378 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



race is no such mere incident of humanity. 

 It is a great thing, and its greatness is con- 

 ditioned upon and attested by the serious 

 sacrifice of other things. Woman is organ- 

 ized throughout her whole nature to the end 

 of maternity, and, if treated in her youth 

 like the opposite sex, which has not this 

 organization, evils are liable to arise that 

 are often numerous, lasting, and fatal. And 

 that which reason says must be the result, 

 experience says is the result, as Dr. Clarke's 

 book abundantly proves. In his second 

 chapter he makes a very clear statement of 

 the physiological facts and principles in- 

 volved in the question, and, in his third and 

 main chapter, entitled " Chiefly Clinical," 

 he traces the morbid consequences that 

 have followed a false system of female edu- 

 cation. This part of his book is full of 

 startling facts, given in detail, that should 

 arrest the attention of some of our headlong 

 reformers. The book is one that ought to 

 have a wide circulation, and to be issued in 

 a cheaper form. 



British Marine Alg,e: being a Popular 

 Account of the Sea-weeds of Great Brit- 

 ain, their Collection and Preservation. 

 Illustrated. By W. H. Grattann. Lon- 

 don : " The Bazaar" office, 32 Welling- 

 ton Street, Strand, W. C. 



While the collecting of algae at the 

 sea-side has long been a graceful and favor- 

 ite amusement, and many persons have very 

 pretty collections of them, mounted on 

 cards and papers, or arranged in fanciful 

 designs, very few have attempted to learn 

 their names or to study out their structure, 

 fructification, and the principles of their 

 classification. Thanks to the labors of the 

 two Agardhs, Kiitzing, Thuret, Harvey, 

 Greville, and other eminent phycologists, 

 the scientific knowledge of these plants now 

 rests on a satisfactory and logical basis, 

 and while the study of algae is difficult in 

 the extreme, there are ample results to re- 

 ward the patient and careful investigator. 

 The purpose of the little book, the title of 

 which is given above, is to afford to ama- 

 teurs and to students an easy introduction 

 to the knowledge of algae, and, if one may 

 judge from the first four parts of the work, 

 all yet received, the author has succeeded 

 admirably in his purpose. The wonder is, 

 that Mr. Grattann has been able to convey 



so much knowledge about the subject he 

 treats of, and yet be so sparing in the use 

 of technical expressions. 



The fact that most of the sea-weeds of 

 the Northern Atlantic coast of the United 

 States occur also about the British Islands, 

 renders this book nearly as available for 

 use here as in Great Britain. The illustra- 

 tions are very neatly-prepared woodcuts, 

 mostly on a black ground, and are inserted 

 in the body of the work. For advanced 

 students in American phycology the only 

 special treatise is the " Nereis Boreali-Ameri- 

 cana" of the late Dr. Harvey, of Trinity Col- 

 lege, Dublin, a quarto with fifty colored 

 plates, published by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. 



MISCELLANY. 



Physical Conditions of Inland Seas. — 



In the August number of the Contemporary 

 Review is a paper of great interest by Dr. 

 Carpenter, in which that scientist explains 

 some curious phenomena of inland seas. 

 It is well known that in the open ocean the 

 depths are uniformly colder than near the 

 surface, so that, while the surface-water 

 in some cases approaches 80° Fahr., the 

 temperature is near the freezing-point at 

 depths of one or two miles. This appears 

 to occur where the movement of water is 

 unobstructed by inequalities of the ocean's 

 bed. Where these are present, however, 

 the temperature is more uniform through- 

 out, as in the Sulu Sea, where the water 

 is at 50° at the greatest depths, but in 

 the contiguous but more open China Sea 

 it is at 37° in deep soundings. 



From the cause assigned, the inland seas 

 show a uniformity of temperature as com- 

 pared with the open oceans. While the 

 surface-waters may be of equal temperature, 

 the depths present great contrast. The 

 Straits of Gibraltar are quite shallow, and 

 a free interchange of waters between the 

 Atlantic and the Mediterranean is impossi- 

 ble. From local causes there is frequently 

 no current, or but a very slight one, either 

 one way or the other. As a consequence 

 of this, the cold waters of the deep Atlantic 

 are prevented from flowing in, and a com- 

 paratively uniform temperature prevails in 

 the depths of the Mediterranean. 



