Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/581

Rh tables, has been added; also, tables and descriptions by which an observation for azimuth may be made on Polaris at any hour; and a description of Porro's telescope has been inserted in the chapter on topographical surveying.

In the Report of the Smithsonian Institution, for 1889, the secretary states that the Records of Scientific Progress in each of several branches of science, which the Institution has published for some years, have been discontinued. In place of these there will be published "memoirs of a special interest and permanent value, which have already appeared elsewhere, and which are sufficiently untechnical to be readily apprehended by readers fairly representative of the intelligent and educated class among the constituents of the members of Congress, by whom they are chiefly distributed. Among the subjects treated in such papers appended to this report are, Hertz's researches on electrical oscillations, progress of meteorology and of anthropology in 1889, national scientific institutions at Berlin, movements of the earth's crust, geographical latitude, last steps in the genealogy of man, time-keeping in Greece and Rome, the life-work of Pasteur, and memoirs of Fleischer and Kirchhoff.

An Address on behalf of the Indians has been issued by representatives of the Religious Society of Friends for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware (Friends' Bookstore, Philadelphia). Its object is to show that our troubles with the Indians of late years have been due to aggressions of frontier whites upon the Indians, and to faithless and neglectful treatment by the officers of the War Department and the Indian Bureau. The address is temperate and dignified in tone, and its statements are supported by extracts from Government reports, the words of intelligent Indian chiefs, and the testimony of persons who have worked among the Indians.

A little volume of "essays against superstition" has been published by E. C. Kenney, under the title Ghosts, Devils, Angels, and Sun Gods (the author, Truxton, New York, 25 cents). He explains the origin of beliefs in supernatural beings among primitive men, and shows that many of these myths have persisted in more or less changed forms to the present day. He interprets the story of the Garden of Eden and that of the Deluge on a natural basis, draws a parallel between Gautama and Jesus Christ, and discusses the fatal number thirteen and the mystic three. The closing chapter is an arraignment of sectarian control over education. The book is temperate in tone, and is in agreement with the results of modern investigation.

For the first time in its history the Report on Medical Education, issued by the Illinois State Board of Health, embraces the medical institutions of the whole world. This is a feature that will be an assistance to medical boards that have to determine the value and validity of a medical diploma. As regards medical education in the United States, the report shows the marked changes for the better that have taken place in the past ten years, and it is seen that more progress will be made within the next two years. The report shows a marked increase in requirements as to preliminary education during the year 1890. It shows also that the movement for four years' study and three courses of lectures is an assured success, and a list is given of the colleges that have adopted or will soon adopt the requirements of longer terms of study.

Plain Talks on Electricity and Batteries, by Horatio R. Bigelow, M. D. (Blakiston), is a manual for physicians, describing the medical use of electricity, and the instruments and apparatus employed in this branch of therapeutics. Various forms of electrical machines, meters, and electrodes are figured, and the names of the makers are given. There are also figures showing the mode of applying electricity to various parts of the body.

A monograph on The Modern Antipyretics has been published by Isaac Ott, M. D. (E. D. Vogel, Easton, Pa.). It embraces a discussion of the nature of fever, a description of the chemical character and the physiological action of pyridin, quinolin, kairin, and thallin, a statement of the therapeutic action of each of the known antipyretics, and some observations on the value of antithermics in typhoid fever.

A pamphlet giving a brief history of