bats, I am very positive that their condition was not that of ordinary slumber, and the tropical temperature, at the time, even through the night, certainly suggests æstivation as the most plausible explanation of the phenomena I have described.

С. С. Аввотт.

THE LIFE OF GEN. EMORY UPTON. GENERAL EMORY UPTON, at the time of his early death in 1881, was probably the most accomplished officer in the United States army. He had a genius for the science of military tactics, and, as a thinker and writer upon this subject, has left a name of enduring renown. General Michie, the well-known professor of physics at West Point, aided by General James H. Wilson, who was distinguished in the cavalry service during the civil war, has recently published an extended memoir of Upton, tracing the various steps of his advancement through boyhood, with his strong desire to go to West Point; through his cadet life, in which he won high rank; through his varied and arduous experience in the three branches of army service during the war, winning success in each; through his career as the commandant of cadets, as an instructor in artillery at Fortress Monroe, as an official observer and student of the armies of Europe and Asia, and especially as an authority on military principles and practice. General Wilson says of Upton, that he was "as good an artillery officer as could be found in any country, the equal of any cavalry commander of his day, and, all things considered, the best commander of a division of infantry in either the union or rebel army." This is high praise, but the volume by General Michie shows how such success was won, and leads us to believe that Upton's name, as years roll by, will be honored more and more as one of the greatest tacticians of modern times. His personal character was as remarkable as his professional. Like Havelock, Stonewall Jackson, Chinese Gordon, and many other heroes, he developed a religious life of the purest and most lofty type. Toward the end of his life he was engaged upon a study of the military policy of the United States during the revolution, and from that time down to the year 1862, when his manuscript ends. In this work he was associated with his classmate at West Point, Col. H. A. Du Pont, by whom the task will doubtless be completed. From the outline given by General Michie, it is clear that the treatise will be of the greatest value, not to military men only, but

Life and letters of Emory Upton, Brvt. Maj.-Gen. U. S. army. By PETER S. MICHIE. With an introduction by Jas. Harrison Wilson. New York, Appleton, 1885. 284511 p. 8°.

to all students of history, and especially to statesmen. It will throw a great deal of light on the causes of success and of failure in the various campaigns which have taxed the resources of our countrymen. The publication of this manuscript is greatly to be desired.

As a soldier and as a writer, Upton may be described as one who applied the principles of scientific method to the organization and management of armies. His aim was lofty; his success was great.

DOOLITTLE'S PRACTICAL ASTRONOMY.

PROFESSOR DOOLITTLE has given us an excellent manual, either for the student or for the worker in the field. Intended only for field astronomy and navigation, we find no treatment of observatory methods with large instruments, but its own field is thoroughly covered. "The author has not sought after originality, but has attempted to present in a systematic form the most approved methods in actual use at the present time." It is a comfort to turn the pages and find standard formulæ in a familiar dress. Much of the 'originality' of many modern text-books consists in rigging out old accepted formulæ in a new alphabetical suit, so that no one can be quite sure he is using just the right one without constant reference to the great original.'

We can only give an outline of the contents. The introduction develops in a simple but thorough manner the method of least-squares and the subject of interpolation. The different systems of spherical co-ordinates, the formulæ for their transformation and for parallax, refraction, etc., are very completely developed. Under the subject of angular measurements, verniers, micrometermicroscopes, graduated circles and their sources of error, chronometers, clocks, and chronographs are fully described and investigated. With the treatment of the adjustments and errors of the sextant, is introduced an example of the determination of the eccentricity by star observations, from the work of Professor Boss on the northern boundary survey; and chapter v. develops thoroughly the best methods of determining time and latitude by the sextant or any altitude instrument. The transit-instrument in its various forms, both in the meridian and prime-vertical, is very fully treated; likewise the determination of longitude by chronometers, by telegraph, by lunar distances, by moon-culminations, and by occultations of stars. Of course, the zenith-telescope claims its due share of attention, and an unusually complete chapter

A treatise on practical astronomy, as applied to geodesy and navigation. By C. L. DOOLITTLE. New York, Wiley, 1885. 8°.

on the determination of azimuth follows it. The book closes with a very full and clear settingforth of the subjects of precession, nutation, aberration, and proper-motion, with the formulæ for their application, and a set of tables most useful to the field-astronomer in reducing observations.

