EDITOR'S LITERARY RECORD. Phelps would labor less, she would succeed bet- of Miss Mulock, and the Appletons those of We need not advise the readers of Harper's From Carter and Brothers we receive several Dora's Motto is sure to sejuvenile stories. cure a favorable verdict from those most critical of critics, the little folks. The fact that in our own house her motto, "Be courteous," has been hung up by the children in their respective rooms, and her method of recording the deeds which infringed and those which exemplified the motto has been adopted by them, is the best praise the book can have.-Ashcliffe Hall is a tale of the last century, and gives, besides an interesting story and some bits of history, a striking and useful contrast between formal and superstitious religion and an ennobling Christian life. - What mischief done by a child, and counteracted by Shauny did to the Light-House is a short story of care and watching and bravery on the part of the parents.-The Broken Bud is a republication of a book prepared some years ago by a bereaved mother as a tribute to the memory of a beloved child. It can not fail of its purpose, that of afHe is always fording consolation to other hearts similarly bereaved.-Lee and Shepard send us two volumes from the pen of Oliver Optic. popular with the boys; but we do not think he is a safe guide, or affords them the best sort of inspiration.-Having read "Misunderstood" with great interest, we gladly greeted A Very Simple Story (Randolph), by the same author, only to be disappointed in finding it a very sad and unnatural story. MISCELLANEOUS. John Woolman's Journal (James R. Osgood and Co.) introduces us to some of the interior and hidden influences which preceded and produced the antislavery agitation. The little seed, the fruit of which was "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in literature and the Emancipation Proclamation in politics, was dropped silently in the furrow by eenth century. The extent to which the social this American Quaker preacher during the eightCastles in the Air, by ROSE and political revolution of two continents was afFoundations; or, PORTER (Randolph), is a very simple story- fected, not remotely, by the unostentatious labors almost too quietly simple in its common inci- of this pioneer, from whose gentle spirit later reThis dent of a country lad, tempted and falling into formers might well have learned some lessons, sin in city life, yet restored at last through will be a surprise to most of those who now read genuine repentance. The story is little or noth- for the first time the story of his life. ing, but it is the vehicle of many quiet and spirit, transfusing the most modest of autobiogbeautiful thoughts, and of a tender, religious raphies, takes it out of the arena of controversy, spirit, pervasive and potent, because of its very and gives to his style that exquisite purity and to quiet. It is a story that has power, not as a his Christianity that fascination which Coleridge whirlwind or a thunder-bolt, but as a quiet sum-attributed to them.-We rarely think it necessary mer day, whose very stillness is its power.-The to enter upon any criticism in these pages of pureauthor of The Sisters of Orleans (G. P. Putnam ly professional books, whether legal, medical, or and Son) displays some ingenuity in the construction of an entirely incredible plot, and some dramatic power in the portrayal of some very improbable scenes; but the characterization is unnatural, and the novel itself is ill-timed, if its object is to portray the horrors of slavery, and worse than ill-timed if it simply employs them for the purpose of constructing a sensationally tragic romance. It may be accepted, we hope, as a sign that the public taste does not wholly run to sensationalism in novels, that the Harpers are publishing, in a uniform edition, the works 93 66 re technically theological. The fact, however, that 302 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. against the government on the other, this volume is the best legal authority extant; and it is a work which consequently deserves and demands the attention not merely of the lawyer, but of the legislator, the reformer, and the political editor as well. This much we may say with-in America" into French, Russian, and German out undertaking to enter into a critical examination of the legal principles discussed in the volume-a task for which we have not the space, and which does not come within our purposed province. "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, "having already appeared abroad in English, French, German, and Italian dress, is now printed in the Russian language. Translations of his three volumes on the "History of the Civil War are in course of preparation. The honor of translation into the Russian tongue, never before awarded to any American book except "Uncle Tom's Cabin," is a remarkable evidence of the progress of American ideas, since, in the realm of philosophy, Dr. Draper's works are quite as characteristically American as Uncle Tom's EVERY American must feel some personal pride in the fact that Dr. JOHN W. DRAPER'S | Cabin" is in the realm of fiction. Editor's Scientific Record. SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. feasible route-that by Tehuantepec being de IN the summary of scientific progress publish- ficient in water at the high levels, that by Nic ed in the Magazine for the month of June we presented a statement of the more prominent movements in science made since the beginning of the present year; and we now renew this record, although