Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/730

 Corps U.S.A. Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1878. Pp. 115.

On a New Base. By E. F. Smith. From "American Chemical Journal." Pp. 8.

The Tornado of April 14, 1879, By J. L. R. Wadsworth, M.D., and F. E. Nipher. From "Transactions St. Louis Academy of Science."

Thevetia Iccotli and its Glucoside. By D. Cerna, M.D. From "Philadelphia Medical Times." Pp. 6.

Annual Announcement of the Stevens Institute of Technology. Pp. 104.

Report of the Work of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Middletown, Conn. Hartford: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company print. Pp. 174.

On a Foundation for a Religion. Boston: G. H. Ellis print. Pp. 48.

Geological Formations crossed by the Syracuse and Chenango Valley Railroad. By L. M. Underwood. Syracuse: "Standard" print. Pp. 18.

Wandering Cainidæ, or the Ancient Nomads. By M. Kempe, M.D. Louisville, Ky.: Morton & Co. print. Pp. 41. 25 cents.

 

American and European Archæology.—A marked difference is observable between Europe and America with respect to the order of succession of the different prehistoric human "periods" to one another. In fact the succession is in the one exactly the reverse of what it is in the other. This difference is clearly expressed by the Rev. Stephen D. Peet in an article on "The Archæology of Europe and America." "In Europe," he says, "the cave-hunter, who used bone implements, first departed; the fisherman of the kitchen-midden next passed away; the builder of the earth-mounds followed with his rude weapons, and the inhabitants of the palafitte next disappeared; and last of all the Etruscan, the builder of the rude stone monuments. Thus Esquimau, Basque Briton, Belgian, Celt, Saxon and Etruscan [?], are the successors to one another, while on this continent Quiches, Toltec, Aztec, Mound-builders, Red Indians, and Esquimaux are the silent throng who have reversed the column of departure. The Esquimau was ruder than the Basque, and the Basque than the Briton, and so the order of departure gave place to a higher culture. In America the most civilized was the soonest removed, and the rudest remained the longest. The ancient city was deserted, but the pueblo remained; the pueblo itself changed inhabitants, but the Mound-builder remained; the Mound-builder was driven away, but the Red Indian continued; the Red Indian has disappeared, but the Esquimau abides. The palaces of Palenque and Uxmal and the seven cities of Cibola are monuments of a civilization more ancient than the Mound-builders. The mounds of the Mississippi Valley were doubtless erected by a more ancient race than the people who occupied at the time of their discovery. The Red Indians held an un-bounded dominion more ancient than the villages which they inhabited, and the Esquimaux may possibly have once covered the whole land where all of these tribes so lately roamed, but the last survivor of all is now the rudest and wildest."

Division and Distribution of the Electric Light.—A method of dividing electric light (not the electric current, but the light itself) has been devised by two engineers of San Francisco, E. J. Molera and J. C. Cebrian. The scheme looks plausible, but the public can afford to wait till it has been put to a practical test. We give the inventors' own description of the modus operandi of their system: "We take," they say, "the most powerful source of light attainable, and place it in a closed chamber (the chamber of light). Every wall of this box is a condensing lens, which will shape the light into a beam of parallel rays. In this way we reduce our source of light to several beams of parallel rays. If we intercept one of these beams of parallel rays of light by a reflector, the light will be bent or reflected according to the position of the reflector; and it may thus be sent into any desired direction, horizontal, vertical, or any way inclined. When the reflector intersects the whole beam of light, this latter one will be bent totally; if only one fraction of the sectional area of said beam is intersected, then the corresponding fractional part of the beam will be bent, leaving the other fraction thereof to follow its former direction. Therefore, if one of said beams of light is intersected at different points of its length, by different reflectors, intersecting different fractional parts of its section, said beam will be divided into a great number of secondary beams, going in any desired direction, and if these secondary beams are treated in the same way, the main beam can be 