is no need of extended notice of the separate essays, which are so well known to scientists, but their publication together, assisted by the preface, tells us that as a unit they still represent Mr. Huxley's views upon evolution and that he has in later years not swerved to any great extent from the position adopted even in the first essay. This collection of essays of Darwinian hypothesis certainly forms a valuable addition to one's library on evolutionary topics. The title is unfortunate, for Professor Huxley has chosen the same title which has been earlier used by Professor Gray for a similar book, and two books with the same title are sure to produce confusion. Guide to the Study of Common Plants. An Introduction to Botany. By VOLNEY M. SPALDING, Professor of THIS little book will doubtless prove of great assistance to many teachers of botany in the elementary classes. The author has given an admirable series of exercises, developing a natural and practicable method in the elementary study of plants and plant life. The publication has been suggested by the frequent inquiries of teachers regarding the preparation in botany required for admission to the University of Michigan. Summer Birds of Green County, Pa. By WARREN Jacobs. Waynesburg, Pa., Republican Book and Job Office. Bird Life in Labrador. By WINFRED A. STEARNS. herst, Mass. $1. Am THE first of these is a brief pamphlet giving a list of the summer birds of Green County, with a note or two as to their habits. The second is a somewhat more extended account of the birds of Labrador and takes partly the form of a A Tonic For Brain-Workers, the Weak and Debilitated. narrative of Mr. Stearns's journey in that country. It contains no descriptions of the birds but more in regard to their habits and abundance. --S. C. Griggs and Company of Chicago have published a book by John P. Davis on "The Union Pacific Railway," which gives a history of the railway in question from its origin to the present time, with special reference to its relations with the United States Government. It tells how the idea of a trans-continental railway originated and how for many years its realization was prevented by the difficulties of the work and the influence of sectional jealousies. The successive attempts that were made to obtain a charter are recounted, with an analysis of the charter under which the road was actually built. A chapter is also devoted to the operations of the Credit Mobilier and the legislative scandal that arose in consequence. The author is inclined to excuse the operations in question on the ground that they were no worse than occurred in the building of other railroads in those days; and yet in his preface he says, speaking of the Union Pacific: "The agencies through which this particular instrument was obtained and applied to use will be found seriously out of harmony with settled political and moral principles." In conclusion, Mr. Davis considers. briefly what steps the government ought to take to recover the sum due it from the railway company, which will amount at the maturity of the bonds in 1899 to $125,000,000. He notices several plans that have been suggested, but comes to no definite conclusion as to which is the most advisable; so that on the practical aspect of the subject he does not shed much light. As a history of the railway, however, the book will doubtless be of use. EXCHANGES. [Free of charge to all, if of satisfactory character. Address, N. D. C. Hodges, 874 Broadway, New York.] FOR OR SALE OR FXCHANGE.- Safe, nearly new, and is as good as when bought. Address, A. Lagerstrom, LIVING near the famous "Serpent Mound," Adams Warren Cowen, HORSFORD'S ACID PHOSPHATE is without exception, the Best Remedy for relieving Mental and Nervous Exhaustion; and where the system has become debilitated by disease, it acts as a general tonic and vitalizer,factorily. Send 62 cents in stamps. affording sustenance to both brain and body. To. Y. Chandler, Beaver Dam, Wise. EXCHANGE. - Herbarium specimens. Address, KARYOKINETIC FIGURES IN MAMMALIAN Dr. E. Cornell Esten, Philadelphia, Pa., says: "I have met with the greatest and most satisfactory results in dyspepsia and general derangement of the cerebral and nervous systems, causing debility and exhaustion." Descriptive pamphlet free. Rumford Chemical Works, have written me asking for permanent preparations show WANTS. WANTED A Young man to canvass for advertise ments for Science. The usual commission of thirty per cent will be paid. Apply in person at Science Office, 874 Broadway, New York. Does any suitable work in science, of the nature of teaching preferred. Address, E. A. Beckett, Trinity College, Toronto, Ontario. OUBLE honor graduate in Science and Philosophy ANTED. Theory of the Earth, by Hutton. Prinby Phillips. Lehrbuch der Geolgie und Petrefacenkunde, by Carl Vogt. Etudes sur le