BOOK NO TICES. 377 
own resources and to cause him to become, as it were, an original investigator of 
nature's processes. More than three hundred cuts serve as illustrations and a 
full index closes the work, which has received the commendations of some of 
the best physicists and teachers of the country. After a careful examination of 
its plan and methods, we regard it as the most practical and thorough treatise 
upon physics that we have yet seen, and cordially recommend it to the teachers 
of the advanced schools of Missouri as a fitting text-book for their use. 
Manual of Taxidermy: By C. J. Maynard. Illustrated; i2mo., pp. iii. 
S. E. Cassino & Co., Boston, 1883. $1.25. 
This little work is intended to meet the wants of amateur ornithological col- 
lectors, says the author, for it is written by one who has at least had the advant- 
age of a very wide experience in collecting skins, making and mounting. He 
has also had the advantage of comparing his methods with those of many excel- 
lent amateurs and professional collectors throughout the country, and the results 
are now laid before the reader. The several topics discussed are collecting, skin- 
ning birds, making, i. e., dressing, skins, mounting birds, making stands, collect- 
ing mammals, mounting mammals, mounting reptiles, batrachians and fishes. 
The work is well illustrated and the amateur will find a great deal in it that will 
be of use in learning the taxidermist's art. 
Modern Locomotive Engines: By Emory Edwards, M. E. Illustrated; 
i2mo., pp. 372. Henry Carey Baird & Co., Philadelphia. $2.00. 
This work is the completion of a series by the same author, entitled respec- 
tively " A Catechism of the Marine Steam Engine," " Modern American Marine 
Engine, Boilers, and Screw Propellers," "The Practical Steam Engineer's Guide," 
and is published at the suggestion of numerous correspondents in different parts 
of the country, who have read the others with interest and profit. It is complete 
account of modern locomotive engines, their design, construction, and manage- 
ment, and is presented as a practical work for practical men. There are seventy- 
eight illustrations and a copious and comprehensive index. The publishers in 
London, who are Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, as well as the 
well known house of Henry Carey Baird & Co., of Philadelphia, the original pub- 
lishers will send it postpaid to any part of the world for the above named price. 
In the introductory chapter the properties and pecuHarities of steam are fully 
discussed. This is followed by chapters upon Steam Engineering, with careful 
instructions to engineers upon the theory and practice of the subject : The Prop- 
erties of Water ; Economy of Fuel ; Quality of Steam ; Mechanical Powers — Vir- 
tual Velocities. History of Railroads and Locomotive Building in America ; 
Construction of Locomotives ; High Railway Speeds ; Recent Improvements in 
Locomotives, etc., concluding with nearly one hundred pages of useful notes, 
