still sought for by intelligent inquirers all over the world; and the present chief of the department has found the answering of letters from outside the limits of the State, as well as within them, touching the results of the surveys, no unimportant part of his official duties. Mr. Thompson's "Compendium" includes sketches of the several geological formations, in their order, which are exposed in the State, from the Hudson River Group to the Coal-measures; an account of the building-stones, of which the oölitic-limestone of the Sub-carboniferous is considered the best in the world; and descriptions of the clays, chalk-beds, glacial deposits, and terminal moraine which "passes into Illinois from Warren and Benton Counties, and into Ohio from Randolph and Wayne Counties," and may be seen in section in railroad-cuttings just south of Lafayette. Attention is called in a special study by S. S. Sorby to the Wabash Arch, a line of disturbance whose general direction is indicated by its name, which, it is believed, may have some connection with the occurrence of natural gas. A paper on the "Origin of the Indiana Flora," considered with reference to localities as well as in general, is contributed by Professor Coulter and Harvey Thompson; Mr. Thompson describes the Post-Pliocene mammals and the developments of natural gas; and Mr. Sorby gives a study of the prehistoric race of the State. The report of the year's special work includes the surveys of thirteen counties or parts of counties in the central and northern central parts of Indiana.
Home Sanitation. By the Sanitary Science Club of the Association of Collegiate Alumnæ. Boston: Ticknor & Co. Pp. 80.
The club which avows the responsibility for this book was organized in November, 1883, for the study of home sanitation. It found, after two years of devotion to this purpose, that the expenditure of time and effort had been "amply repaid by positive and satisfactory results"; and that it had a store of information, derived from the experiences and observations of its members, worthy to be given to the public. This information is embodied, in the form of preliminary statement and questions, in short chapters on the "Situation of the House and Care of the Cellar," "Drainage and Plumbing," "Ventilation," "Heating," "Lighting," "Furnishing," "Clothing," "Food and Drink," and "Sanitary Work for Women." The important part of the text is in the questions, which suggest more than they express or than is conveyed in the statement above them, and "are so framed that an affirmative answer implies a satisfactory arrangement, and also suggest a remedy if the answer is negative." They have been practically tested by the members of the club in their own homes and by other housekeepers, and have been adopted as the basis of a course in sanitary science offered by the Society to Encourage Studies at Home.
Geological Survey of New Jersey. Annual Report of the State Geologist for the Year 1886. By George H. Cook, State Geologist. Trenton: The John L. Murphy Publishing Company. Pp. 254.
The report, which simply records the work done during the year, is arranged under the four heads of "Geographic Surveys," "Geological Surveys," "Economic Geology," and "Miscellaneous Items." The work of the geodetic and topographic surveys, though it has all been under the direction of the State Geologist, has been done at the expense chiefly of the United States Coast and Geodetic and Geological Surveys. The work has been going on for twelve years, and will require two years more for completion. Under it the latitude and longitude have been precisely determined for four hundred and fifty-two points, which stand at an average distance of about twenty-five miles apart. The topographic survey has been rapidly advanced, and has been carried over a larger area than in any previous year, and now covers eighteen hundred and ninety-seven square miles. The results are to be recorded in engraved maps on a scale of one inch to a mile, of which there will be seventeen, twenty-seven by thirty-four inches in size. The contour-lines are drawn on these maps so as to show every change of twenty feet in elevation in the hilly portions of the State, and of ten feet in the more level portions. Another important work in this department has been the fixing of bench-marks for the accurate determination of elevations, which,