The most valuable and characteristic feature of the book is the excellent series of examples taken from actual modern practice, which accompany almost every method of using each instrument, and are fully discussed by the method of leastsquares where its application is advantageous. There is throughout an endeavor to impress the importance of developing the degree of accuracy inherent in the observations, and the best methods of avoiding or eliminating systematic errors. The whole work bespeaks the thorough master of his subject. The warning as to parts of the normalequations solution not checked by the proofformulæ, the giving of the complete values of the auxiliaries in the formulæ for the weight-coefficients out to four unknown quantities, and many other points which would be overlooked by the mere book-maker or pure theorist, show that Professor Doolittle has thoroughly beaten the whole ground, and knows where the difficulties lie.

The typography of the book is excellent, and Professor Doolittle's known thoroughness gives us assurance that much less than the usual number of mistakes will be found in the printed text.

MEXICAN ETHNOLOGY.

THE magnificent ethnologic museum of the Trocadéro at Paris is one of the sights of that great capital which no scientific visitor should overlook. It is particularly rich in its American department, and the conservator of the museum, Dr. Hamy, has taken a pride not only in collecting in this department, but in studying his specimens and in publishing the results of his studies. As editor of the excellent Révue d'ethnographie he has always at his command a medium to give them promptly to the world. He has collected a number of these studies under the title, Decades Americanæ.' They treat of such topics as 'An anthropolith from Guadelupe,' Fishing industry in ancient times in the Californian Archipelago,' The Tzompantli,' 'An Aztec arrangement for supporting skulls,' The American solar wheel,' 'A pipe from King's Mound, Ashland,' etc. All these articles are

Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale. Anthropologie du Mexique. Par. M. E.-T. HAMY. Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1884. 4°.

Decades Americanæ. Mémoires d'archéologie et d'ethnographie Américaines. Par le Dr. E.-T. HAMY. Paris, 1881.

freely illustrated, and the specimens are described and discussed with clearness and from an astonishing width of special reading.

The Anthropology of Mexico' is a work of much more ambitious character. In this large and handsome quarto published by the French government, Dr. Hamy discusses the human remains that have been collected by French explorers in various portions of Mexico. He places them in relation with the oldest relics of the stone age from the same region, and reaches the conclusion that the implements, at any rate, point to a period and condition of human life exactly the same as existed in the United States and Europe during the epoch of unpolished stone. In the crania examined the principal characteristics were marked prognathism and brachycephalism. These traits the author thinks are especially pronounced in the skulls of the Otomis and Mazahuas. Besides the minute descriptions and abundant lithographic illustrations with which he enlightens his topic, he enters somewhat fully into the earliest legendary history of Mexican ethnography, attempting to define more closely the identity and relations of those mysterious people, the Quinamies, the Olmecs, and the Xicalancos. He wisely, however, treads with caution on this very uncertain ground.

ASTRONOMICAL NOTES.

Longitude signals between St. Louis and Mexico. Professor H. S. Pritchett, director of the observatory of the Washington university at St. Louis, kindly communicates the results of a longitude campaign between his observatory and the Observatorio nacional de Mexico, Sr. A. Anguiano, director. A preliminary discussion gives 35m 578.25 as the difference of longitude, or 6h 36m 468.41 W. of Greenwich as the resulting longitude of the transit-circle piers of the Mexican observatory. This differs 58.0 from the old value determined by moon-culminations. The circuit was 2583 miles long, with five repeaters, and the armature time was quite constant, averaging 0.38. The outfit of the Mexican national observatory includes a 15-inch equatorial by Grubb, and an 8-inch meridian-circle, and a 6-inch transit, both by Troughton and Simms. personnel consists of the director (Sr. Anguiano) and five assistants.

The

Comet observations at Greenwich.-The somewhat unusual appearance in the Astronomische nachrichten (2688) of comet-observations communicated by the astronomer-royal attracts our attention, and we trust this is only the beginning of a continuous series. One point, we think, is worth noting. As communicated, they give the meas

ured Aa and Ad, and then the combined correction for differential refraction and parallax. As every computer of the final orbit of a comet wishes to use his own corrected distances in applying the parallax, and as the distances used above are not stated, he must in this case re-compute both the differential refraction and the parallax-factors. It would certainly be better to publish the ▲a and Ad corrected for refraction, and the log p▲,' according to universal custom.