Métamorphisme, by Daubrée WA ciples of Geolo, y, by Lyell. Manual of Geology, WANTED, Second-hand books on esteology, em bryology, and comparative anatomy. Send list, stating condition and cash price. Can offer a few good sets of birds' eges if desired. R. C. McGregor, Palo Alto, California. TISSUES. - Since the publication of my Prelim- FOR SALE. A small collection of bird skins, con- FOR 3922 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Penna. WA 7OR SALF. Price $150, cost originally between $300 Providence, R.I. N. J. Peware of Substitutes and Imitations. T EXCHANGE For Works on Indians and a date and price of ) and 0. Address, James Wood, SOFTLY STEALS THE LIGHT OF DAY wher filtered through windows covered with CRYSTOGRAPHS, a substitute for Stained Glass that is inexpensive, beautiful, and easily applied. 20c. per square foot. Samples and catalogue, 100. CRYSTOGRAPH CO., 316 North Broad St., Philadelphia. Fact and Theory Papers I. THE SUPPRESSION OF CON Pennsylvania Bedford Springs Mineral Water For Liver, Kidney and Bdder Troubles. It has been used medicinally and prescribed by physicians for nearly one hundred years. DIRECTIONS:-Take one or two glasses about a half-hour before each meal. Case One Dozen Half-Gallon Botties, $4.50. Case Fifty Quarts (Aerated), $7.50. Bedford Mineral Springs Co., Bedford, Pa. Philadelphia Office, 1004 Walnut St. THE WINNIPEG COUNTRY; OR, SUMPTION. BY GODFREY W. HAMBLETON, M.D. ROUGHING IT WITH AN ECLIPSE PARTY. Littell's Living Age, THE ONLY WEEKLY ECLECTIC. 1844. 1893. "The Oldest and the Best." It selects from the whole wide field of EUROPEAN PERIODICAL LITERATURE the best articles by THE ABLEST LIVING WRITERS In every department of Literature, Science, Politics and Art. OPINIONS. "Only the best has ever filled its pages; the best thought rendered in the purest English. Nothing poor or unworthy has ever appeared in the columns of THE LIVING AGE."-The Presbyterian, Phila. "Considering its size, it is the cheapest of literary periodicals, and no collection of magazine literature is complete without this foremost of eclectics."-Educational Courant, Louisville, Ky. "It is one of the few periodicals which seem indispensable. It contains nearly all the good literature of the time."-The Churckman, New York. "The fields of fiction, biography, travel, science, poetry, criticism, and social and religious discussion all come within its domain."-Boston Journal. "To read it is itself an education in the course of modern thought and literature."- Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. Published WEEKLY at $8.00 a year, free of postage. Club Rates. -For $10.15 THE LIVING AGE and SCIENCE will be sent for a year, postpaid. Rates for clubbing THE LIVING AGE with other periodicals will be sent on application. Sample copies of THE LIVING AGE, 15 cents each. Address, Littell & Co., 31 Bedford St., Boston, Mass. Is it not true that, in a vague way, the usual conception of the cause of damage by lightning is that something (in past ages a "thunderbolt ") comes down from the thunder cloud to do the damage? Is it not true that since damage is done by lightning we should seek the mass of matter in which this energy must exist just before the flash? Is it not equally true that since Faraday's time we have known that this energy exists in the column of dielectric (mainly air) extending from the cloud to the earth? Do we not know since Lord Kelvin's experiments that this energy exists in the air on account of a state of electrical stress, which stress cannot exceed .0075 of a pound per square inch, and that consequently the amount of energy in each cubic foot of air cannot exceed about one foot-pound? Knowing that the energy just before the flash exists in the column of air between the cloud and the earth, which column is indicated in the figure by the dotted lines, and that when the air "breaks down" and the flash comes this energy manifests itself mainly as heat along the central core of this column in what we call a flash of lightning, is it not evident that the energy must be transmitted in lines perpendicular to the lines of electrical stress, i.e., in the main horizontally, indicated in the figure by the arrows? From all this, which is a part of our current knowledge, it appears that the problem of protection from lightning is a problem in the dissipation of energy; that the energy to be dissipated, while we know it to be considerable, as broken masonry testifies, is but a small part of the whole involved in a flash of lightning, by far the larger part being dissipated as heat above the roofs of our houses. If the conditions can be so arranged, by the use of considerable masses of metal suitably placed, that there shall be no state of stress below the roof of the house, then there will be no energy to be dissipated below that level, and all will go well. But it is