Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/585

Rh relates chiefly to fungous diseases of plants and to weeds. One of the leading diseases investigated has been a serious trouble among beans, producing brown irregular pits on the pods and seeds. This was shown to be due to bacteria. Much attention has been given to fruit diseases and rose troubles; diseases of the violet, nasturtium, and sedum have been studied also. Under the study of weeds the root system has been an objective point. The great size attained by tap roots of some weeds, and the wide extent over which other species may spread under ground, have been shown. The manner in which weeds pass the winter and their agency in propagating fungi have also been looked into.

A thoroughly practical address on Heating and Ventilation of Residences, delivered by James R. Willett to the engineering societies of the University of Illinois, has been printed by the author. Three modes of heating—by hot water, steam, and hot air—are described in it. Mr. Willett tells how to estimate the amount of radiating surface or the sectional area of hot-air pipes required for a house, how to determine the grate area, the sizes of fittings, and the proper location for all parts of a heating apparatus. There are sixteen plates showing plans and elevations of heating apparatus in houses. Further information is given in tables and in cuts in the text.

In the belief that spelling would be learned incidentally from language lessons, the set study of this subject has been largely, discontinued. This belief has proved erroneous in many cases, and a return to the old practice is being made. The renewed demand for spelling books has led to the publication of The Limited Speller, by Henry R. Sanford, Ph. D. (Bardeen, 35 cents), designed to include all the words in common use which are frequently misspelled. The words are arranged in one alphabetical list, the accent is always marked, and the pronunciation is indicated wherever necessary by diacritics or respelling.

With its number for December, 1893, New Occasions began its second volume in a new form and with more pages (Charles H. Kerr & Co., $1 a year). It is edited by B. F. Underwood, and is devoted to social and industrial progress. The enlarged size was made necessary by an arrangement to print in the magazine the lectures of the Brooklyn Ethical Association for the past winter. The December number contains the first of these lectures, on Cosmic Evolution as related to Ethics, by Lewis G. Janes. Dr. Janes asks the question, "Can an ethical science be formulated in harmony with cosmic law sufficiently rational and broad to command the allegiance of all liberal-minded people?" and gives some considerations in favor of an affirmative answer. Other topics treated in this number of the magazine are the pardon system, immigration as affected by the tariff, the Eliot-Lewes marriage, and there are briefer articles under the general head of Occasions and Duties.

Many persons are looking to science for some kind of substitute for religion, and several attempts have been made to satisfy this expectation. Among the latest of these is that made by Dr. Paul Carus and embodied in The Religion of Science (Open Court Publishing Co., 25 and 50 cents). The author's system imitates the form of traditional religion quite closely, while rejecting revelation and anthropomorphism. The religion of science, he says, accepts "Entheism," and he defines this as "the view that regards God as inseparable from the world. He is the eternal in Nature." The authority for conduct in his plan is the system of laws of the universe. Its ethics is the ethics of duty. Its conviction as to immortality is that the soul persists—not as an individual existence—but that it becomes merged in the "soul of mankind." Further resemblances and differences between the new doctrine and the old are set forth in chapters on Mythology and Religion; Christ and the Christians, a Contrast; and The Catholicity of the Religious Spirit.

The Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, 1893, Part I, is occupied mainly with accounts of improvements in rivers and harbors on which work was done in the year ending June 30, 1893. Operations were carried on at many places along the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico, from the St. Croix River in Maine to the harbor at Brazos Santiago, Texas. The Western rivers, the lake harbors and rivers, and the Pacific coast also received considerable attention. Other work done by the engineer corps concerned the bridging of