548 Analyses of Books. [September, 
spot where, amongst others, it may be found the principle is 
faulty. Or, again, it is objectionable if the name of a consider- 
able district rich in mineral species is given to some one of its 
products ; such name should as early as possible be superseded. 
The author’s classification in the main agrees with that of 
Rammelsberg, as given in the second edition of his “ Mineral- 
Chemie.” The arrangement of Mohs and Breithaupt with a 
binary nomenclature like that prevalent in zoology and botany he 
considers impracticable, “ the objeftion of requiring two special 
names to indicate a mineral instead of one being sufficient to 
condemn it for ordinary use.” Here, perhaps, there may be 
room for a difference of opinion. We scarcely see how the com- 
bination of a generic and specific name should be more inconve- 
nient in one science than in another. However, the introduction 
of the binomial system in mineralogy would now occasion so 
much trouble and confusion that it cannot be seriously advocated. 
The author’s families of minerals are the native elements, the 
arsenides, and antimonides, the sulphides; the sulpho-salts ; 
oxides; silicates, hydro- silicates ; titanates, niobates and their 
analogues, the tungstates, molybdates, and chromates ; sulphates, 
phosphates, arseniates, and vanadiates ; borates; carbonates and 
nitrates ; haloid salts ; and, lastly, the minerals of organic origin. 
The descriptions of the several mineral species may be pro- 
nounced accurate, though in a volume not extending to quite 
400 pages elaborate detail has not been practicable. 
Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Year 1883. 
Washington : Government Printing Office. 
This report contains very much interesting matter. The 
Veterinarian gives an account of several epizootics which are 
causing serious losses to farmers. Foremost stands the so- 
called Texan cattle-fever, which is spreading much farther to the 
north than it was till lately supposed possible. The frosts and 
snows of severe winters are unable to put an end to the infection. 
The disease is not identical with anthrax, and the well-known 
Bacillus anthracis is absent in the cattle attacked. The author, 
however, considers that the diplococcus of the spleen is the true 
o-erm of the disease, and suggests that it may be converted into a 
vaccine. The following observations merit close investigation : 
u j s difficult to understand in the present condition of Science 
how it is possible for the native cattle of a section permanently 
infedted with a contagious plague to resist the influences of the 
contagion by which they are surrounded ; it is equally difficult 
to understand how apparently healthy cattle can distribute this 
