Chapter VII: Part 7

The _Eighteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey_[33] mentions, as an important change in the field work that made necessary by the legislation providing for the establishment of levels and permanent monuments and bench marks, of which 10,840 miles of levels were run and 1,820 bench marks were established. The topographic surveys to date covered an aggregate area of 759,525 square miles, of which 240,000 square miles were on a scale of four miles to the inch. The topographic work has progressed very satisfactorily under the present organization of the survey, including, in the year covered by the report, surveys in the Indian Territory and of the northern part of the boundary line between Idaho and Montana--the first work of the kind assigned to the Geological Survey--and the beginning of the survey of the forest reserves. The work on the educational series of rocks has been completed. It includes two hundred and fifty larger and smaller sets, which will be distributed to institutions where geology is taught. In his general report the director mentions the work of more than thirty geological parties in all parts of the United States, of six paleontological parties, hydrographic and topographic surveys by States, and the work of the division of mineral resources, the full account of which will constitute Part V of the report. The theoretic and other papers in Part II relate to the Triassic Formation of Connecticut (W. M. Davis), Geology of the Edwards Plateau, etc., Texas (R. T. Hill and J. W. Vaughan), North American Tertiary Horizons (W. H. Dall), Glaciers of Mount Rainier (I. C. Russell) and Rocks of Mount Rainier (G. O. Smith), The Franklin White Limestone of New Jersey (J. E. Wolfe and A. H. Brooks), the Geology of San Clemente Island (W. S. T. Smith), Geology of the Cape Cod District (N. H. Shaler), and Recent Earth Movement in the Great Lakes Region (G. K. Gilbert). Part III contains papers on the gold districts of Alaska, by G. F. Becker, J. E. Spurr, and H. B. Goodrich; Coal Fields of Puget Sound (B. Willis), the Judith Mountains of Montana (W. H. Weed and L. V. Pirsson), Certain Mining Districts in Idaho (W. Lindgren and F. H. Knowlton), and the Mining Districts of the Telluride Quadrangle, Colorado (C. W. Purington). The four papers in Part IV are a Report of Progress of Stream Measurements during 1896, by A. P. Davis; the Water Resources of Indiana and Ohio, by Frank Leverett; New Developments in Well-boring in South Dakota, by N. H. Darton; and Water Storage and the Construction of Dams, by J. D. Schuyler.

[Footnote 33: Eighteenth Annual Report of the United States
Geological Survey to the Secretary of the Interior, 1896-'97.
Charles D. Walcott, Director. In Five Parts. Director's Report,
including Triangulation and Spirit Leveling. Pp. 450, with 4
plates. Part II; Papers chiefly of a Theoretic Nature. Pp. 653,
with 105 plates. Part III; Economic Geology. Pp. 861, with 118
plates. Part IV; Hydrography. Pp. 756, with 102 plates.]

The purpose of _Belle S. Cragin's Our Insect Friends and Foes_[34] is illustrated from a passage in the author's own life, cited in the preface: "In my younger days, when Nature study was unknown in schools and my problems had to be solved by my own investigations or remain unsolved, I used to long for somebody to write a book that would tell me the things I wished to know, or show me how to find them out for myself; and that is what I have tried to do for you." The beginning of the book is a chapter on the collection, preservation, and care of insects for specimens, giving explicit directions for collecting them perfect, for putting them to death, for mounting and placing them in the cabinet, and for protecting them against vermin, dust, and mold, with descriptions of the instruments, cases, etc., that are used. In the descriptions of insects no attempt is made to mention any except the commonest species, and not all of those. The habitat, in most cases, is included in the description. As a rule, most of the species are those found in the States east of the Rocky Mountains and north of the Gulf States. Scientific names are attached to the illustrations and a list of popular names, with their scientific equivalents. The descriptions are brief and well adapted to the purpose indicated in the quotation with which our notice begins.

[Footnote 34: Our Insect Friends and Foes. How to Collect,
Preserve, and Study them. By Belle S. Cragin. New York: G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Pp. 377. Price, $1.75.]

In presenting a revision of their _Plane and Solid Geometry_[35] Messrs. _Beman_ and _Smith_ express their belief as being, that amid all the schemes for breaking away from the formal proofs of Euclid and Legendre and leading the student to independent discovery, the best results are secured by setting forth a minimum of formal proofs as models, and a maximum of unsolved or unproved propositions as exercises. They likewise share in the belief that such of the notions of modern geometry as materially simplify the ancient should find place in our elementary text-books. Accordingly, they have introduced various ideas, such as those of one-to-one correspondence, anti-parallels, negative magnitudes, general figures, prismatic space, similarity of point systems, etc., which are of real use in the early study of the science. In general, whatever is found to be usable in elementary work has been inserted where it will prove of most value.

[Footnote 35: New Plane and Solid Geometry. By W. W. Beman and D.
E. Smith. Boston: Ginn & Co. Pp. 382.]

The plan of the investigation undertaken by Mr. _Walter Smith_ in his _Methods of Knowledge_[36] is, first, to give a definition of knowledge. The methods are then considered by which men have thought it possible to attain knowledge of the self on the one hand, and the not-self on the other. The common view of philosophers and men of science that truth is given in general concepts, or universals, or categories, is taken up, and the special form of the doctrine given in empiricism is considered and found to be a doctrine wanting in all its forms. Yet it is pointed out that the concept has its uses in the mental economy. The method is then expounded of knowing the not-self as being gained by sympathetic imitation. It is then determined wherein self-knowledge consists, and the bearing of this theory on the philosophical problem and on certain practical questions is indicated.

