Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/790

710 the Pacific Coast; The Rocks of the Sierra Nevada; Pre-Cambrian Igneous Rocks of the Unkar Terraue, with notes on the petrographic character of the lavas; on the Structure of the Ridge between the Taconic and Green Mountain ranges in Vermont; The Structure of Monument Mountain in Great Barrington, Mass.; and The Potomac and Roaring Creek Coal Fields in West Virginia.

White's Outline Studies in the History of the United States (American Book Co., 30 cents) is an exercise book in which are printed questions which the pupil is to answer by writing or drawing in the blanks left for the purpose, or by marking localities on outline maps.

A volume of Short Studies in Nature Knowledge has been prepared by William Gee as an introduction to the science of physiography (Macmillan, 3s. 6d., $1.10). The chief geographical topics are taken up in successive chapters, beginning with the Great Globe itself and following with Mountains, Valleys, and Great Plains, The Sea, Rivers and their Work, The Winds of Heaven, The Force and the Filigree of Frost, etc. In style and language the book is adapted to pupils of an advanced grade. It is purely descriptive, and while containing a great number of facts the text is always readable and is frequently adorned with poetical quotations. Over a hundred illustrations, a glossary, and an index add to the value of the book.

Dr. Roger S. Tracy has put the chief rules of sanitation into a compact and handy form in his Handbook of Sanitary Information for Householders (Appletons, 50 cents). Taking as the object of sanitary science to secure good air, good food, and good water, he tells first how proper ventilation is to be provided. His longest chapter is that on house drainage, which contains the rules of the Board of Health of New York city. There is a chapter on disinfection, supplemented by a list of the common disinfectants, with a brief description of each, and the average price at retail. With regard to foods he tells what adulterations are found in the chief articles of consumption and how they may be detected. Means of testing water and guarding against impurities in it are also given. An appendix contains a list of the materials needed for fitting up water-closets, with prices.

A second edition has appeared of The Theory of Light, by Thomas Preston (Macmillan & Co., 15,s., $5), which was noticed in this magazine in 1891. In the new edition the text has been revised and has been augmented by more than a hundred pages of new matter, in conjunction with which several new diagrams have been introduced. The changes occur chiefly in those portions which relate to the rectilinear propagation of light, wave reflection and refraction, and the application of graphic methods to the solution of diffraction problems. More detail has been introduced in some places, especially in the chapter on the velocity of light, where the experiments of Prof. Newcomb have been described.

The Report of the Department of Health of the City of Chicago for 1894 is notable as covering the latter and more serious half of an epidemic of smallpox lasting from the middle of 1893 to the middle of 1894. By vigorous preventive and remedial measures—over a million free vaccinations being performed—the deaths were kept down to a total of 1,003. This gave a rate of 5·58 to each 10,000 of population against 16·74 in 1864, 17·80 in 1872, and 23·07 in 1882, which were epidemic years. The experience of the health officers in many difficult cases that they had to deal with are given. The report includes a description of the water supply of Chicago by the Commissioner of Health, Arthur R. Reynolds, M. D., the vital statistics of the city, and special reports on the municipal laboratory, on sanitary and meat inspection, on smoke nuisances, and free public baths.

The American Book Company has issued several simple German texts in board covers at 25 cents each. Three of them now before us are by Seidel and Stifter, two writers of the present century characterized by their naturalness of style. Each book contains about fifty pages of text and a twenty-page vocabulary. They are printed in the Schwabacher type, which is more open and hence more grateful to the eyes than the ordinary German print. In cheaper form and smaller are the Germania Texts, edited by A. W. Spanhoofd (10 cents each). They are