to the original writer, though the geographical conditions must have been somewhat changed in his time.

I rejoice that a scholar like Dr. Haupt has advocated a view which will almost for the first time bring this very ancient and very accurate geographical description before the notice of modern biblical scholars in a manner which will be intelligible from their point of view.

I may add that a popular view of the geological argument on the subject will be found in my work, 'Modern Science in Bible Lands,' published in 1888,* where will also be found a sketch-map of the region, illustrating the bearing of the geological and geographical researches of Loftus and others on this much vexed and much misunderstood question.

J. WILLIAM DAWSON.

MONTREAL, May 7, 1895.

COLOR-ASSOCIATIONS WITH NUMERALS, ETC. (THIRD NOTE).

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In SCIENCE, old series, Vol. vi., No. 137, p. 242, I printed the results of some experiments upon the association of colors with letters of the alphabet, with numerals, etc., in the case of one of my daughters. In Nature for July 9, 1891, I gave a table exhibiting the results of these experiments in the years 1882, 1883, August, 1885, December, 1887, June, 1889, and June, 1891, a period of about nine years. The table can be readily consulted by anyone interested, so that it need not be reprinted here. In February, 1895, I again questioned my daughter on the subject, and I find that the colors given in her replies of June, 1891, are unchanged except in two cases. The figure 8 was visualized by her as white (August, 1885), cream color (December, 1887), white (June, 1889), cream (June, 1891), and is again seen as white (February, 1895). The figure *Harpers, New York.

10 was noted as brown (1885), brown (1887), black ? (1889), black or brown (1891), and black (1895). With these exceptions there are no material changes. My remarks on the table, given in Nature, do not seem to call for any additions or subtractions. The present note, taken with the others cited, seems to be of value, as it records the results of experiments made under exceptionally good conditions and now extending over a period of some thirteen years. EDWARD S. HOLDEN.

MOUNT HAMILTON, May, 1895.

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

IN conformity with the law under which the University of Kansas is now working, the Board of Regents at a recent meeting formally organized the University Geological Survey of Kansas with Chancellor F. H. Snow, ex-officio Director; Professor S. W. Williston, Paleontologist; Professor Erasmus Haworth, Geologist and Mineralogist, and Professor E. H. S. Bailey, Chemist.

In addition to these, other members of the University Faculty will be engaged upon the work of the Survey, as well as the advanced students of the departments of Geology and Paleontology. An effort will also be made to centralize and unify the energies of different geologists in the State who have been doing valuable work along different lines of geological investigations. Already a considerable start has been made and the coöperation of different geologists of the State has been secured.

The policy of the Survey will be conservative, with the expectation that it will be continued and eventually include all other branches of the natural history of the State. The general stratigraphy of the State will first be elaborated in order that it may be used in the further study of various questions of economic and scientific importance, all of which will be taken up as rapidly as

existing conditions from time to time will permit.

Work in the Coal Measures of the State has been in progress for two summers, and Volume I. of the Report is now almost ready for publication. Other volumes will appear at irregular intervals. Those already under preparation are: One on Coal, Oil and Gas; one on the Vertebrate Paleontology of the State; and one on the Salt and Gypsum deposits of Kansas.

F. H. SNOW,

Chancellor University of Kansas.

LAWRENCE, KANSAS,

April 20, 1895.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty. BY H. NEHRLING. 4o,36 colored plates from originals by RIDGWAY, GOERING and MÜTZEL. Published by Geo. Brumder, Milwaukee. To be completed in 16 parts, $1.00 each. Part eleven of this excellent work, carrying it nearly half through the second volume, has been delivered to subscribers. It is enough praise to say that the high standard of the first volume is maintained. Mr. Nehrling is a field naturalist of the kind who deem a bird in the bush worth two in the hand. He loves everything in the woods and fields, and in telling about the birds. and their lives he tells also of the trees and flowers.

The aim of the book is to give trustworthy accounts, in popular style, of the haunts and habits of our birds. Occasionally it does more and introduces a new fact of scientific interest, as when the breeding of the Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola) is recorded for northern Wisconsin. On the other hand, it is not always down to date. For instance, under the Black Rosy Finch (Leucosticte atrata), the statement is quoted from Ridgway that "nothing has yet been learned as to its range during the breeding season." As a matter of fact, the species is common

6

in summer in the higher parts of the Salmon River Mountains in Idaho, where it was obtained by the reviewer five years ago (see North American Fauna, No. 5, 1891, 102). Similarly, the Gray-crowned Rosy Finch (L. tephrocotis) is said to be 'a resident of the interior of British America, near or in the Rocky Mountains,' and further, that none seem to breed in our territory.' If Mr. Nehrling had consulted the Report on the Ornithology of the Death Valley Expedition,' by Dr. A. K. Fisher, he would have found the statement that this species "is a common summer resident in the higher portions of the White Mountains and the Sierra Nevada in eastern and southern California," where it breeds abundantly and where nearly 40 specimens were secured by the expedition (North Am. Fauna, No. 7, 1893, 82).

