Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 55.djvu/145

Rh impact would be a grazing one, when three bodies would be produced; a portion, or slice, as the author calls it, of each of the colliding bodies would be sheared off, forming an intensely hot and bright new star, while the original masses would go on their course, having the parts that had been in contact heated and made brilliant, so as to present in their revolutions the aspect of variable stars. The author's attention was drawn to this subject by the appearance of a new star in Cygnus in 1877. A little while afterward Nova Aurigæ appeared, presenting exactly the phenomena he had predicted. Professor Bickerton writes as one who understands his subject; there is nothing in his speculations, so far as we have observed, that grates harshly with known facts, and it can be read, as he reads it, to account plausibly for some of the facts—just as can several other theories of the formation of the universe which are still only speculations. The problem is yet far from comprehension, and is one of the legacies which the nineteenth century is destined to bequeath to the twentieth. (Published at Christ Church, New Zealand.)



Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. Connecticut: Twenty-second Annual Report, for 1898, Part I, Fertilizers. Pp. 101.—Cornell University: No. 163. Three Important Fungous Diseases of the Sugar Beet. By B. M. Duggar. Pp. 30; No. 164. Peach-Leaf Cure, etc. By B. M. Duggar. Pp. 20.—Massachusetts Agricultural College (Hatch Station): No. 58. Manurial Requirements of Crops. Pp 16.—New Jersey: No. 135. Poisonous Plants. By Byron D. Halsted. Pp. 28.—North Dakota Weather and Crop Service, Fifth Annual Report. B. H. Bronson, section director. Pp. 78; Monthly Reports for October and November, 1898. Pp. 8 each.—Ohio: No. 96. The Army Worm and Other Insects. By P. M. Webster and C. W. Mally. Pp. 26; No. 97. Some Diseases of Wheat and Oats. By A. D. Selby. Pp. 32; No. 98. Small Fruits. By W. J. Green. Pp. 146.—West Virginia: No. 53. Commercial Fertilizers. By J. H. Stewart and B. H. Hite. Pp. 36.

American Asiatic Association, Journal of the. Vol. I, No. 5. John Foord, editor. Pp. 16.

Ayer, N. W., and Son. American Newspaper Annual, 1899. Philadelphia. Pp. 1400.

Berea Quarterly, February, 1899. Berea College, Kentucky. Pp. 28. 30 cents. $1 a year.

Berry, Arthur. A Short History of Astronomy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (University Series). Pp. 440. $1.50.

Bradford, Gamaliel. The Lesson of Popular Government. New York: The Macmillan Company. 2 vols. Pp. 520 and 590.?4.

Brown, William Harvey. On the South African Frontier. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 430, with map. $3.

Buckley, Arabella B. The Fairy-Land of Science. New York: D. Appleton and Company.

Clayton, C. Helm. Studies of Cyclonic and Anti-Cyclonic Phenomena with Kites. Blue Hill (Massachusetts) Meteorological Observatory. Pp. 15, with plates.

Force, General Manning F. General Sherman. New York: D. Appleton and Company (Great Commanders Series). Pp. 353.

Guignet, E., and Gamier, Edouard. La Céramique, Ancienne et Modern (Ceramics, Ancient and Modern). Paris: Félix Alcan. (Bibliothèque Scientifique Internationale.) Pp. 311. 6 francs.

Gellé, Le Dr. M. E. L'Audition et ses Organes (Hearing and its Organs). Paris: Felix Alcan. (Bibliothèque Scientifique Internationale.) Pp. 326. 6 francs.

Hancock, James Denton. The Louisiana Purchase treated in its Relations to the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. Pp. 8.

Herzberg, Henry. True versus False Education. Pp. 20.

Hinsdale, Guy, M. D. Acromegaly. Detroit: William M. Warren. Pp. 88. $1.50.

International Correspondence School, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Short Courses in English Branches, Bookkeeping, Stenography, and Mechanical and Ornamental Drawing. Pp. 16.

Jacobs, Joseph. The Story of Geographical Discovery. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (Library of Useful Stories.) Pp. 200. 40 cents.

Kingsley, Mary H. West African Studies. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 633, with maps. $5.

Library Notes, Vol. IV, No. 16. Edited by Melvil Dewey. Simplified Library School Rules. Pp. 72. Quarterly. 50 cents. $1 a year.

Lille, Société Photographique de. Le Nord Photographie. January, 1899. (Sixth year.) Lille, France. Pp. 20.

Mason, William P. Examination of Water (Chemical and Bacteriological). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 135. $1.25.

Macalaster, The. Monthly. February, 1899. St. Paul, Minnesota, Macalaster College. Pp. 32. 15 cents. $1 a year.

Parsons, Frances Theodora. How to Know the Ferns. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 215. $1.50.

Rafinesque, C. S. Ichthyologia Ohioensis; or. Natural History of the Fishes inhabiting the River Ohio and its Tributary Streams. A reprint of the original, with life, etc. By R. Ellsworth Call. Cleveland, Ohio: The Burrows Brothers Company. Pp. 175. $4.

Reprints. Ashmead, Albert S., M. D. No Evidence in America of Pre-Columbian Leprosy. Pp. 10.—Grant, Sir James. The Alimentary Canal and Human Decay in Relation to the Neurons. Pp. 8.—Hopkins, Thomas C. Clays and Clay 