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566 explained; the information concerning the metallic alloys is placed together; this is succeeded by a description of fluxes, slags, and refractory materials; the nature and mode of preparation of different kinds of fuel are next referred to; then follows a more detailed description of the metallurgy of iron and steel, silver, gold, platinum, lead, copper, zinc, tin, nickel, cobalt, aluminium, antimony, arsenic, and bismuth." The properties of each metal are given and something is told of its uses. There are one hundred and forty-four illustrations, including cuts of furnaces and other apparatus, diagrams showing the course of operations, etc.

In a series of chapters which might well have been sermons, under the title Old Faiths and New Facts, an effort is made by William W. Kinsley to show that the beliefs in miracles, in the efficacy of prayer, in the divinity of Christ, and in a future life need not be disturbed by the discoveries of modern science (Appletons, $1.50). Two chapters of the book have appeared in the Bibliotheca Sacra, and those on prayer, at the instance of Bishop J. H. Vincent, were used as part of the prescribed Chautauqua reading for 1894. The volume will doubtless help many who have been dazzled by the new light of science to retain their religious beliefs.

An examination of various abuses in American public affairs comes to us in a volume by Frederick W. Schultz, entitled Politics and Patriotism (Arena Publishing Company). The author traces the growth of the American political ideal through colonial times, the Revolutionary period, and, after some discussion of the later amendments to the Constitution of the United States, carries his subject through the civil war and reconstruction periods. He next criticises the protection and greenback doctrines, and shows how selfishness is productive of many evils in the industrial relations. Inequalities of taxation are discussed at considerable length, and a series of striking examples possible under the laws of Maryland is given. In the concluding portion of the volume a brief history of exposures of corruption in New York, Baltimore, and other large cities is presented, and a scheme is offered for securing pure primary elections, which the author holds is the first step toward municipal reform. Mr. Schultz, who introduces himself as a man busy with mercantile affairs, writes with much feeling but temperately, and expresses himself clearly and concisely. His book is one to stimulate thought in the average citizen.

Evidently the true reason for the publication of the collection of Fables and Essays recently issued by John Bryan is that given in the preface, namely, "the same reason a hen lays eggs"—for relief to the author. Liberty and justice are the two avowed motives of the book. In the fables, brief essays, and bits of verse which it contains, satire and sentiment are mingled. The ideas that oftenest find expression in its pages are hatred of industrial and social oppression, and of priestcraft, honor and tenderness for the natural woman, impatience with the unnatural, sympathy with the victims of selfish greed, contempt for arrogance and pretense, and intolerance of artificiality in manners, education, and conduct. The personality of the author is everywhere apparent in the volume, and if the reader does not like that personality, Mr. Bryan makes it very evident that he need not read the book (The Arts and Lettres Company, New York).

A neat little handbook on Physical Measurements, by L. W. Austin and C. B. Thwing, has just come to hand. It is intended as a guide for the elementary student in the physical laboratory, and "simply presupposes such a knowledge of the principles of physics as can be gained from a course of general lectures supplemented by a good text-book." Each physical law, with the special pieces of apparatus for applying it to physical measurements, is taken up, and after a thorough description examples for testing the student's grasp of the principle are given. The last fifty pages of the book consist of the tables necessary for making computations and verifying the results (Allyn & Bacon, $1.50).

The portion of the college curriculum in which the most valuable and practical knowledge is obtained is the laboratory at any rate, in the physical sciences, and in some of the more abstract and difficult subjects, such as psychology, there is an increasing use of laboratory methods. In Mechanics, the last