March 2, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



107 



work may be regarded as a briefer presentation of the doctrines 

 taught by Mill, and hence this digest will serve to a certain extent 

 as a summary of Mill's work also. 



What Shall we Talk About ? New York, T. Nelson & Sons. 

 16°. $1. 

 This is one of the old-style educational books, in which some 

 parents or grand-parents entertain a party of children with wise and 

 instructive stories and adventures. The present volume treats in 

 this style a great variety of subjects referring to natural science. 

 Descriptions of animal life, and anecdotes, come in for a large share 

 of the space ; but, besides, astronomical and physical phenomena 

 are explained. We fear that some of the subjects treated, as well 

 as the style of the book, are quite beyond the grasp of children as 

 young as those for whom it is intended. The treatise on the physi- 

 cal properties of air on p. 139, to point out one instance, cannot be 

 understood by children. The author neglects throughout the book 

 to stimulate the power of observation, and gives theories instead. 

 Besides, the cursory way in which phenomena having no connec- 

 tion whatever are treated without order and regularity must be 

 rejected from an educational standpoint, as it promotes superficial- 

 ness. 



A Text-Book of Algebra. By W. S. Aldis. Oxford, Clarendon Pr. 

 12°. $1.90. 



The present work is in its general plan similar to that of Pro- 

 fessor Chrystol, pubHshed in 1886. While containing many of the 

 new methods and conceptions which render the latter work so 

 valuable, Aldis's work is less exhaustive than Chrystols', and does 

 not depart so far from the ordinary text-books in general use as 

 Chrystols' does. On this account it is better suited to teachers 

 and students familiar with the rudiments of algebra. Indeed, the 

 book is one which should be in the hands of every mathematical 

 teacher in a high school, academy, or college in the country. It is 

 only by the help of such works as the present one that mathematical 

 education can be raised to a higher standard than it at present 

 possesses. 



The peculiar excellences of the book are found in the two open- 

 ing chapters, which together occupy fifty-one pages. The book 

 begins with a thorough discussion of arithmetical ideas. The pro- 

 cess of counting leads to the idea of positive integers ; thence addi- 

 tion, and its inverse operation subtraction, arise ; next come mul- 

 tiplication, and its inverse division. By division we are led to the 

 idea of fractions. 



Chapter II. is devoted to algebraic notation. By subtraction we 

 are led to the idea of negative numbers. The laws governing such 

 numbers are fully discussed and carefully illustrated. 



At the end of the second chapter is introduced a brief treatment 

 of vector quantities: this is introduced simply to show the student 

 that "algebra is something very much wider in its scope than a 

 mere substitution of letters for numbers to aid in the solution of 

 general arithmetical problems." These words are the author's 

 own. 



The remainder of the book differs little from the well-known 

 text-book of Todhunter. The last chapter, on choice, might have 

 been extended with advantage. 



The book is marred by clumsy and faulty language. Many of 

 the definitions lack precision, and many terms are introduced with- 

 out definition. Some words are made to have two inconsistent 

 meanings. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The first number of the Internationales Archiv fur Ethno- 

 graphie has just been issued. The new journal is edited by J. D. 

 E. Schmeltz, curator of the National Ethnographical Museum at 

 Leyden. It is novel in plan, being exclusively devoted to the dis- 

 cussion of the ethnographic specimens collected among the various 

 tribes and races. The journal will make accessible by illustrations 

 the collections deposited in the various museums of the world. 

 The text will contain papers in French, English, German, and 

 Dutch, according to the choice of the author. The subjects of the 

 papers will be the ethnographical results of expeditions, descrip- 

 tions of newly discovered ethnographical objects, and studies of 



collections. Objects the origin of which is doubtful will be figured 

 and discussed. The plan of the journal includes also the study of 

 prehistoric remains. As the material for ethnographical studies is 

 so widely scattered in private and public collections, the establish- 

 ment of such a journal must be welcomed by all students of the 

 science of man. In order to make it the centre of such studies, a 

 number of co-editors in various countries contribute to the journal. 

