recorded by Eginhard, a writer of the time of Charlemagne; and in the one on Possibilities and Impossibilities he examines the two accounts of the feeding of multitudes with a few loaves and fishes. The somewhat extended preface to this volume includes an argument against the demonology, or belief in various kinds of evil spirits, which has been made a part of Christian theology. It includes also a statement of the "Synoptic Problem"—i. e., the question as to how, when, and by whom the gospels which bear the names respectively of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written. In looking back over his various discussions of theological doctrines. Prof. Huxley declines to admit the charge that he has "gone out of his way" to attack the Bible; "and I as steadfastly deny," he continues, "that 'hatred of Christianity' is a feeling with which I have any acquaintance. There are very few things which I find it permissible to hate; and though it may be that some of the organizations which arrogate to themselves the Christian name have richly earned a place in the category of hateful things, that ought to have nothing to do with one's estimation of the religion which they have perverted and disfigured out of all likeness to the original."
The subject of Helical Gears is not a very familiar one, but it appears to be of such growing importance as to warrant a special treatise upon it. In preparing his volume, A Foreman Pattern-maker has treated with much detail of illustration the true and only workable methods of development of spur and bevel wheels, and has entered fully into the proper methods of construction of the pattern parts. He has also explained the methods of molding these gears by machine. He has aimed to make his book practical and adapted to the shop and the technical school. (Published by Macmillan & Co., at the price of $1.)
George M. Dawson, in his Geological Holes on some of the Coasts and Islands of Bering Sea and Vicinity, notices as one of the most remarkable features of the region the absence of any traces of a general glaciation. Respecting the latest changes in elevation of the land, evidences of a recent slight general uplift are mentioned as visible in several widely separated places. Mr. Dawson also sends us Notes on the Geology of Middleton Island, Alaska. Both these papers are published in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America.
Hugh M. Smith, M. D., reprints from the Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission Economic and Natural History Notes on Fishes of the Northern Coast of New Jersey, and a paper on The Fyke Nets and Fyke-net Fisheries of the United States, with notes on the fyke nets of other countries. In the former paper the subject of Ocean Pound Fishing is dealt with.
The function of dynamics in evolution is discussed by John A. Ryder in a lecture delivered by him in August, 1893, at Woods Hole Biological Laboratory on Dynamical Evolution. The author concludes that observers have hitherto allowed purely morphological considerations to becloud their vision; and that when each of the five sciences—physics, chemistry, physiology, morphology, and psychology—"shall have been given its due weight and place in the conduct of the study of life-forms, we shall begin to know what the latter really means, but not till then." (Published by Ginn & Co., Boston.)
J. W. Spencer, State Geologist, publishes as a part of his work The Palæzoic Group—Ten Counties of Northwestern Georgia (Polk, Floyd, Barton, Gordon, Murray, Whitfield, Catoosa, Chattooga, Walker, and Dade Counties), embracing the Geological and Physical Characteristics, Economic Geology, and Soils. A chapter on Good Roads is incorporated in the report, and the whole is illustrated by a geological map.
A part, including numbers six to twelve of Vol. VII of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, contains Coleopteriological Notices, by T. L. Casey; A Revision of the American Ciclidæ, by C. H. Eigenmann and W. L. Bray; Notes on some South American Fishes, by C. H. Eigenmann; and The Granite at Mounts Adam and Eve, Warwick, Orange County, N. Y., and some of its Contact Phenomena, by J. F. Kemp and Arthur Hollick.
In a paper on The Widening Use of Compressed Air, applications of this force are mentioned by W. P. Pressinger in the work of the pneumatic dynamite gun; in pneumatic block signaling; to raising water