surely time that the problem of protecting buildings from lightning should be looked upon as one in energetics and that it should be appreciated that the energy present cannot be hocus-pocussed out of the way but must be dissipated in some harmless manner. The deflagration of a pound or two of thin copper ribbon dissipates a large amount of energy, how much we do not know, but experience shows it is so large that too little is left to do other damage when a house is struck by lightning. This lightning protector, manufactured under patents of N. D. C. Hodges, Editor of Science, is sent prepaid to any address on receipt of $5.00 per 100 feet. The amount ordered should be sufficent to run lines of the protector from the highest to the lowest points of the building, at intervals of about forty feet. Any carpenter can put it on. AMERICAN LIGHTNING PROTECTION COMPANY, 874 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. Probably you take THE Electrical Engineer. RACES AND PEOPLES. By DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. "The book is good, thoroughly good, and will long remain the best accessible elementary ethnography Most people interested in Electricity in our language."-The Christian Union. "We strongly recommend Dr. Brinton's Races and Peoples' to both beginners and scholars. We are not aware of any other recent work on the science of which it treats in the English language." -Asiatic Quarterly. "His book is an excellent one, and we can heartily recommend it as an introductory manual of ethnology."-The Monist. "A useful and really interesting work, which deserves to be widely read and studied both in Europe and America."-Brighton (Eng.) Herald. "This volume is most stimulating. It is written with great clearness, so that anybody can understand, and while in some ways. perforce, superficial, grasps very well the complete fleld of humanity.". The New York Times. "Dr. Brinton invests his scientific illustrations and measurements with an indescribable charm of narration, so that 'Races and Peoples,' avowedly a rec ord of discovered facts, is in reality a strong stimulant to the imagination."-Philadelphia Public Ledger. "The work is indispensable to the student who requires an intelligent guide to a course of ethnographic reading."-Philadelphia Times. Price, postpaid, $1.75. THE AMERICAN RACE. By DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. BELL TELEPHONE The book is one of unusual interest and value.”— COMPANY, 125 Milk Street, Boston, Mass. This company owns Letters-Patent No. 463,569, granted to Emile Berliner November 17, 1891, for a combined telegraph and telephone, and controls Letters-Patent No. 474,231, granted to Thomas A. Edison May 3, 1892, for a speaking telegraph, which patents cover fundamental inventions and embrace all forms of microphone transmitters and of carbon telephones. Inter Ocean. "Dr. Daniel G. Brinton writes as the acknowledged authority of the subject."-Philadelphia Press. "The work will be of genuine value to all who wish to know the substance of what has been found out about the indigenous Americans."-Nature. "A masterly discussion, and an example of the successful education of the powers of observation." -Philadelphia Ledger. Price, postpaid, $2. N. D. C. HODGES, 874 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. Mothers, when nursing babies, need a nourishment that will give them strength and make their milk rich. Scott's Emulsion the Cream of Cod-liver Oil, nourishes mothers and makes babies fat and healthy. Gives strength to growing children. Physicians, the world over, endorse it. Don't be deceived by Substitutes! Prepared by Scott & Bowne, N. Y. All Druggists. THE MODERN MALADY; or, Suf ferers from 'Nerves. An introduction to public consideration, from a non-medical point of view, of a condition of ill-health which is increasingly prevalent in all ranks of society. In the first part of this work the author dwells on the errors in our mode of treating Neurasthenia, consequent on the wide ignorance of the subject which still prevails: in the second part, attention is drawn to the principal causes of the malady. The allegory forming the Introduction to Part I. gives a brief history of nervous exhaustion and the modes of treatment which have at various times been thought suitable to this most painful and trying disease. By CYRIL BENNETT. N. D. C. HODGES, 874 Broadway. New York. SCIENCE NEW YORK, MARCH 9, 1894. CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. NO. XLI. (Edited by D. G. Brinton, M.D., LL. D., D. Sc.) THE HIEROGLYPHS OF EASTER ISLAND. In a previous note (see Science, May 8, 1892) I have referred to the curious carved hieroglyphs which the Easter Islanders were accustomed to preserve on batons or narrow tablets. The art is lost, and few of the batons remain, as the present generation burnt up most of them for