little of striking importance has since then come to light. In the department of Astronomy, an interesting paper has appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Science upon the solar corona, by Mr. Proctor, in which that gentleman takes occasion to sum up the results of the observations made on this subject during the late eclipse, and to show what has been accomplished, and what still remains for the next opportunity to determine. A paper presented by Professor Ferrell to the National Academy of Science, at its meeting in April last, indicates a method of determining the mass of the moon by tidal observations, the subject being fully discussed in all its bearings. In Meteorology and Terrestrial Physics we have to note the continued success of the American Storm Signal Service in forecasting the weather, and in giving the means for anticipating the occurrence and the progress of storms. aragua lacking an accessible harbor for vessels of considerable draft on the Atlantic, and the height of the water-shed on the Isthmus of Darien preventing a passage except by a complex system of locks, for supplying which it is doubtful whether a sufficient amount of water can be found. Numerous exploring parties are engaged in Western America in initiating new work or continuing that of previous years. Among them, Dr. Hayden is preparing for a visit to the Yellow Stone country by way of Salt Lake City, and Major Powell is about starting from the same place for his exploration of the cañons of the Colorado. Lieutenant Wheeler has left Camp Halleck for his survey of portions of Arizona and Nevada; and Mr. Clarence King is continuing his geological and topographical survey along the fortieth parallel. Lord Walsingham, a young Englishman, is collecting minute lepidoptera in California; and M. A. Pinart, a French naturalist, has, it is said, just left San Francisco for an exploration of Alaska. Captain Hall is nearly ready to start for the North Pole in the Polaris, Details in regard to the climatology of South and will be accompanied by Dr. E. Bessels, an America indicate a very remarkable disturb-eminent German naturalist of arctic experience. ance in the usual weather phenomena of that region, shown chiefly in excessive rain-fall in places along the western side of the Andes, where such an occurrence was previously almost unheard of. Various publications of results of Geographical and Geological Exploration have appeared; among them an account by Lieutenant Doane of his visit to the remarkable country at the head of the Yellow Stone River, characterized by the great number of mud volcanoes, hot springs, and geysers. A new exploration of the deep seas of the Atlantic and Pacific has been announced by the Coast Survey, to be under the charge of Professor Agassiz and Count Pourtalès. The report of Dr. Hayden's geographical survey of Wyoming Territory, made during the past summer, has also appeared, under the direction of the Interior Department. The surveys of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, of Nicaragua, and of Darien, with reference to the construction of a ship-canal, have been continued and partially completed. No very satisfactory exhibit has yet been made of an entirely Nothing of special interest has been announced on the part of European travelers, except the further progress of Sir Samuel Baker's expedition up the Nile, and the news, tolerably authenticated, of Dr. Livingstone's safety. In the line of General Natural History we have had many publications, in the form of reviews in journals or of special treatises bearing upon Darwin's great work on the Descent of Man and Sexual Selection. Various professed opponents have entered the field against him, while he has had equally zealous defenders among laymen and even the clergy. A work of much interest to the American naturalist is that of Mr. J. A. Allen, of Cambridge, upon the birds and mammals of Florida, and upon the value of certain alleged specific characters in these vertebrates, and the influence of region upon their development and condition. In Economical Natural History we have the initiation of an experiment for stocking the Delaware River with salmon, which, so far as the suc cessful hatching out of the eggs, imported from Canada to New York for that purpose, is con son; cerned, promises to realize the expectations of Advices from South America continue to In Materia Medica the announcement made by the physicians of Ecuador of the marvelous virtues for curing cancer of a certain tree known as the cundurango, has excited much attention among the physicians of the United States, mainly in consequence of communications from the United States minister at Quito, and from the minister from Ecuador in this country, to the State Department, accompanied by specimens of the wood itself. A special agent left New York by the steamer of the 15th of May for the purpose of thoroughly investigating the entire subject. eclipse expedition, he embraced the opportunity to gather samples of water in various localities and at different depths, and these were secured and sealed up with the utmost care, so as to avoid the possibility of the introduction of any additional impurities. In the case of all the specimens of water obtained within a few miles of the shore the beam of light revealed more or less impurity; and it was only in the indigo water of the sea (as distinguished from the green) that he found a decided reduction of the amount of foreign ingredients. He assures us that the prevalence of one or the other of these tints in sea-water