Geology and Natural History. 467 



second-hand account. There is also the advantage of seeing with 

 the eyes of many men and not being dependent upon the particu- 

 lar point of view of a single author. A careful examination of 

 this book can scarcely fail to convince the reader that the editors 

 have selected the best possible method of presenting the subject; 

 they have carried out the method with a degree of judgment 

 and discrimination which deserves hear-ty admiration, n. a. b. 



12. Laboratory Course in Physical Measurements; by W. 

 C. Sabine, A.M. Pp. vi + 97 (Ginn & Co), — This is a revised 

 edition of a laboratory manual by Professor Sabine, first published 

 in 1893. Brief directions are given for making about thirty 

 simple physical measurements, suitable for a class of students who 

 have had no mathematics beyond trigonometry. The experi- 

 ments are well chosen, and the directions are especially to be 

 commended in that they leave many details to be thought out by 

 the student for himself — a process of great educational value, 

 which is often absent from laboratory instruction. h. a. b. 



II. Geology and Natural History. 



1. Contributions to the History of American Geology ; by 

 George P. Merrill. Rept. IT. S. Nat. Mus. for 1904, pp. 189- 

 733, 37 plates, and 141 text-figures, 1906. — During odd moments, 

 the Head Curator of the Department of Geology in the U. S. 

 National Museum has collected the material for this history of 

 the growth of geology in North America. Far more informa- 

 tion was secured than appears in the printed work. The mode 

 of presentation, the author states, aims to " show not merely 

 what has been done, by whom, and how it has been done, but 

 the gradual growth of the science and the development of 

 powers of observation and deduction as well. To do this satis- 

 factorily, no other arrangement than a chronological one seemed 

 possible." 



The book is divided into eleven chapters under the following 

 headings: The Maclurean Era, 1785-1819 (Chapter I), The 

 Eatonian Era, 1820-29 (II), The Era of State Surveys, 1830- 

 1879, (III-VII), The Fossil Footprints of the Connecticut Val- 

 ley (VIII), The Eozoon Question (IX), The Laramie Question 

 (X), and The Taconic Question (XI). 



TJp to 1802, "none of the sciences were taught in the colleges 

 and other institutions of learning in America." In 1798, Pro- 

 fessor Dwight began to move for the " establishment in Yale 

 College of a department for the teaching of these subjects," and 

 in 1802 Benjamin Silliman was appointed professor of chemistry 

 and natural science in that institution. Silliman was then 

 twenty-two years of age, a tutor in law, " without even the 

 most rudimentary knowledge of the science he was to teach." 

 He then repaired to Philadelphia and for five months attended 

 the lectures on chemistry given by Dr. James Woodhouse in the 

 Medical School of Philadelphia. His own first lecture at Yale 



