706 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



station of life ; a country magistrate, he felt 

 bound to inquire into the causes of crime, 

 and to use for the benefit of the community 

 the experience gained on the bench ; a poor- 

 law guardian, he was drawn into personal 

 sympathy with the poor, the outcast, and the 

 destitute." The papers he left behind him, 

 from which the selection of those in the 

 present volume was made, embody his well- 

 digested thought on a variety of subjects, 

 and many of them deal with problems still 

 unsolved. Of those here presented, three 

 deal with the prevention of crime generally ; 

 others present as a practical measure for 

 that object the apportionment of sentences 

 to crimes on a scientific principle which 

 should be made clearly understood, of " cu- 

 mulative punishment." This means grada- 

 tion according to the antecedents of the of- 

 fender and the number of repetitions of the 

 offense, with a term of police supervision 

 added, under which the man might be en- 

 couraged to try to regain his character in 

 honest employment. Other papers deal with 

 adult reformatories; the imprisonment of 

 children, which is advocated under certain 

 conditions ; jail labor ; reformatories ; meas- 

 ures for just dealing with vagrants; ec- 

 clesiastical questions ; education ; labor and 

 wages ; and the prisons bill (Mr. Cross's of 

 1876). 



Exploration op the Chest in Health and 



Disease. By Stephen Smith Burt, M. D. 



New York : *D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 206. 



Price, $1.50. 



This manual, which embodies the methods 

 pursued by the author with his classes, is in- 

 tended to aid the student in learning the 

 significance of physical signs and their mode 

 of development. Dr. Burt states that he has 

 made no attempt to establish distinctive 

 signs of disease, because he is convinced that 

 "precision in diagnosis is more surely at- 

 tained by treating each sign as subordinate 

 to the various combinations of signs which 

 are found in the different maladies." The 

 text is illustrated with cuts showing the 

 position of the heart and lungs with refer- 

 ence to each other and to the chest- walls, the 

 forms of instruments, etc. In describing the 

 different forms of stethoscopes, the author 

 expresses a preference for one which engages 

 both ears. He has discovered, by means of 

 the double stethoscope, what he deems a 



demonstration of the dual function of the 

 ears, viz., for perceiving the direction of 

 sounds. When listening to the ticking of a 

 watch with a binaural stethoscope having 

 arms of soft rubber tubing, if one arm is 

 closed by pinching it, the watch seems to 

 have been removed to the ear which still 

 hears its ticking. If the tube is released and 

 the other one is closed, the watch appears 

 to be transferred, not to its actual place, but 

 to the other ear. 



Annual Report of the Chief Signal-Officer 

 of the Army to the Secretary of War 

 for the Year 1888. By A. W. Greely. 

 Washington: Government Printing-Office. 

 Pp. 418. 



On the military side of his functions, the 

 Chief Signal-Officer records the steps he has 

 taken to secure a suitable heliograph appa- 

 ratus, the selection of field-glasses for army 

 use, and experiments with homing pigeons. 

 The inadequacy of the present methods to 

 insure instruction in military signaling is 

 lamented, with the declaration that "there 

 is not an average of two officers to a regi- 

 ment who are competent to transmit signals 

 — by sun, flag, and torch — day and night, 

 except those who have passed through a 

 regular course of instruction in connection 

 with this office." A valuable report by Lieu- 

 tenant Thompson on foreign organizations 

 and appliances for signaling forms one of 

 the appendixes of the volume. In the matter 

 of the weather service, credit is accorded to 

 three of the principal newspapers of the 

 country for the assistance given by their 

 meteorological editors in supplementing the 

 general predictions made by the office by 

 their own local predictions, and to other 

 journals for publishing meteorological data 

 of local interest. Of the storm-signals, 77'4 

 per cent were verified ; the system of cold- 

 wave observations was continued successfully 

 and satisfactorily. Observations on atmos- 

 pheric electricity were continued at four sta- 

 tions. Bulletins showing the effect of the 

 weather on the crops were issued weekly. 

 The railway bulletin service has decreased, 

 having been largely superseded by the State 

 services, which are well spoken of. The 

 question of river observations, in relation to 

 dangerous floods and the stages of naviga- 

 tion, engaged attention. A system of rain- 

 fall stations was instituted in July, 1 887, at 



