BOOK NOTICES. 597 



Barrow in 1883, outline of the lectures delivered to the Signal Service Corps of 

 students at Fort Meyer, etc. 



General Hazen deplores the reduction in the appropriation for weather ob- 

 servations as being detrimental to the interests of the people, alleging that the 

 demands of the country upon the Signal Service are greater than ever before, and 

 showing the value of the weather statistics and predictions by the verifications of 

 the latter on sea and on land. The percentage of accuracy in predictions has 

 increased from 84.4 per cent in 1882 to 88 per cent in 1883, and of course this 

 accuracy will still increase with any increase of stations. 



In fifty-four cities, meteorological committees, to act in concert with the 

 Signal Service, have been appointed. The popular idea that the rainfall on the 

 Western plains has increased with the increase of railway and telegraph lines, has 

 been exploded by careful and special observations by skilled observers and plans 

 for systematic collection of data concerning tornadoes have been made, which 

 observations may be of service upon being classed and generalized. 



Wisconsin Historical Collections. Vol. IX, 1880-81-82 : Wisconsin His- 

 torical Society, Madison, Wis., 1883. Octavo, pp. 498. 



The energetic and capable Secretary of the above-named society. Professor 

 Lyman C. Draper, in collecting and editing this series, is doing an important and 

 valuable work for the State. It consists of articles upon the archaeology, the 

 early history and the progress of Wisconsin, with biographical sketches of some 

 of its best men, such as Governor E. B. Washburn, Col. Larrabee, Judge Barron, 

 and others. It is just such work as every State should secure before it is too late, 

 and one which will be more and more highly appreciated as time passes. 



Progressive Morality: By Thomas Fowler, LL. D., F. S. A., President 

 Corpus Christi College, Oxford Price, . post-free, 15 cents. J. Fitzgerald, 

 Publisher, 20 Lafayette Place, New York. For sale by M. H. Dickinson. 



The progress of Natural Science has been not without effect upon the data of 

 the moral and intellectual sciences. The present work, by an author of the high- 

 est eminence, is an attempt to show wherein the principles of moral conduct are 

 reinforced or explained by the application to Ethics of the methods of research 

 employed in the study of nature. The author aims to present a scientific con- 

 ception of Morality in a popular form, and with a view to practical application 

 rather than to discuss theoretical difficulties. His views are in full harmony with 

 those which, making exception for a few back eddies in the stream of modern 

 thought, are winning their way to general acceptance among the more instructed 

 and reflective men of our day. 



