Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/140

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
130
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cause humanity is endowed with the gift of direct vision into divinity, are accepting what Edwards proclaimed, what constitutes the positive feature of his theology. There are those who have made the transition from the old Calvinism, through the mediation of this principle, to a larger theology as if by a natural process. Among these typical thinkers were Thomas Erskine, McLeod Campbell, and Bishop Ewing in Scotland, or the late Mr. Maurice in England. These and such as these, in whom the God-consciousness is supreme, are the true continuators of the work of Jonathan Edwards."

Exercises in Wood-working; with a Short Treatise on Wood. By Ivin Sickels. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 158, with Plates.

This book is written for manual training classes in schools and colleges, having been prepared in the first instance in manuscript for the students in the College of the City of New York. The manuscript was copied for other schools. Many changes and additions were made under the suggestions of subsequent teaching; and it is now printed and published, for all who desire a volume of the kind. Being the product and result of work in teaching, it could hardly be other than a working book; and a working book, so far as it reveals itself to a critic's ken, it is. Its scope is the presentation of the facts which are most essential to the wood-worker's success and the good execution of his work, and of directions for the use of his tools and for manipulation. These facts and directions are given in a simple, concise style, intelligible to any pupil of ordinary sense. The book deals particularly with carpentry and joinery, and is divided into two parts. The first part treats of the structure, properties, and kinds of wood; its manufactures and economic relations to other substances; parasitic plants and insects, and means of preserving wood; under these heads are articles on the structure and composition of wood, branching of stems, age of trees, their decay, the season for cutting, milling, drying, and warping, the properties and defects of wood, its measure and values, and the kinds of wood. The several species used in wood-work, coarse and fine, are named and described; their value is estimated, their special qualities are pointed out, and the purposes indicated to which they are applied. This is followed by a tabular exhibit of the qualities of the various kinds of wood. A few words are given to the relations of wood and iron, and the wood-working trades are mentioned, and carpentry and joinery defined. A description of parasitic plants or fungi injurious to living trees and lumber follows; an account of injurious insects, prepared expressly for the book by Mr. Bashford Dean, and directions concerning the preservation of wood are given. The second part contains the exercises, preceded by a description of tools. The directions for the care and use of tools are explicit, and are illustrated by drawings representing the method of handling each tool, and the mark it makes. These exercises are followed by those concerning the forming and fixing of the several kinds of joints, gluing, making boxes, with hinging tops, drawers, and generally on uniting several pieces to make a complete structure; a series on the details of ordinary house carpentry, whence models may be constructed and the building of the various parts making up a wooden dwelling learned; the use of the frame-saw and methods of bending wood; pattern-work; shaping (boat model) by the use of templets; and veneering, with directions for painting and polishing.

The National Medical Dictionary. Two vols. By John S. Billings, M. D., etc., and Collaborators. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co. Price, $12.

This work aims to define "every medical term in current use in English, French, German, and Italian medical literature, including the Latin medical terminology of all of these languages." The pronunciation of English and Latin terms is indicated, and the derivation of most English and Anglicized Latin words (except names of drugs and plants) is given. The dictionary does not attempt to be cyclopedic, but gives simply brief definitions of the words and phrases included in its list. Prefixed to the first volume is a number of tables, including a table of doses, of antidotes, of the inch and metre system of numbering spectacle-glasses, of thermometric scales, of the average dimensions of the fœtus at different ages, of the average dimensions of the parts and organs of the adult human body, and of the weights of the