1883.3 
Notes. 
693 
Roofs, Girders, Bridges, Arches, Piers, and other Frameworks ; 
with a chapter on Wind Pressures, and a number of diagrams 
and plates to scale, with examples — many taken from existing 
structures. The same publishers also announce for immediate 
publication, “ The Art of Soap-making,” a Practical Handbook 
of the Manufacture of Hard and Soft Soaps, Toilet Soaps, &c., 
by Alexander Watt ; “ The Engineers’ and Shipowners’ Coal 
Tables,” by Nelson Foley, author of “ The Engineer’s Office 
Book of Boiler Construction ” : and the following works in their 
popular “ Weale’s Rudimentary Series ” : — “ Farm Buildings,” 
a Treatise on the Buildings necessary for various kinds of Farms, 
and their Arrangement and Construction, with Plans and Esti- 
mates, by Professor John Scott (being the fourth volume of 
Scott’s “ Farm Engineering Text-Books ”) ; and a revised and 
enlarged edition of “ Sanitary Work in the Smaller Towns and 
Villages,” by Charles Slagg, A.M. Inst. C.E. 
A journal is now published in Germany devoted to the study 
of Fungi, from a botanical, physiological, and economic point of 
view. 
Mr. C. H. Fernald, of the Orono State College (“American 
Naturalist ”), mentions that a horse went alone, and without the 
knowledge of his owner, to a blacksmith’s forge to have one of 
his shoes rectified. 
Says an ultra-heretical journal, “ Darwin was a laborious 
physicist, but no thinker to speak of. Taxonomy is not thought.” 
We ventured to foretell, some years ago, that the great natu- 
ralist would before long fall into disgrace among “ advanced 
thinkers.” 
Mr. W. N. Lockington (“ American Naturalist ”) ably combats 
the paradox of Prof. Minot that man is not the highest animal. 
Mr. J. S. Kingsley, in the same journal, questions the validity 
of the group Arthropoda, and points out important heterologies 
of structure between its two component sub-groups, Crustacea 
and Tracheata. 
The editors of the same journal say judiciously, concerning 
certain troublesome neologisms, “ What theologians are pleased 
to call the ‘ natural,’ man rightfully rebels against an overstrung 
nomenclature.” 
A very large portion of the world’s annual yield of platinum 
is obtamed from the Upper San Juan. 
M. J. Delauney (“ Comptes Rendus ”) proposes the following 
law on the occurrence of earthquakes, &c. : — “ The majority of 
the phenomena of cosmic and terrestrial meteorology, and in 
particular the great seismic tempests, seem to take place when 
the larger planets pass certain longitudes, especially 135 0 
and 265 0 .” 
