LITERARY NOTICES. 



*33 



output of coal in 1891 reached the enormous 

 total of one hundred and eighty-five millions 

 of tons — giving employment to about six 

 hundred thousand persons. The book con- 

 tains some excellent illustrations, and will be 

 read with interest by those who desire to 

 study the social and labor questions. (Lon- 

 don: Whittaker & Co. New York agents, 

 Macmillan & Co. 1892.) 



Few persons outside those connected with 

 engineering business are aware of the im- 

 portance of the pattern-maker. In a volume 

 of 180 pages A Foreman Pattern-maker has 

 embodied the most useful hints to appren- 

 tices and students in technical schools under 

 the title The Principles of Pattern-making. 

 The book is fully illustrated with one hun- 

 dred and one engravings, and includes a 

 useful glossary of the common terms em- 

 ployed both in pattern-making and molding. 

 Considering the size of the volume it is real- 

 ly surprising to find such a fund of useful 

 information upon the fundamental principles 

 of pattern-making condensed into so small 

 a space. The illustrations were nearly all 

 made by the author himself, and are almost 

 self-explanatory. It is published by Whit- 

 taker & Co., London. (New York agents, 

 Macmillan & Co. Price, 90 cents.) 



The Microscopical Examination of Pota- 

 ble Water is a little volume of 160 pages 

 which contains a good deal of useful infor- 

 mation concerning the best methods and ap- 

 paratus necessary for the microscopical and 

 bacteriological examination of water. The 

 author, George W Rafter, devotes consider- 

 able space to an explanation of the advan- 

 tages of filtration by sand over the Parkins 

 cloth method, and gives minute details of 

 several examinations and analyses of the 

 various public water supplies of the country, 

 basing the arguments which follow upon the 

 results of an examination of the Boston Sud- 

 bury River Water Supply. The remarks 

 upon the effect of light upon the formation 

 of starch in the algae are interesting, and he 

 claims that in certain lights the starch re- 

 mains protoplasmic, and that a low tempera- 

 ture and darkness are unfavorable to the 

 growth of algae in the water supplies. The 

 book is No. 103 of the Van Nostrand Science 

 Series. 



In a volume of 322 pages entitled Figure 

 Skating, Simple and Combined, Messrs. Mon- 



tagu S. Monier -Williams, Winter P. Pidgeon, 

 and Arthur Dryden, the most eminent of 

 British figure skaters, have given an elabo- 

 rate treatise upon the development of figure 

 skating in England. It is profusely illus- 

 trated with cuts and diagrams, and is pub- 

 lished by Macmillan & Co., New York ($2.25). 



Leonard Dobbin, Ph. D., and James Walk- 

 er, Ph. D., D. Sc, have issued a useful hand- 

 book of 240 pages entitled Chemical Theory 

 for Beginners. It is written with the object 

 of assisting beginners in obtaining an ele- 

 mentary knowledge of the principles upon 

 which modern chemistry is based. The 

 chapters on Elements and Compounds, 

 Chemical Action, Vapor Density, and The 

 Kinetic Molecular Theory are interesting 

 from a standpoint far advanced from the be- 

 ginner. The use of symbols has been disre- 

 garded in this work, so that a very young 

 student in chemistry will have no difficulty 

 in understanding the most intricate exam- 

 ples of chemical compounds, etc., which are 

 given. The kinetic theory of gases, as dis- 

 covered by Clerk Maxwell and Clausius, is 

 very simply demonstrated. The book is pub- 

 lished by Macmillan & Co., of London and 

 New York (10 cents). 



In a volume of 9Y8 pages the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission has issued its Third 

 Annual Report on the Statistics of Railways 

 in the United States. It is a comprehensive 

 tabulation of the classification, mileage, earn- 

 ings, expenditures, and capital of the various 

 railway systems of the country. In the read- 

 ing matter which prefaces the voluminous 

 and interesting statistics there is a com- 

 plaint that the statistical data procurable 

 from the monthly reports of the different 

 railway corporations is of little value to pub- 

 licists and economists; and it is claimed 

 that the present system of bookkeeping in 

 vogue among the accountants of the differ- 

 ent roads " leads inevitably to an erroneous 

 balance-sheet." The remarks upon and the 

 statistics of the enormous increase of mile- 

 age will be read with interest by economists, 

 and the fact that this increase is propor- 

 tionately far greater in the Southern States 

 will be a surprise to those who have not 

 carefully observed the industrial progress of 

 that section of the country. 



D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, have issued 

 a new publication entitled The Complete 



