Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/287

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LITERARY NOTICES.
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under the microscope, of milk, butter, and other fats, starches, spices, and organisms found in water; also with plates representing tea and other leaves and the construction of the polariscope. This work will have a value to American analysts over all previous books on food-adulteration in the respect of being written in this country, and hence giving most attention to the adulterations most practiced here. The latest results attained by our National and State Boards of Health in regard to sophistications of food are also inserted. The appendix comprises a bibliography of the subject, with the full text of the most important laws, and a summary of others, recently enacted in this country for the prevention of food-adulteration. The thoroughness and care with which the subject is presented, together with the valuable character of the illustrations, and the helpful features included in the appendix, make the book well suited for the main dependence of the American food-analyst.

A treatise on The Art of Investing, by a New York Broker (Appleton, 75 cents), is what many people will be glad to have. This little book gives the chances for profit and the risks connected with Government and municipal obligations, railroad and other stocks, mortgages, water-works loans and securities, with hints as to when to buy, and—what many investors never think of—when to sell. There is a chapter on speculating, which furnishes many and strong reasons why the inexperienced should let that form of gambling alone. An appendix contains lists of securities, transcribed from the books of our principal exchanges, showing when each security is payable and the amount issued.

A description of The Vosburg Tunnel has been published by Leo von Rosenberg (the author. New York, $1), in the form of a handsome, abundantly illustrated pamphlet, of quarto size. This tunnel is located near Tunkhannock, Pa., on one of the lines associated with the Lehigh Valley Railroad. It was completed in June, 1886, and is a trifle less than three fourths of a mile long. The pamphlet describes the surveying work for the tunnel, the method of tunneling and the machinery used, the construction of the arching, and various minor matters. There are also tables of progress in excavation and construction, of brick and cement tests, and of contract prices and wages. The many plans, maps, and views make up a record of experience which will doubtless be of value to all in charge of similar works.

The History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan, by Andrew J. Blackbird (the author. Harbor Springs, Mich., $1), is a unique publication. It is written by an educated Indian, whose father was chief of the Ottawas, and comprises, besides a historical sketch of the tribes mentioned, a brief history of the author's life, and a grammar of the Ottawa and Chippewa language. Mr. Blackbird has been a United States interpreter under several Indian agents, and afterward was postmaster at Harbor Springs for eleven years, when, the position having become a desirable one, he was ousted. He is now nearly seventy years old, and in scanty circumstances.

Dr. A. P. Peabody has written a volume of Harvard Reminiscences (Ticknor, $1.25), which every one who has been in any way associated with the venerable preacher emeritus, or the university, will welcome. It consists of sketches of the college officers whose names appeared with that of the author in the several annual catalogues in which he was registered as undergraduate, theological student, and tutor. There is also a supplementary chapter describing Harvard College sixty years ago.

Mrs. L. M. Morehead has put together A Few Incidents in the Rife of Prof. Janus P. Espy (Clarke & Co.), in order to correct an impression that his early education was neglected, which is given by the statement in Ben: Perley Poore's reminiscences that at the age of seventeen Espy could not read. Had his wife survived him, or had he left any children, we should probably have had a fuller account of the life of the able author of "The Philosophy of Storms."

The Soul, or Rational Psychology of Emanuel Swedenborg, is published by the New Church Board of Publication, New York, in a translation by Mr. Frank Sewall from the Latin edition of Dr. J. F. Immanuel Tafel. It forms the seventh part of the author's great work on "The Animal Kingdom." The position from which Sweden-