The plates are of two kinds, some showa single species in appropriate surroundings; others showing a number of species grouped together on a background of landscape or dense vegetation. The reproductions, while amply sufficient for purposes of identification, are evidently inferior to the originals, the number of stones used in printing being too small, and the workmanship not of the best. By far the most effective picture in the second volume is one of a group of winter birds-Evening Grosbeak, Pine Grosbeak, Redpoll, Whitewinged Crossbill, Nuthatch and Chickadee -on top of a spruce tree laden with snow. The combination of colors is striking and is aided by the red berries of a giant mountain ash, which, by the way, forgot to drop its leaves! Among the earlier plates of high merit, both in conception and execution, are several by Robert Ridgway that give charming glimpses of birds in characteristic attitudes and surroundings. Of these, the Golden-crowned Kinglet, Prothonotary Warbler, and Canon Wren are among the best.

By some accident in binding, the two plates of part 10 (pls. 13 and 15) are repeated from the first volume.

The nomenclature is that of the American Ornithologists' Union, except that the authority given is for the combination, not for the species-an unfortunate departure, inasmuch as it does not tell who was the original describer of the species.

To those unfamiliar with the first volume it may be said that the work is not a scientific treatise at all, but a popular book devoted to the life histories of birds, and based mainly on the authors' extensive field experiences, supplemented by quotations perhaps too lengthy and frequent-from the writings of well-known ornithologists. It does not profess to cover all North American birds, omitting the water birds, birds of prey and a few others, but treats primarily, as its title indicates, of 'Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty.' It is a large, well printed quarto, and of its kind is incomparably the best book yet published in America.

C. H. M.

Municipal Government in Great Britain: By ALBERT SHAW. New York, The Century Co. 1895, 8°, viii +385.

The modern increase of cities, and of the proportion of urban population as compared with that of rural districts, is, according to Mr. Shaw, to be accepted as a permanent fact for this generation and its immediate successors, and, instead of lamenting over it, it is the duty of thinking men to devise ways and means to do away with or diminish the evils which are at present connected with city life. The author states his point of view as being that a city government should so order the general affairs and interests of the community as to conduce positively to the welfare of its people, or, at all events, to make it certain that for the average family the life of the town shall not be necessarily detrimental. The object of

the book is to show how some of the older and larger British cities have dealt with this problem, giving details as to their modern forms of government, method of elections and modes of securing pure water, cleanliness, rapid transit, prevention of contagious diseases, etc.

The cities selected for this purpose are Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London, and for each a vast amount of information is clearly and concisely given.

Taking Birmingham as an example, it is shown that in twenty years the death rate of the city was lowered twenty per cent., and, in some parts of the city, sixty per cent.; that the provisions for the comfort and recreation of the people have been greatly increased, and that, while over forty millions of dollars have been expended in securing these improvements, the taxes have not been increased, because the municipal gas and water works, street railways, markets, etc., have been from the financial, as well as from the utilitarian, point of view completely successful. Surely it is worth while for the citizens of American cities to inquire how this has been accomplished.

The description of the means used by the city of Glasgow for the isolation and treatment of infectous disease is worthy of careful study. The Contagious Diseases Hospital has been given the semblance of a lovely village, and Mr. Shaw truly says that "the difference between popularity and unpopularity in a public hospital for infectious diseases may well mean all the difference between a terrible epidemic and its easy prevention." The sanitary wash houses of Glasgow are a feature of the work of the Health Department which finds no parallel in American cities but which is of great importance. One of these cost $50,000, another $75,000, and they far more than repay their cost.

The author promises a second volume

treating of municipal government in the chief countries of Continental Europe, and if we could be assured of a third volume, prepared with equal care and accuracy, 'On Municipal Governments in the United States, or how not to do it,' it would be, as Artemus expressed it, a sweet boon.' Meantime, let Mr. Shaw's first volume be made a subject of special study by the younger professional men in this country, for the time is near at hand when they will be compelled to take some definite line of action with regard to our own cities, each of which presents its own peculiar problems, but problems upon which much light is thrown by the experiences of our transatlantic brothers.

J. S. B.

Theoretical Chemistry. By PROFESSOR W. NERNST, Ph. D., University of Göttingen, translated by PROFESSOR C. S. PALMER, Ph. D., University of Colorado. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 697. Price $5.00.

It has long been evident that the treatment of the physical side of chemistry, in text-books avowedly devoted to chemical theory, is not satisfactory. In the present work Physical Chemistry is the main object in hand, and, correspondingly, chemical theory proper is relegated to a subordinate position. The treatment of purely chemical topics is clear and suggestive, but brief, and occasionally inadequate. Thus the discussion of the stereochemistry of nitrogen is confined to the mere statement of the views of Hantzsch and Werner, with not even the barest mention of the difficulties and exceptions which have led many to regard the spatial conception, so far as it applies to nitrogen, as prematurely developed.

