of the American Ornithologists' Union ' Check- 

 List of North American Birds,' and the habitats are usually given 

 from the same source. 



The greater part of the text is devoted to the common vernacu- 

 lar names of the various species treated, little being said about 

 habits. While synonymy is such a bane and burden in scientific 

 literature, Mr. Trumbull's book shows that in the case of vernacu- 

 lar names, which our author so delightingly collates, the number 

 and complexity of aliases are far greater, and the unravelling of 

 the tangled skein much more difficult ; " so many names being 

 used for more than one species, and so many having been given to 

 one and the same bird." The pintail duck {Dafila acuta), for ex- 

 ample, rejoices in thirty-one distinct English aliases, not counting 

 numerous simply orthographic variations ; while the surf scoter 

 (Oidemia perspicillata) and the old squaw (Clangtda hyemalis) 

 have respectively thirty-three and thirty-four distinct vernacular 

 designations. Half that number is about the rule, while the ruddy 

 duck {Erismatura rubida) heads the list with sixty-seven ! Many 

 of these names are extremely local, and the author does well to 

 give explicitly the localities where they are in use. " The principal 

 reasons for this multiplication of names are obvious : viz., differ- 

 ences in size, shape, and color between males and females ; period- 

 ical changes in plumage ; mistaking one variety for another ; and, 

 more particularly, differences of opinion as to the names most ap- 

 priate." In some instances a whole set of names is based on each 

 striking feature of the bird, as of the bill or tail, or on coloration, 

 or on peculiarities of habits. " Many of these names probably ap- 

 pear now for the first time in print, yet few are of recent origin ; 

 and, though some may be a little time-worn, they are time-honored, 

 and as familiar in certain localities as ' cow,' • dog,' and ' cat.' . . 

 Names which appear to us absurdly grotesque and outlandish 

 are mediums of communication between men as wise as ourselves, 

 though educated in a different school ; and the homely nomencla- 

 ture of those who shoot, not alone for sport, but for their daily 

 bread, should command respect." As already said, Mr. Trumbull's 

 book is especially interesting from the standpoint of philology, as 

 showing how words originate and language grows. 



A very full index completes this admirable work ; but a table of 

 contents, giving lists of the species treated and of the illustrations, 

 would also have been of great x;onvenience. 



Essays on God and Man, or a Philosophical Inquiry into the 

 Principles of Religion. By HENRY "Truro Bray. St. Louis, 

 Nixon-Jones Printing Co. 12°. $2. 



This work is written by an Episcopal clergyman of Missouri, 

 and deals with the bearings of evolutionism and other scientific 

 theories of the present day on the accepted doctrines of religion. 

 The author is clearly irnbued with both the religious and the scien- 

 tific spirit, is thoroughly in earnest, and writes for the most part in 

 perfect good temper. Sometimes his repugnance to certain super- 

 stitions that have gathered around Christianity leads him to use 

 expressions that are a little rough, and those parts of the book 

 might better, perhaps, have been omitted, as the doctrines thus at- 

 tacked have already lost their hold upon thinking minds ; but on 

 the whole the tone of the work is excellent. The style, also, is 

 simple and clear, and never leaves us in doubt as to the author's 

 meaning. Mr. Bray's religion is based upon scientific doctrines on 

 the one hand, and, on the other, upon all that is best in the 

 religious teachings of the whole world. He maintains that the sci- 

 ence of the present day is religious, and gives some quotations from 

 scientific writers in proof of this assertion. He holds strongly to 

 the evolution philosophy, though believing that we can know more 

 of the divine attributes than most evolutionists admit ; and he 

 defines God as " universally extended Conscious Force." He re- 



