Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/578

564 The question as to the policy of a United States Bank and that of the right of a State to nullify a Federal law were settled in this period. But the slavery question only grew more pressing, the several attempts to adjust it all proving ineffective. Prof. Burgess has given us a history of public affairs in this period drawn from original sources. He has made a special effort to shun the bias of prejudice and preconceptions, to refrain from glorifying lawlessness in behalf of whatever opinion it was committed, and to credit men and communities with whatever of integrity and sincerity they actually possessed, instead of rating them as gods or demons, according to their position on some one question. Our author has confined himself to those events which, in his opinion, are significant of our progress in political civilization, and he has hoped to so treat them as to remove the traces of misunderstanding between the North and the South which still linger. He does not attempt to do this by conceding that the South was as much right as the North, but takes the position that the South was in error in secession and rebellion, and must acknowledge its error before complete national cordiality can be established. The volume contains five maps, tables of electoral votes in detail, of cabinet officers, of chronology, of bibliography, and a full index.

Since the days when Redfield and Espy and Ferrel struggled with the larger theoretical questions of winds and storms the advance of the science of meteorology has been remarkable. Its practical applications have not lagged behind, being, in fact, the chief motive for the support that has been given to the study of the science. Until lately little has been done toward popularizing the knowledge that has been gained in this field. In a book now before us Dr. Waldo, formerly a professor in the United States Signal Service, has undertaken to give an outline of the science in simple form. The first of the meteorological elements that he treats is temperature. He tells how the atmosphere gets its heat and how temperatures vary in different places and at different times. This chapter is illustrated by many charts on which the average and the extreme temperatures of the earth's surface are indicated. The variation and distribution of air pressure are similarly treated, and a brief discussion of winds naturally follows. The author considers the moisture of the atmosphere with reference to three steps in the cycle that it passes through—as distributed through the air whether invisible or in cloud and fog, as precipitated, and as taken up again from the earth by evaporation. After briefly calling attention to some optical and electrical phenomena, the author returns to movements of the air, describing first the larger circulatory movements, then the secondary circulation in the form of cyclones and local and miscellaneous winds. There is a chapter on weather predictions—the part of meteorology having most popular interest and one on climate in general, which is followed by an extended analysis of the climate of the United States. The book is suitable for use as a text-book or for general reading. Its mechanical form is attractive, and it is illustrated with one hundred and twenty-one diagrams and other figures.

Prof. Johnson has added to his valuable works on engineering subjects a very complete treatise on structural materials. In his preliminary chapters he describes the behavior of materials under the several kinds of stress, the matter here given being designed to supplement that usually contained in text-books on applied mechanics. A second division of the work, which the author intends to be read by engineering students if they do not get the information in other ways, deals with the manufacture and general properties of cast and wrought iron, steel, and other metals, lime, cement, brick, and timber. The attention given to the structural properties of wood is a feature of the work. Little accurate information on this topic had been available until the Forestry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture began the systematic study of timber and timber trees some five or six years ago. Prof. Johnson has been intimately connected with these