Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/292

278 not only a large number of carvings of apparent pictographic character, but also many simpler markings which seem to show the existence of a system of linear writing more ancient than that of the Phœnicians. In a volume entitled Cretan Pictographs and Prœ-Phœnician Script (London: Quaritch; New York: Putnams) he has described a large number of these carvings, together with others from the sepulchral deposit near Phæstos, in the Peloponnese. The work is illustrated with one hundred and thirty-nine figures and several plates, including a reconstruction of a Mycenean ceiling decoration in colors.

A very practical and without doubt a unique book is the Laboratory Manual of Inorganic Preparations, of H. T. Vulté and George M. S. Neustadt (Peck, $2). It tells the student how to prepare a large number of the inorganic reagents used in the laboratory, the processes ranging in difficulty from the distilling of water and the preparing of oxygen and hydrogen gases to the preparation of hydrazine, carbon oxysulphide, and acid or alkaline normal solutions. The number of substances included is, apparently, over two hundred. In the recovery of substances that have been used in experiments and in the preparation of C. P. reagents from chemicals of commercial grade the authors are convinced that not only can much needless waste be prevented, but that much knowledge of value to the student can be acquired.

Of two recent numbers of The Journal of the College of Science of the Japanese Imperial University, one, being Volume VIII, Part II, contains five papers relating to biological subjects, accompanied by nine plates; and the other, Volume IX, Part I, comprises ten physical and chemical papers, with five plates.

In his monograph on The Physical Geography of Southern New England (American Book Co., 20 cents), Prof. William M. Davis presents evidence to show that the region in question is an old peneplain which has had a slanting uplift. In accordance with this theory, he accounts for the mountains that stand out from or rise above the New England upland and for the valleys that interrupt it. The paper contains many suggestions for the genuine scientific teaching of geography. The physiographic development of The Southern Appalachians is set forth in a similar essay by C. W. Hayes. Both publications are numbers of the first volume of National Geographic Monographs.

Under the title The Climatology and Physical Features of Maryland, the Maryland State Weather Service has issued its first biennial report, covering the years 1892 and 1893. The document includes sketches of the topography and geology of the State and general descriptions of its soils and climate. Monthly summaries of the weather and a summary of the weekly weather crop bulletins issued during these two years are included, while in tabular form the reports of observers are given. There are five maps, showing the annual and seasonal temperature and precipitation in Maryland and Delaware.

A quarto pamphlet of Observation Blanks in Physics, prepared by Prof. William C. A. Hammel, has been issued recently (American Book Co., 30 cents). These blanks contain directions for fifty-four simple experiments relating to air, liquids, and heat, with blank lines for observation, inference, name, date, instructor's indorsement, etc. There are also figures of the parts of the apparatus required, many of the articles being household utensils.

We have already called attention to the series of pamphlet guides to New England natural history which is being issued by Edward Knobel. The one now before us is devoted to The Night Moths of New England (Whidden, 50 cents), and gives the name, size, and colors of five hundred species with figures of nearly all of them. The species are arranged in seven groups, each with a brief key, and there are three pages of general description.

There is substantial evidence that science is not neglected on the Pacific coast in the eight-hundred-page volume of Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, which constitutes Part I of Volume V of this publication. Among the more extended monographs which it contains are a Review of the Reptiles of Lower California, by John Van Denburgh; California Water Birds, by Leverett M. Loomis; Neocene Stratigraphy of