is always expressive of a greater or less degree of purity, as depending upon suspended matter. He advises the use of an experiment similar to that referred to for determining the purity of water of any kind, especially that used for drinking, as, notwithstanding a careful filtering through porous paper, and even through a charcoal filter, there may be left in suspension matter almost too fine for detection by the microscope, and yet clearly indicated by the beam of light. He stated in his lecture that the purest water that he was able to find was obtained by melting a block of pure ice, but that even this required extreme caution to insure success. He called attention to the remarkable purity of the water from the chalk districts of England, and remarked that but for the hardness of the water, or the amount of carbonate of lime held in solution, it would be the most desirable for drinking and other purposes. He said, however, that at Canterbury and elsewhere the water is subjected In Technology there have been several interesting communications by Mr. Edwards of his improvement upon the Albert process of printing photographs in ink from bichromate of pot-to a special preparation that causes a deposit of ash positives; and the investigations of Dr. Schunck upon artificial alizarine have led to the detection of at least one substance, called by him anthraflavic acid, to which the uncertainty of the artificial compound, as compared with the natural alizarine obtained from madder itself, is believed to be chiefly due. In Necrology the most important announcements are of the death of the Chevalier Haidinger, the eminent mineralogist and geologist, of Vienna, and of Sir John F. W. Herschel, of England. For further details in regard to the topics just enumerated we refer our readers to the "Scientific Record" of the Magazine, and to the "Scientific Intelligence" in Harper's Weekly. the lime. This is accomplished by adding clear prepared lime-water to the chalk-water, thereby causing a precipitate of carbonate of lime to the bottom of the reservoir. By this means the percentage of this salt in the water is reduced from 17 to 3, leaving a water of extraordinary beauty and purity. HEATON STEEL. A French investigator, in the course of certain experiments upon steel prepared by the Heaton process-which, it appears, contains a rather larger proportion of phosphorus than the Bessemer steel-concludes that phosphorus, in a quantity of from two to four thousandths in steel, causes the metal to be rigid, and while tending to increase the elasticity and the resistTYNDALL ON THE PURITY OF WATER. ance to breaking, does not modify the hardness. Our readers will remember the interest excited Such steel, however, he thinks, is wanting in during the past year by a lecture given by Pro- real strength and toughness, being brittle, and fessor Tyndall before the Royal Institution upon not sustaining sudden shocks. His general conDust and Disease, in which he presented some clusion is that even very small quantities of phosstartling facts as to the impurity of the atmos-phorus, when present in steel, not only do not phere, and made some important suggestions as to the method of improving the quality of the air we breathe. The Professor has lately delivered a lecture upon the color of water, and the scattering of light in water and in air, which will probably be of equal practical value with that first referred to. His subject was illustrated, as before, by passing a beam of light through the liquid in a darkened room, by means of which the existence of the minute particles of impurities can be readily detected. Lately engaged as one of the savans of the improve it, as has been asserted, but actually deteriorate it. The best method of estimating the percentage of phosphorus in steel is said to be the examination of the spectrum produced by the combustion of hydrogen obtained by the action of chlorohydric acid upon the metal." RESTORING FADED PHOTOGRAPHS. Our readers are well aware of the extent to which the ordinary photographic prints made with nitrate of silver are apt to fade with time, and the danger of entire obliteration that attends many of them. It has been, therefore, an object of extended experiment with many to devise some process by which the pictures can be brightened and the faded portion restored. These experiments are asserted to have been more successful at the Military Academy at Woolwich than elsewhere, and we are assured that a method has been devised which answers the purpose almost perfectly. The pictures are, in the first place, thoroughly impregnated with wax, care being taken to remove all excess by hot ironing, subsequently rubbing the surface with a tuft of cotton. This operation itself deepens the contrasts of the picture, and brings out many minor details previously invisible, the yellowish-whites being rendered more transparent, while the half tones and shadows retain their brown, opaque character. This picture, thus prepared, is then used as a negative, a print being taken from it, many details of treatment and manipulation too technical for introduction here being required. TREATMENT OF CROUP BY INHALATION OF GLYCERINE. A German physician, Dr. Stehverger, recommends the treatment of croup by the inhalation of pure glycerine through one or other of the well-known forms of atomizing apparatus. He was led to try this remedy for croup from observing its good effects in cases of hoarseness and loss of voice. After application the cough becomes more free and moist, and children are enabled to sleep almost