Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/649

Rh in eight months and see through every thing, and sum up the philosophy of governments, races, and civilization, within the limits of a single portable volume. Baron de Hübner does not attempt this, but he has the faculty of seizing the most important features of the subjects considered, and his reflections are always sensible and suggestive, and often acute and valuable. His work is divided into three parts: I. America; II. Japan; III. China. To the first part he devotes twelve chapters, and to Parts II. and III. each eight chapters.

The author tells us that the objects of his journey were "to behold, beyond the Rocky Mountains, in the virgin forests of the Sierra Nevada, civilization in its struggle with savage Nature; to behold, in the Empire of the Rising Sun, the efforts of certain remarkable men to launch their country abruptly in the path of progress; to behold, in the Celestial Empire, the silent, constant, and generally passive, but always obstinate, resistance which the spirit of the Chinese opposes to the moral, political, and commercial invasions of Europe."

author of these volumes, a trained artist in vocal music, attempted to give instruction in that art, but found that the usual methods consist simply of empirical formulas, without any thing like scientific coordination. Accordingly, she undertook to discover for herself a rational method of instructing pupils. While Helmholtz was accumulating material for his great work, "Tonempfindungen," she became his pupil, and, to some extent, his collaborator. The result is these two volumes, which, in the words of Du Bois-Reymond, show an "acquaintance with all the facts and theories concerning the production of the human voice."

observations extend through four seasons, and are limited to Pennsylvania. The explanation why the cow-bird's egg hatches first in the nest of smaller eggs where it is clandestinely placed by the parent, is ingenious. The egg being larger than the others, is pressed upon by the incubating bird, hence it gets the most heat from the bird's breast. In descriptive ornithology science abounds, but, in recording the life-traits of birds, too little has been done, hence the peculiar value of this contribution.

is a reprint of the "Nomenclature of Diseases" drawn up by a joint committee appointed by the Royal College of Physicians, London. Its republication is intended to aid in promoting the acceptance of a common nomenclature among the medical profession in all English-speaking countries.

foes herein discussed are "paper money, protective tariffs, and party spirit." Though approving the object of the Grange movement, the professor dislikes its secrecy. With a good deal in it that is somewhat ad captandum, such as "greenback-grasshoppers are worse than any other kind of grasshoppers," the address is an able tract on political economy as affecting the farmer's interest.

work is adapted to the use of students acquainted with algebra and familiar with at least the simple definitions of trigonometry and the elements of physics. It is published as one of a series of "School Class Books;" but who expects to receive theoretic or practical knowledge of steam at any "school" whatever? As a manual for the earnest student, who has access to steam-engines and steam-driven machinery, the work is valuable. It is divided into