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THE DBTBBMINATION OF SEX. By L. Don-caster. Cambridge and New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1914. While the study of sex has not yet reached a stage at which it is possible to give an account of established facts and of generally accepted inferences from them, which shall be free from controversial matter, nevertheless the subject is one which may well be treated in a popular book of this character. The book, however, is more than a completely impersonal survey of the facts; for the author suggests interpretations, which appear to him probable, as well as criticisms of others. The discussion is limited to the problems of sex determination in animals, no reference being made to the work of the same kind which has been done on plants. The book may be heartily recommended as an interesting and instructive treatise. EVOLUTION OF SEX IN PLANTS. By John Merle Caulter, Head of the Department of Botany, University of Chicago. University of Chicago Press, 1915. This book may be considered, so far as the average reader is concerned, as a supplementary volume to that of Dr. Doncaster, for sex in animals is not discussed in this book, and sex in plants is not discussed in Dr. Doncaster's book. Prof. Caulter's reputation is a sufficient guarantee that he has produced a trustworthy book. He discusses the subject from the standpoint of a sexual reproduction, origin of sex, differentiation of sex, the evolution of sex organs, alternation of generations, differentiation of sexual individuals, parthenogenesis and a theory of sex. DIE ROMANTIK DER CHEMIE. Von Dr. Oskar Nagel, Stuttgart: Kosmos Gesellschaft der Naturfreunde, 1914. Despite its title this book is not a very romantic discussion of the more important aspects of modern industrial chemistry. Still it serves the useful purpose of presenting in easily comprehended German the essential facts of some very important industries based upon chemical processes. TASCHENBUCH DER LUFTFLOTTEN. Zweiter Jahrgang 1915: Kriegsausgabe. Herausgegeben von F. Rasch und W. Hormel. J. S. Lehmann's Verlag in Mnchen. The war has had its effect upon the publication of the second volume of this most excellent annual. For military reasons it has been deemed expedient by the editors to omit details of the aerial strength of Germany, Austria, and Turkey. The pictures of airships and aeroplanes of these powers which do appear have been published before the war elsewhere. On the other hand, the book gives a very complete survey of the aerial strength of the other powers, and for that reason is most valuable. Indeed, we have found it in actual use in every way most trustworthy. DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. By Edward Cressy. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1915. This book deals with the characteristic features of development in certain selected fields of enterprise during the last 25 years. The subjects discussed are the revival of water-power; coal, gas and petroleum; steam power; gas, gasoline and oil engines; generation and transmission of electricity; electric lighting and heating; speed and economy in factory and workshop; foundry and forge; the electric furnace and its applications; the artificial production of cold and its applications; soil and crops; railways; electric traction; motorcars; modern ships; the conquest of the air; wireless telegraphy; ships of war and their weapons; some applications of photography; radium, electricity and matter. Taken as a whole the book must be regarded as a readable and instructive review of technical progress during the period which it covers. A SCHOOL ELECTRICITY. By C. J. L. Wag-staff, M.A. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1914. 8vo.; 250 pp.; illustrated. The practical nature of this text at once appeals to the instructor. Every experiment it offers has been actually performed by students in the laboratory or the class-room. This, of course, precludes such subjects as X-rays, telephony, and electric waves. Naturally, a fair equipment of laboratory and lecture apparatus is essential. It is suggested that demonstration by the instructor should largely constitute the earlier lessons, after which the experiments may be repeated by the students. In presenting these experiments the author endeavors to strike the happy mean between insufficient detail and over-elaboration. The examples are very largely original, and a few involve the use of the calculus. PROBLEMS OF AMERICAN GEOLOGY. By William North Rice, Frank D. Adams, Arthur P. Coleman, Charles D. Walcott, Waldemar Lindgren, Frederick L. Ran- some, and William Diller Matthew. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1915. 