52 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
Part III is devoted to an account of the services of the negroes during the 
Revolution, inckiding their mihtary employment; their legal status ; the statutory 
prohibition against educating them; notices of Bannaker, the negro astronomer; 
Fuller, the mathematician, and Derham, the physician ; slavery during the Rev- 
olution, as a political and legal problem. 
Mr. Williams, though a very dark-skinned and pronounced negro, is a law- 
yer and has been a member of the Ohio Legislature. He is a vigorous writer 
and a hard student. In the preparation of these volumes he has consulted over 
12,000 volumes, besides thousands of pamphlets, and has succeeded in producing a 
-work which will be an authority on the subject treated until a better one is pro- 
duced, which is likely to be a long time. 
Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences; Vol. Ill, 
Part III, 1879-81, octavo, pp. 314; 1883. 
The whole of this Volume is devoted to an account of the life and labors of 
Joseph Duncan Putnam, late President and life-long active member of the Daven- 
port Academy of Natural Sciences. 
Though dying at the early age of twenty-seven, Mr. Putnam had acquired 
an extended reputation as a scientist, especially in the field of entomology. 
Having been compelled on account of his health to travel largely in different por- 
tions of the United States, east and west, took occasion to pursue his studies at 
all times and gathered more than 25,000 specimens of insects, including many 
new species, several of which have been named in his honor and in recognition of 
his attainments in this branch of science. This volume of the Proceedings of 
the Academy is a grateful monument to his memory by worthy associates. 
The Forests of England: by John Croumbie Brown, LL. D.; i2mo.,pp. 271. 
OHver & Boyd, Tweedale Court, Edinburgh, 1883. 
This volume is stated by the author, who is Professor of Botany in the 
South African College, Capetown, and has held several prominent positions of 
kindred character in England, to be a compilation of what has been published 
previously as contributions to the literature of Britain on subjects pertaining to 
Forest Science. It is to be followed by another^now in press — a translation of 
the famous Forest Ordinance of France of 1669, with notices of the previous 
treatment of forests of that country. 
This work is devoted chiefly to accounts of the laws and usages concerning 
forests, chases, parks and warrens, with particular descriptions of ancient forests, 
modern woods and forests. Among these are selected for illustration Sherwood 
Forest, Epping Forest, Dean Forest and New Forest, with accounts of Robin 
Hood and his tomb, the Parliamentary Oak, the buried remains of mammoths, 
lions, bears, etc., in various forests. 
Many historical notices are also given of Forests of which nothing now re- 
