336 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 308 



divided into groups named uric and creatinic, from resemblances to 

 urea and creatinine respectively. Sixteen were known. All rep- 

 resented progressive changes in albumen. All but one contained 

 ■oxygen. They had been found in expired air, saliva, blood, brain, 

 urine, pus, and the digestive tract. The progressive changes being 

 interfered with so that retention occurred at some intermediate 

 stage, or by-forms arising as a result of the interference, diseases 

 might at once be produced. The neutralization of these products, 

 •even where made by bacteria, must, he thought, be more important 

 than the destruction of the micro-organisms. Dr. N. B. Sizer of 

 Brooklyn stated that canned meats usually owed their poisonous- 

 ness to the presence of ptomaines, and not to the action of the sol- 

 dering fluid used. In one instance canned apricots had contained 

 a poison due to some alteration by decay, and resembling tyrotoxi- 

 •con in its effects. It had killed the child of a nursing mother in a 

 few hours, the mother in forty-three hours, and, after an illness of 

 six days, the father also. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



The Civilisation of Swede?t in Heathen Times. By OsCAR 

 MoNTELius. Tr. by F. H. Woods. London and New York, 

 Macmillan. 8°. %\. 



Professor Montelius'S excellent summary of the researches 

 on prehistoric man in Sweden is well known to students of archse- 

 ology,and an English translation of this standard work is highly wel- 

 come. The numerous cuts which illustrate the descriptions are of 

 high order, and give particular interest to the handsomely printed 

 •book. Mr. Woods had the advantage of the co-operation of the 

 ■author in translating the work, and thus the translation has become 

 an enlarged edition. All the new matter and new plates that had 

 been added to the German translation of 1885 have been incorpo- 

 rated in the English translation, and the results of recent investiga- 

 tions up to 1888 have been embodied in it. The number of plates 

 has thus been swelled to two hundred and five. The book is 

 pleasantly written, and unrolls a picture of the stone age, the bronze 

 age, and the iron age so far as we are able to reconstruct it from 

 the finds. The description of the last age fills almost two-thirds of 

 the book. Professor Montelius assumes the end of the stone age 

 to be about B.C. 1500. He describes the implements which were 

 in principal use, and the methods of working stone; of chipping 

 flints ; and of making perforations by means of a stick and sand 

 and water. A series of excellent cuts shows a great variety of un- 

 polished and polished stone implements, axes, spear-heads, arrow- 

 heads, knives, flint saws, etc. As remains of the earlier stone age 

 are scanty in Sweden, the author dwells more particularly on the 

 latter part of this age, and describes some of the most beautiful im- 

 plements that have been found. The reader will, however, be par- 

 ticularly interested in the description of the mode of life of the 

 people of this period, in which the author sums up the results of 

 long-continued investigations. He describes the methods of hunt- 

 ing and fishing of this ancient race, their domestic animals, their 

 clothing, and the probable existence of the beginnings of agricul- 

 ture. 



About the year B.C. 1500 the first bronze implements were intro- 

 duced, and about the same time the first gold ornaments appear. 

 As the forms of burial in the later stone age and the early bronze 

 age are very much alike, Professor Montelius assumes that no im- 

 migration took place, but that the new art was introduced by inter- 

 course with neighboring peoples. The bronze age is divided into 

 two sections, characterized by peculiar ornamentations and different 

 modes of burial. We cannot undertake to summarize the author's 

 views, nor his terse description of the culture of each period, 

 illustrated by cuts representing typical specimens and some of the 

 important rock-carvings which are so numerous in Sweden. 



The iron age is not absolutely prehistoric, numerous foreign 

 coins being found along with remains of this age. Thus four pe- 

 riods are distinguished, the first reaching to the beginning of the 

 Christian era, the second to the beginning of the fifth century. At 

 this time the later iron age begins, the first part of which extends to 

 the eighth century, while the latter terminates with the introduction 

 of Christianity. In this part of the book the invention of the runes, 

 and their connection with the Roman alphabet, are treated at some 



length. The accounts of the subdivisions of the iron age are fuller 

 than the preceding chapters, as the finds are far more numerous, 

 and illustrative of aspects of life of which no traces have been 

 preserved in the stone and bronze periods. 