immediately upon being relieved by the inhalation. It is, however, believed to be of importance to make use of the remedy early and frequently, as, if delayed, it may have no effect whatever. If the glycerine be pure it may be used unmixed; if not, it should be diluted with a little water. The inhalations are repeated, according to the necessity of the case, at intervals of from half an hour to an hour and a half, and for about fifteen minutes at a time. The effect of the glycerine in this case is supposed to be due to the fact that the secretions of the mucous membrane are thereby increased, and tumefaction reduced. GEOLOGY OF SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS. fish, their stomachs being commonly full of the remains of this animal. They, however, feed also upon the different kinds of true fishes. Mr. Gray thinks that the horns of the males are used for stirring up the mud while searching for food, as well as for weapons of defense. One observed by him had a horn eight feet in length, and on being struck he ran at the boat and drove his horn through its side into the thwart, where it broke short off, leaving about six inches in the boat. The flesh is said to be quite good for food, being tender and of a gamy flavor. It is preferred by the Esquimaux to any other kind of food. METEORIC SHOWER IN SWEDEN. A late number of Poggendorff's Annalen makes mention of a shower of meteoric stones which took place in Sweden on the 1st of January, 1869, not far from Upsala. These were scattered over a large extent of country, and one of them fell on the ice close to some fishermen, and penetrated to a depth of three or four inches. The largest of the stones weighed about two pounds, and the smallest were very minute. While most of them contained, in large part, the usual ingredients of such objects, there were others composed mainly of carbon, the percentage of this element amounting to over one-half; the other principal ingredients being oxygen, hydrogen, silica, and peroxide of iron. EUCALYPTUS IN CALIFORNIA, We are glad to learn by late advices from California the extent to which the introduction of the Eucalyptus, or Australian gum-tree, has been prosecuted. Frequent reference has been made to this tree in the columns of Harper's Magazine, and attention called to its probable economical value in California, where the experiment is about to be tried on a sufficiently large scale to test this question. Mr. James T. Stratton, of Alameda County, has at the present time 30,000 blue gum-trees (E. globulus) and 3000 red gumtrees in full vigor. These were grown from seed gathered in December, 1868, from trees then seven years old. SALMON-FISHING IN LOCH TAY. Professor Morris, in a recent communication Mr. Frank Buckland, in a late number of his to the Geological Society of London, upon the paper, gives an account of a visit to what he congeology of South Africa, referred to the fact that siders the finest salmon-fishing ground in Scotthe diamonds of South Africa came from certain land-namely, Loch Tay. This patch of water stratified beds containing, besides reptilian re- is about fifteen miles long and one mile wide, mains (such as the Dicynodon), numerous plants very deep, and filled with water of the utmost and much fossil wood. He then suggested a purity and of very low temperature. In this query as to whether the diamonds themselves may lake the salmon sometimes make their appearnot be of vegetable origin, and similar in charac-ance as early as December, although fishing does ter to the small crystal quartz found in the stems of bamboo. HABITS OF THE NARWHAL. not begin until the month of February, the purity of the water and the abundance of food being supposed to induce these fish to come up from the sea at a much earlier period than usual; but it is not until the following November, or ten months later, that the reproductive season begins. The average weight of the fish is given at about twenty pounds, while those of twenty-five to thirty are by no means uncommon. The announcement of the presentation to one of the English museums of a narwhal having two tusks instead of the one usually occurring has elicited some interesting communications from various parties in reference to the habits of this animal. Mr. Gray, in Land and Water, states In another article Mr. Buckland comments that the narwhal is gregarious, and quite abun- upon a female salmon taken early in January of dant in the northern seas, the males and females the present year. The eggs at the time of capbeing usually in separate herds. They are said ture were in an advanced stage of development, to be ground feeders, living mostly upon cuttle-forming two solid masses, and weighing togeth er not less than three and a half pounds. Allowing from eight to nine thousand eggs to the pound, this fish had not less than nineteen thousand eggs in all. These were of a rich coral color, and very loose in their membrane. The fish itself weighed twenty pounds, and measured three feet two inches in length. In reply to an inquiry whether this fish was in season, Mr. Buckland determined that it was decidedly the contrary, as December or January is entirely too late for fishing in any English river. in an article upon sound, published in the "Encyclopedia Metropolitana," we have what is even yet admitted to be one of the most complete treatises on that subject in the English language. A treatise by him on the "Theory of Light" is also to be found in the same encyclopedia. The "Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy," published in 1831, was