Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/729

Rh the country as sugar maples; and, second, to a detailed botanical description of the winter appearance of the several species of maple '1 giving the characters of bark, color, etc., of twigs, buds, and other marks apparent in winter by which the species may be distinguished at that season. The leaves, seeding, and buds of several of the varieties are further illustrated in engravings.

The report of The Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Ethnology represents that during the absence of Curator Putnam as chief of the Department of Ethnology at the Chicago Exposition the work of the museum was continued without interruption. Much progress was made in the arrangement of collections in the new halls, one of which is devoted to the objects gathered by the several expeditions to Yucatan and Honduras during the past five years. The expedition of 1892-'93 was prematurely terminated on account of the death of its chief, Mr. Owens, and the placing of another expedition is delayed. A memoir on Indian Music, by Miss Fletcher, published as No. 5 of the museum papers, is the result of twelve years' study, and contains the words.and music of nearly one hundred songs of war, friendship, love, and ceremonial, with a scientific study of the structure of Indian music. The museum's exhibit at Chicago was of the most satisfactory character.

The Chemical Publishing Company, Easton. Pa., are publishing in monthly numbers, to be of 48 pages each. Principles and Practice of Agricultural Analysis, by Dr. H. W. Wiley. The work will be issued in two volumes, of which the first, in ten numbers, comprising nearly five hundred pages, will contain a description of the origin of soil and fertilizers, and the method of their examination; and the second will be devoted to the best approved methods of analyzing agricultural products. An attempt will be made to condense all the material into twenty-four numbers; but if this can not be done, a third volume will be published. The price of the work will be 25 cents a number. Publication began in January, 1894.

Naturæ Novitates—Natural History News—is the name of a semimonthly publication giving a bibliographical list of current literature of all nations in natural history and the exact sciences, published by R. Friedlander & Son, Berlin, N. W., Carlstrasse, 11, at 25 cents a number. All titles entered are numbered consecutively from 1 up.

A Laboratory Manual of 90 pages, consisting of a course of experiments in organic chemistry, by W. R Orndorff, assistant Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University (D. C. Heath & Co., 40 cents), is arranged to accompany Remsen's Organic Chemistry. It contains a commendatory preface by Remsen. Each experiment is followed by a series of questions and a blank sheet for notes.

Under the simple title Guide to the Study of Common Plants, Prof. Volney M. Spalding has published a thoroughly practical manual of laboratory study in botany (Heath, 85 cents). The author supports fully and freely the modern doctrine that a knowledge of things should be gained through studying the things themselves rather than what some one has written about them. The book is adapted to classes in high schools and similar institutions. The pupils are assumed to have parts of plants before them at every lesson, and the exercises consist of directions for examining this material so as to learn what it has to teach. Seven chapters are given to the several principal parts of flowering plants, after which the chief botanical families represented among common plants are studied in succession. Full directions for study, lists of material, apparatus, and reference books are given, and there is some practical counsel for student and for teacher.

The plan of the recently issued Treatise on Hydrostatics, by Prof. Alfred G. Greenhill, of Woolwich (Macmillan, $1.90), is to develop the subject from the outset by means of illustrations of existing problems. In this way the author hopes that the student will acquire a real working knowledge of the subject, while at the same time the book will prove useful to the practical engineer. Particular attention has been given to the applications of the subject in naval architecture. With regard to details it may be mentioned that the condensed notation of units proposed by M. Hospitalier at the International Congress of Electricians of 1891 has been employed, and in the mathematical processes a free use has been made of the symbols and operations of the calculus. In support of the latter policy the author quotes the saying