246 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
guages by learners of all classes. It is divided into chapters upon Subdivision 
and order of study, The Art of Reading, The Art of Hearing, The Art of Speak- 
ing, The Art of Writing, Mental Culture and Routine,and covers the ground fully 
in each instance. 
OTHER PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 
A Record of the Progress of Astronomy during the year 1879, by J. L. E- 
Dreyer, M. A., of the Observatory of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; 47 pp. 
Octavo :—No II. and III. of the Publications of the Missouri Historical Society of 
St. Louis, being the Recollections of a Septuagenarian, by Wm. Waldo Esq., 22 
pp. Octavo :—The Eleventh Annual Report of the American Museum of Nation- 
al History, Central Park, N. Y. : 33 pp. Octavo:—Annual Report of the Board 
of Directors of the Chicago Astronomical Society and Dearborn Observatory, 1880 
(illustrated) 16 pp. Octavo:—Circular of the Horological and Thermometrical 
Bureaus of the Winchester Observatory of Yale College, New Haven, June 1880, 
8 pp. Octavo. 
SClLE NIC MIis@ bili ANy: 
DOCTOR TANNER’S FAST. 
At noon on June 28th, Dr. S. H. Tanner, of Minneapolis, Minn., com- 
menced at Clarendon Hall, New York City, an attempt to abstain from all food 
for a period of forty days. It appears that there had been some controversy be- 
tween Dr. Tanner and Professor W. A. Hammond and other members of the 
New York Neurological Society, upon the subject of the length of time that the 
human system could endure total abstinence from food, and that the Professor 
had made Dr. Tanner an offer of one thousand dollars if he succeeded in living 
without food for forty days. This proposition. in consequence of a mutual mis- 
understanding, was subsequently withdrawn and the Doctor has been conducting 
the experiment at his own cost and risk. 
Dr. Tanner is about forty-nine years of age, weighed at the commencement 
of his fast, 15744 pounds, and is of a rather nervous temperament. He has been 
vigilantly watched at all times, but especially so since the ninth day, when a de- 
tail of members of the Neurological Society was made for the purpose. 
For the first few days, owing to the newspapers being filled with exciting 
political news, the dispatches were very meager, but as the time has progressed, 
and the termination of the experiment has approached, the public interest in the 
case has been very marked and is daily growing in intensity. At the end of the 
