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134 Life-Saving Service of the United States. Annual Report of, for Year ending June 30, 1895. Pp. 500.

Mach, Ernst. Popular Scientific Lectures. (The Religion of Science Library, No. 21.) Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company. Pp. 313. 35 cents.

Oxford, Henry. Modern Optical Instruments. New York: Macmillan. London: Whittaker & Co. Pp. 100. 80 cents.

Reprints. Bolton, H. Carrington: Bad Features of Periodicals (Address before the Washington Library Association).—Keen, W. W., M. D.: Gangrene as a Complication and Sequel of the Continued Fevers (Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, July 2 and 9, 1896), and The Treatment of Traumatic Lesions of the Kidney (Annals of Surgery, August, 1896).—Keyes, Charles R.: The Bethany Limestone of the Western Interior Coal Field (American Journal of Science, September, 1896)—Old South Leaflets: No. 67. The Boston Ebenezer, by Cotton Mather: No. 69. Description of the New Netherlands, by Adrian Van der Donck; No. 71. Columbus's Memorial to Ferdinand and Isabella; No. 73. The Battle of Quebec.

Sizer, Nelson. Uncle Sam's Letters on Phrenology. New York: Fowler & Wells. London: L. N. Fowler & Co. Pp. 145. 50 cents.

Smithsonian Publications. Bendire, Charles: Life Histories of North American Birds. Ill., pp. 518. Goode, George Brown, and Bean, Tarleton H.: Oceanic Ichthyology. Ill., pp. text, 552; plates, 123.—Hodgkins Fund Publications. 1033: Argon, a New Constituent of the Atmosphere, by Lord Rayleigh and Prof. William Ramsay, and Methods for the Determination of Organic Matter in Air, by David Hendricks Bergey.

Thorpe, T. E. Humphry Davy, Poet and Philosopher. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 240. $1.25.

Trowbridge, John. What is Electricity? (International Scientific Series.) Pp. 309. $1.50.

White, Andrew D. Fiat Money Inflation in France. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 86. 25 cents.

Wise, P. M. A Text-Book for Training Schools for Nurses, with an Introduction by Dr. Edward Cowles. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 2 vols. Pp. 230 and 327. Each, $1.25.



Notes from the American Association.—The attendance at the Buffalo meeting of the American Association—three hundred and thirty—was the smallest in its recent history. A curve with very marked indentations published in Science shows that the attendance on the meetings has steadily decreased since it reached its maximum in 1880 to 1884. The curve further shows that it was very much greater when the association met in the larger Eastern cities—Boston, Montreal, Philadelphia, New York, Washington, and Brooklyn—though declining in them too, than in the cities farther west. Among the resolutions passed by the association were, one urging upon Congress the desirability of further legislation looking to the early adoption of the metric system; one authorizing the construction of authentic standards of electrical measurement, to be the property of the association; a resolution approving the proposition to create the office of Director-in-Chief of Scientific Bureaus and Investigations in the Department of Agriculture, "to be filled by a broadly educated and experienced scientific man, provided that such appointment shall be made only on the nomination of the National Academy of Science, the legally constituted adviser of the Government in matters relating to science"; and a protest to Congress against legislation on vivisection. In this protest the association declared that experiments on animals "have effected a saving of many millions of dollars in animal property, and are the basis of our knowledge of hygiene and preventive medicine, and, in part, of surgery"; and affirmed that, "while deprecating cruelty and needless vivisection experiments in the public schools, this association believes that those who are trained to biological research are the ones who are best able to decide as to the wisdom and utility of animal experimentation." A committee was appointed to consider the matter of instituting a study of the white race in America. Grants were made of one hundred dollars for a table at the Biological Laboratory at Wood's Hole, Mass.; fifty dollars to Francis E. Phillips for investigations on the properties of natural gas; and fifty dollars to L. A. Bauer for investigations on terrestrial magnetism in connection with the magnetic survey of Maryland. A happy adjustment was suggested, and partly carried out in the case of one of them, of the relations of the special societies to the association, under which, after the formal meeting of the special society, the papers contributed by members shall be held over to be read in the meetings of the association. The societies, by following this plan, may be made to contribute to