124 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
shape — something Hke the masses or blocks of light often seen in auroral displays. 
Several are positive that they saw an electrical light in the small end of the funnel, 
others declare that when the cloud rose from the West Kansas bottom and struck 
the bluff near i6th and Holly Streets, balls of electricity were thrown out freely,, 
while the telephone and telegraph operators state that there was no indication 
given by the wires of any unusual amount of electricity in the air. 
One observer who lives on a hill commanding a full view of the eastern half 
of the track of the tornado, states that the funnel-shaped cloud swung or vibrated 
in the air like a balloon, and that when its apex touched the ground destruction 
followed. Another who was in its direct path states that the whirl cut like an 
auger, only on its outer edge, while in its center no harm was done. 
The question as to the origin of tornadoes, whether electrical or not, is unset- 
tled. Much can be said on both sides and the matter can only be decided after 
much closer study and more comprehensive observation than have so far been 
given to the phenomena attendant upon such storms. We found no results and 
have heard of no facts connected with this particular occurrence which could 
not, in our judgment, be fully accounted for without referring them to other 
causes than those ordinarily operating in the production of air currents. Still it 
is possible if we had witnessed this storm as others did, we might have seen cause 
to form different opinions. 
BOOK NOTICES. 
The Assayer's Manual: By Bruno Kerl. Octavo, pp. 313; Illustrated. 
Henry Carey Baird & Co., Philadelphia, 1883. $3.00. 
In 1866 Professor Kerl published at Leipsig a large and detailed work upon 
assaying, of which the present is an abridgement, or, as set forth in the title page, 
it is an " Abridged treatise on the docimastic examination of ores, furnace, and 
other artificial products, by Bruno Kerl, Professor in the Royal School of Mines; 
Member of the Royal Technical Commission for the Industries, and of the Imp- 
perial Patent Office. Translated from the German by William T. Brannt, Grad- 
uate of the Royal Agricultural College of Eldena, Prussia; Edited by William H. 
Wahl, Ph.D., Secretary of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia; Illustrated by 
sixty-five illustrations." 
This work will be found a valuable addition to the literature of chemistry and 
metallurgy, and to the American student the introduction of the English equiva- 
lents of the French metric weights and measures, by Professor Wahl, will be a 
decidedly useful and convenient matter. The scope of the book can hardly be 
given in the brief notice we are confined to, but we will designate some of its 
main points. The author begins with explaining the object of assaying, and the 