[Footnote 36: Methods of Knowledge. An Essay in Epistemology. New
York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 340. Price, $1.25.]

In _The Philosophy of Memory and Other Essays_[37] Dr. _D. T. Smith_ develops a theory of mental action, the basis of which is the setting up in the cells of the gray matter of the brain, and possibly of the spinal cord, of orderly grouping of waves or vibrations among certain atoms or molecules by whatever may affect any of the senses; that these undulations are realized first as sensations, and then group themselves so as to form perceptions, ideas, emotions, etc. They rise in succession into the scope of consciousness. After a time the effect of these vibrations in consciousness is weakened, without perhaps utterly passing away, and retains the possibility of being re-enforced by kindred vibrations in harmony with it. This is memory.

[Footnote 37: The Philosophy of Memory and Other Essays. By D. T.
Smith. Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton & Co. Pp. 203.]

In _The Psychology of Reasoning_[38] M. _Alfred Binet_ makes reasoning a process of the formation of mental images. He finds no decided difference between perception--the cognizance of sensations and assignment of them to their source--and logical reasoning. "The two operations are both reasonings, transitions from the known to the unknown"; "the two extremes of a long series of phenomena." A premise is "a judgment, an association of images," and a conclusion that follows from the premises is "an association of images produced by other associations." The theory of three images--the two premises and the conclusion--"is applicable to reasonings of every kind, and therefore constitutes a general theory of reasoning.... If it be recollected that images are fragments, residues of former sensations; that they spring from the place where former sensations have been received, in the sensory centers of the cerebral surface layers, it will be understood that the purpose of these images in grouping themselves in reasonings, according to the laws of their affinity, is to replace the absent sensations. Such is therefore the function of reasoning; it enlarges the sphere of our sensibility, and extends it to all objects which our senses can not know directly. Thus understood, reasoning is a _supplementary sense_, which has the advantage of being free from those strict conditions of time and space--the two enemies of human knowledge." In memory, "the suggested image is projected and localized in the panorama of the past, of which it appears to be a fragment." Imagination is "a faculty of creating assemblages of images which do not correspond to any external reality."

[Footnote 38: The Psychology of Reasoning. Based on Experimental
Researches in Hypnotism. By Alfred Binet. Chicago: The Open Court
Publishing Company. Pp. 191.]

The idea of preparing _Who's Who in America_[39] was suggested by the success of the English book, Who's Who? now in its fifty-second year, and the work has been prepared on similar lines. Its purpose is to supply information concerning living American men and women who have achieved distinction, who hold recognized public positions, and who have contributed so as to have it talked about to the growth, development, knowledge, and civilization of the country. Eight thousand six hundred and two such persons are represented in this book, including, _ex-officio_, all members of the Fifty-sixth Congress, Governors of States and Territories now in office, United States, State, and territorial judges of courts of high jurisdiction, persons of other prominent official classification, national academicians, members of the National Academy of Sciences, heads of the larger universities and colleges, and a few others chosen on similar arbitrary lines. Special effort has been made to include all living American authors of books of more than ephemeral value. The data for the book have been obtained from first hands, except in a very few cases, where the modesty of the subjects made it necessary to supply the material from other sources, when the articles were submitted to the subjects for revision.

[Footnote 39: Who's Who in America. A Biographical Dictionary of
Living Men and Women in the United States, 1899-1900. Edited by
John W. Leonard. Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Co. Pp. 822.]

In _The Dawn of Reason_[40] Dr. _Weir_ has provided a most interesting book for the unscientific reader as well as for the comparative psychologist. He traces the gradual unfolding of conscious mind in animal life from the actinophryans which discriminates between the grains of starch and sand, and the Stentor which changes its position to catch a ripened spore, to the higher forms that decorate their homes, exhibit parental affection, exercise mathematical faculty, and extricate themselves from unforeseen dangers. As the field of observation of the senses of touch, taste, and smell has been so thoroughly worked by Lubbock and other naturalists, special attention is paid by the author to the senses of sight and hearing, in regard to which he furnishes new and valuable data. In addition to these he claims to establish the fact that tinctumutations and "homing" are auxiliary senses--not instincts. He located the center of color changing in the frog exactly below the optic, and by artificial stimulation produced the alteration in tint, and by excision, or treatment with atropine, destroyed the chromatophoric function. By experimentation upon snails he found the center of the sense of locality at the base of the cephalic ganglion, and, removing it, rendered them unable to return to their homes. Many anecdotes are given showing that the lower orders of animal life exercise conscious determination, and that among those with more complex nervous systems there is a mind akin to that of man. Not only do animals remember friends, strangers, and events, but they love, hate, and fear. They evince æsthetic feeling also when the spider ornaments its web with logwood flakes, the dog howls in harmonic accord with the church bell, and salamanders assemble at the sound of a piccolo. Still higher psychical attributes are those of animals that show parental affection or ability to count, like the mason wasp, which provides invariably five spiders for the male larva and eight for the female; or the harvester ants that plant their grain, weed and winnow it. Examples are cited of the capacity of the elephant to form abstract ideas and of the dog to indulge in brown studies. The author scouts at the theory that "specialized instinct," or "intelligent accident," prompts actions in animals which in man would be ascribed to reason. "Instinct," he writes, "is the bugbear of psychologists," and thereupon he differentiates sharply the two sadly confused functions.

[Footnote 40: The Dawn of Reason. By James Weir, Jr., M. D. New
York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 234. Price, $1.25.]

