Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/579

Rh other chemistry with which American teachers are acquainted. It is a presentation of principles without much descriptive matter. The first part of the hook is devoted to physical properties and forces, merging into chemical physics, which prepares the way for the course on pure chemistry that follows. "In the teaching of this portion of the work," says the author, "the exercises, illustrations, etc., have been selected to bear on the after-course and on chemical operations generally. Thus, in explaining porosity, filtration is illustrated and taught practically; the collecting and storing of gases, under impenetrability; the determination of boiling-points, fractional distillation, etc., under heat; the action of charcoal and dyeing, under adhesion, etc.; so that when the purely chemical portion of the work is reached the student will not be perplexed and impeded when reference has to be made to physical properties and physical forces. The principles are taught by experimental and arithmetical exercises and examination questions. Answers to many of the exercises are given at the end of the work." The book is suitable for students in colleges and high schools. It is strange to see a work of this character without an index.

The Lackawanna Institute of History and Science has issued a first volume of its Proceedings and Collections. This society was organized in the winter of 1885-'86 at Scranton, Pa., for the promotion and diffusion of historic and scientific knowledge, especially that relating to the vicinity. The locality affords an exceptional amount of material for scientific study, for in addition to its fauna, flora, and minerals, it has the coal measures with their wealth of fossils, and it lies within the area traversed by the ice of the glacial epoch. The present volume contains a lecture on "Glaciation: its Relations to the Lackawanna-Wyoming Region," delivered before the institute by John C. Brauner. Professor of Geology in the University of Indiana, and "A Preliminary List of the Vascular Plants of the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valleys," compiled by William R. Dudley, of Cornell University. Following these are the proceedings and by-laws of the society.

Lessons in Geometry is a small text-book by G. A. Hill (Ginn, 70 cents), prepared for those who desire a short and easy introductory course in geometry, adapted to pupils between the ages of twelve and sixteen. In these lessons large use is made of exercises in drawing to scale. The training in consecutive reasoning is introduced very gradually, and is confined mainly to the laws of equal triangles and a few of their simple applications. As here presented, geometry is intended to be studied before algebra. The contents of the book may form a course for two years or may be abridged so as to be covered in one year.

The first number of Science and Photography (Jas. W. Queen & Co., Philadelphia, $1 a year) has come to hand. It comprises articles bearing on various points in the practice of photography and a few papers on other scientific matters.

The Annual Report of the State Geologist of New Jersey for 1887 (G. H. Cook, State Geologist, New Brunswick) is only a business statement of the affairs of the survey, the near completion of the work making it unadvisable to go into detail as fully as has been the case in former annual reports. The first part of the final report may be expected in a short time. It will be upon the physical geography of New Jersey, and will embody in its texts the results of the geodetic, topographic, and magnetic surveys. The main work of the year was given to the completion of the topographical survey and maps of the State. Some field work was done in the exploration and study of the archæan rocks in Sussex County, examinations were made of the glacial and terrace deposits of the Delaware above the Water Gap, a careful and detailed survey was made of the zinc-mines of Franklin Furnace for the purpose of making a model of the vein, and attention was given to the questions of water supply and drainage. A fine topographical map of the State by C. C. Vermeule accompanies the present volume. The survey and its documents are attracting increasing attention from citizens of the State.

The Fifteenth Annual Report on the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, by Prof. N. H. Winchell (Minneapolis, Minn.), has been issued. It covers the year 1886 and comprises a report by Prof. A. Winchell on the work of the party under his charge, a report by Prof. N. H. Winchell