January 27. 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



45 



Scheurlen as defective. From the reports of this meeting it would 

 appear that but few of the leading men of Germany are yet ready 

 to accept Scheurlen's claims as established. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 

 Lectures on Bacteria. By A. DE Bary. 2d ed. Tr. by Henry 

 E. F. Garnsey and Isaac Bayley Balfour. Oxford, Clarendon 

 Pr. 8°. §5.50. 

 This is an excellent translation of De Bary's ' Vorlesungen ueber 

 Bacterien,' with a considerable number of notes in an appendix. 

 For one who wishes a good readable account of the nature and 

 action of bacteria, not too long or too full of technical details, this 

 moderate-sized and well-arranged volume answers the purpose ad- 

 mirably. 



The Children : How to Study Them. By Francis Warner, 

 M.D. London, Francis Hodgson. 12°. 

 This little volume contains half a dozen lectures, delivered by 

 request of the Froebel Society of London, by Dr. Warner, whose 

 works on the anatomy of movement and on physical expression are 

 widely known. The object of the lectures is to impress upon 

 teachers and parents the necessity and importance of the scientific 

 observation of children. The plea is admirably and emphatically 

 •urged. On the practical side there is an attempt to give a number 

 of indications by which the physiological health and growth of 

 children can be observed. Though these are doubtlessly useful, 

 and when made by a skilled observer valuable, yet they are too 

 vaguely stated to be generally applicable. A table of printed 

 questions, with directions as to their use, would be a much safer and 

 more useful compend to put into the hand of the ordinary teacher. " 

 Dr. Warner sketches the anatomy of the parts of the body con- 

 cerned in motion, shows how they are all related to the activity of 

 the brain, and thus become an index of mental strength or weak- 

 ness, and then describes a series of postures of various parts of the 

 body, and especially of the hand, indicative of various temperaments. 

 He lays stress upon the indications of the nervous type of child with 

 the practical object of teaching such children separately, as we do 

 with thedeaf, the blind, and the weak-minded. " Why, then, are the 

 children of slight brain-defect not specially cared for, children 

 tending to become passionate picking up bad habits and practising 

 them, tending to criminality, or, if too feeble for that, to pauperism ? 

 . . . Now, my argument is, that we can discover such children 

 and pick them out in a school by definite physical signs ; we can 

 point out the children not up to the average, and tending to failure 

 from want of brain-power." This series of lectures adds to the 

 number of indications of the time when we shall have definite 

 knowledge of the physical and mental traits of children by which 

 their healthy education may be guided, and their evil tendencies 

 avoided. 



Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania for 

 1886. Parts I. and II. Harrisburg, Geol. Surv. 8°. 



Although Professor Lesley's staff is now quite small, this re- 

 port adds four volumes to the imposing series already published by 

 the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. Many of these nu- 

 merous volumes, although possessing a local interest and value as 

 aids in economic developments, are, from the scientific point of view, 

 simply masses of facts awaiting generalization ; and it is to be hoped 

 that the long-promised final report which is to co-ordinate these 

 multitudinous data will soon begin to appear. 



Only the first two volumes of the report for 1886 have been re- 

 ceived. These are crowded with details of the development and 

 production of coal, oil, and gas, but are rather deficient in features 

 of more than local interest not previously published ; and, since the 

 data are largely of a statistical nature, even their local value must 

 be diminished by tardy publication. 



The first volume contains the report, by Mr. E. V. d'Invilliers, 

 on the re-survey of the Pittsburg coal-region. It is largely a sum- 

 mary, in one volume, of the surveys«made a decade since by Professor 

 Stevenson, Mr. White, and others. It is accompanied, however, 

 by a new geological map of south-western Pennsylvania. Special 

 attention is given to the principal commercial coal of the region, — 

 the great Pittsburg bed. Its outcrop is determined horizontally 



and vertically more accurately than ever before ; and the historical 

 and statistical facts bearing upon its development, the structural lines 

 affecting its position for mining ; the stratigraphical features of the 

 coal-measure systems above and below it ; and the methods most 

 in use for mining and transporting its product to market, — are 

 exhibited in all desirable fulness and detail. It is easy to see that 

 this report must prove of great practical utility to the coal-operators 

 of the region ; and the elevations above tide of the outcrop of the 

 Pittsburg coal-bed will be useful to oil and gas prospectors in giv- 

 ing them a basis from which to estimate the depth to be drilled in 

 order to reach the geological horizons of the different oil and gas 

 sands. 



