Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/732

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
710
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

chapter is followed by references for reading and a few suggestive questions, while at the end of the book is a chronology of American literature down to 1896. (American Book Company, $1.)

Under the title The Glory of the Garden, a collection of odes and sonnets has been printed by William V. Byars, with an appended essay on The Horatian Ode and the Tuscan Sonnet. The recent discovery—or rather recovery—which Mr. Byars claims to have made, of the principle of melody governing the verse of the great classical poets from Homer to Horace and Virgil was due to a partial recovery of the accent of the classical languages, effected through a comparison of the sounds of modern Greek and Italian with ancient Greek and Latin. A modern Greek, a graduate of the High School at Athens, was employed to read Homer aloud, for comparison with the Tuscan of Dante read aloud by an educated Italian. The verse of Béranger read aloud by a Frenchman was also compared with the lyrics of Horace, but it was to the comparison of the melody of Dante with the rhythm ©f Homer, when read by its accents, that the recovery of classical accent is chiefly due. When classical verse was read with an accent rather lower than that of modern French, and with the downward value of the grave accent equal to the upward value of the acute, the surprising discovery was made that in both Horace and Homer the melody of the verse depended on the systematic use of rhyme—not of regular end rhyme as in modern verse, but of line and staff rhyme, regulated by a method not unlike that used by the old Norse poets. The discovery of Bentley, that the verse of Virgil and Horace is read by "synaphea," without regard to its verse endings, is thus shown to be of the highest importance.

Vol. I, No. 1, of the A. I. C. P. Notes, which interpreted means American Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, has recently reached us. Its space is all given to an account of the utilization of vacant city lots for the purpose of giving the unemployed an opportunity for earning their own living. During recent years several attempts of a similar nature have been made, some of them being attended with considerable success, notably the Detroit vacant city lot farms, which were inaugurated by Mayor Pingree. The attempt in New York is fully described in the above pamphlet, and, while it has not thus far been a remarkable success, still its officers are very enthusiastic and hopeful for the future. Subscriptions are requested. (105 East Twenty-second Street, New York city.)


PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Cornell Station: Bulletin 116. Dwarf Apples; Bulletin 117. Fruit Brevities.—Illinois Station: Insects Injurious to the Seed and Root of Indian Corn.—Michigan State College Station: Report of Botanical Department of—New York Station: Silage and Silos; Provisions of the New Fertilizer Law of New York.—North Dakota Weather and Crop Service: Third Annual Report.—Ohio State University: The College of Agriculture and Domestic Science, 1896-'97.—United States Department: Bird Day in the Schools; The Mexican Cotton Boll Weevil; The Principal Insect Enemies of the Grape; The Shade-tree Insect Problem in the Eastern United States.

Aldine, J. S. A Theory of the Structure of Matter. Passaic, N. J.: (Author), 486 River Drive. Pp. 47. 50 cents.

American Association for the Advancement of Science. Proceedings of Springfield Meeting, August and September, 1895. Pp. 413.

Baginsky, Dr. A., Fruhwald, Dr. F., and Monti, Dr. A. Archiv für Kinderheilkunde (Archives of Pædiatrics), Vol. XX, Nos. 3 and 4. Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke. Pp. 100.

Bardeen, C. W. A Manual of Common School Law. Syracuse: C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 290. $1.

Berger, F. Berger's French Method. New York: F. Berger. London: D. Scott. Pp. 158. 75 cents.

Bulletins and Transactions. Colgate University: Circular of Information, 1895-'96.—Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, Vol. IV.—Johns Hopkins University Circular: Notes from the Biological Laboratory.—New York Academy of Sciences: Annals of June, 1890.—New York State University: Examination Bulletin, No. 9, February, 1896, and Extension Bulletin, No. 13, May, 1896.—Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art: The Man and the Machine. An address by S. N. D. North.—Philadelphia Geographical Club: Bulletin on Venezuela's Territorial Claims, by J. B. Austin.—Rochester Academy of Sciences: Proceedings of. Vol. III.—Royal Institution of Great Britain: Proceedings of; The Past, Present, and Future Water Supply of London, by E. Frankland; Immunization against Serpents' Venom, etc., by Prof. Thomas R. Fraser; The Circulation of Organic Matter, by Prof. C. V. Poore.—Smithsonian Institution: Catalogue of a Collection of Birds made by Dr. W. L. Abbott, and an Index of Smithsonian Publications.—Tennessee State Board of Health: Bulletin, Vol. XI, No. 11.—United States Geological Survey: Table of Mineral Products (Quantities and Values) of the United States during the Last Decade; Bulletin No. 123. A Dictionary of Geographic Positions; No. 124. Revision of the American Fossil Cockroaches, with Description of New Forms; No. 125. The Constitution of the Silicates; No. 121). A Mineralogical Lexicon of Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties, Massachusetts; No. 128.