New or variable stars. - Mr. W. H. S. Monck, in the Observatory, 1885, 335, makes the suggestion that the new or temporary stars that occasionally appear may be due to swiftly-flying meteor streams in space, meeting a nebula or gaseous mass, either bright or dark, and suddenly heating a part to incandescence, as in the case of shooting stars striking our atmosphere. Discovery of an asteroid. - A telegram from Professor Pickering announces the discovery on October 27 of a new asteroid, by Perrotin of the Nice observatory. Its position on October 27, at 7h 12m, Washington mean time, was right ascension, 1h 8m 53s; declination, +7° 8', with daily motions of -368 in right ascension, and —7' in declination. This is the eighth asteroid discovered this year, and the sixth discovered by Perrotin.

Mr. Chandler's Almucantar.--We recently noted (Science, vi. 239) Mr. Chandler's correction to the latitude of the Harvard college observatory from almucantar-observations. Since then he has unquestionably shown (Astr. nachr., 2687) that this instrument is capable of detecting slight errors in the positions of even some of the 'hauptsterne’ of Auwers' system, and of furnishing valuable corrections to them from a comparatively limited number of observations. Mr. Chandler's promised memoir upon the construction, theory, and use of the almucantar will be awaited with unusual interest.

Death of General Baeyer.-Geodesy has lost its most illustrious representative in the death, at the advanced age of 91, of Dr. J. J. Baeyer, founder of the European Gradmessung, president of its central bureau and of the Royal Prussian geodetic institute. He died on the night of September

10-11.

NOTES AND NEWS.

ACCORDING to the report of Superintendent Wear, of the Yellowstone national park, the maintenance of a strict watch day and night has resulted in breaking up, in a measure, the wholesale slaughter of game; and the park is now full of game of all kinds, including about two hundred head of bison, large numbers of elk, and several

herds of antelope. By the new roads, access to the objects of interest is facilitated. It is recommended that the force of assistants be increased from ten to fifteen, as the present force is not large enough to prevent the commission of acts of vandalism. The travel in the park this summer has been much greater than ever before.

President Porter has sent to the corporation his resignation of the presidency of Yale college, the resignation to take effect at Commencement, next June. He will, however, retain his position as Clark professor of moral philosophy.

King Leopold of Belgium, it is reported, has already found the Kongo Free State a more expensive enterprise than he can carry on unaided. His recent visit to Wiesbaden was made, it is said, for the purpose of inducing some one of the German princes to assume the sovereignty of the Kongo country in his stead.

These

Supplementing the regular course of instruction at Sibley college, Cornell, a series of lectures on mechanical engineering will be delivered from time to time by members of a body of non-resident lecturers who have been chosen from among the most distinguished men of the profession. gentlemen choose their own subjects, and times of lecture, and their own method of presentation of the subject selected. The director of the college announces that the following named gentlemen are engaged to lecture during the year 1885-86: Dr. E. D. Leavitt, jun., Dr. R. W. Raymond, Dr. C. E. Emory, Mr. Charles T. Porter, Mr. J. M. Allen, Mr. J. C. Hoadley.

A petition to congress for a deed to San Miguel mountain - an excellent situation for an observatory, near San Diego-has been circulated by the San Diego society of natural history.

The San Diego society of natural history has taken steps for the protection of the nearly extinct Punis Torreyana of San Diego county.

The Lungen gymnastik' of Th. Huperz is really a handbook on the care and development of the lungs, and the attendant and reflex advantages of such care. Though he says it is for the physician, yet its style and method are such that it may be most successfully used by the laity. The

structure and uses of the organs are just enough dwelt upon to make the subject clear. Besides the common ideas of the injuries of impure air, he tells of the evils of carpets, drapery, curtains, and upholstery as introducing bad air into our living apartments. He comes down heavily on the fear of slight draughts of air. If any adverse criticism is to be made, it is that the author does not make enough of the impure exhalations of the lungs and skin as injuring the air, laying the sin of air-poisoning too much at the door of carbonic acid. And the perils of carbonic oxide, as found in the products of combustion of water gas, are not dwelt upon.

