June i, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



265 



and its Adulteration;' 'Canned Foods;' 'Candies;' 'Poisoning 

 from Smoked Sturgeon ; ' ' Baking-Powder ; ' ' Bread ; ' ' The Food 

 at the State Camp ; ' ' Foods for Invalids and Infants,' by Prof. A. 

 R. Leeds;' 'Estimation of Morphine in Opium,' by Prof. H. B. 

 Cornwall; and 'Notes on Drugs sold in New Jersey,' etc., by Au- 

 gust Drescher. 



American Fishes. By G. Brown Goode. New York, Standard 

 Book Co. 8°. 



This is a book which every devotee of the rod will be glad to 

 possess. Mr. Goode modestly says in the preface that he yielded 

 to his publisher's request for a ' book about fish and fishing in 

 America.' feeling that he knew more on this subject than on any 

 other. Since 1874 Mr. Goode has been more or less closely con- 

 nected with the United States Fish Commission, has been abroad 

 as the representative of the United States to the foreign fishery ex- 

 hibitions, and has in several books and innumerable articles pub- 

 lished the results of his obser\'ations and investigations. For a 

 time Mr. Goode acted as fish commissioner after the death of Pro- 

 fessor Baird, resigning the position only that he might devote all 

 his energies to the National Museum. 



In the present volume no attempt is made to cover all of the 

 1,750 species known to exist on this continent : the object has 

 been rather to give information about every North American fish 

 likely to be of interest to the general reader either on account of 

 its food-value or its gameness. All of this information is couched 

 in such language as to be perfectly intelligible to those not conver- 

 sant with the mysteries of scientific terminology; and, as the au- 

 thor states, the book is intended for " the angler, the lover of na- 

 ture, and the general reader." A figure is given of nearly every 

 species, and these figures are most admirable, resembling fre- 

 quently the carefully prepared drawings of the Fish Commission. 



Mr. Goode gives vent to one lamentation in which he will meet 

 the sympathy of those who have had the products of their pens 

 published as public documents. It is probable that most of those 

 who have ever had the curiosity sufficient to induce them to take 

 down from the shelves of some country library one from the rows 

 of mourning-clad volumes of government reports have never gone 

 further than the ' honor to transmit.' One of the chief objects of 

 the author in writing this hook was to see some of the results of 

 his twenty years' study printed in substantial and dignified shape. 

 We had never thought of our black-clad friends as lacking in 

 dignity, and they are certainly substantial enough for such use as 

 they get ; still the public is to be congratulated on having so well 

 made a book on a subject so ably and successfully handled. It is 

 a book on fish and their habits, and there is no attempt to tell of 

 rods and flies. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The June number of The Century opens with the second of 

 Mr. Kennan's illustrated articles, this one being on ' Plains and 

 Prisons of Western Siberia.' The Lincoln history in this number 

 contains chapters on ' The Advance,' ' Bull Run,' ' Fremont,' and 

 ' Military Emancipation.' The last of the present series of illus- 

 trated Western articles by Mr. Roosevelt is entitled ' The Ranch- 

 man's Rifle on Crag and Prairie.' Another illustrated article is 

 written by Mr. Theodore De Vinne, printer of The Century^ and is 

 entitled ' A Printer's Paradise : The Plantin-Moretus Museum at 

 Antwerp.' Mr. Burroughs's appreciative article on ' Matthew Ar- 

 nold's Criticism,' it seems, had been sent to the printer for the June 

 Century before Mr. Arnold's death. In the same number Mrs. 

 van Rensselaer points out some of the errors into which Mr. Ar- 

 nold fell in discussing American art. Professor Atwater's food- 

 article this month discusses the question ' What We Should Eat.' 

 The fiction of the number includes some chapters of Dr. Eggles- 

 ton's novel, ' The Graysons.' The concluding portion of Henry 

 James's ' The Liar ' is given ; with two short stories, ' Selina's Sin- 

 gular Marriage,' by Grace Denio Litchfield, and a love-story, ' By 

 Telephone,' by Brander Matthews. A biographical paper is devoted 

 by Mrs. Herrick to Col. Richard Malcolm Johnston, the Southern 

 story-writer. A portrait of Colonel Johnston accompanies the ar- 

 ticle. In this number there is another article by Mr. Cheney on 



bird-songs ; there is also a group of poems. The June St. 



