March 19, 1886.] 



SCIEXCE. 



261 



again. We laid Dr. Kobelt's volume aside with 

 the intention of referring to it whenever any 

 thing is wanted concerning Algeria and Tunis. 

 No doubt the Germans have a lack of perspective. 

 To many of them a fact is a fact, to be investi- 

 gated and recorded : and their books are therefore 

 often wearying in the extreme. But, after all, 

 they do the work. They accomplish results which 

 never have been and never will be accomplished 

 by the French method of grabbing at whatever 

 is picturesque and entertaining, and flinging the 

 rest contemptuously aside. In the present volume 

 the author has done his work conscientiously and 

 well. Portions of it are dreary reading : but there 

 are many interesting chapters. Especially worthy 

 of mention are three chapters on the ethnology of 

 the countries visited, — the eighth, on Algeria and 

 its inhabitants ; the eleventh, dealing with the 

 Kabyles ; and the twenty-third, on the Tunisians. 

 His route was via Marseilles ; and the first chap- 

 ter, describing that city, is one of the very best in 

 the book. In short, American travellers who in- 

 tend writing up their journey ings would do well 

 to imitate in some measure the methods of Dr. 

 Kobelt. The volume is well illustrated, both with 

 photographs of scenery and of natives. It con- 

 tains also an appendix of considerable value, 

 by Dr. O. Boettger, describing the reptiles and 

 amphibia collected by the author in North Africa. 

 Besides the lack of an index, the volume is defi- 

 cient in that it contains no map. This is the 

 more to be regretted, as the learned doctor's route 

 is by no means easy to follow on any but a recent 

 German map of Algeria and Tunis, and recent 

 German maps of those regions are to be found in 

 this country only in our larger libraries. 



Rbmische chronologic Von L. Holzapfel. Leipzig, Teub- 

 ner, 1S85. 8°. 



Ix his ' Roman chronology ' Dr. Holzapfel aims 

 at correcting Roman dates, as commonly given, 

 by a minute process, which, at least as regards the 

 earliest dates, is certainly its own best refutation. 

 He deals also with the various Roman eras in cur- 

 rent use among the ancients. Finally, he attempts 

 to give a detailed account of "the course of the 

 Roman calendar down to the time of Caesars re- 

 form." In 1859, Theodor Mommsen, guided by a 

 practical good sense, which Dr. Holzapfel hardly 

 possesses, dealt with all these questions in his 

 ' Roman chronology.' Though in many details 

 Mommsen's conclusions can no longer be accepted, 

 notably as regards the chronological significance 

 of the appointment of a dictator clavi figendi 

 causa, it is still true that Mommsen's book is the 

 best upon the subject. The cardinal fault of Dr. 

 Holzapfel's work is, that it is inextricably in- 

 comprehensible without the unremitting labor of 



constant reference to what has been written by 

 others. The reader is distressed by a needless clat- 

 ter of controversy, which seems to indicate that 

 Dr. Holzapfel does not sufficiently trust his own 

 conclusions. All who are not actually bearing the 

 brunt of the chronological fray will find this book 

 unrefreshing and confusing ; and those who are 

 well read in the whole subject may well pause 

 before tormenting themselves with our author's 

 argumentations. The book is conspicuously lack- 

 ing in neatness of statement. There is no sense 

 of proportion, no prospective. The ' peasants' 

 calendar ' and the business year of ten months are 

 practically ignored. And yet what could be of 

 more importance than the former, in any account 

 of the conditions which made Caesar's reformed 

 calendar a possibility as well as a necessity ? It is 

 to be lamented that Dr. Holzapfel could not find 

 time to make his book both shorter and more com- 

 plete. This ' Roman chronology," with its tediously 

 paraded controversies and its sophomoric list of 

 emendations, ostentatiously placed at the end, is 

 an overgrown ' doctor's dissertation ' rather than a 

 desirable book of reference. 



A text-book of inorganic chemistry. By Victor von 

 Richter. Authorized translation by Edgar F. Smith. 

 2d American from the 4th German ed. Philadelphia, 

 Blakiston, 18*5. 16°. 



That Professor Smith's translation of Richter's 

 useful text-book of inorganic chemistry has passed 

 to a second edition, is perhaps sufficient testimony 

 to its value. Much has been rewritten, and some 

 new matter incorporated ; but the work would 

 have gained in clearness and smoothness if more 

 attention had been paid to the rendering of the 

 sense, rather than the phraseology, of the original. 



Spectrum analysis. By Sir Henry E. Roscoe. 4th ed. by 

 the author and by Arthur Schuster, Ph.D., F.R.S. 

 New York, Macmillan, 1886. 8°. 

 The fourth edition of Roscoe's ' Lectures on 

 spectrum analysis,' wholly revised, almost wholly 

 rewritten, and including concise accounts of such 

 recent advances of importance in spectroscopy as 

 lend themselves to popular treatment, follows 

 closely the plan and arrangement of its predeces- 

 sors, and appears in the same elegant guise. The 

 character and scope of the work are too well 

 known to need extended comment. 



ST. PETERSBURG LETTER. 

 On the 11th of February there was a special 

 meeting of the Geographical society, in honor of 

 X. M. Prjevalsky. The large hall of the Michael 

 palace, where the meeting was held, was crowded 

 by a distinguished audience. In a short prelim- 

 inary address, the vice-president, P. P. Semenow, 

 spoke of the merits of the traveller, and reminded 



