November 30, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



263 



teenth century, in which the causes of that event and of the ultimate 

 failure of the Commonwealth are stated with clearness and true 

 historical insight. Indeed, we think most of his readers will agree 

 that he would have done better to have spent more of his time on 

 history and politics, and less on the inculcation of the Hegelian 

 philosophy. 



Ancient Rome. By RODOLFO Lanciani. Boston and New 

 York, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Z" . §6. 



The comprehensive description of the results of modern archaeo- 

 logical researches in Rome by Professor Lanciani in the beautifully 

 printed and illustrated volume under review is a publication of 

 great interest and value. The author, who is director of excavations 

 for the Italian Government and the municipality of Rome, describes 

 the results of his labors with such vividness and enthusiasm, that 

 he at once imparts to the reader the keenest interest in his subject. 

 In the preface the history of the work that is going on now is 

 sketched. The improvements undertaken in modern Rome, which 

 of course cannot but necessitate the destruction of a few monuments, 

 have been the subject of numerous attacks upon the Roman author- 

 ities, which the author refutes one by one, showing that the growth 

 of the large city, and the requirements of the present inhabitants, 

 made sanitary improvements imperative, and that these very improve- 

 ments have been made in judicious consideration of the mterests 

 of archasology, and that they have yielded archasological results of 

 greater importance than were obtained in any previous period. In 

 the first chapter the history of the destruction of ancient and medi- 

 jBval monuments is traced, illustrated by views of parts of Rome 

 reproduced from old descriptions. 



In the second chapter we are led back to the time of the founda- 

 tion of Rome, which the author proves to have taken place in the 

 bronze period, by shepherds from the Albanese hills. The remains 

 of stone implements, bronze weapons and coins, and rough earthen- 

 ware, are described. The development of sanitary measures, the 

 building of the aqueduct and drains, is next described, and the 

 author's views are substantiated by the descriptions of the ruined 

 works and by translations of interesting inscriptions. 



We cannot follow the author in the details of his great work, 

 which gives a vivid picture of life in ancient Rome in the light of 

 the most recent archsological discoveries. He has selected only 

 the most significant and valuable material from among the rich 

 •treasures intrusted to his care, for proving his views and theories. 

 The publishers have spared no expense in order to make the 

 volume as valuable and attractive as possible. The work cannot 

 be excelled as a comprehensive and popular review of the results of 

 archasological studies in Rome. 



.5. C. 1887. A Ramble in British Columbia. By J. A. Lees and 

 W. J. Clutterbuck. London and New York, Longmans, 

 Green, & Co. 12°. $2.25. 



In the present volume the authors describe a hunting-trip from 

 the Canadian to the Northern Pacific, up the Columbia and down 

 the Kootenay Rivers. The book is beautifully printed, and illus- 

 trated by excellent photo-engravings reproduced from sketches and 

 photographs of the authors. Those who are interested in angling, 

 hunting, and other sport, and in menus of the dinners the travel- 

 lers enjoyed on various parts of their journey, will find the book 

 very interesting reading ; but the illustrations make it valuable also 

 to other readers. The authors succeeded in encountering the most 

 marvellous adventures, particularly when they reached American 

 soil, all of which are illustrative of the low state of culture in which 

 our western Territories, as compared to British Columbia, are. If 

 we take the authors' description cum graiw salis, it is a good de- 

 scription of what travelling in the Kootenay valley under unfavor- 

 able circumstances might be. The good luck of the authors in 

 having many marvellous adventures makes the book very interest- 

 ing reading, and welcome to lovers of books of travel. 



Die Gletscher der Ostalpen. By Dr. E. Richter. Stuttgart, J. 

 Engelhorn. S". S3. 



The present volume belongs to the series of manuals of Ger- 

 man geography published at the instance and under the direction 

 of the commission for studies on the geography of Germany, which 



also edits the interesting • Forschungen zur Deutschen Landes- 

 und Volkskunde.' Dr. Richter has compiled a large amount of 

 material on the glaciers of the eastern Alps, his material being 

 principally derived from the map of the Austrian War Department. 

