406 
Notices of Boohs. 
tjuly, 
Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of N orth- American Indians. 
By W. H. J ackson. Washington : Government Printing- 
Office. 
The collection of photographs of members of different North- 
American tribes, formed under the auspices of the United States 
Geological Survey of the Territories, is an ethnological monu- 
ment of peculiar value. It embraces over one thousand nega- 
tives, representing no fewer than twenty-five distinct tribes. Of 
these not a few are in process of extinction, whilst the rest are 
undergoing a process of intermixture with each other, and with 
the different nationalities of European or African origin who 
have overspread the western hemisphere. Hence a collection 
like the one in question is necessarily unique, and if it should 
be allowed to perish could never be reproduced. The catalogue 
is arranged ethnologically, and includes a short history of each 
tribe. 
The Scientific Basis of Music. By W. H. Stone, M.A., M.B. 
Oxon, F.R.C.P., Lecturer on Physics at St. Thomas’s 
Hospital, Vice-President of the Physical Society. 71 pp. 
London : Novello, Ewer, and Co. 
This little book is one of a series of “ Music Primers ” issued 
by the above enterprising publishers. Although intended as 
manuals of instruction for beginners, they are so carefully 
written, and so much above the ordinary run of books — good, 
bad, and indifferent — which we meet with as tutors and instructors 
in various branches of music, that they can be read with interest 
even by advanced students, and, as far as they go, are worthy to 
take rank with some of the admirable works published under the 
auspices of the Paris Conservatoire. Dr. Stone’s work treats on 
a department hitherto much neglected by the musical student : 
the author — himself a good practical musician, as well as a 
physicist — is admirably qualified for the task he has undertaken. 
In the first chapter the sources of sound are fully and clearly 
explained. At page 21 the author mentions the class of Mem- 
branous Reeds , such as the larynx and the human lip acting on 
the cupped mouthpiece of a brass instrument : the author defers 
the consideration of the subject to a future chapter, but careful 
reading fails to find any further mention of this interesting class 
of sound-producers ; it is to be hoped that this defect may be 
remedied in a future edition. 
The following chapters explain the subjects of Velocity, 
Reflection, Refraction, Interference, Tonometry; Musical Tone, 