8vo.; 505 pp.; illustrated. Price, $4 net. "Problems of American Geology" is a series of lectures commemorative of the life and work of James Dwight Dana, "incontestably"--such is the verdict of Von Zittel--"the first geologist of North America." Inspired by his labors, these lectures briefly present his geology, and proceed to a consideration of American conditions and the questions that arise from them. There are the problems of the Canadian shield, the archaBozoic and the proterozoic; there is the Cambrian and its problems in the Cordilleran region; the igneous geology of the Cordilleras also has difficulties that invite an attempt at elucidation, as do the tertiary orogeny and the tertiary sedimentary record. These phases and phenomena of the science are presented and handled by capable men, who assay the ore offered by the latest discoveries and deductions. They reconstruct the past from its relics in the present, and read the record of the heroic ages as it lies graven in the hieroglyphs of nature's adamantine pages. The illustrations comprise maps and charts, both rare and typical formations, and sketches of bones and interesting restorations. The volume serves to publish a large amount of accurate information that carries light to many of the darker passages of our stratiform records. THE PROBLEM OF VOLCANISM. By Joseph P. Iddings, Ph.B., Sc.D. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1914. 8vo.; 273 pp.; illustrated. Price, $5 net. The material of this volume was first prepared as lectures for the Silliman course at Yale University during 1914. It deals with a subject that, involving many of the fundamental problems of geology, is conditioned upon so many conceptions and relationships of the earth and the solar system that its complexity is bewildering. Yet these lectures are couched in language that, avoiding so far as may be technical terminology, presents these conceptions and relationships so clearly that the layman may grasp their essentials. Full page plates of volcanoes abound, while many other such plates show the nebulas in a remarkably clear manner. The physical characteristics of the earth, its petrology and its dynamical status, are incisively discussed, and the extravasation of molten magma, the intrusion of igneous magmas within the lithosphere, and the extrusion of lavas upon the earth's surface, make up the last three lectures. Altogether it is a thoughtful work, presenting its problems forcefully and comprehensively, and handling its speculations in the brightest light that the ablest minds have been able to throw upon this paramount question of physical geology. The hypotheses advanced in explanation of volcanic phenomena are carefully developed, and their modifications under stress of time and wider knowledge are indicated. But it is the problem itself that occupies the author rather than the supposed explanations, and by the aim of a book must the book be judged. From this viewpoint it is distinctly a successful achievement, to be unqualifiedly commended to all students of geology in general or of volcanic activity in particular. DIE MILCHSTRASSE. Von Dr. Friz Kahn Stuttgart: Kosmos Gesellschaft der Naturfreunde, 1914. This is a well written, popularly worded treatise on the Milky Way which can be recommended to those who can read German. GRAPHIC METHODS FOR PRESENTING FACTS. By Willard C. Brinton. New York: The Engineering Magazine Company, 1914. 4to.; 371 pp.; illustrated. Price $4. The author, eliminating mathematics and tech" nical terms, presents his subject so that the man devoid of any statistical training may readily appreciate and apply the methods. The work is so arranged that the hard-driven legislator, business or social worker may find the section and the chart most nearly related to his needs with a minimum loss of time. In works of an instructive aim, it is becoming more and more customary to show examples of bad practice as well as of good. Certainly, in cases where what not to do is as important as the opposite knowledge, this procedure is helpful in a nigh degree. Mr. Brinton has followed the practice with good results, accompanying his examples with sound criticism. The field he seeks to cover has so far been neglected by writers and, considering this lack oi recorded knowledge, the author has achieved a more than fair measure of success. Among other aspects of the subject, tiie reader is initiated into simple comparisons, time charts, curve plotting, map representations, curves and records for the executive and corporation financial reports. Anyone desirous of preparing charts for publication will find it easy, with the aid of this handbook, to give the draughtsman a clear understanding of his requirements. EFFICIENCY IN THE HOUSEHOLD. A Book for Every Woman. By Thetta Quay Franks. Garden City, ?. ?.: Double-day, Page & Co., 1915. 8vo. Price, $1.50 net. "Efficiency in the Household" is almost wholly a book of chronological forms, two pages to the day, which gives menus for each meal of the day, repeating after three weeks. Below is an order list, with blank spaces under such headings as meats, vegetables, and groceries. At the month's end, the bills and these order lists should agree. On the opposite page may be noted the guests entertained during the day. The menus given, while catering to differing tastes and incomes, are essentially economical. Neither chicken, game, nor the choice cuts of beef are included, and it is estimated that the meais may be served at an average cost of about 21 cents per person. A long preface is full of valuable material, and the compiler aims at combining in the American housewife the common-sense oi -the English, the thrift of the French, tile organization of the German, and the facility of the Italian. A price-list precedes each monthly programme. Ten or fifteen minutes' time daily will suffice to establish the system in any household. THE CREATION OF WEALTH. Modern Efficiency Methods Analyzed and Applied. By J. H. Lockwood. Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Company, 1915. 8vo.; 225 pp. Price, $1 net. "The Creation of "Wealth" is meant for the general reader who wishes to grasp, without too intense application, such aspects of the business world as touch most of us closely. That which has been approached from its practical side by Emerson and Taylor, expounded psychologically by writers like Mnsterberg, and discussed from a humanitarian viewpoint by others, is here dealt with in a somewhat different manner. The ingredients of wealth are land, labor, capital, and that elusive element, brain. It is with the last, the most neglected of the four ingredients, that Mr. Lockwood seeks to throw a clearer light upon the whole subject. He attempts an inventory of accomplishment, forecasts the immediate future, and incidentally essays " a working theory of industrialism." His discourse is brightened and strengthened by numerous sketches of famous men and their achievements, and the theories of socialism, of the single tax, and of special privilege are simply presented. Character is made the base of the ideal pyramid of which training and opportunity lead on to efficiency and wealth. The result is a readable and instructive volume worthy of careful perusal. STABILITY AND EQUILIBRIUM OF FLOATING BODIES. By Bernard C. Laws, B.Sc, A.R.C.Sc. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1914. 8vo.; 251 pp.; illustrated. Price, $3.50 net. The advent of submarines and aircraft made demands upon our knowledge of equilibrium and stability which that knowledge could not adequately supply. Even now, after years of research and experiment, there is much to discover and to reduce to practice. Mr. Laws's concise work deals with aspects of the subject that have not hitherto been brought together in one volume. He regards floating bodies as subject to active as well as passive forces; he applies the principles of liquid and gaseous pressure both to bodies at rest and bodies in motion. Chapters are devoted to ships, floating docks, submarines, aircraft, and caissons. The author's long study and ripe experience in the scientific side of shipbuilding is freely drawn upon for data and experimental results. Where the subject oversteps his own especial line of research, great effort has been made to maintain the accuracy of the arguments and the value of the deductions. Needless to say, a fair knowledge of rigid dynamics and hydromechanics is necessary to an understanding of this work. For those who wish to pursue the historical side of the subject, or to further develop any branch of this science, frequent reference is made to publications and papers that fill their requirements. ON SUNSBT HIGHWAYS. A Book of Motor Rambles in California. By Themas D. Murphy. Boston: The Page Company, 1915. 8vo.; 376 pp.; illustrated. Price, $3 net. In his latest work Mr. Murphy deserts Europe, the scene of his former recorded journeyings on the inflated tire, and turns not unwillingly to the glamors of our own California. He is enthusiastic in his appreciation of this "motor paradise," and his glowing word-pictures soon induce a similar state in the reader. To this end the many exceptional colored plates substantially contribute. They are from the works of such artists as Morgan and Moran, while some forty mellow duogravures add their appeal and vitalize the written description. The author promises us that California's good-road mileage will rapidly expand, thus throwing open to the motorist a wealth of romantic history and varied scenic splendor with which few countries can vie. While not a guide-book in the accepted sense, the work will prove a charming and useful companion to the traveler. The State road map showing the principal automobile roads is presented as a folding insert, and adds materially to the practical value of the work. TELL-ME-WHY STORIES ABOUT ANIMALS. By C. H. Claudy, New York: McBride, Nast & Co., 1914. 8vo.; 209 pp.; illustrated with colored plates. Price, $1.25 net. A book of fireside tales for children aiming to give them some knowledge of evolution. THE ORDINARY PHYSICAL UNITS, MECHANICAL, THERMAL, ELECTRICAL. By E. S. Elder, Kansas City, Missouri: The Hyde Park Press. Price, 15 cents. "The Ordinary Physical Units, Mechanical, Thermal, Electrical, Defined, Compared, Correlated," is a small pamphlet of a size to be slipped under the cover of a text book, and thus to be always ready for reference. It will enable one to find any unit and its value with little loss of time. If we were to make any criticism upon it, we should say that it was too much condensed, but in actual use one would soon get accustomed to the arrangement of the matter. The price places it within the reach of classes in schools, especially as liberal discounts are made upon large orders. EXPORTERS' ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 1915. Containing Full and Authentic Information Relative to Shipments for Every Country in the World. New York: Exporters' Encyclopaedia Company. 