Lectures delivered to the Employés of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. By Professor H. Newell Martin and Drs. Henry Sewell, William T. Sedgwick, and William K. Brooks, of Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. Pp. 98.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company maintains two reading-rooms for the men in its employ, but it had been observed that only a part of those for whom the rooms were intended availed themselves of them. Professor Martin suggested to President Garrett that the men who were not readers might be induced to attend free popular scientific lectures, and proffered the services of himself and his biological colleagues in the Johns Hopkins University. The lectures were delivered in February, 1882, before audiences of twice as many deeply interested hearers as were expected. They were on "How Skulls and Backbones are built," by Professor Martin; "How we move," by Dr. Sewall; "Fermentation," by Dr. Sedgwick; and "Some Curious Kinds of Animal Locomotion," by Dr. Brooks. They are popular in character and are published in their present form by the railroad company for free distribution among the men who heard them, and among others in its employ who were not able to attend them.
The Unending Genesis; or, Creation ever present. By H. M. Simmons. Chicago: The Colegrove Book Company. Pp. 111.
A pleasantly conceived and pleasant tempered essay on the phenomena of nature in the light of the Biblical story of the creation, the purpose of which is to show that creation is not and is not to be a completed process, but one that is ever recurring, the object of continual renewals, and still as fresh and living in its repetitions of to-day as when it first began to operate.
Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. Vol. III, Part III. 1879-1881. Davenport, Iowa: Published by the Academy. Pp. 130, with Four Plates.
The volume which is completed by the publication of this part contains a large number of contributions on subjects of geography, geology, natural history, and antiquities, which speak well for the activity and intelligent zeal with which the members of the Academy perform their self-imposed work. Most of the papers record the results of local investigations around Davenport, which seems to be situated in a district of much scientific interest. Other papers concern the larger field of investigations opened by our rapidly developing Western Territories. The whole of the third part of the volume is occupied with the memorials and writings of the late youthful but devoted President of the Academy, Joseph Duncan Putnam, in whose death science evidently has suffered a great loss. Besides the memorial addresses and biographical sketches, its principal feature is the publication in full of Mr. Putnam's notes on the Solpugidæ—a family between the scorpions and the spiders—of North America.
Proposed Ordinance and Rules and Regulations for Plumbing, House-Drainage, etc., in the City of Philadelphia. As reported by the Committee of Twenty-one. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 13. Price, 20 cents.
The "Committee of Twenty-one" consisted of plumbers, architects, physicians, and citizens, interested in sanitary matters. The plumbers, as a body, submitted their suggestions, and the architects did the same. The committee, guided by these aids and their discussions, elaborated the ordinance which, in the shape in which it is here presented, constitutes a valuable epitome of the essentials of sanitary plumbing and engineering.
"Appalachia," April, 1883. Vol. Ill, No. 2. Appalachian Mountain Club. Boston: W. B. Clarke & Carruth. Pp. 104. Price, 50 cents.
The present number of this interesting journal contains an article on "Mountain Observatories," by Professor Pickering; a paper by Mrs. John Tatlock, Jr., on the "Variations of Barometric Measurements of Altitude with the Season"; descriptive accounts, from explorations, of the Twin Mountain Range, the Blue Hills (of Norfolk County, Massachusetts), the Mountains of Eastern Cuba, and Roan Mountain, North Carolina; reports of officers, and of the work of the Club; and proceedings of meetings. In the course of the past three years, the
