application of investigations undertaken for the simple purpose of the extension of knowledge, with no perception of its ultimate utilities. While one division of laborers, spurred by the urgent necessities of observers, spent their energies in bringing the microscope up to its highest power, another division was equally absorbed in finding out what could be known of the newly revealed world of microscopic life. The stimulus of the love of discovery was sufficient to insure the successful progress of both. But now we begin to see the beneficent ripening of their results as they could not see it. As a legitimate issue of those labors, we have arrived at views of the nature and propagation of diseases that will make an epoch in the advance of medical and hygienic science. We print, in the present Monthly, the Introductory Note to Professor Tyndall's volume, which is very instructive in regard to the present position and future influence of the "Germ Theory of Disease."
A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (a. d. 1450-1881). By Eminent Writers, English and Foreign. Edited by George Grove, D. C. L. Part XIV. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 128. Price, $1.
The present number includes the titles from Richter to Schorberlechner. The plan and execution of the work are commendable. The information is given in well-written and easily readable articles, the length of which is adapted to the character and importance of the subject. Biographies of eminent composers, performers, instrument makers, and other musical persons, predominate in the present number, ranging from few-line notices of little distinguished instrumentalists to the sixteen-page article that is given to a distinguished composer like Rossini. Besides these, the number before us has paragraphs, within a few pages, on such subjects as "Ridotto," the opera of Rienzi, "Rigadoon," with a musical passage to show what it is, the opera of Rinaldo, "Rinforzando," "Ripieno," "Ritardando" and its synonyms, "Ritornello" with other musical illustrations, etc. We mention these heads to give only an inadequate idea of the abundance and variety of the material with which the work deals.
Our Homes. By Henry Hartshorne, A. M., M. D. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 150. Price, 50 cents.
A volume in the series of "American Health Primers," edited by Dr. W. W. Keen. It is a practical, pleasant-reading treatise on house-building, house management, and house sanitation, considering the subject under the heads of situation, construction, light, warmth, ventilation, water-supply, drainage, disinfection, population (the relations of density of population to health), and working-men's homes.
The Wine Question in the Light of the New Dispensation. By John Ellis, M. D. New York: Published by the author. Pp. 228.
The controversy respecting the use of fermented or unfermented wine in the communion service is considered here in the light of the teaching of the Swedenborgian Church, with citations from authorities and opinions outside of that church, all going to sustain the presumption that unfermented wine is the kind to be used.
The Rhymester; or, the Rules of Rhyme. A Guide to English Versification. By the late Tom Hood. Edited, with Additions, by Arthur Penn. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 208. Price, $1.
The author believes that verse-making—not trying to write poetry—is of use as an exercise for fixing accurate pronunciation; and that, if done at all, it should be well done. He accordingly gives here the rules for doing it well. Many changes have been made by the American editor, of which the more material ones are marked, and chapters have been added on the sonnet, the rondeau, and the ballade, and on the other fixed forms of verse.
The Books of All Time. A Guide for the Purchase of Books. Compiled by F. Leypoldt and Lynds E. Jones. New York: F. Leypoldt. Pp. 80.
A list of approved books is given, with the prices of the best or most popular editions; and to each title are attached bits of criticism which throw some light on the characteristics of the author. The list, as a whole, is a good one and deserves approval, but would have been better for a little closer pruning away of mediocre books.