- One of the best compends on its subject that has yet appeared is Edinger's ten lectures 'Ueber den bau der nervösen centralorgane,' just published at Leipzig. The subject is beset with very many difficulties, and there are many controverted points at every step, and many degrees of certainty about what is generally accepted. The author is, moreover, an original investigator, liable to give too great prominence to his own work. Despite all these difficulties, however, we have here without doubt the most lucid and the most judicious presentation of the subject of the finer internal anatomy of the nervous system yet made in so small space. The work contains 120 illustrations, many of them original, which add greatly to its value. We have long needed a concise presentation of this subject, which should include, as none of the larger and well known manuals do, the results of recent investigations, especially those of Meynert and Flechsig, to which full justice is here done. It is sure to prove of peculiar value to teachers. If another lecture could be added on the embryology of the normal brain, the value of the book would be increased.

E. Wasmandorff has published (Virchow's and Holtzendorf's Sammlung wissenschaftlicher vorträge, ser. xx.) an exhaustive study of the various forms, in which sorrow for the loss of friends has manifested itself among all peoples, ancient and modern, civilized and savage. Fortified by a wealth of references to original sources of information, it constitutes a valuable contribution to anthropological science. It is impossible, within our limited space, to give more than a single example of the author's interesting generalizations. The ordinary colors of mourning garments are black and white. As is the European custom, black prevailed among the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, and the native races of this continent. White is the color among the inhabitants of China, Japan, Oceanica and large portions of Asia; so also in parts of Greece and

anciently in Germany. Blue is the color in Arabia, and among the Turks and Egyptians, and in Catholic upper Germany it is prescribed by the church. Yellow was used by the ancient Celts and in some of the kingdoms of Asia.

Several inquiries having been made of us relative to our statement on page 351, that an 'actual competitive examination' was required for admission into the Royal society of London, we print from Nature the following extract from Professor Chrystal's address before the British association, which seems to warrant what was said: "I think our great scientific societies - the Royal societies of London and Edinburgh, and the Royal Irish academy - might do more than they do at present to prevent this languishing of local science, which is so prejudicial to the growth of a scientific public. Besides their all-important publishing function, these bodies have for a considerable time back been constituted into a species of examining and degree-conferring bodies for grown-up men, that is to say, their membership has been conferred upon a principle of exclusion. Instead of any one being admitted who is willing to do his best, by paying his subscription or otherwise, to advance science, every one is excluded who does not come up to the standard of a certain examining body. So far is this carried in the case of the Royal society of London, that there is an actual competitive examination, on the result of which a certain number of successful candidates are annually chosen."

IN response to the demand which Mr. Goode makes in Science of Oct. 16, for descriptions of methods of caring for pamphlets, I describe my own method.

Each pamphlet is perforated at the back with holes to admit a cord. This is most conveniently done with a cutting punch, which makes a round and smooth hole, but it can be done with an awl. Cords are then passed through these holes, and any number of pamphlets may be bound together. Whenever it is desired to insert a new pamphlet, or to rearrange the old, the cords can be withdrawn and re-inserted. To facilitate re-arrangement, all holes are made at exactly the same height above the lower. end of the pamphlet. If, then, all the pamphlets on the fauna of a country, for instance, have been bound together temporarily, and it is desired to rearrange them by zoological groups with the groups of other faunas, no difficulty in regard to the binding arises from the interchange. These holes are made, for octavos, at 2.5, 7.5, 16, and 21 cm. from the lower edge of the pamphlet; for duodecimos, at 2.5, 7.5, 11, and 16 cm.; for quartos, at 2.5, 7.5, 21, and 26 cm., etc.; so that pamphlets of any two or more

sizes can be bound together. Detailed reasons for this choice of distances may be found in my article entitled 'Standard covers for temporary binding,' in the Library journal, Jan., 1883, viii. 6, 7.

Covers for these pamphlets are punched with holes in the hinge or flap at the same distances, so that all covers fit all pamphlets. One or one hundred pamphlets can be inserted in a cover. The backs are made of heavy manila, as wide as the thickness of the book, with a margin folded over to be punched with holes, so that the back is laced between the pamphlets and the cover. By lacing the backs to the covers first, with thread or otherwise, and then inserting the pamphlets on a separate cord, the covers do not fall away when the binding cords are withdrawn. Of course, if desired, the backs can be glued to the covers.

One objection to Mr. Goode's method of having stubs permanently bound in the covers is, that no such re-arrangement can be made as may be desired. The backs are also of definite width, and cannot be enlarged as may be required for convenience. pamphlet cover made as I recommend, if not tightly laced, will admit of laying in 50 per cent more pamphlets than are tied in, before it is necessary to rebind.