Although the book deals only with the progress of the early in- 

 habitants of Sweden, it is not less interesting, as all archajology 

 tends to show that there has been a remarkably similar process of 

 development, not only among European peoples, but among all 

 races of the world. Therefore the author's clear and succinct ac- 

 count of the progress of this people will give the student a clear 

 notion of the successive stages of civilization through which man 

 has passed. 



Experimental Mechanics. By Sir Robert Stawell Ball, 

 LL.D. London and New York, Macmillan. 12°. S'-So- 

 This volume is a revised edition of a course of lectures on ex- 

 perimental mechanics delivered some years ago at the Royal Col- 

 lege of Science at Dublin to a large evening class consisting chiefly 

 of artisans. The better to adapt his methods to the needs of so 

 practical an audience, the subject has been so treated, that, for its 

 ready comprehension, no knowledge of mathematics is required be- 

 yond an acquaintance with the rudiments of algebra and with a few 

 geometrical terms and principles. The elementary laws of mechan- 

 ics are well and cleariy illustrated by simple experiments, the ma- 

 terial for many of them being drawn from commonplace sources. 

 Without at any time passing the limits set by the circumstances 

 under which the lectures were delivered, Professor Ball has suc- 

 ceeded in presenting his subject in a lucid and extremely interesting 

 manner. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 

 D. Appleton & Co. announce for this week ' The Florida of 

 To-Day,' by James Wood Davidson, intended for settlers and tour- 

 ists, giving the geography, climate, history, routes of travel, the 

 geology, productions, sports, etc., describing the population, educa- 

 tion, employments, etc., and including full list of hotels, and rail- 

 way and county maps printed in colors. This is an entirely new 

 work on this popular winter resort. ' Appletons' Handbook of 

 American Winter Resorts,' revised for 1888 to 1889, will also be 

 ready, with illustrations, railway time-tables and fares, maps, etc., 

 brought down to latest date. A most useful guide for invalids and 

 tourists. 



— Robert Clarke & Co. of Cincinnati have in press, and will 

 shortly issue, an octavo of 250 pages with the following title : 

 ' Know Thyself : A Study of Man,' by a well-known Cincinnati 

 physician, Dr. J. D. Buck. The book contains an outline of gen- 

 eral biology and physiology, upon w'hich the higher problems are 

 based, and from which the true science of psychology must proceed. 



— J. B. Lippincott Co. have in press a ' Life of Henry M. Stanley,' 

 by H. W. Little ; a ' Histpry of the celebration of the One Hun- 

 dredth Anniversary of the Promulgation of the Constitution of the 

 United States,' edited by Hampton L. Carson ; and ' A Shocking 

 Example, and Other Sketches,' by Frances Courtney Baylor. 



— The Cosmopolitan magazine has been purchased by John 

 Brisben Walker, who will be remembered as the founder of the 

 Inter-Ocean. Mr. Walker is establishing new headquarters at 363 

 5th Avenue, New York. 



— J. W. Bouton, New York, will publish early next year a work 

 on ' Remarkable Bindings in the British Museum,' for which Mr. H. 

 B. Wheatley has prepared the text, and which is to contain sixty 

 photogravure plates. " This is evidently intended," says the Nation, 

 " to do for the British collection .what M. Bouchot's sumptuous 

 work did for the French ; and, in recognition of the fact that the 

 French interest in the art of bookbinding is greater than the Eng- 

 lish, there will be a simultaneous edition published in French by 

 MM. Gruel and Englemann. The edition is limited to two hun- 

 dred copies in English and two hundred in French. 



— The Princeton College Bulletin is the title of a new quarterly 

 publication to be issued from Princeton College. It will be philo- 

 sophical, scientific, and literary in character, with President Patton 

 as general editor, assisted in the various departments by several 

 others. 