Nicholas has as a leading article, 'A Great Show,' by Prof. Alfred 

 Church, describing the Circus Maximus at Rome. Thomas Nel- 

 son Page continues the serial, ' Two Little Confederates,' and Celia 

 Thaxter contributes a children's story, ' Cat's-Cradle.' 'Caterina 

 and her Fate,' by E. Cavazza, is an old Sicilian legend put into 

 verse, and illustrated by R. B. Birch. Among the lighter features 

 are contributions by Amelie Rives, Emilie Poulsson, Margaret 

 Johnson, Estelle Thomson, Julia P. Ballard, Alfred Brennan, and C. 



W. Miller. Despite the fire, the June issue of The American 



Magazine is a good number. Among the notable features is a 

 paper on 'Our Defences from an Army Standpoint,' by Gen. O.O. 

 Howard ; ' The Art of Entertaining,' by Mrs. Gen. John A. Logan ; 

 ' Dickens on the American Stage,' by George Edgar Montgomery ;. 

 and ' Barbados: The Elbow Island,' by Dr. William F. Hutchin- 

 son. In spite of reports to the contrary. The Cosmopolitan 



magazine will continue to be published. The June number, shortly 

 to be issued, promises to be the best it has ever sent forth. The 

 leading article, upon ' The Romance of Roses,' is an account, by 

 Sophie B. Herrick, of the stories clustering about these universal 

 favorites. It is illustrated by many engravings and by four coloredi 

 pages. 



— Under the head of ' Philosophical Papers, of the University of 

 Michigan,' Andrews & Company, Ann Arbor, are now publishing a 

 second series. These papers were prepared by specialists in the- 

 university, under the direction of the philosophical department, and, 

 with but one exception, were read before the Philosophical Society,, 

 being selected and edited by Prof. George S. Morris. The series, 

 consists of four papers, — 'The Ethics of Democracy,' by Prof. 

 John Dewey; 'Speculative Consequences of Evolution,' by Prof.. 

 Alexander Winchell ; ' Lessing on the Boundaries of Poetry and 

 Painting,' by Prof. E. L. Walter; 'The Ethics of Bishop Butler and Im- 

 manuel Kant' (a thesis for the degree of Ph.D.), by Webster Cook. 



Cassell's ' Pocket Guide to Europe,' the 1888 edition of which is, 



just out, was planned by E. C. Stedman, to meet the demand for a 

 general European guide-book, small enough to be carried easily in 

 a gentleman's or lady's pocket, and yet more complete than any 

 other single-volume guide. It was compiled by Edward King of Paris, 

 who personally went over most of the routes described. It was 

 revised by M. F. Sweetser of Boston, and is re-edited and kept up 

 to date by Mr. Stedman, with the aid of experts in the London 

 office of Messrs. Cassell & Company. 



— Senator Edmunds has proposed an amendment to the diplo-^ 

 matic and consular appropriation bill, authorizing the government, 

 to expend twenty-five thousand dollars for salaries and expenses, 

 of a scientific commission of three persons — to be composed of 

 one officer of the army or navy, a geologist and mineralogist, and 

 naturalist — to visit and report upon the resources of the upper 

 Kongo basin, its products, its minerals, its vegetable wealth, the 

 openings for American trade, and such other information as shall 

 be thought of interest to the United States. Another amendment, 

 which he has proposed to the sam.e bill provides an appropriation, 

 of ten thousand dollars for salary and expenses of an agent and, 

 consul-general at Borna, in Kongo. The President is authorized, 

 to detail an army or navy officer for this service. 



— The House committee has reported favorably the international, 

 copyright bill, that has already been passed by the Senate, instead 

 of the one introduced by one of its own members. This shows a 

 determination to enact this measure into a law during the present 

 session, and a willingness to facilitate its passage. 



— The House committee has given a good deal of attention to 

 the proposed survey for the purpose of ascertaining whether the 

 arid lands of the United States are susceptible of being reclaimed 

 or not. Popular interest in this matter is aroused all over the 

 West. No more important subject has been brought to the atten- 

 tion of Congress during the present session. 



— The delay of Congress in passing the annual appropriation 

 bills prevents the Bureau of Ethnology from making its plans for 

 the field-work of the present season. This bureau is not estab- 

 lished by law, but is kept alive from year to year by special appro- 

 priations for its work. While there is rio doubt that it will be pro- 