In the thesis entitled _A Step Forward_, _F. Theodor Kruger_ proposes, as a measure of possible social reform, placing the medical and legal professions wholly under the direct control of the civil authorities, to be exercised through duly constituted boards or departments of the several communities.

In his study of _Centralized Administration of Liquor Laws in the American Commonwealths_ (Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law) _Clement M. L. Sites_ finds that widely variant policies are followed by the several States in the regulation of the liquor traffic, all based upon the broad powers of taxation and police. While we hear much of characteristic plans of regulation, little is said about characteristic systems of administration. This is because the liquor laws are administered incoherently. There is no consensus, even within the Commonwealth, in standards of administration. Each community practically determines for itself how the law shall be enforced, and we have all degrees of enforcement, from rigid severity to none. The various plans of regulation are classified by the author according to the dominant aspect in which they regard the liquor traffic. It has been treated as an open traffic, subject simply to taxation and reasonable safeguards; as a necessary but dangerous business, to be limited to approved persons and places and surrounded by special safeguards; as a criminal enterprise, to be suppressed, like highway robbery; and as a subject of legal monopoly. It is the purpose of Mr. Sites's essay to follow the developments of centralized administration that have taken place in recent years in each of these spheres, and in that of the institution and maintenance of judicial proceedings. The phases of current development that seem to merit special note are the substitution of the liquor-tax system for the license system, the extension and elaboration of local option, the contingent central control of city police administration, and the recognition of the general province of administration. The author's study shows that these developments accord in general with the laws of evolution, each representing some special aspect of the differentiation. In considering the "dispensary" plan, illustrated in South Carolina, a significant contribution to current thought is remarked in the approval it gives to the use of liquors as a beverage, while their abuse is disapproved in an equally marked degree, a distinction being attempted here, with correspondingly different methods of treatment between those who can be trusted with liquors and those who can not.

_The Report of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries_ for the year ending June 30, 1898, represents that the operations of the division of fish culture were in some respects more important during that than in any preceding year. This was owing in part to the natural growth of the work, and in part to greater efficiency in dealing with the various questions and problems that came up for consideration. The propagation and distribution of food fishes exceeded by about forty per cent the work accomplished in any other twelve months. The steady increase in the catch of shad is cited as being conclusive evidence of the value of artificial propagation. The constant decline in the lobster fishery accentuates the necessity for increased work in that line. The efforts to acclimatize food fishes in waters to which they are not indigenous have been continued. The special papers published in connection with the report relate to mackerel investigations, the alewife fisheries, the oyster beds of Louisiana, the shad fisheries of the Atlantic coast, reports of fishes obtained in sea explorations, a list of publications, and a report of the exhibit at the Tennessee Centennial.

_The Tenth Annual Report of the Interstate Commerce Commission on the Statistics of Railways in the United States_ covers the year ending June 30, 1897. The year is characterized as having been for the transportation industry one "of deferred expectations." While the years from 1890 to 1893 each closed with increased gross earnings as compared with the preceding year, 1893-'94 was disastrous, showing a large decrease; no recovery took place in 1894-'95, but an increase took place in 1895-'96. A downward turn came again in the year of the present report, with no revival till the last month of the twelve. The total increase in mileage for the year of the report was only 1,651.84 miles, the smallest increase and the smallest percentage of increase noted in any year since 1890. "In many States," says the report, "railway construction seems to have been practically abandoned. Especially is this noticeable in the more populous districts of the country--a result which is not entirely due to the general commercial depression, but to the marvelous increase in electric railways for suburban and short-distance traffic. The influence of electric construction upon steam transportation is noted in certain of the reports of State railway commissions for the current year." These are only two of the numerous interesting facts presented in the report.

_Small Accumulators, how Made and Used_, is the first of a series of popular scientific handbooks for students and engineers. The particular subject has been selected for beginning the series under the suggestion of a large number of requests for advice which the author, _Percival Marshall_, had received in his capacity as editor of the Model Engineer and Amateur Electrician. The work is intended to be an elementary handbook--"a practical and trustworthy guide"--for amateurs and students. The theory of the accumulator is explained, directions are given for making them, types of small accumulators are illustrated, the charging and use of accumulators are explained, and the applications are shown. Useful receipts and a glossary of technical terms are given. (The book is published by Spon & Chamberlain, New York. Price, 50 cents.)

In his _Better World Philosophy--a Sociological Synthesis_ (Chicago: the Ward Waugh Company), _J. Howard Moore_ utters a protest against the egoism or selfishness of our day, and suggests an ideal scheme. The problem of life is defined as being the relation of each individual to the rest of the universe, and is peculiarized by the existence of the social problem involving relations of individuals to each other different from those sustained to the impersonal universe. There are in the nature of living beings the egoistic element, which impels action in behalf of self, and the altruistic element, which prompts or prevents movement out of consideration to others. At present the egoistic element predominates, with results that make a picture far from bright. In the social ideal the strong should supplement the weak as they would like to be supplemented if they were weak; individuals not unequal but diverse may mutualize their efforts to the advantage of all; and each individual should perform in the social economy that function for which he is best fitted, and should receive in return "a graceful equity in the means for satisfying his desires."

Among the books announced for issue soon by Henry Holt & Co. are _The Book of Vertebrate Zoölogy_, by Prof. _J. S. Kingsley_, author of The Elements of Comparative Zoölogy, published by the same house, which can be used as a companion to McMurrich's Invertebrate Zoölogy; _Elementary Studies in Chemistry_, by Prof. _Joseph Torrey_, of Harvard, which, while it is characterized by the emphasis laid upon quantitative laboratory work in general chemistry, will be a comprehensive text-book on the whole subject; and _Moulds, Mildews, and Mushrooms_, a guide to the systematic study of the fungi and _Mycetozoa_ and their literature, by Prof. _Lucien Underwood_, of Columbia University.

