302 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 114. 



student's notes will be confined to institutions 

 where lectures on chemistry are not extensive. 

 The book, describing only a few of the com- 

 moner and well-known compounds, is for the 

 most part accurate. Dr. Stoddard has divided 

 the elements into metals and non-metals, ac- 

 cording to their periodic functions, placing 

 bismuth, tin, antimony, and arsenic among the 

 latter. We think it simpler and less confusing 

 to the student if only the elements which have 

 no basic properties are included among the 

 non-metals. According to Dr. Stoddard's 

 division, we see no reason wh} T lead should 

 not be classed as a non-metal. 



The general arrangement of the qualitative 

 analysis, by the same author, differs but little 

 from that of other manuals. There is a close 

 resemblance to the form of the ' lecture-notes ' 

 on the same subject by Prof. Henry B. Hill ; 

 the difference, however, in point of clearness 

 and conciseness, not being in favor of the 

 4 outline.' A small manual of qualitative 

 analysis should be of such arrangement that it 

 may be used on the laboratory-desk ; and the 

 method of regular analysis should be given in 

 a continuous form. The methods described 

 for the basic analysis are not always those 

 which we have found to give the best results 

 in the average student's hands ; and the re- 

 actions given for the detection of the acids are 

 decidedlv meagre. We see nothing in the 

 book that is new, or of any advantage over 

 the manuals of qualitative analysis now in use. 



The systematic mineral record, b} T Prof. 

 E. M. Shepard, is intended to accompan} r any 

 text-book of mineralog}', and will be of great 

 help to the student in the sj'stematic examina- 

 tion of minerals. Its chief feature is the ex- 

 tremely clear and minute explanation of the 

 various physical and optical characteristics 

 which enable one to determine the nature of 

 the specimen ; and the definitions are illustrated 

 by examples of well-marked tj-pes. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Dk. Benjamin Apthorp Gould is to return to 

 this country very soon from South America, where he 

 has recently completed the observations upon which he 

 has been engaged for so long a time at the observatory 

 of Cordoba. His fellow-citizens of Boston propose 

 to give him a reception and a dinner on his return. 



— The British steamship Venetian, Capt. Traut, 

 reports that on March 22, at seven p.m., in 43° north, 

 51° west, the sea was very much agitated, and break- 

 ing in all directions; that this condition lasted half 

 an hour, and could not have been caused by the 



changes in the wind. It had the appearance of a 

 very heavy tide race. 



— A number of electrical storms are reported by 

 vessels in the North Atlantic from March 9 to 13, and 

 at various points off the coast from Cape Hatteras to 

 Cape Cod. St. Elmo's fire was seen in most of the 

 cases, and many of the storms were accompanied by 

 heavy thundering and lightning. 



— The Lyceum of natural history of Williams 

 college, Williamstown, Mass., the oldest natural-his- 

 tory society but one connected with any college in 

 the country, will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary on 

 the 24th of this month, at which a former member, 

 Dr. W. K. Brooks of the class of 1870, now as- 

 sociate of John-* Hopkins university, will deliver an 

 address. The lyceum proposes to take advantage of 

 the occasion to raise funds to enable it to undertake 

 expeditions to some spot, similar to those which it 

 has undertaken in former years to Labrador. Florida, 

 etc. 



— The first number of the American journal of 

 archaeology reflects much credit upon the editorial 

 management, and warrants the expectation that it 

 will supply a greatly needed want to the students of 

 archeological science in all its numerous branches. 

 For this reason we regret the more, that, in the initial 

 number of an American journal, the topic of Amer- 

 ican archeology should be conspicuous by its ab- 

 sence. This, we understand, has not arisen from 

 neglect upon the part of the editors ; and arrange- 

 ments have already been made to remedy it. The 

 original articles are not numerous, but all are of 

 undoubted merit and interest. Professor Norton 

 revives the memory of the earliest American classi- 

 cal archeologist, Mr. J. J. Middleton, of the well- 

 known South-Carolina family of that name. He was 

 the companion of Dodwell in his studies of the Pe- 

 lasgic remains in Italy, but preceded him by six 

 years in publication. Some of his drawings were 

 reproduced in the well-known posthumous publica- 

 tion of Dodwell, but no credit was given to the 

 American scholar. Mr. Waldstein contributes the 

 substance of an important note to his forthcoming 

 ' Essays on the art of Phidias,' correcting the mis- 

 conception as to the artistic significance of the pep- 

 los group on the eastern frieze of the Parthenon. 

 The longest paper is by Prof. Aug. C. Merriam, 

 a study of inscriptions found upon a collection of 

 sepulchral vases from Alexandria, now in New York. 

 It is most creditable to American scholarship, and 

 a decided addition to knowledge. The managing 

 editor, Dr. A. L. Frothingham, jun., begins a series 

 of articles on the relative excellence of Italian and 

 French sculpture during the thirteenth century, in a 

 very entertaining fashion; and Mr. Marsh gives a 

 lucid summary of a remarkable essay by Dorpfield, 

 which has shed a flood of light upon the origins of 

 Doric architecture, and its relations to earlier crude 

 brick construction. More than half the number is 

 devoted to book-notices, summaries of the contents 

 of the more important archeological periodicals of 

 Europe, and news items about discoveries, and the 



