Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/874

854 subject has been introduced into the agricultural and national schools of France, and the art has become there, according to the author, not only a regular branch of industry, but also the fashion. It is recommended as being equally well adapted to women with the care of poultry, bees, and silk-worms. "As a recreation, it interests the mind and the eyes; and it has been well tested as an economical resource. As a regular pursuit, it has been taken up and then dropped several times; in the present effort that is making to establish it on a systematic basis, the United States is acknowledged to be in advance of any of the European countries which are named. Of its importance, the author well says that, in a period of civilization like that which we have reached, every waterfall, however slight it may be, should and can be utilized as a motor force, and every stream and water surface should be made to support the maximum of aquatic inhabitants best suited to purposes of food. To obtain this condition, nothing has to be created. All that is necessary is "to study and adopt what has been done in England, Switzerland, some places in Germany, and especially in the United States." In the several chapters and sections of the book are considered the properties of fresh water, the different kinds of fish, natural and artificial breeding and feeding, the construction and management of fish-ponds, the management of lakes and methods of dealing with running waters, migratory and "sedentary" fish, crustaceans, lagoon fish, and sea fish. The whole is abundantly and satisfactorily illustrated, and a classified list of the freshwater fishes of France is added.

A paper that will have value for manufacturers of iron and steel is that on The Construction of Cupolas for the Melting of Pig-Iron, by M. A. Gouvy, Jr., translated by W. F. Durfee, which appeared in the "Journal of the Franklin Institute" for January, 1889. It presents, in one comprehensive view, most of the experiments that have been tried in many lands, with a hope of improving the working of cupolas; and the translator believes that, if its conclusions are intelligently followed by users of cupolas, very large economies of fuel will result. Among the experiments whose history is given in this sketch are the employment of hot blast, utilization of the gas escaping from the top of the furnace, changes in the form of the vertical section of cupolas, cooling the walls, equal distribution of the blast, suction-blast, gas-firing, and complete combustion of the carbonic oxide. The author points out clearly the advantages and disadvantages of each of these devices, aud at the end sums up his conclusions. A table giving the relative dimensions, the product, and the consumption of fuel in thirty-three cupolas of various construction accompanies the paper.

The purpose of the manual on Foods for the Fat, by Nathaniel F. Davies (Lippincott, 75 cents), is to enable persons suffering from corpulency to so regulate their diet as to cure their ailment. The first division of the volume tells the amount of food required by persons in ordinary occupations, the uses of fat in the body, and the effect on corpulency of exercise, stimulants, tea, coffee, and other beverages. In the second part of the book a list of articles which may be eaten by the corpulent is given for each month, and something more than half the volume is devoted to recipes for preparing such articles.

Dr. George M. Gould, of Philadelphia, publishes a report of three cases in which, respectively, chorea, flatulent dyspepsia, and palpitation of the heart had been caused by eye-strain, and were cured when the eye was relieved. Following the line of research thus opened, the author examines the relation of sexualism and reflex ocular neuroses, and finds a means of accounting for the headaches of women in the years between puberty and middle age, and for various other functional derangements.

The object of the Inventor's Manual (J. F. Davidson & Co., New York, $1) is "to give the inventor and patentee some hints on patents generally, together with information on ways of exhibiting inventions, bringing them to public notice, and effecting sales." Among the subjects treated in this work are, how to invent, how to secure a good patent, value of a good invention, how to exhibit an invention, how to interest capital, how to estimate the value of a patent, advice on selling patents, advice on the formation of stock companies, forms for assignments, licenses, and contracts, State laws concerning