Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/140

128 from one part of the earth's surface to another will be attended with a disturbance of the center of gravity of the planet, and with convulsions, floods, and great disasters to the continents and what is upon them. Further, "meteorological, electrical, and other phenomena of equal greatness, grandeur, and sublimity, as those of land and water, would follow a paroxysmal movement of the earth." Therefore, it will be well to halt before making real so rash a scheme.

compiler of this odd composition evidently regards the accepted English orthography as a fetich to whose sanctity he does not consider himself bound to pay any respect; for he holds it up to ridicule in a very amusing style by parodies, epigrams, comic poems, anecdotes, and witty extracts, the purport of all of which is to stamp the whole system as inconsistent with itself, and particular features of it as absurd. The variety of the sounds which are given to the groups of letters "ough" is humorously set forth in several pieces, the most noteworthy of which is Planché's squib on the pronunciation of the name of Lord Houghton. Other rhymes, drawn from Professor Barnard, Professor Gregory, and others, expose what appear to be monstrosities of spelling, but which are shown to be justified by analogous spellings in other words recognized as orthographic. A series of extracts from standard authors shows what was the condition of English spelling, at intervals of about fifty years, from Chaucer to Samuel Johnson.

volume embraces transcripts of lessons that have been given in the primary department of Grammar-School, No. 49, New York, and which include instructions consonant with the plan, on the subject of physiology and the effects of stimulants and narcotics. The plan of teaching comprises a model lesson, to show how each subject should be developed and taught; a formula, embodying the principal facts presented; questions on the formula; directions for touching, or pointing to the part under description; questions on the lesson; and a blackboard outline.

books in one, of pure nonsense and delightful absurdities, which have for several years enjoyed extensive popularity. In the first book, Alice goes down into a rabbit-hole and has stirring adventures with the rabbit and an animated pack of cards. In the second story, she succeeds in getting into the country behind the looking-glass, where she finds everything reversed, and meets the characters of Mother Goose and English folk-lore mythology.

is a story of Alexandria in a. d. 391, under Roman rule; one of those attempts to restore and present to the present age the life of antiquity, with some of the most successful of which the author's name is associated.

by a popular living Italian novelist, of contemporary village life in the north of Italy, in which "a variety of the social problems which occupy Italian thought are treated in a way which is humorous without being cynical," and having a close "which is melancholy but scarcely tragical."

journal takes the place of "The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist," and is under the charge of an editing committee of the Natural History Society of Montreal, which is composed of T. Sterry Hunt, B. P. Penhallow, B. J. Harrington, J. Wanless, and J. T. Donald. The intention of the editors is to present both original and