Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/871

Rh in Winchester Castle and Cathedral, we go and look at them and find that they are all real. Next to seeing them for ourselves is reading the mind-pictures of them of one who has seen them intelligently, and of the emotional effects they have wrought upon him—with the guide-book information left out. A historical monument in France is defined by the author as meaning "a church, or a castle, or a town that has been thought worthy either of restoration or preservation at the expense of the French people. There is a tax levied to provide the money necessary for these purposes, and it is astonishing how much the French are willing to pay to preserve or restore whatever has to do with their history as a nation." More than thirty works, cathedrals, churches, castles, etc., of historical or architectural interest, are described in this book in the manner we have indicated.

is a comparison of the animal as a piece of mechanism for the conversion, application, and utilization of energy with the various machines which man has constructed for the same purpose. The introductory chapter is a discourse on some of the more important physical laws and the efficiency of the most economical machines whose construction is based upon them. In the next chapter, The Animal as a Prime Motor, the various vital processes, the efficiency of vital machines, intensity of muscular effort, and the uses of food are among the most important headings. The third and concluding chapter considers some of the unsolved problems of the animal machine, such as the source of the firefly's glow and the animalcule's phosphorescence.

has been often remarked that a teacher who is only a few lessons ahead of his class has an important advantage in that he can better appreciate the difficulties of his pupils than one who is further removed in attainments. On this account, as well as for his happy manner of imparting knowledge, Mr. Minot should he ranked as one of the most acceptable guides to the amateur ornithologist. His book is a remarkable production for a youth of seventeen. It, gave substantial promise of important scientific and literary work which was left unfulfilled by the ill health that turned the author aside to a different profession and by his untimely death in a railroad collision. The book contains errors, and its statements as to range are deficient, but the editor has set sufficient danger signals against the former, and has duly supplemented the latter. It is not complete, but this does not prevent its being highly useful. Its descriptions comprise the external appearance of the species, its habits, range, appearance of its nest and eggs, and its song. An introduction contains directions for collecting birds and eggs, and for studying the birds at liberty. The illustrations are some twenty odd outline drawings by the author and a frontispiece portrait.

A Tabular Review of Organography has been prepared by Prof. A. L. Benedict for the use of the classes in botany of the Department of Pharmacy in the University of Buffalo. In it each point has, so far as possible, been exemplified by some common plant; and each page of the manual is provided with a blank side to be filled in by the student himself. It is thus intended to adapt the little work especially for use as a guide in field study. An apology for hasty preparation at a season when the notes could not be verified by reference to wild plants is hardly in place in a scientific manual. With another summer affording the means desired, there should be no occasion for it to remain in another edition.

The papers of Charles Robertson, of Carlinville, Ill., upon the Mutual Biological Relations of the Entomophilous Flora and the Anthophilous Insert Fauna of his county of Macoupin are valuable to botanists and entomologists, and to all persons interested in horticulture.

In a little book on Condiments, Spices, and Flavors, a brief account is given by Dr. Mary E. Green of the substances classed under those heads, in the hope that it may lead to a more intelligent use of them in