the large collection of pamphlets has been put in shape for permanent preservation. Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant has presented to the garden his extensive and valuable collection of specimens, manuscripts, and illustrations, largely in color, of the genus Capsicum, on condition that the genus should be studied with reference to an ultimate monograph of the wild and cultivated forms; and preparations have been made to supply living material for this study. He has further presented his entire botanical library, including the scrapbooks of his own writings and his manuscript notes on edible plants, on condition that he enjoy the use of the books during his life or so long as he wishes them. This library is said to be the most complete and valuable American collection of pre-Linnæan botanical books. The course of study for garden pupils has been shortened to four years, without omitting any of the manual work or any of the studies originally included. Undergraduate engineering students have been secured in the School of Botany for a study of the histological and other means of distinguishing timbers. The volume of the report contains the three regular anniversary publications—the Flower Sermon, which was preached by the Rev. Cameron Mann; the proceedings of the Banquets to the Trustees of the Garden and to Gardeners, Florists, and Nurserymen; a list of Plants collected in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman; and Additional Notes on Yuccas and their Pollination, by Prof. Trelease, to which most of the twenty-three photogravure plates are illustrations.
Household News. Monthly. Edited by Mrs. S. T. Rorer. Philadelphia: Household News Company, Limited. Price, $1 a year.
The first number of this new household magazine was issued in July. Its editor is the head of the Philadelphia Cooking School and author of a successful cook-book, besides smaller special manuals on Hot Weather Dishes and Canning and Preserving. Cookery, Mrs. Rorer's specialty, occupies most space in, the magazine. Under this head in the first number is a series of seventeen bills of fare, with explanations of their novel features, an account of the corn kitchen at the World's Fair presided over by Mrs. Rorer, answers to inquirers, and miscellaneous recipes. The Department of Diet and Hygiene, in charge of Dr. Charles M. Seltzer, contains a leading article and answers to inquirers. Dr. Henry Leffmann, widely known as the author of books on chemical and sanitary subjects, has a department of Household Chemistry, to which he contributes an article on Water in the Household. The Nursery Department is under the guidance of Dr. D. J. Milton Miller, physician to the Children's Hospital and to the Episcopal Hospital in Philadelphia. Other departments are the Kindergarten, conducted by Mrs. M. L. Van Kirk and Miss M. G. Clark; Decoration, by Mrs. Hester M. Poole; Architecture, by Isaac Pursell; and Literature, by Miss Elizabeth Carpenter. A department on the Nurse is to be added. The field of dress is left to magazines devoted exclusively to that subject. There seems to be no room in this periodical for the trash that is too common in so-called "ladies' journals." Its tone is eminently practical, and as there are plenty of housewives who prefer sense to nonsense it has good prospects for generous support.
Soap Manufacture. A Practical Treatise on the Fabrication of Hard and Soft Soaps, etc. By W. Lawrence Gadd, F. I. C, F. C. S. New York: George Bell & Sons (Macmillan & Co.). Pp.218. Price, $1.50.
There is probably no manufactured article that is used more generally and is of more importance in the household than soap, and yet there is perhaps no substance about which the ordinary consumer knows so little, either as regards composition, methods of manufacture, or adaptation to its various uses. The prevalence of the minor forms of skin diseases, for example, is very general, and there is little doubt that many cases are due, in part at any rate, to the use of improperly prepared soaps, while others are rendered more serious by applications of some of the various medicated soaps, which are so numerous, and often of no medicinal value.
The first chapter of the book introduces the reader to the chemical reactions in soap-making, a knowledge of which is necessary for understanding the subsequent processes, and also gives a few words on the antiquity of the manufacture of soap and its growth as an industry.