one of the most charming books of science ever written, and has done much to develop and fix a taste for scientific pursuits. He was also the first to suggest the idea of hourly meteorological observations at definite periods of time, to be made simultaneously throughout the world, the results The first annual report of the State Geologist to be compared for the purpose of determining of Missouri, under the new organization, has the laws of general climatology. The introducjust been made to the Legislature by Professor tion of a self-registering apparatus, by which A. D. Hagar, chief of the survey. This gentle- the various atmospheric phenomena can be reman is well known to the scientific men of the corded continuously, without any direct supervicountry in connection with his work upon the sion, has tended to furnish the means for realizsurvey of Vermont, of which a very valuable re-ing the expectations which were but imperfectly port was issued by him. fulfilled by personal observations at hourly intervals. GEOLOGY OF MISSOURI. In his preliminary examination of the mineral resources of Missouri he was gratified to find the As might have been expected, Sir John Heramount of lead greater than was supposed. In schel received many honors and many recognireference to the much vexed question whether tions of his merit as a man of science, in the Missouri contains tin, he remarks that although form of memberships of learned bodies, of gold an assay of the ore furnished a button of tin at medals, and of various titles; and in 1850 he the bottom, yet he is not entirely satisfied that was made Master of the Mint (an office at one this was not the result of some attempt to deceive time held by Sir Isaac Newton), appointments him, as he could find no evidence in the rock to which have generally been conferred by the itself of its being tin-bearing. He evidently con- British government for the purpose of marking siders the case as not proved, and awaits the re-appreciation of scientific merit. This position sult of further careful experiments on the subject. he held for five years, since which time ill health has more or less interfered with his own labors, DEATH OF SIR JOHN HERSCHEL. although his interest in the intellectual and The name of Sir John F. W. Herschel, who died scientific developments of the day was unabated on the 12th of May last, is one familiar to every stu- to the end, as shown by letters received quite redent of science, and more especially to those in-cently by friends in the United States. terested in the subject of astronomy and general physics. In the eminence to which he attained in the ranks of astronomers he formed one exception, at least, to a frequent assumption that talent is rarely hereditary, the elder Herschel, Sir William, having himself left the impression of his genius upon the science of astronomy, in the pursuit of which he was engaged up to the period of his death, at the extremne age of eightyfour. In his early life the attention of Sir John Herschel was directed more especially to mathematical subjects, but in 1822 he devoted himself to astronomy, and in 1833 presented to the world a catalogue of nebula and double stars, which at once gave him a prominent position in the ranks of astronomical inquirers. In 1834 he visited South Africa, and there established an observatory at his own expense, making observations upon the celestial phenomena of the southern hemisphere, which lasted for four years; and nine years after his return to England he published the result of his labors, which even now represent very largely the sum of our knowledge of the celestial features of that region. After this work was completed he occupied himself largely with general physics, including astronomy, chemistry, light, heat, etc., his communications occupying a prominent place in the transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society of London. His text-book on astronomy, first published in 1836 in "Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia," and reproduced in 1849, was for a long period the standard work on the subject, while VOL. XLIII.-No. 254.-20 DARWIN ON THE "DESCENT CF MAN." Few scientific works have excited more attention than the one just published by Mr. Charles Darwin, upon "The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sexes," the only parallel perhaps being found in some previous works by the same author. This treatise has already been discussed from almost every point of view, and it is almost impossible to take up a periodical at all interested in such subjects without finding one or more notices of the book. Among the best written of these criticisms may be cited one published in a late number of The Academy, from the pen of Mr. Alfred R. Wallacehimself a naturalist of a high degree of eminence, and although known to agree with Mr. Darwin in some of his views, yet entirely opposed to him in others. As summed up in this article, the first chapter of Mr. Darwin's book discusses the evidence for the descent of man from some lower form, in which it is shown that man's entire structure is comparable, bone by bone and muscle by muscle, with that of other vertebrata, while the close relationship is shown in many other ways; such, for instance, as his ability to receive certain animal diseases-as glanders and hydrophobia; his having internal and external parasites of the same families and genera as those of the lower animals; and in exhibiting an embryonic development so exactly similar to that of other vertebrates that his embryo can scarcely be distin |