Miss Cornelia E. Horsford, being interested in the question of the origin of certain ancient ruins situated on the Charles River, Mass., and elsewhere in America, which were discovered by the late Prof. E. N. Horsford and were believed by him to be relics of the settlements formed by the Norsemen in the tenth century, commissioned Mr. Thorstein Erlingsson to examine for comparison certain ancient dwellings in Iceland, in the summer of 1895. The inquiries assigned to him related to the method of construction of the long houses, square buildings, hillside cots with pavements, mounds, things and doom rings, irrigation and drainage, ditches, river dams, hithes and ship docks, or _nauts_, grave-hills, and forts. The results of the study are given, with illustrations, in a small book, _Ruins of the Saga Times_, by _Thorstein Erlingsson_. (Published by David Nutt, London.) Mr. Erlingsson's report is supplemented by an outline of already ascertained knowledge regarding early Scandinavian home building, derived from previous excavations and investigations furnished by F. T. Norris and Jön Stefánsson, and a summary in French by M. E. D. Grand.

_The Quarterly Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland_ was issued during the thirty-seven years from the beginning of 1871 in the form styled demi-octavo. The small pages of this size entailed some inconveniences, especially when ample plates and tables were needed for illustration. With the double number (August and November, 1898) a new series was begun, in the form styled imperial octavo, with a page considerably larger than in the old form and corresponding in size with the important publications of some of the continental societies of Europe. This number contains the proceedings of seven meetings of the society and important anthropological articles, some of them on American subjects. Among them is a criticism, by Prof. W. Z. Ripley, on Deniker's Classification of the Races of Europe.

In _How to Swim_ (Putnams, $1) Captain _Davis Dalton_, Chief Inspector of the United States Volunteer Life-Saving Corps, gives a practical treatise upon the art of natation, together with instruction as to the best methods of saving persons imperiled in the water and of resuscitating persons apparently drowned. The treatise covers every branch of the art, and abounds in cautions in connection with nearly every topic, against the mistakes that may arise from timidity or the carelessness of over-confidence. The author holds that swimming is an art to be acquired and learned like other athletic arts, although it depends upon natural principles. The best movements for taking advantages of the physical laws involved in it have been studied by competent men, and a brief and clear presentation of them is attempted here. First, we have the lessons for the beginner, who must, before all things, "have confidence." The different strokes are described in detail and illustrated; the different modes of swimming and the postures, swimming in clothes, taking off clothes in the water, diving and swimming under water, swimming in waves, and other features are explained; and, finally, the life-saving directions are given, and public education in swimming is insisted upon.

_The Southern Magazine_ is a new monthly, published at Manassas, Va., by the Southern Publishing Company, of which we have the third number, that for August. It has a definite flavor of the old South, for which we find no fault with, for there was much about the old South which ought to be preserved, and no little that was too precious to be lost. Among the matters of special interest in this number are the Sketch of Sidney Lanier, by Ellen Manderson, with selections from his writings; The Last Meeting of the Confederate Cabinet (held, by a curious coincidence, at Abbeville, S. C., where secession was started), by Walter L. Miller; an account of the University of Virginia, by John S. Patten, which appears to be the first of a series on Southern Educational Institutions; and an article on South Carolina in Letters, by Colonel J. P. Thomas.

The fifth yearly number of _L'Année Psychologique_ of MM. _Alfred Binet_, _H. Beaunis_, and _Th. Ribot_ is a volume of 902 pages, of which 591 pages are included in the first part, devoted to Original Memoirs and General Reviews. The papers are nineteen in number, on such subjects as muscular fatigue, the foreshortening of objects rising from the horizon, stereognostic perception and stereoagnosy, suggestibility, applications of the calculation of probabilities to psychology, colored audition, mental labor and nutritive changes, measure of mental fatigue, sensations of smell, phonographs and the study of the vowels, cephalometry, pedology, volume of the arm and muscular force, chronophotographic and other apparatus, and muscular sense; and the authors are MM. Van Biervliet, of Ghent; Blum, of Nîmes; Bourdon, of Rennes; Claparède, of Geneva; Clavière, Delage, Demeny, Druault, Mlle. Joteyko, MM. Larguier, Manouvrier, Marage; Marbe, of Würzburg; Obersteiner, of Vienna; Tscherning and Zwaardemaker, of Utrecht. M. V. Henri's paper on Muscular Sense would make a volume by itself. The second part--Analyses--consists of reviews of psychological publications entered under ten headings. The Bibliography contains 2,558 titles, and the index of authors fills upward of seventeen double-columned pages. (Paris: Scheicher Frères.)

Valuable papers on Comparative Tests of Bituminous Steam Coals, by John W. Hill; the Artificial Preservation of Railroad Ties by the Use of Zinc Chloride, by W. W. Curtis; and the Theory of Concrete, by G. W. Rafter, are given in the _Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers_ (vol. xxv, No. 4, April, 1899), together with discussions respecting street grades and cross-sections in asphalt and cement and to loads and maximum stress on members of a bridge truss; also biographical sketches of D. L. Barnes and W. R. Michie.

