Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/148

136 Ramsey, George M. Philosophy of Phenomena. Boston: Banner of Light Publishing Company. Pp. 208.

Reprints. Allen, Arthur: Extra-organic Evolution. Pp. 2.—Babcock, S. M., and Russell, H. L.: Organized Ferments in Milk; a New Factor in the Ripening of Cheese. Pp. 32.—Bangs, Outram: The Land Mammals of Peninsular Florida and the Coast Region of Georgia. Pp. 80.—Brigham, A. P.: Topography and Glacial Deposits of Mohawk Valley. Pp. 32. with map.—Chamberlain, C. J.: Winter Characters of Certain Sporangia. Pp. 5, with plate.—Coulter, J. M.: Contribution to the Life History of Ranunculus. Pp. 16, with plates.—Dorsey, G. A.: The Geography of the Thimsian Indians. Pp. 7; A Copper Mask from Chimbote, Peru. Pp. 2, with plates.—Herter, C. A., M. D.: On Certain Relations between Bacterial Activity in the Intestine and the Indican of the Urine. Pp. 4; Some Aspects of the Doctrine of Autointoxication. Pp. 20.—Hollick, Arthur: A New Fossil Grass from Staten Island; A New Fossil Monocotyledon from the Yellow Gravel at Bridgeton, N. J.; and Affinities of Caulinites Ad. Brong. Pp. 8, with plates—Kemp, J. P.: Physiography of the Eastern Adirondacks in the Cambrian and Ordovician Periods. Pp. 6, with plate.—Miller, M. L.: A Preliminary Study of the Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico. Pp. 48, with plates.—Newberry, J. S.: New Species and a New Genus of American Palæozoic Fishes, etc. (edited by Basliford Dean). Pp. 24, with plates.—Prosser, C. S.: The Permian and Upper Carboniferous of Southern Kansas. Pp. 28.—Prudden, T. Mitchell: Pathology and the Department of Pathology (Columbian University). Pp. 20.—Reeve, C. H., Plymouth, Ind.: Money. What it is. Its Only Function. Pp. 16.—Franklin Institute: Smoke Nuisance, The, and its Regulation, with Special Reference to the Condition prevailing in Philadelphia (Improved Furnaces, Automatic Stokers, etc.). Pp. 91.—Stuver. E.: The Relation of Food, Air, and Exercise to Healthy Growth and Development. Pp. 7—White, T. D.: A Contribution to the Petrography of the Boston Basin. Pp. 40, with plates; The Original Trenton Rocks. Pp. 3.

Rotch, A. Lawrence. Observations made at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory in 1896. Cambridge, Mass., Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College. Pp. 128, with plates.

Smithsonian Institution. Report of the United States National Museum for 1895. Pp. 1080.—A Catalogue of Earthquakes on the Pacific Coast, 1769 to 1897 (Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge). By E. S. Holden, Pp. 2.53.—A Revision of Tropical African Diplopoda, of the Family Strongylosomatidæ. By O. F. Cook. Pp. 14.

St. Amand, Imbert de Napoleon III and his Court. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 407. $1.50.

Spencer, J. W. Great Changes of Level in Mexico and the Interoceanic Connections. Rochester, N. Y.: The Geological Society of America. Pp. 34.

Tappeiner, Dr. H. Introduction to Chemical Methods of Clinical Diagnosis. Translated by E. J. McWheeney. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 152.

United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Report of the Commissioner for the Year ending June 30. 1897. Pp. 171.

Vincent, Frank. The Animal World: Its Romances and Realities. A Reading Book in Zoölogy. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 240. 60 cents.



Folklore of the Yew Tree.—Various reasons are cited by Dr. John Lowe, in his book on yew trees, as having been given to account for the planting of yews in churchyards. The yew is said to be sacred, the Druids having sacrificed in groves of them, and the character of the tree having been preserved when Christianity superseded Druidism. Evelyn thought that the trees were planted there so as to have them handy to furnish branches for processions, and other authors believed they furnished a substitute for the sacred palm. The yew is, in fact, still called palm by rustics in East Kent. One writer affirms that the evergreen was considered typical of the immortality of the soul. The supposition that the tree was planted to afford shelter to the buildings is contradicted by the fact that the yews are seldom large enough or near enough to the church to protect it. Dr. Lowe believes that these churchyard trees were planted in order to insure a continual supply of bow staves for the English bowmen. A general plantation of yew trees for the use of archers was directed in the reign of Richard III, and in the reign of Elizabeth they were ordered planted in churchyards to insure their cultivation and protect cattle from their leaves. Foreign as well as English yew was used for bows, and the rate of prices fixed by an act of Elizabeth indicates that the foreign was preferred. The best bows, it is said, were made of Spanish yew. The yew tree has poisonous properties which affect both men and animals when they eat too copiously of it, and a drug of considerable value is extracted from it. English schoolboys are said to be fond of taking the small red fruit of the yew into their mouths, chewing it, and then spitting it out, while they are careful not to swallow any. The berries when thus used go by the name of "spitagobs."

Predeterminate Selection.—Telesis is the name given by Lester F. Ward to that principle or that faculty of mind which pursues some definite end. It is further explained