Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/143

 The importance of this subject, and more especially the importance of a knowledge of it by the physician, can not be too much insisted on; and Dr. Solly's attempt to bring the hitherto isolated data into some sort of usable order is worthy of the greatest encouragement. In so large a task, it is not surprising if we find some imperfections in its carrying out. One of these is a general diffuseness—a devotion of considerable space to the statement of facts which every schoolboy might be expected to know, and the defining of such things as weather, clouds, and fogs. These, however, are minor imperfections, and the work seems, as a whole, to be worthy of extreme commendation, although, owing to its attempt to cover the climates and health resorts of the entire world, its treatment of individual places is rather meager. The book contains a number of instructive rainfall and relief maps.

In the form of a story in which the animals talk to one another, President Jordan has given a sketch of the life history of the fur seal. The incidents of the story afford a description of the infancy of the pups, the life of the "bachelors," and the family cares of the "beach masters," or full-grown males, and the females. The various forms in which death comes to the seals are also told—by starvation to the young if their mothers are killed before they are weaned, by the club of the hunter in the drives of bachelors, by cast of the spear to females sleeping on the water, and by old age if all other vicissitudes are safely passed. The story is told in language simple enough to be understood by the young, and it is meaty enough to be of interest to adults. The illustrations equal the text in volume and are not behind it in interest. There are over forty full-page plates from photographs and nearly as many small pen sketches in the text. President Jordan was appointed in 1896 chief of a commission from the United States to examine the seal fisheries of the Bering Sea in conjunction with similar commissions from Great Britain and from Canada. This book embodies a part of the information gathered during his first summer on and near the Pribilov Islands.

The beginner who has Prof. Comstock's book for a guide can hardly fail to become interested in entomology. It gives the pupil plenty to do, it explains all difficult matters clearly, its style is animated, and it is further embellished by occasional poetical quotations. Observation in the field and on captive specimens in the schoolroom is the keynote of the book. The opening chapters are of general scope. The first describes the parts of an insect, the second tells how to collect and preserve specimens of each of the chief orders, while the third outlines the classification of insects and their near relatives. The second chapter does not contain all the directions for collecting. Further details on this subject and on the preservation and labeling of specimens, the breeding of insects, and on materials and reference books are given in another division of the volume occupying the last sixty pages. In the descriptive part insects are grouped under the heads of pond, brook, orchard, forest, and roadside life. Pupils are directed to collect eggs for hatching, and larvæ and pupæ to watch