 The first number shows that the journal will be of the greatest 

 value. Three beautiful chromolithographic plates and a number of 

 cuts illustrate the text. The plates show a large collection of New 

 Guinea arrows, to illustrate a paper by Dr. L. Serrurier, in whic'n 

 the various forms of arrows of this large island are ably discussed,, 

 and the principal object of which is to show that only a large col- 

 lection will enable us to determine the typical forms of ethno- 

 graphical objects, and to draw reliable conclusions. The third 

 plate is devoted to the mandaus, the sword of the Dayak, the 

 manufacture and ornaments of which are described in detail by S. 

 W. Tromp. This paper is illustrated by a series of cuts showing 

 the ornaments and various forms of handles. The rest of the 

 paper is taken up by notes on recent additions to collections, a biblio- 

 graphical review, and a discussion of objects of doubtful origin. 

 The periodical is to appear bimonthly, and each number will con- 

 tain about twenty-four pages text in quarto, and three chromo- 

 lithographs. The journal is published by O. W. M. Trap, Leyden. 



— The most interesting feature of the twenty-first report of the 

 trustees of the Peabody Museum is Professor Putnam's report on 

 the purchase of the Serpent Mound in Adams County, O., for 

 which a number of ladies of Boston subscribed a sum of nearly six 

 thousand dollars, and on the steps taken to secure the preservation 

 of the interesting monument. Eight weeks were given to the care- 

 ful restoration of the great earthwork, erecting a fence about it, so 

 that only persons on foot can enter the enclosure. The land was 

 cleared of brush and briers, and the mound was sown with blue- 

 grass-seed. A road half a mile long was made, extending to a 

 grove of maples in the south-eastern corner of the grounds, in 

 which are two springs. This grove has also been enclosed by a 

 fence. A substantial spring-house of stone has been built, and 

 trees are now being planted along the road. A gravel path has 

 been laid out from the spring to the serpent, and various other im- 

 provements have been made. It is highly gratifying that Professor 

 Putnam has succeeded in preserving this remarkable monument, 

 and the liberal action of the subscribers will undoubtedly be a ma- 

 terial help to future endeavors to preserve ancient monuments in 

 the United States. Several changes have taken place in the board 

 of trustees of the museum : Col. Theodore Lyman resigned his 

 trusteeship, and Mr. Samuel H. Scudder was elected his successor. 

 George F. Hoar, who resigned the presidency of the American 

 Antiquarian Society, was succeeded by Stephen Salisbury. Professor 

 Putnam became trustee as president of the Boston Society of Nat- 

 ural History. Professor Gray was succeeded by Professor Lover- 

 ing, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 



— A new thermometer for measuring the temperature of the air 

 has been constructed by R. Assmann. In order to protect it from 

 the influences of radiation and other sources of heat, he inserts the 

 bulb of the thermometer in a metal tube which is open at its lower 

 end. . An aspirator is fastened to the tube near the bulb, and a 

 continuous current of air of about seven feet velocity passes the 

 latter. Thus it assumes the true temperature of the air. The tube 

 is made of highly polished nickel-plated brass in order to protect it 

 from radiation. Experiments show that this thermometer gives 

 entire satisfaction. Two instruments, one of which was exposed to 

 the sun in July while the other was shadowed, showed the same 

 temperature. A dry and a wet thermometer being inserted in the 

 tube, it serves as hygrometer in the same way as the ordinary ther- 

 mometer. Undoubtedly the device is superior to the arrangement 

 of thermometer now in general use. 



— Prof. David S. Martin is about to publish the large-scale geo- 

 logical map of the environs of New York City, which he exhibited 

 at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. The object is to furnish a map in which all those 

 important geological features which were not before brought to- 

 gether in one representation, can be clearly seen by an audience or 