A valuable addition to D. Appleton and Company's International Education Series, and a sprightly book in itself withal, is _Montaigne on the Education of Children_, a volume of selections bearing on the subject from the writings of the quaint old Frenchman, translated and annotated by L. E. Rector. The significance of Montaigne, as the editor of the series observes in his preface to the volume, lies chiefly in his protest against pedantry, and the translator finds Montaigne's modernity shown in his attempt to degrade men learning from the first place, and to lay the emphasis on fitness for practical life, ability to use one's judgment, and morality and virtue. While Montaigne had limitations and defects in his educational views, such as are pointed out by Dr. Harris, he still appears to have been far in advance of his own time, and in some respects of the present time as well. The solution of the human problem, success in dealing with one's self and his fellows, was his ideal. The translator shows how Locke and Rousseau, and, of course, all educational writers who have built upon these, drew from him. The subjects of the selections given here are the Education of Children, Pedantry, the Affection of Fathers, Liars, Physiognomy, Anger, the Art of Conversation, Idleness, Experience, and History.

An essay on _The Object of the Labor Movement_, by _Johann Jacoby_, translated by Florence Kelley, and published by the International Publishing Company, advocates co-operation, demands that the employer recognize the laborer whom he employs as a being fully his own equal and treat him accordingly, and claims of the State an especial consideration of the working class as an act of reparative justice.

The _Transactions of the First and Second Regular Meetings of the Wyoming State Medical Society_, May 13 and November 1, 1898, shows that that body is vigorous and active, and that the doctors of Wyoming are interested in maintaining the dignity and reputation of their profession. It is represented that fully fifty per cent of the regular physicians of the State have already been enrolled as members of the society.

Mr. _Frederick H. Gelman's Elements of Blowpipe Analysis_ (New York: The Macmillan Company; 60 cents) is intended to serve the twofold purpose of giving the student a general outline of the analysis and of introducing him to the methods of determinative mineralogy. Every effort has been made to simplify the account. The first chapter is devoted to Apparatus and Details, and the second to the General Outline of Blowpipe Analysis. Then the general reactions for the detection of the metallic elements in simple compounds are described, the behavior of some of the principal ores before the blowpipe, and comparative tables.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Abbot, A. C., M. D. The Hygiene of Transmissible Diseases, their Causation, Modes of Dissemination, and Methods of Prevention. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders. Pp. 311. $2 net.

Allin, Arthur. Extra-Organic Evolution and Education. Pp. 8.

Baker, Charles Whiting. Monopolies and the People. Third edition, revised and enlarged. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 368.

Baker, M. N. Potable Water and Methods of Detecting Impurities. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company. Pp. 97. 50 cents.

Baskett, James Newton. The Story of the Fishes. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (Appletons' Home-Reading Books.) Pp. 297.

Borodine, N., Editor. Revue Internationale de Pêche et de Pisciculture. (International Review of Fisheries and Fish-Culture.) No. 1. August, 1899. (Three times a year.) St. Petersburg, Russia. Published by the Russian Imperial Society of Fisheries and Fish-Culture. (In English, German, and French.) Pp. 37, with supplement of one folded page. Annual subscription, four francs.

Bulletin, Le, Médical de Quebec. Volume I, No. 1. September, 1899. Published under the direction of the Medical Society of Quebec. Monthly. Pp. 56. $2 a year.

Burgess, O. O., M. D. Consciousness, Being, Immortality; Divine Healing and Christian Science. San Francisco. Pp. 20.

Christian Science Publishing Society, Boston. Legal Aspects of Christian Science. Decisions of Courts, Opinions of Lawyers, etc. Pp. 83.

Conn, H. W. The Story of the Living Machine. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (Library of Useful Stories.) Pp. 191. 40 cents.

De Morgan, Augustus. Elementary Illustrations of the Differential and Integral Calculus. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company. Pp. 144. $1.

Descartes, René. Discourse on Method; or the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences. Translated, etc., by John Veitch. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company. (Religion of Science Library.) Pp. 87. 25 cents.

Flynt, Josiah. Tramping with Tramps. Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life. With Prefatory Note by Hon. Andrew D. White. New York: The Century Company. Pp. 396. $1.50.

Giles, William A., Chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Civic Federation (Chicago). Papers on Reform Legislation, Corrupt Practices Acts, and Pawnbroking in Different Countries. Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company. Pp. 35.

Griffith, G. W. The Influence of the Earth upon the Field of a Bar Magnet. Pp. 4.

Harrington, Mark W. About the Weather. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (Appletons' Home-Reading Books.) Pp. 246.

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. Contemporaries. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 379. $2.

Holland, Frederick May. Liberty in the Nineteenth Century. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 257.

Korscheldt, Dr. E., and Helder, Dr. K. Text-Book of the Embryology of the Invertebrates. Translated by Matilda Bernard, and edited, with Additional Notes, by Martin F. Woodward. Vol. II. Pp. 369. Vol. III. Pp. 441. $3.25.

Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration. Report of the Fifth Annual Meeting, 1889. Pp. 142.

Lo Blanco, Dr. Salvatore. The Methods employed at the Naples Zoölogical Station for the Preservation of Marine Animals. Translated by E. O. Hovey. United States National Museum. Pp. 42.

Newman, George. Bacteria, especially as they are related to the Economy of Nature, to Industrial Processes, and to the Public Health. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 348.

Newton, Alfred, Gadow, Hans, and others. A Dictionary of Birds. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 1088. $5.

Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. Press Bulletin No. 199. Plums. A Comparison of Varieties. Pp. 2.

Oliver, Charles A. Description of an Adjustable Bracket for the Reid Ophthalmometer. Pp. 3; A Case of Foreign Body in the Optic Nerve. Pp. 3; A Case of Reflex Irritation. Pp. 5; A Case of Fibroma of the Eyelid. P. 1, with plate; A New Method for the Plantation of Glass Balls into the Optical Cavity. Pp. 30.