8vo.; 1,152 pp. Price, $7.50. The eleventh edition of the Exporters' En-cyclopaBdia is a compilation that may not be ignored. It furnishes under one cover just the indispensable information necessary to the man or the firm that ships goods abroad. It offers an alphabetical list of countries, with routes from American ports. It gives the ocean steamship lines and their agents, with freight rates. It discusses the effect of the war upon our export trade and offers suggestions for selling our goods abroad. It gives foreign coinages, and foreign weights and measures, with their American equivalents. Foreign import duties are listed, and custom house clearances explained. Foreign parcels post and postage rates make up a valuable section. The main body of the text is devoted to the area, population, commerce,' products, etc., of the countries of the world, and a list of American consulates in foreign cities is appended. The wide scope of the work, its accuracy, and the accessibility of its contents, make up a desk book that offers hourly aid to the shipper. Monthly "correction notes," furnished free to subscribers, may be inserted in the proper section as they are received, and keep the volume strictly up to date. PENNSYLVANIA TREES. By J. S. Illick, A.B. F.E., Professor of Dendrology and Forest Management, Pennsylvania State Forest Academy. Issued by direction of the Commissioner of Forestry as Bulletin 11 of the Department of Forestry of Pennsylvania, 1914. 231 pages, 103 photographic illustrations and 129 full pages in pen drawings. This is one of those useful and well-arranged hand-books which are so important to many, and one which has long been required. It is admirably arranged and full in detail, well printed and thoroughly illustrated and is, moreover, to be had for the asking--all great inducements for insuring an extensive distribution among the large class of men and women who are interested in trees and general forestry. The above valuable work can be recommended with real pleasure, because it contains a large amount of extremely useful information in a condensed form. The book is divided into two parts. Part I contains a brief popular discussion dealing with the subject of forestry in a general way. It is intended primarily for the layman and for the beginner of forestry. Among other things, the author discusses the structure, development, protection and value of forests with special reference to conditions in Pennsylvania. He gives also a description of the parts of the trees, such as the bark, twigs, buds, leaves, flowers, fruit, wood, etc., a knowledge of which will enable one to understand the part that follows. Part II is essentially a manual of the forest trees of Pennsylvania. It comprises a discussion on the identification of trees and a description of families, genera, and species with analytical keys. About 130 species of forest trees are described and neatly illustrated by means of pen drawings. By no means the least valuable part of these discussions of individual trees is the information in reference to the properties of the woods and the economic importance of the species. The general get-up of this part of the book reflects credit on the author, and the lay reader who will study it can not fail to gain much valuable instruction. STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED STATES. Prepared under the direction of Charles S. Sloane, Geographer of the Census. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1914. 4to.; various paginations. The cover-title of this work is "Statistical Atlas of the United States 1914," and a portion of the statistical information it contains is brought down to the year 1913. The work is, however, primarily the atlas of the Thirteenth Census, and is based mainly on the statistics of 1910, together with those of the previous decennial censuses when required for the purpose of comparison. The Statistical Atlas of the United States has been published every ten years since the issue for 1870, though that of 1880 was an unofficial undertaking. It is probably unique among government publications; i. e., no foreign government, so far as we know, presents a corresponding body of national statistics in the same compact and convenient graphical form. Yet this extremely useful work does not appear to be well known to the public; nor, perhaps, to geographers, if we may so infer from the fact that the edition of ten years ago, prepared by the lamented Henry Gannett, received no mention in the leading geographical journals of the world. The new atlas is a collection of more than 500 plates, each of which contains, on an average, two charts or diagrams. Preceding the plates are 100 pages of descriptive and explanatory text. About half the work is devoted to statistics of population. Under this head are given, inter alia, a series of national and State maps showing the density of population throughout the country, and the fluctuations of the same from decade to decade. A considerable amount of space is given to the somewhat abstruse subject of the "center of population" of the United States, and its migrations. In 1790 this point was 23 miles east of