House-Drainage and Sanitary Plumbing. Providence: E. L. Freeman & Co. Anlagen von Hausentwasserungen nach Studien Americanischer Verhältnisse. (Plans for House-Drainage, after Studies of American Arrangements.) Berlin.—Diagram for Sewer Calculations. All by William Paul Gerhard, Civil and Sanitary Engineer. Newport, Rhode Island. Pp. 105, 38, and 7. With Plates.
The first of these publications is a reprint of a paper which was contributed to the fourth annual report of the State Board of Health of Rhode Island, and is an excellent practical treatise on the subject considered. It asserts the possibility of securing an efficient and healthful drainage of houses, whether upon open ground or into a sewer or cess-pool, by methods which are without mystery or secrecy, and involve "nothing more than the proper application of well-known laws of nature"; and explains specifically and with intelligible illustrations the best systems of drains, pipes, traps, basins, bath-tubs, water-closets, and sinks, at the same time pointing out the errors and defects of many of the systems in use. The second work is intended to give to German engineers a description of house-drainage as it is practiced in England and the United States. The third pamphlet is a description of a diagram on sewer calculations constructed by the author, and is of technical value. The first of these publications, revised by the author, is now published by D. Van Nostrand as No. 63 of his "Science Series." Pp. 205. Price, 50 cents.
New Method of Learning the French Language. By F. Berger. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 138. Price, $1.
The author a few years ago published a "Method" for French pupils learning English, which has been used in France satisfactorily, and with a success that is represented by the exhaustion of fourteen editions of it and a fourfold increase of the number of French students of English in five years. He now applies the features that characterize that system to the study of the French language by English pupils. The features are a simple and careful indication of the pronunciation and a conversational method, in which are given—1. The French text, with the pronunciation and a literal translation; 2. A review of words; and, 3. The French text again, with the English opposite, translated closely, so as to enable the pupil to translate alternately into French and into English. Besides the lessons on this plan are given conversational phrases, paradigms of the verbs être and avoir, conversational phrases, a version of Miss Edgeworth's play of "Old Poz," and a collection of words, sentences, phrases, and idioms.
Chapters on Evolution. By Andrew Wilson, Ph. D., F. R. S. E., etc. With 259 Illustrations. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 383. Price, $2.50.
We have no hesitation in cordially recognizing this volume as a timely contribution to a subject that is now attracting wide and serious attention. It meets an undoubted want, and is certain to prove helpful to all general students of the subject of organic development.
Yet, the title of the book may be objected to as somewhat misleading. It is not devoted to evolution in the full meaning now given to that term, but is restricted to one division of it, which ought to have been designated in the title. It is more properly confined to that phase or section of evolution which has come to be represented by the term "Darwinism," and is a book that should be ranked with Professor Gray's "Darwiniana" and Oscar Schmidt's German volume on "Descent and Darwinism." There should be no confusion here, for Darwinism is not evolution, and is but a part of it. Dr. Wilson virtually concedes this by employing in his text the term "Darwinian evolution," thus recognizing that it is but one sort of something of a larger kind; and also when he speaks of "development" as a strong pillar of the theory of evolution.
With the reservation here made, Dr. Wilson's work, as we have said, may be heartily commended. It is a very full and popular treatise on the important and interesting questions of organic development, and abounds in the biological information that has now been accumulated in illustration of the law of descent with variation. The principle of natural selection is, of course, assumed and interpreted as a great contribution to organic progress, and the various questions that have arisen in connection