firewood! A genuine one would now be worth its weight in gold—or, at least, in silver. The last and best work on the translation of the inscriptions has lately been published from the posthumous papers of Bishop Tepano Jaussen, apostolic vicar of Tahiti, who included in his diocese Easter Island also. He secured a few of the tablets, and some intelligent natives read them for him, explaining the meaning of each hieroglyph. These he collated, and they are printed in dictionary form, analyzed as far as possible. They prove to be ideographic in character, and are read boustrophedon. The Bishop took much pains to discover the origin of this writing, sending specimens of it widely over Oceanica for comparison. He finally decided that it was brought "more than a thousand years ago" from the Moluccas and the Spice Islands, almost an identical writing having been discovered on ancient stone monuments in the island of Celebes by Archbishop Claessens, of Batavia. This excellent study of Jaussen's is a pamphlet of 32 pages, entitled "L'Ile de Paques," and may be had of Ernest Leroux, 28 Rue Bonaparte, Paris. It is indispensable for every student of the subject. PALEOLITHIC VERSUS NEOLITHIC. IN the Journal of the Anthropological Institute for February an important article appears from the pen of Prof. Boyd Dawkins, entitled "On the Relation of the Paleolithic to the Neolithic Period." His main point is to prove that nowhere in the Old or New World can we trace the transition in culture between these two periods. Everywhere there seems a gap or hiatus, sharply dividing the two, this break extending also to the fauna of the two epochs. This opinion was long ago maintained by Mortillet and other eminent archæologists, but has lately been denied by J. Allen Brown and others. Professor Dawkins makes a strong plea for its correctness; but, after all, his argument has the weakness inherent in reasoning ab ignorantia. The most he can show is that not yet have the steps of the continuity of the periods been demonstrated; while it would surely be difficult for one familiar with the diligent studies of investigators not to be convinced that there is no such sharp line between the two cultures as was once laid down. For instance, all must now concede that paleolithic man made pottery, which was long denied. him. An interesting part of Professor Dawkins's article is that on the so-called palæolithic implements from the Trenton gravels, New Jersey. He has visited that locality himself and collected some of the specimens of which he speaks. His conclusion is, that there is no sufficient evidence for considering any of the Trenton finds as palæolithic; and that the theories which have been built upon them by their finders will have to be discarded. Evidence of another kind than the mere rude form of implements is needed to determine the presence of palæolithic man in America. 66 THE all-important question among criminologists is, whether there is a peculiar physical type, which at once marks and condems the habitual criminal. Reference has already been made in these notes to the wide difference of opinion on this subject which obtained at the last International Congress of Criminal Anthropology (see Science, Nov. 18, 1892). In a paper read before the Russian Anthropological Society last October, Prof. E. Petri, of St. Petersburg, declared in favor of the reality of the "type," maintaining that it had been denied because of lack of uniformity in modes of measurement, and in the technical nomenclature, as well as from a neglect of proper selection of cases. He argued that a so-called "pure series" of criminal types could be obtained, and would always show clearly defined contrasts to a series of non-criminal individuals. On the other hand, the legal profession almost unanimously deny the existence of the "type." Take, they say, a dozen criminals as they come into the dock, wash and dress them as neatly, and they will certainly look as well as the dozen men in the jury box impanelled to pronounce upon their misdeeds. To be sure, many criminals are such through want, misery and destitution, and these leave their traces; but as many more have not suffered in regulated life for their commission; so the average is this manner; and a large class of crimes demand a wellmaintained. Of course, exception must be made in either case, of mental alienation, idiocy, insanity and the like. THE PLEIADES IN EARLY ASTRONOMY. THE prominent position which the group of the Pleiades. occupies in many early myths and calendars has recently attracted the attention of several writers. Prof. Norman Lockyer, in his "Dawn of Astronomy," shows that the oldest temple on the Acropolis of Athens was oriented to observe the rising of the Pleiades about the year 1530 B.C.; thus connecting the worship of these stars with the primi tive religion of the Hellenes, |