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��practising Am^ricati eogtoeers if in a morv famili&r language.

As stated in the preface. '- der ingenieiir muss geologiscbe kenntnisse besitzen, a1>er braucht kein specialist eu sein." Flis eve should be trained to observe those phenomena wtiic-li are of importance in determining the structure of rocks : but in special problems he must expect to consult the eipert geolc^ist, who will be able to deduce conclnsious from data given him by the engineer.

��Aaoxti the numerous recently published works of its class, the volume before us easily takes a very high rank. From the pen of a thoroughly trained inatnictor in biol<^y. it is characterized by great clearness and precision of statement, aud, being prepared with the co- ot)eratioD of an experienced teacher of young pupils, the subject is preseuted in a simple and attracUre vay that cannot fail to iutereat the youthful reader. As an example of the way in which difficult points in nnatomy and physi- ology are elucidated by reference to familiar facts, the following illustration of the protec- tion which the skull affords the brain may be quoted : —

" If you turned upside down a thin china teacup, wtapped round )t n coveriag of raw cotlon. aud over Ihla put a thin casing ol tougb wood, a:iy thing ptnced under the cup would be protected troni blows, jars, and piercing, much as four brain is protected inside the tkiill."

The enactment in eevernl states, of Inws providing that tlie teaching of hygiene in the public schools shall include instruction in re- gard to the action of stimuLinta ami nai-cotics, makes it incumbent upon all authors of text- books of hygiene to devote several chapters to this subject. Professor Martin has, u|K)u the whole, accomplished this iwrtion of bis bisk in a very satisfactory manner, though some of his remarks will probably be read with surprise by practitioners of medicine. Thus we are told that ' the bromide is just as dangerous as the opiate,'— a statement which, however well adapted to accomplish the object of the author in discouraging the use of the drug wilhont a physieiiin's prescription, can hardly be regaixl- ed as a strictly accurate therapeutic guide.

n'hHman bflil' <• btglHi^r; UH-bcak of analogy, phvi- olom. onJ hygin^r. By II. Nswsi.l Mirtih, U.So., M.A., U.D., anftnot oi Ulolun iD tha Jubn> Boiikliu Dnlver>liy. and UETTIt'jIiliUiRTiH. N«w York, y/i'1, l9u. 4'-W1 p., [Iltlilr.

��The loi^ list of diseases wfatch may affect everj- organ and tissne of tb« body as the re- sult of alcoholic indulgence is well calculatMl to !^trikc terror to the heart of the toper, aud rather tcnd^ to givn tht3 )M>rtion of the book the character of a temperance tract.

The illustrations .ire taken fhiiu Professor Mnrtiu's larger lext-book of physiolc^v, also entitled "The human boily,' and are therrlbre not always perfectly in hartm^ny with the ele- mentary character of the smuUer work.

This defect is not, howerer, of any great imixirtaniN", and does not prevent the work from being, npon the whole, the best Knglish test-book for itegiuners in the sciences of which it treats.

��NOTES AXD A'EWS-

Tre annual stated amslon of the NiUoiial aCMtl- emj of sciences will b« held at llie luttlooat niuaeuni In Washington, commencing TuMilaf, April ai. 188b,

— The island of Formosa, which has nceutly be*ii the scene of Fnuico-Cbineie conflict, ts stated. In Dr. S. Wells Wllllania's valuablo work on China, to have been unknown lo the Chinese before the year 1403. about the liegiuning of the Mlu); dynasty. As the mountains of Formosa are vislbk from the Chinese mainland in favorable weather, this appears due to some misconception, which la explained by iiini Al- laln. It appears, according to this author, who haa recently published a work on Formosa, that, before the conquest of China by the Mongols (803 B.C.-336 A.D.), Formosa was already known, bui under an* other name, lo the Chliieso historians, who counted Its people among the ' Manti,' or soutJiern Iwrbarlans. It wa.1 visited by tbe Chinese in the year 603, and wa« known as Ll^u-Kl^u, or the Great Loo-Choo. Chi- nese colonies were establishcl there In the fourteenth century. For two hundred years It took the name of Tai-wan, which It still Iwars iu Chinese literature. In 1Q24 it was ceded by China to the Dilteh, who were driven out In 1IJ02 hy a celebrated Chinese pirate known to Europeans as Kiixinga, who maintained himself there for some twenty years. His successors made submission to the Chinese goTenimont, which subsequently made permanent colonies on the Island. Formosa la about two liundred and forty.flv** miles long, wltlt a greatest width of soventy-sli miles. It has an area of some llfteen thoiisaud square mllui, Hiid Is separated from the mainland by a strait nuwhore less than sixty miles wide. It Is char- acterized by posaeisliig a range of mountains of re- markable uniformity Iu holghl, arid aiiaining a very exceptional altitude, the peaks ranging between eleven thousand and thirteen thousand feet. Them are no good harbors, except (or vowels of light draught, as far as knuwn; ami the land appears tu be rising at a remartinUle rale. The Uutcti fort of 11)24, originally bulll on an islet n( some dlmancn

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