Putnam, F. W. Address as Retiring President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Columbus Meeting, 1899. Pp. 17.

Ribot, Th. The Evolution of General Ideas. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company. Pp. 231. $1.25.

Russell, Charles T. The At-one-ment between God and Man. ("Millennial Dawn." Vol. V.) Allegheny, Pa.: Watch-Tower Bible and Tract Society. Pp. 507.

Stuver, E., M. D. The Importance of a Knowledge of the Phylogenetic Development of the Child in the Prevention of Children's Diseases. Pp. 11.

Thompson, Ernest Seton. The Trail of the Sandhill Stag. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 93. $1.50.

United States Department of Agriculture. Farmers' Bulletins. No. 70. The Principal Insect Enemies of the Grape. By C. L. Marlatt. Pp. 23; No. 80. The Peach-Twig Borer. By. C. L. Marlatt. Pp. 15: No. 99. Three Insect Enemies of Shade Trees. By L. O. Howard. Pp. 30;--Division of Entomology. No. 37. The Use of Hydrocyanic-Acid Gas for Fumigating Greenhouses and Small Frames. Pp. 10; No. 38. The Squash-Vine Borer. Pp. 6; No. 39. The Common Squash Bug. Pp. 5.

United States Fish Commission. Check-List of the Fishes of Florida. By B. W. Evermann and W. C. Kendall. Pp. 68.

Upsala, University of (Sweden). Bulletin of the Geological Institution. Hj. Sjögren, Editor. Vol. IV, Part I, No. 7. 1898. Pp. 131, with four plates.

Weed, Clarence Moores, Editor. The Insect World. A Reading Book of Entomology. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (Appletons' Home-Reading Books.) Pp. 207. 60 cents.

Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. Bulletin No. 4. On the Building and Ornamental Stones of Wisconsin. By Ernest R. Buckley. Pp. 544.

Wisla. A Geographical and Ethnographical Publication (in Polish). Vol. XIII, Nos. 1 to 5. Warsaw, Poland. Pp. 320.

Wright, Mabel Osgood. Wabenor the Magician. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 346.

Fragments of Science.

=The Dread of the Jew.=[41]--The Dreyfus affair and the furious passions that it has awakened have their ultimate foundation in dread and hatred of the Jews. There is a Jewish question, more or less acute, in every continental country, and we are told by pessimists that before long we shall have an anti-Jewish movement in the East End of London. These facts naturally suggest an inquiry into the causes of the dread and hate which the Jews inspire, and the asking once again whether there are any good grounds for regarding the Hebrew race as a menace to the Christian world. The main fact about the Jews on the Continent which emerges from a study of the present situation is that for some reason or other they inspire terror. That this terror is as absurd and as unreasonable as is the terror caused respectively by Jesuits and Freemasons, we ourselves do not doubt for a moment, but that does not alter the fact that the sense of terror exists. It is hardly too much to say that the majority of people on the Continent honestly believe that unless the Jews are in some way or other curbed, controlled, and kept down, something very dreadful will happen. In Russia the vast Slavonic population and its leaders believe that unless the Jews are impounded in the Polish Pale they will swamp the true Russian, and utterly ruin and destroy the Russian nationality and the Russian ideal. In Austria it is believed that if the Jews are allowed to go on as they are going on they will get everything into their hands--the land of the peasants, the sources of public information and the press, and the nerves by which trade and commerce are moved. In Germany it is much the same story, and there the Jews are believed, unless stopped in time, to be about to monopolize the universities. In France it is thought that the Jews, if not put down with the strong hand, will capture the whole administration, as well as "strangle commerce by their octopus grip." The Jews are called a "parasitic race," whatever that may mean. It is said that the Jew never becomes an agriculturist, that he is a usurer and a bloodsucker, that he is a gross materialist, and that he has no ideals beyond the precious metals; and that they habitually act together to further their own racial interests and to injure those communities which have been foolish enough to trust them. To take the charge of want of patriotism first. How is it substantiated? We can not say that we have ever seen any real evidence of want of patriotism in the Jews. Look at the case of France at present. There is something extremely pathetic in the way in which the French Jews cling to their nationality in spite of all the hatred they inspire. The truth is, the Jew is a sort of expert in patriotism. Did not the Maccabees teach the world one of its first lessons in patriotism? Depend upon it, if the Jew is only allowed to be a patriot he will not fail here. The charge, indeed, is like that so often made in Russia against the Jews. They are accused of not tilling the soil, their accusers ignoring the fact that no Jew is allowed to buy, or to lease, or to occupy land, and is, in fact, excluded by law from acting as a farmer. Take next the charge of "aloofness." Probably this charge is well founded, but what can be expected of a people so newly freed from the Ghetto? If you treat a race for centuries as lepers, and visit its members with dire penalties, if they do not keep "aloof" they are likely to remain for some time disinclined to free intercourse. The third charge is, in reality, that the Jews of the world, having obtained control of cosmopolitan finance, act together in the interests of their race, and inflict grievous injuries upon the nations. But what proof is there of this? Curiously enough, Mr. Arnold White--though in other ways he seems to encourage this charge--accuses the great Jewish financiers of not doing this very thing. He tells us that after the Russians had driven the Jews into the Pale they wanted to raise a loan. One would have expected the great Jewish loanmongers to have absolutely refused to help the enemy of the race. Instead they basely, as we think, found Russia the money she wanted. But though this was a base act, it certainly is not consistent with the charge that the Jews control the international money market for tribal ends. We believe, in fact, that this whole charge is a pure delusion. The great financiers, whether Jew or Gentile, look for a profit, and not to deep and mysterious racial aspirations. The charge that the Jews are steeped in materialism, and so are a demoralizing element in the community, is equally unfair and absurd. Many Jews may be fond of pomp of a vulgar kind, and may affect what we confess personally to finding very disagreeable forms of Asiatic luxury; but these are externals. In essentials and as a race the Jews are no more materialistic than their neighbors. And can we say that they are a demoralizing element when it is universally confessed that the Jews are among the best fathers, sons, and husbands in the world?