But insufficiency of this kind is to be expected whenever the attempt is made to cover the whole field of chemical and physico-chemical theory within the limits of the same work, and it would be unfair to criticise Professor Nernst's book adversely

on the ground of inadequate treatment of purely chemical topics which, presumably, were introduced simply for the sake of completeness. We pass, therefore, to the main subject.

For some time a work has been needed which would give concisely the remarkable results of the new Physical Chemistry, and this want Professor Nernst's work is well fitted to meet. ted to meet. The material is well selected, the sections are well proportioned, the facts are accurately and concisely stated, and the translation has been faithfully made, too faithfully perhaps, by one who is evidently well fitted, on the scientific side, for the task.

It may not be out of place to express the opinion that the almost complete abandonment of the historical method which characterizes Professor Nernst's work is a mistake, even in so small a volume. This is particularly plain in the account of the doctrine of electrolytic dissociation. One who reads the fascinating chapter 'Geschichte der Electrochemie' in Ostwald's 'Lehrbuch der Allgemeinen Chemie,' Vol. I., part II., observes this concept vaguely adumbrated in the minds of Grotthus and Daniell, sees it implicitly present in the remarkable views of Clausius, and finally recognizes it freed from all obscurity in the papers of Arrhenius. In Nernst, on the contrary, one is introduced to the doctrine fully formed, and, looking about him in some bewilderment to ascertain its source, discovers an incomplete justification for its existence in the behavior of aqueous salt solutions.

The student who desires to devote himself specially to Physical Chemistry may read the book with profit, but he would do better, having acquired the necessary physical, mathematical and chemical preparation, to go directly to Ostwald's' Lehrbuch'; to those who wish simply to obtain a broad view of the present state of the science the work will be decidedly acceptable, and this will be its chief function.

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It is not pleasant to be obliged to record the complete failure of Professor Palmer's attempt to make the sound German speak good English.' The' sound German' seems to be unusually refractory in his hands, and frequently refuses not only to speak good English,' but also to speak any kind of intelligible English at all.

An unpleasant appearance is given to the pages by the translator's unfortunate practice of introducing phrases from the original, sometimes directly, sometimes in curiously infelicitous translation. Thus, in the section in which the applications of the first law of heat to chemical reactions are discussed we read, to express thermal evolution or absorption, either 'Wärmetönung,' which is clear enough, but out of place, or 'heat toning,' a phrase which one struggles vainly to comprehend. Thus he replaces the word element by the remarkable expression 'ground-stuff.' He advocates the introduction of the term 'Knall gas,' and employs it faithfully himself. Rarely the translation attains to complete unintelligibility, e. g., on page 149:

"The choice of a suitable hypothesis to be advanced can be easily made, now or never, in the case before us.”

It must be admitted that Professor Palmer's English is by no means pleasant reading. Those with any feeling for the right use of language will be incessantly irritated by it, and even others will be not infrequently annoyed by the unnecessary difficulties which it introduces.

The defects of the translation are undoubtedly serious. But for this there is much compensation. It is plain that the translator has followed the wonderful development of the new science faithfully, and his own comprehension of the subject is evident on every page. The student who will forgive the obvious defects, which, after all, concern rather the appearance than the substance, and give to the book an earnest,

thoughtful reading, can not fail to derive from it a large amount of valuable information.

ROBERT H. BRADBURY.

Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, Vol II., Brooklyn Meeting, 1894. Edited by Professors Swain, Baker and Johnson. Svo, pp. viii., 292. $2.50.

This excellent collection of interesting and helpful papers is issued to the members of the Society; but, as we understand from an inserted slip, copies may be obtained from the Secretary, Professor J. B. Johnson, of Washington University, St. Louis, at the regular price paid by members. The volume is well made up, and its contents justify a good form of make-up. The book contains the usual statement of the objects of the Society, the rules, and the lists of officers and members, followed by the complete papers of the the meeting of 1894. The Society was organized in Chicago in 1893, and its next meeting, at Brooklyn, is that here given record. Its membership, already about 160, includes probably the majority of the recognized leaders among representatives of the department of education to which its belongs. The discussions are mainly on subjects of immediate interest to the teachers in the professional engineering schools, and are necessarily of great importance to them and their pupils, though perhaps less attractive to the average reader than are discussions of educational matters generally. The requirements for admission, the character and designation of the degrees properly conferred, the teachers and the text-books, methods and extent of shop and laboratory work, and forms of curricula suitable to this special work, are the main topics, and they are well and dispassionately treated. The volume is full of useful and instructive matter.

R. H. T.