Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 34.djvu/285

Rh action. Prof. Henry F. Osborn presents "A Contribution to the Internal Structure of the Amphibian Brain," in which are reported certain studies of nerve-fiber courses and determinations of motor and sensory nuclei. Dr. William Patten contributes a second installment of his "Studies on the Eyes of Arthropods," devoted to the eyes of Acilius. Thirteen plates accompany this number.

literature of science is becoming so voluminous that classified indexes are absolutely essential to the student who would obtain an adequate idea of what is going on in his specialty. This index, in its own fullness, illustrates the fact. It is intended to be a bibliography of the spectroscope and spectrum analysis, and to be a list of all the books and smaller treatises, especially contributions to scientific periodicals, from the beginning of our knowledge on the subject till July, 1887. The time covered by this description is not very great, but the number and variety of the titles recorded show how incessant has been the activity of research during the period. An admirable system of arrangement is adopted, under which a strictly alphabetical order of the subjects is followed. Titles have often been repeated more than once, so as to make sure of their being found, and a list of authors is added.

two essays comprised in this volume have appeared in "The Century," and are now reprinted in the "Questions of the Day" series. Prefixed to them is an introduction, in which the author replies to the criticism made at the first appearance of his essays, that they offer no cure for the evils they portray, by saying that he attempted only to make a diagnosis of the disease, and not to prescribe for it. He says further that, just as many sick men demand a pleasant medicine which will cure all their complaints without their making any change in their work or pleasure, or their eating and drinking, so certain other men "expect some scheme of reform that will at a single fell swoop do away with every evil from which the body politic is suffering. . . . No law or laws," he continues, "can give us good government; at the utmost, they can only give us the opportunity to ourselves get good government." He then specifies several things that good citizens ought to work for, and says, "Above all, we can strive to fulfill our own political duties, as they arise, and thereby to do each of us his part in raising to a healthier level the moral standard of the whole community." The first of the essays is on "Phases of State Legislation," and is based mainly on Mr. Roosevelt's experience as a member for three terms of the New York Legislature. It reveals a great deal of viciousness and weakness, and also gives credit for a great deal of good work. It contains, too, a number of very amusing incidents. The other essay describes "Machine Politics in New York City," and deals with not only the methods of the men who run politics for the benefit of themselves and their followers, but also the neglect of public duties by respectable men, which makes the doings of political jobbers possible.

present edition of this manual, while retaining the general character of the first, embodies also a considerable number of changes and additions. The work is specially adapted for students of pharmacy and medicine. It assumes no previous knowledge of chemistry, and hence may be called a text-book for beginners, though it is not suited to the needs of young pupils. The first twenty pages are devoted to a brief consideration of the fundamental properties of matter, and are followed by thirty pages on the principles of chemistry. The author is in the habit of scattering these principles along through his course of lectures, but in a text-book to accompany the lectures he prefers to collect them in one place. The third and fourth parts of the volume are devoted respectively to the consideration of the non-metallic and the metallic elements and their compounds. Only those elements are taken up which have a practical interest, and