Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/727

Rh now being made in the forestry division, of which a number of brief notices have already been given. The headings under which the subject is treated include the "Need of the Investigation," "Scope and Historical Development of the Science of Timber Physics," and "Organization and Methods of the Timber Examinations in the Division of Forestry."

The Psychological Table prepared by Prof. W. R. Benedict, of Cincinnati, on the basis of the teachings of James Ward and Prof. Hoffding, presents on a single sheet at one view the whole course of the development of consciousness, feeling, and thought. Defining psychology as the science of consciousness, it assumes that consciousness is dependent on nerve matter, and therefore starts with affections of that. There are presented the beginnings of consciousness; its development by differentiation; sensation and the senses; representation, or the return of states of consciousness; intellection, or thought; feeling; the will; and psychical disease, the progress of which, in contrast with evolution, is called devolution.

From the annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College is reprinted a valuable compend of the Investigations of the New England Meteorological Society for 1890. Reports were received from 172 different observers, but owing to various changes the average number of observers was about the same as in 1889—194. There are room and need for more observers in western and northern New England. In reviewing the cyclone observations of the year, notice is taken of the course of the storms, and as far as practicable of the relations to other regions of those which passed through it and north and south of it. In the work of gathering climatic data, the attempt to prepare such general results as isothermal maps or maps of mean annual rainfall has been met with the two difficulties of an insufficient number of reporting stations, and of insufficient time since the stations have been established to afford trustworthy means for a climate so variable as that of New England. The society hopes in time to be able to attempt the preparation of tables and maps that shall portray the peculiarities of local climate on a finer scale than that which suffices very well for the country as a whole. A careful study of the tornado at Lawrence, Mass., of July 26, 1890, is given in papers by W. M. Davis, director of the society, and H. Helm Clayton, of the Blue Hill Observatory.

A pamphlet entitled Humanity's Spreading Curse is aimed at the exposure of the "Scribes and Pharisees," by One of them. The characters held up to reprobation are: "The Common Scribe," "The Moral Scribe," "The Puritan," "The Foolism Scribe," and "The Pharisee"; the question is asked, "What must we do to be saved?" and quotations are made from newspapers and periodicals to enforce the author's points. The characters aimed at by the author are doubtless all liable to criticism; but criticism is one thing, and reckless denunciation is another.

The Annual Report of the Geological Survey of New Jersey for 1891 (John C. Smock, State Geologist) is full of valuable facts and statistical data concerning the resources of the State, and of suggestions for their further development. The work of the survey was carried on during the year in the study of the surface or Pleistocene formations in the northern part of the State; in an examination of the oak-land and pineland belts of the southern part of the State; in the continued study of the stream-flows and water-sheds for the report on water-supply and water-power; and, in co-operation with the United States Geological Survey, in the study of the crystalline rocks of the highlands of northern New Jersey. In addition to a very satisfactory presentation of these subjects, articles are given on "Artesian Wells," "Passaic River Drainage," "Iron Mines," and "Mineral Statistics." The detailed study of the drift and of the glacial moraine and its topographical characteristics is full.

A convenient manual of the Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, compiled from the British Pharmacopœia of 1885, and its appendix of 1890, by C. E. Armand Semple, is published by Longmans, Green & Co., New York ($3). While it treats in the main only of the drugs that are official, a few illustrations of non-official plants have been introduced here and there, in order to demonstrate some particular facts. The book is divided into two sections: the organic, dealing exclusively with the vegetable and