 In an introduction the author discusses the methods of determining 

 the limit of eternal snow, and adopts the principle first applied by 

 Bruckner, who collates data on summits which nearly reach the 

 limit of eternal snow, but have no accumulations of snow and ice 

 on exposed slopes, and such data on mountains which have small 

 snow-fields and glaciers. He concludes that the snow-line is in- 

 termediate between the heights of the summits of these mountains. 

 Dr. Richter discusses this method very fully, and later on applies 

 it to the eastern Alps. We cannot enter into his interesting de- 

 scriptions of glaciers and of their advance and retrogression, but 

 call attention to an important result of his investigations, that 

 the central parts of the Alps have a higher level snow-line 

 than the northern and southern portions. Chains of mountains have 

 the same effect upon the height of the snow-line as plateaus have, the 

 line being lower on the outskirts and higher in the central portions. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



In a memorandum prepared by the executive committee of the 

 Dominion Land Surveyors' Association a number of rules are sug- 

 gested as a remedy in the confusion of the geographical nomen- 

 clature and orthography in Canada. The principal feature of these 

 resolutions is the suggestion of the compilation of a complete geo- 

 graphical dictionary of the Dominion by the Department of the In- 

 terior, and that all names given by explorers in new tracts of 

 country be submitted to the surveyor-general, and, after approval 

 by him, be entered in the geographical dictionary before being 

 shown on any official maps or plans. Besides this, the rules of the 

 Royal Geographical Society for spelling Indian names are recom- 

 mended. 



— The Flamme, the official organ of the Berlin Cremation Soci- 

 ety, states that the total number of bodies cremated in the various 

 countries to the ist of August is as follows : Italy, 998 ; Gotha, 

 554; America, 287; Sweden, 39; England, 16; France, 7; Den- 

 mark, I. The members of cremation societies number 3,012 in 

 Sweden, 1,326 in Denmark, 1,326 in Holland, 612 in Germany, 580 

 in Italy, 438 in Hamburg, and 390 in Switzerland (Zurich). There 

 is a curious disparity between the number of members in Italy and the 

 proportion cremated. It is officially stated that outside of Asia there 

 are but fifty cremation-furnaces in existence. Of these, twenty are in 

 Italy, one in Germany, one in England, one in Switzerland, one in 

 France, and the rest in the United States. From this statement it 

 would appear that cremation has not made the rapid strides 

 which its advocates hoped for. 



— Mr. A. Howard Clark, of the Smithsonian Institution, has been 

 appointed by the President to be one of the scientific experts to at- 

 tend the international exposition in Paris in 1889. Mr. Howard 

 was a member of the executive staff of the United States commis- 

 sioner to the international fisheries exhibition in London, in 1883. 



— Prof. C. V. Riley, of the Agricultural Department, the repre- 

 sentative in charge of the exhibit of agricultural products from this 

 country to the' Paris exposition, has issued a circular in which he 

 announces that a board has been formed in the Department of 

 Agriculture, consisting of Professor Riley, William Saunders, O. D. 

 LaDow, M. Trimble, and Dr. D. E. Salmon, to decide upon the 

 agricultural exhibit. 



— No. 95 of \'an Nostrand's Science Series is entitled ' Plate- 

 Girder Construction,' by Isami Hiroi. For railway as well as high- 

 way bridges, there is probably no other form of girders that are 

 more extensively used and daily being constructed than plate-gird- 

 ers. The reason for this lies mainly in the simplicity of their con- 

 struction, and their stiffness as compared with open-girders. That 

 the construction of a plate-girder is simple, is, however, no reason to 

 suppose that the stresses produced in it by external forces are also 

 simple. On the contrary, to determine actual stresses in every part 

 of a plate-girder is one of the most complicated problems that can 



