Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/726

708 of the Division, by a number of agents. It comprises reports on methods for destroying the red scale of California, by D. W. Coquillett; on insects of the season in Iowa, by Herbert Osborn; on insects affecting grains, by F. M. Webster; on California insects in general, by Albert Koebele; on Nebraska insects, by Lawrence Bruner; and entomological notes from Missouri for the season of 1889, by Mary E. Murtfeldt.

The address of William L. Dudley, before the American Association at Toronto last year was on The Nature of Amalgams. It is now published as a pamphlet, and is mainly occupied with a history of discoveries relating to the chemistry of amalgams. It contains a bibliography of the subject, occupying eleven pages.

In a paper on The Cradle of the Semites, read before the Philadelphia Oriental Club, Dr. D. G. Brinton brings together the evidence tending to show that the progenitors of the Israelites were of a blonde type, and came to Asia from northwestern Africa. Prof. Morris Jastrow, Jr., replied to this in a paper directed to showing the insecurity of some of the grounds that Dr. Brinton had taken. The two essays are published in a pamphlet together.

A table of Poisons and their Antidotes has been issued by The National Druggist (Druggist Publishing Company, St. Louis). It is printed on one side of a sheet of strong manila paper, and its directions are brief and clear. It would be somewhat more useful to unscientific persons if it stated that sodium and magnesium sulphates are also known respectively as Glauber's and Epsom salts, and if it avoided such words as emetocathartic.

The Report of the Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara, for October, 1888, to September, 1889, records the doings of the commission during the year designated, and their recommendations for future work. G. K. Gilbert's History of the Niagara River, noticed in the July number of this magazine, is published in the same pamphlet. The commissioners have issued also a folded sheet containing suggestions to visitors, and a map of the vicinity of the falls.

Students of political science now have an opportunity to compare a translation of The Federal Constitution of Germany (University of Pennsylvania, 50 cents) with the Constitution of the United States. The translator is Prof. Edmund J. James, who has based his version on the one printed in the Government report on Foreign Relations for 1877. A detailed table of contents is prefixed to the document, and a historical introduction, which is essentially a translation of the corresponding section in Von Rönne's Verfassung des deutschen Reichs.

Among its Circulars of Information for 1890, the Bureau of Education has issued English-Eskimo and Eskimo-English Vocabularies, compiled by Ensign Roger Wells, Jr. U. S. N., and Interpreter John W. Kelly. These vocabularies contain 11,318 words, and are preceded by twenty pages of Memoranda concerning the Arctic Eskimos in Alaska and Siberia, by John W. Kelly. These memoranda embrace traditions, bits of history and description, customs and superstitions of the Eskimos. Two maps are contained in the pamphlet.

The School Algebra of Prof. G. A. Wentworth, of Phillips Exeter Academy, is intended to present a thorough and practical treatment of the principles of elementary algebra. It covers sufficient ground for admission to any American college; and it and the author's college algebra are enough to occupy the time given to the subject in our best schools and colleges. The problems are carefully graded, mostly new, and either original or selected from recent examination papers. The early chapters are quite full; and the introductory chapter presents a free discussion of the principles with which the student beginning algebra ought to be acquainted.

Dreamthorpe, a Book of Essays written in the Country (George P. Humphrey, Rochester), is a reprint of some of the prose writngs of Alexander Smith, who wrote but little, but that little, whether the prose or poetry of it, of such a character as to cause regret that he did not write more, and to give him a place among English classic authors. The title of the work suggests that the essays were written from the domain of fancy; they certainly embody the author's own thoughts, and not what he borrowed from another. In style they are of the very best English. Some of them are purely literary; others