Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 42.djvu/288

274 ing and relaxing, and the time required for nerve transmission; discusses the chemical changes that take place in a muscle when working and its analogy to a heat engine; and, after showing that a muscle generates an electric current, closes his course with a consideration of the electric organs found in certain fishes.

author, who is Professor of Chemistry in Cornell University, has brought together in this book the material that he has published before in handbooks of analysis, together with much new matter. The volume is divided into five parts: in the first of these the processes and manipulations of analytical chemistry are described quite fully; the second sets forth the systematic course of qualitative analysis; the third is devoted to the operations of quantitative analysis; directions for examples in quantitative analysis constitute part four; and lists of apparatus and reagents, various tables, etc., make up part five. This is the first book that we have seen to use the new spellings of chemical terms originated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Smithsonian Institution has begun a series of Special Bulletins, designed to illustrate the collections in the National Museum, and Captain Bendire's work, covering part of the collection of birds' eggs, appears as the first of the series. The present volume is confined to gallinaceous birds, pigeons, and birds of prey, embracing a total of one hundred and forty-six species and subspecies. Besides describing the eggs and nest, the author gives the breeding habits of each species, its migratory and breeding ranges, so far as these have been determined, and other facts of its life history. The classification given in the Code and Check List of the American Ornithologists' Union has been followed, and the synonymy and nomenclature used in this list have been adopted also. The value of the work is greatly enhanced by twelve elegant colored plates of eggs, embracing a total of one hundred and eighty-five varieties. Captain Bendire is Honorary Curator of the Department of Oölogy in the National Museum.

best friend of Harvard University can not help seeing a great want of proportion in a history of Massachusetts colleges that gives more space to Harvard than to thirteen other institutions combined, yet this Prof. Bush's book does. The author gives a connected history of Harvard in his first three chapters, then describes the various departments of the university, tells how its instruction is given, sets forth the "formative influences" at Harvard which constitute student life, and closes with a sketch of the presidents of the college and university and a Harvard bibliography. Next comes a brief history of Williams College (chartered in 1793), by Eben Burt Parsons, D. D., secretary of the faculty. Then follow similar accounts of Andover Theological Seminary, Amherst College, Tufts College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Boston College, by persons connected with the respective institutions. Accounts of Boston University, Massachusetts Agricultural College, and Clark University, compiled from official records, are also included. There are three histories of women's colleges—Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, and Smith—prefaced by a general chapter on Higher Education for Women, by Mrs. Sarah D. (Locke) Stow. The volume is well illustrated with plates, representing the buildings of the various colleges.

is a manual of gymnastics that may be performed in a school-room, some without any and some with simple apparatus. It provides for a graded course, extending from the first year of school to the high school. The movements are explained, and many are illustrated. There are directions for marching, which include a set of fancy