A

If for any reason it is desired not to mutilate a pamphlet by making holes in it, it can be glued to a stub, or placed in an envelope glued to a stub, and the stub can be perforated.

Manila sheets can be prepared by the thousand, perforated with the standard holes, and newspaper scraps, etc., mounted upon them as desired, and these bound with the pamphlets. By pasting only on the recto, and marking the guide words or symbols on upper left-hand corner of verso, these words or symbols can be readily caught by the eye as the leaves are turned. When scraps occupy more than one sheet, the several sheets can be glued or tied together, so that they may afterward be handled as units. It will be found better in the end to put but one scrap on a sheet, so that the sheets may index themselves in the arrangement.

6

Next as to the arrangement and classification. The Dewey decimal classification and relative index is pronounced by many of the foremost librarians to be the greatest invention of the century in library economy. Its applicability ranges from that of assisting the school-boy to keep his notes to that of the president of the Royal astronomical society in classifying his library. Its simplicity is that of the Roman alphabet and the Arabic numerals; its comprehensiveness is that of assigning a subject number, for instance, to the spherical excess in the computation of a triangulation in geodetic work,' viz., 52,641; or separately indicating songs for male voices' (78,487), and 'songs for female voices' (78,488). Its index, in the new edition just issued, contains nearly 9,000 topics, and three tables allow these topics to be developed fully one hundred fold without loss of simplicity. One reference usually suffices to find the subject number of a topic, and by it a set of ten manuscript notes could be marked so that they need not be marked over to locate them in a library of ten thousand volumes, for the symbols would indicate not only what they were about, but where they were.

The use of this system can be seen in my own library and manuscripts, or in the catalogue I am making of the books and ramphlets in the entomo

logical division of the U. S. department of agriculture. A description of the system is given in chapter xxviii. (pp. 623-648) of the special report on libraries published by the U. S. bureau of education in 1876. I pay about one cent each for my pamphlet covers, octavo or quarto. They are serviceable, but not elegant, but they hardly show on the shelves. B. PICKMAN MANN.

Star catalogues.

Would you please tell me where I could obtain a catalogue of the stars, and what would be the cheapest price I would have to pay? H. C. I.

[If our correspondent would state a little more definitely the use for which the catalogue is desired, we should be glad to give the necessary information. A great number of star catalogues are published, no two just alike. The star list of the American ephemeris (to be obtained from the office of the American ephemeris, Washington, price $1) would perhaps answer his purpose; while, for identifying the constellations, etc., Heis's Atlas cœlestis novus would probably be found most useful; and Webb's Celestial objects,' giving a valuable list of colored stars, nebulæ, clusters, etc., should be owned by every one that possesses an astronomical telescope. - ED.]

Calendar reform.

I notice in the supplement to No. 140 an article on reform in our calendar, by Mr. Paul. He refers to two changes in our method of reckoning time proposed by M. Jules Bonjean, one affecting the monthly calendar, the other the weekly.

Changes in the monthly calendar in past time have by no means been infrequent, but of such a capricious character as to result in great irregularities and an inconvenient arrangement. This is a fair subject for reform by way of simplification. But a change or break in the weekly cycle, for the sake of beginning every year with the same nominal day of the week, is quite another affair. Here we should touch upon questions of religious belief, which cannot be discussed in the columns of Science.

But the monthly calendar, being of human devis. ing, is open to improvement. In regard to this, M. Bonjean's proposal and my own, in No. 108 (Feb 27), agree in placing the intercalary day at the end of the year, and in making the months to consist alternately of 30 and 31 days. But he would begin the year by giving January 30 days and February 31, and thus proceed. This method would require a change in the number of days in 8 months out of the 12 in ordinary years. But by beginning the first half of the year with a month of 31 days, and the second half with one of 30 days, as in our present calendar, only 3 months would be changed in an ordinary year, including December: and in leap year only February and July. Thus convenience and symmetry would be secured with the least possible change.

EDWARD P. GRAY.

The swindling geologist.

A thief representing himself as Leo Lesquereux, jun., and also as one Strong, son of the geologist who was drowned in this state some years since, has been doing this part of the country of late, making way with geological reports, instruments, and specimens. He has been apprehended, and is now in the jail at