42 The West American Scientist. 



Demoresfs Family Magazine, xxvi. 6 (April, 1890), and 8 

 (June, 1890). This is one of the best magazines which reaches our 

 hands. The monthly summary of the world's progress is always 

 worth perusal, while in text and illustration it maintains a high 

 standard of excellence. 



The Century Magazine, xl 3 (July, 1890) Edward Atkin- 

 son opens in this number the long-expected discussion of the 

 'Single Tax,' followed by Henry George. ' A Taste of Ken- 

 tucky Bluegrass ' is an out-door paper by John Burroughs. ' A 

 Yankee in Andersonville ' gives a thrilling account of prison 

 life- 



St. Nicholas, xvii. 9 (July, 1890). H. W. Henshaw contrib- 

 utes to this number an instructive and finely-illustrated article on 

 ' Hawks and Their Uses.' ' Six Years in the Wilds of Cen- 

 tral Africa,' by E. J. Gl'ave, one of Stanley's pioneer officers, is 

 an entertaining series, of which the fourth installment is given. 

 " Crowded Out o 'Crofield" a serial now appearing in this mag- 

 azine, by William O. Stoddard, is one of the most delightful 

 stories that we have seen for a longtime. Both old and young 

 cannot fail to enjoy it. 



NOTES AND NEWS. • 



A handsome brittania medal has been issued by M. H. de 

 Young, as a souvenir of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the San 

 Er an cisco Chronicle. 



F. V. Szczcepanski, of St. Petersburg, Russia, is soon to issue 

 an annual directory of technical literature, 



Mrs. Laura A. Spencer Russell, the widow of John Russell, 

 died at the home of her son, at Bluffdale, 111., January 30, 1890. 

 She was born at Vergennes, Vermont, in 1797, married October 

 25, 1818, and was a resident of Bluffdale, 111., sixty-two years. 

 What Mrs. L. A. S. Russell was to that locality in pioneer days 

 can not be expressed in a few words. She was a Christian and ev- 

 eryway worthy of the name. Her husband was the author ol the 

 " Venemous Worm," an essay that has probably exerted as great 

 an influence for temperance as did Mrs. Stowe's great work for 

 anti-slavery. 



The new piano invented by Dr. Eisemann of Berlin can, by 

 the aid ol electro-magnetism, sustain, increase or diminish sound; 

 another and valuable novelty in its construction is that by 

 moving the electro-magnets the timbre of the tone is changed, 

 as, for example, from that of a violoncello to piccolo. 



The noiseless powder is not a new invention. In the third 

 volume of Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography the author relates 

 that when suffering Irom fever in Ferrara he cured himself by 

 eating peacocks, and that he procured himself the birds surrep- 

 titiously by shooting them with powder 'invented by him, that 

 made no noise.' 