Baltimore, Md., while in 1910 it was at Bloomington, Ind. We also have in this edition, for the first time, information concerning the centers of population of the several states with their migrations since 1880, and statistics as to the past and present location of the centers of negro population and foreign-born population. Other demographic statistics presented in the charts and graphs relate to such topics as illiteracy, immigration, martial condition, sex distribution, etc. The next section of the work is devoted to agriculture, including charts showing the distribution of a wide range of crops, rural industries, economic conditions in connection with rural population, etc. Here, again, we have individual State maps, as well as maps of the country as a whole. The remaining groups of maps and diagrams pertain to manufactures, mines and quarries, cotton, financial statistics of cities, vital statistics, religious bodies, marriage and divorce, and insanity. The Statistical Atlas would perhaps be more interesting and many of the facts it now presents would be more readily understandable if it included a group of well-selected physical charts. The only chart of this character in the edition under review is one showing the mean annual rainfall of the Unite States. Notes for Inventors Color Photography.--In patent No. 1,126,689, Rodolphe Berthon and Maurice Audihert of Villeurbanne, France, describe a photographic apparatus for color photography which has an objective for projecting an image and concentric prisms which break the image into monochromes projected through a three color screen onto a sensitized surface. Fire-Bucket and Waste-Can Combined. --George W. Lorimer, of Piqua, Ohio, has patented a combined lire-bucket and waste-can, No. 1,100,837, in which the waste-can and fire-bucket are so associated that the practically daily attention to the waste receiver or can will insure attention to the fire-bucket, so the latter will always be in condition for efficient use. Recognition of a Woman's Invention.-- In rendering a decision in the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit, Justice Gilbert in Hyde v. Minerals Separator Limited took occasion in referring to the Bverson patent No. 348,157 to say "Miss Bverson was the first to make the important discovery that the affinity of the oil for the metal was increased by the addition of an acid." Chinese Imitation Not Necessary.--In Bush & Lane Piano Company v. Becker Brothers, 209 Fed. 233, it was held that to constitute an infringement of a design patent it is not essential that the copying design should be a Chinese copy of that of the patent, but it is sufficient if it unparts to the mind the same general idea of appearance and ornamentation so that purchasers might be deceived. A Drinking Vessel of Ice.--Hendrik Douwe Pieter Huizer of The Hague, Netherlands, has patented No. 1,123,537 an apparatus for manufacturing drinking vessels in the form of tumblers of ice, suggesting that besides the cooling effect of the ice drinking vessel there is a further hygienic advantage in that it can only be used once, also that the life of the vessel can be lengthened by insulating it thermally by a paper or celluloid case, also by giving it a special form and using special precaution in making it. Two Patents for Newspaper Improvements.--Edgar H. Cottrell, of Westerly, R. I., has secured two patents No. 1,126,405 and No. 1,126,406 for newspapers. In No. 1,126,405 one page of the newspaper is printed on one side of one sheet and another page is printed on one side of another sheet and the remaining pages are each printed partly on one sheet and partly on another sheet, the idea being to avoid the difficulties in holding the paper as usually printed when unfolded. In No. 1,126,406 the newspaper has its assembled leaves secured together along a line extending transversely across the middle of the printed pages and the printed matter is so arranged that the first half of the paper may be read from front to back by turning the leaves over in one direction and the remaining half of the paper may be read from back to front by reversing the paper and turning the leaves over in the opposite direction. Specifications and Drawings of Patents. --According to the monthly catalogue of the Superintendent of Documents, the bound volumes of patent specifications and drawings constitute the largest series of public documents thus far issued by the United States Government. They were first published in weekly volumes, beginning May, 1871; August, 1872, the form was changed to a monthly volume; July, 1885, the issue of semi-monthly volumes began; while since January, 1903, three volumes a month have been issued, many of them being very bulky. By virtue of the Sundry Civil Act of August 24th, 1912, this series is to end with the three volumes corresponding to June, 1912; but the publication is much in arrears, and has now only reached June, 1911. The whole series will include 974 books, mostly of mammoth size, filling about 350 feet of shelf-room. Although the issue of bound volumes has been discontinued, the specifications and drawings of patents will continue to be printed in "slip" or pamphlet form and sold by the Patent Office.