This report is supplemented by two important contributions on 

 Pennsylvania bituminous coal mining by Mr. A. N. Humphreys 

 and Mr. Selwyn Taylor, and is also accompanied by a memoir by 

 the eminent and venerable paleo-botanist, Leo Lesquereux, on the 

 character and distribution of paleozoic plants. 



The second volume consists chiefly of Mr. Carll's report on the 

 oil and gas regions. The history of development is the most com- 

 plete yet published, and gives the reader a good general idea of the 

 successive steps by which the petroleum industry has advanced 

 from the primitive skimming of an oil-spring with a piece of bark 

 and the restricted use of the material to medicinal purposes, to the 

 drilling of wells three thousand feet deep, the pumping of oil over 

 mountain and valley to the seaboard, and the flooding of the world 

 with an inexpensive illuminant. The ancient pits or shallow wells 

 which are found all over the oil-region, and which were undoubt- 

 edly dug to obtain oil, are discussed at some length ; and the con- 

 clusion is reached that these early oil operations are due, not to the 

 Indians, or French, or early white settlers, but to some primitive 

 dwellers on the soil, who have long since passed away. 



Short chapters on the geographic and topographic distribution of 

 oil and gas, on the structure and stratigraphy of the productive 

 horizons, and on the developments during 1886, are followed by a 

 long and monotonous series of well-records, which constitute the 

 principal part of the report. The volume concludes with a memoir 

 on the chemical composition of natural gas by Professor Phillips, 

 and the extended bibliography of petroleum. 



Unfinished Worlds : a Study in Astronomy. By S. H. ParkeS. 

 New York, Pott. 12". $1.50. 

 This book is intended for general readers, especially those in 

 early life, whose ideas of the province and achievements of science 

 are generally in excess of the sober teachings of actual experience. 

 In this we quote from the author, and, while we are ready to agree 

 with him to a large extent, yet we feel that just as th& knowledge 

 of Columbus seemed wonderful and awe-inspiring to his crews 

 when he predicted the coming of an eclipse, so to us appear star- 

 tling the little scraps of information our new instruments are giving 

 us of the constitution of the celestial bodies. The old astronomy 

 busied itself with the movements, the new astronomy with the 

 physical constitution, of the sun, the stars, the planets, and comets. 

 While it is true that for many of us the interest in the old astron- 

 omy began to wane, the results already achieved in this new field 

 are so novel that we may be pardoned if we are apt to exaggerate 

 their magnitude. Mr. Parkes's book has for its main purpose the 

 bringing-out clearly of the changing nature of the bodies filling 

 space, and sketches the information we have of nebulae, stars, the 

 sun, the earth, the planets, and comets. All this is well done. The 

 book closes with a resume of the different cosmic theories. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The January number of the Revue Philosophiqite, edited by 

 Felix Alcan, contains articles by A. Espinas on the mental evolu- 

 tion of animals, by F. Paulhan on associationaUsm and psychi- 

 cal synthesis, and by Adam on Pascal and Descartes. Besides 

 this, reviews and resumes of new publications are given. 



— Prof. J. J. Egli of Zurich, Switzerland, who writes the biennial 

 reports of new researches on geographical names for Wagner's 

 annual report on the progress of geography, publishes a circular 

 letter in which he requests authors and publishers to send him 

 copies, or, when such is not possible, titles, of publications and of 

 notes or papers in journals or books referring to the subject of goe- 



