Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 13.djvu/127

Rh convenient. Van Nostrand's little pocketbook gives all the information necessary to make the best use of the aneroid barometer, and it contains copious tables to facilitate calculations.

floated down the tranquil stream of time for fifty-four years, this stanch old orthodox review begins to find that the waters are growing rough, and that the navigation must be closely attended to. So the first thing is to move out of Jersey, and plant itself down in the metropolis, and respectfully announce that it "is not the organ of any theological seminary." It has altered its backing, and it is now understood that instead of a theological establishment it has a big heap of money behind it. This is made probable by such a swelling out of its proportions as would not be justified by any considerations of legitimate business. It will be issued six times a year, at a subscription of two dollars, and, if each number is to contain as much reading-matter as the one before us, it will be dirt cheap, though we are afraid the proprietors will have to draw on their pile to hire their subscribers to read it. This we say entirely with reference to the unconceivable bulk of matter furnished. It seems to be forgotten life is short, and that people generally have much else to do besides reading. However, the scope of the review is broad, as it is to consist entirely of original articles on theology, philosophy, politics, science, literature, and art, and, if it had a good serial novel in it, we do not see why it might not claim to answer all the wants of the reading public. A glance at the articles of the present number shows that they are solid, if not brilliant, while the names Chadbourne, Hodge, Hopkins, Hall, Spear, Atwater, Bowen, West, Alexander, Bishop Cox, Hickok, and McCosh, all of whom have articles in this March issue, are a guarantee that the periodical will maintain its character for theological conservatism.

author of this work combines the erudition of the scholar with the independence of the radical thinker. The topics he deals with in this volume are religious and ethical in their character, and the essays are keen in criticism and of marked literary merit. Our readers have had an illustration of these qualities, as the essay in the volume on "The Evolution of Hebrew Religion" first appeared in the pages of The papers were delivered as lectures before the Society for Ethical Culture and are published by request of those who listened to them.

adopts, as the basis of his work, the tables prepared by Weisbach, which he has enlarged and completed. The work provides for the student a method of determining minerals from an examination of those physical properties which may be ascertained by the aid of the simplest instruments. In the author's plan, all minerals are divided into three classes: those having a metallic lustre; those of non-metallic lustre, but giving a colored streak; and those of non-metallic lustre, with colorless streak. The tables correspond to this threefold classification, and by a reference to them most minerals can be determined without difficulty. In short, the student has only first to ascertain to which of the three great classes a specimen belongs. He then ascertains first the character of the lustre—if any it has—then its color, the color of the streak, the relative hardness and tenacity, the crystal system, and the cleavage. A glance at the tables will give him the name of the mineral in which all these characters exist in the proportions found in his specimen.

have had frequent occasion to recount the ingenious researches of Mr. McCook into the life-histories of insects. The present essay is the most voluminous one we have ever seen from his pen, and perhaps also the most interesting. The subject is the wood or fallow ant (Formica rufa), whose