[Footnote 41: From an article in the London Spectator.]

=Death of Professor Bunsen.=--With the death of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, at Heidelberg, August 16th, the world loses a student whose name is inseparably connected with nearly all the chemical work that has been done in the last fifty years, for it is safe to say that hardly a discovery has been made or experiment performed to the success of which some process, property, or instrument discovered, invented, or suggested by Bunsen, and usually named after him, has not contributed. A sketch of this illustrious chemist, with a portrait, and an enumeration of his principal works, each of which might be characterized as a milestone in the advance of the science, was published in the Popular Science Monthly for August, 1881 (vol. xix, page 550). One of the principal events in his life since that sketch was published was his election, in 1883, as one of the eight foreign associates of the French Academy of Sciences--the highest honor that that institution is competent to confer. Besides Bunsen's personal interest in the work and success of his students, one of his most salient traits, as described by a careful and appreciative biographer in the New York Evening Post, was his absentmindedness concerning what he had himself accomplished. He was afflicted with an "incipient aphasia," which made it impossible for him to talk about them. "He could not answer verbal questions, whether oral or written. He could not have passed a decent examination in his own discoveries. Let the question come in the shape of an emergency in a chemical operation, and a wealth of knowledge would be poured out, but let it be put in words and he could not answer it." He is said to have answered a student once, who asked him about some substance, that he knew nothing about it--"You will have to look up the literature." The student looked up the literature, and found that it consisted of a single article, and that by Bunsen! Professor Bunsen prized what would stimulate him to effort, enjoyed life, was fond of travel and interested in everything human, and was a good novel reader.

=The Unprofitableness of Strikes.=--The cost of a large strike is impressively illustrated in some of the results of the great colliery dispute of 1898 in South Wales, as they are set forth in the British Board of Trade returns and the reports of the consular service. In direct financial loss, the company suffered to the extent of $100,000, and the men of $300,000 in wages, besides the demoralization from being so long out of work. To a certain extent, other districts gained what the South Wales mines lost by the diversion of trade to them, but that simply aggravated the evil in the mines, for some of this diverted trade will stay where it went. It is sometimes said, indeed, that strikes have only a temporary effect on business, from which it will recover in time. This is true, however, as is suggested in Industries and Iron, only when the locality affected has a virtual monopoly of the trade, while in the competition of the nations instances of that kind are growing rarer. England especially has many rivals in these days, eager to take advantage of every opportunity to profit by its mistakes or misfortunes, and which, when they get their hands on a good thing, are not apt to let go. Notwithstanding some strikes at home, the coal trade in the United States derived benefits from the British strike by sending to markets which the Welsh mines should have supplied; Germany sent coal to Sweden, and Belgium increased its shipments to the Canary Islands. Other countries are induced, by conditions making the usual sources of supply inconvenient to them, to a more active development of their own resources, as Austria-Hungary, Spain, and France were in the present case. So it is more than doubtful whether the present strike paid.

=The Scientific Spirit.=--The study of science, especially of an experimental science, said Prof. R. H. Chittenden in an informal talk to students of the Sheffield Scientific School, is peculiarly adapted for developing the power of independent thought, and of training one in drawing logical conclusions from experimental data. In the laboratory is afforded an opportunity for making observations, but if real benefit is to be derived from the experimental work there must be a full realization of the necessity of careful thought in drawing deductions from the results observed. Broad generalizations built on a slender foundation of fact frequently topple to the ground, and sometimes carry destruction with them, all because of a lack of that critical spirit which prompts a careful and thorough consideration of all the premises. The man who has acquired the habit of careful thought, of reasoning out each step in a process, of weighing carefully each reaction involved, of seeking in his own mind the reason for this or that phenomenon, who looks at both sides of a question, and carefully considers all the facts available, will build much more surely and firmly than he who by specious arguments constructs a glittering hypothesis, only to see it fade away. Hasty reasoning, insufficient data, obscure facts, are the bane of modern science. The true scientific spirit prompts to thorough inquiry; it will have nothing to do with hasty generalizations that may glitter but do not convince; it puts a restraining hand on all immature conclusions, and demands, above all else, careful, thorough observation. It shuns all shams. Good, honest work is the only passport to the domain of science.

=Constitution of the Funafuti Atoll.=--In the boring of the coral atoll of Funafuti, Professor David, of the University of Sydney, reached a depth of 697 feet, and a subsequent boring was made down to about 1,000 feet. The core obtained by the David party was sent to England and placed in the hands of Professor Judd for investigation. The general statement is made respecting it that the material brought up presents much the same character throughout, and so far is regarded as supporting Darwin's theory. There are no layers of chalky ooze, such as Murray's hypothesis might have made possible, and no trace of volcanic material has been found. The later boring beyond 700 feet passed through a hard limestone containing many well-preserved corals. In a boring of the bed of the lagoon down to 144 feet, after passing through 101 feet of water, the first 80 feet below were found to consist of the calcareous alga Halimeda mixed with shells, and the remaining 64 feet of the same material mixed with gravel.

=Metallic Calcium.=--Metallic calcium, as prepared by Professor Moissan from solution in liquid sodium, separates in hexagonal crystals which have a specific gravity of 1.85 and melt at 760° _in vacuo_. On solidifying, the metal is somewhat brittle, is less malleable than potassium and sodium, and shows a crystalline fracture. When free from nitride it is silver-white in color, and has a brilliant surface. Heated to redness in a current of hydrogen, a crystalline hydride, CaH_{2}, is formed. When pure, calcium is not acted upon at ordinary temperatures by chlorine, though at 100° C. the action is decided. But if the metal contains nitride, chlorine attacks it at the ordinary temperature. At 300° C. calcium ignites and burns brilliantly in oxygen. Gently warmed in air, it burns with brilliant scintillations. It combines with sulphur, with incandescence, at 400° C. At a red heat it unites actively with lampblack, giving a carbide, CaC_{2}. It gives some brittle alloys with magnesium, zinc, and nickel. The alloy with tin slowly decomposes water. A crystalline amalgam is formed with mercury, which may be distilled in hydrogen at 400° C., but which forms nitride when heated in nitrogen. Heated to redness with potassium or sodium chloride, calcium sets the metal free. Water acts on calcium only very slowly, with the evolution of hydrogen. In liquefied ammonia at -40° C. calcium ammonia is formed--a reddish-brown solid.

=Prosperity and Enterprise in Mexico.=--The increasing prosperity of Mexico is one of the striking features of current history. In four years the imports of the country increased from $30,000,000 in 1894 to upward of $45,000,000 in 1898, the average for five years having been $40,000,000. The chief sellers to Mexicans are the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany, and the keenness of the competition for trade is shown in the fluctuations in the relative shares of it of the several countries. Spain has a small share of trade, which is growing. Industrial enterprises are being developed throughout the country with energy, enterprise, and success. Cotton and linen factories have been established, attention is given to the erection of woolen mills, and a noticeable activity prevails in mining industries. Under all these influences the railroads are prospering too.

=A Question of Economy.=--A paper, "Shall we grow the Sugar that we consume?" by Freeman Stewart, called out by an article by ex-Secretary Wilson, besides matter bearing directly on the question, embodies observations on general political principles. Thus, it seems necessary to observe "that the idea that republicanism requires our public officials to act as mere weathercocks for the transient waves of popular clamor and excitement is also a deplorable delusion, which, if persistently carried into effect, will soon utterly destroy republicanism. As free institutions depend on the recognition of correct principles by the people, it is primarily necessary that correct principles should be constantly impressed upon the attention of the people. The great need of the nation to-day is wise leadership--unselfish men, who appreciate the necessity of being governed by immutable divinely appointed principles, to act as leaders, to keep the minds of the people centered in the right direction." Coming to the main subject of the essay, we have, as to the expediency of taxing ourselves to have sugar made here: "If the farmer's profits must come from the consumers of sugar as a bounty or tax, and not from the inherent profitableness of the business, then the farmer's profits are the consumer's loss. The business is inherently unprofitable, and no farmer, or any one else, has a right, 'inherent' or otherwise, to carry on an unprofitable business, except at his own expense.... It may be assumed that the farmers who are growing the sugar are now growing crops which, if not as profitable as they desire, are at least sufficiently so to keep them from being burdensome to the rest of the nation. And how can the prosperity of the nation be increased by having these same farmers engage in a new business which will require them to draw on the productive capacity of the rest of the people to the extent of many millions of dollars annually, in order to keep their heads above water?"

=Bacteria of the Dairy.=--An investigation of the relation of acid fermentation to the flavor and aroma of butter, made by C. H. Eckles at the Iowa College Experiment Station, has given the results that the flavor is produced by the bacterial fermentations which have taken place in the milk and cream. The kind of flavor depends upon the class of bacteria causing the fermentation. The ripening of a good quality of acid cream is mostly a development of acid bacteria. Four species of acid-producing bacteria, tested in ripening pasteurized cream, were found to give the butter the typical flavor and aroma. Of the species tried, the most common milk-souring organism (_Bacterium lactarii_) was found to give the most satisfactory results in ripening cream. Cream ripened with common bacteria found in hay dust (_Bacillus subtilis_) gives a very undesirable flavor to butter. The superior flavor of summer butter is due to the greater number of bacteria of the acid class found in milk during that season.

=For Outdoor Improvement.=--The American Park and Outdoor Association has taken up and aims to nationalize the important work of the improvement of outdoors. Not that it expects to improve upon Nature, but it hopes to be able to neutralize or remedy the devastation and disfigurement which man has wrought upon her face. At the third annual meeting of the association, held in Detroit in July, 1899, preliminary steps were taken toward offering prizes for the improvement of grounds about manufactories and homes--both front and back lots--and especially about the homes of artisans. A standing committee was instituted to consider the best way of checking abuses of public advertising. A paper read by Mr. F. Law Olmstead, on the Relation of Reservoirs to Public Parks, concerned such construction of reservoirs and the surrounding them with suitable settings as would bring them into closer harmony with the park landscape and make them more a part of it. Another paper, by Mr. R. J. Coryell, of the Detroit parks, might be described as an effort to show how a similar service may be performed for the parks and the people--in other words, how to make the people at home in the parks. Its points were illustrated by citing what had been done in Detroit. Respecting means of preventing depredations, Mr. C. C. Lancey told of good results accomplished in Rochester, N. Y., by the distribution of circulars of information on the subject; and Mr. F. L. Olmstead, Jr., of the interest taken by the children in the school gardens in Cambridge, Mass.