lecture instruction in bacteriology, and not in any sense to replace such instruction." Nevertheless, it is commendable as an elementary book of bacteriology for students or others who may not find it convenient to attend lectures on the subject.

THE WEATHER. Proceedings of the Second Convention of the Weather Bureau Officials, held at Milwaukee, Wis., August 2729, 1901. Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau, Washington.

A pamphlet of 246 pages with illustrations, comprehending a score of papers on the methods and means for advancing the work of the Weather Bureau and discussions thereon of much practical utility to all who would benefit by knowledge of climate. The convention, upward of a hundred of forecasters and others connected with the service, was attended by the Secretary of Agriculture and the Chief of the Weather Bureau. It was welcomed by Dr. W. M. Wilson, of the Local Bureau, who said in part: "We welcome you as practical workers in a splendid cause. Your labor contributes to the building up of commerce and business, to the building up of cities, to aiding the people who are engaged in the practical pursuits of life. Milwaukee, with the best harbor on the great chain of lakes, with her splendid lake commerce and her wonderful freightage, watches the signals as they are displayed upon the local signal station and trusts them. The work so well begun by Mr. Moore long years ago gives us confidence in the Bureau, and the work so well begun by him has been carried on with fidelity and splendid ability by those who have succeeded him, especially by him who occupies the place of chief of our local office at the present time."

To which Prof. Willis L. Moore, Chief of the Weather Bureau, and President of the Convention, responded, giving a sketch of the Weather Service from the beginning.

The reading of papers followed.

Mr. L. G. Schultz read a paper on "Study of Polarization of Light with Reference to Weather Conditions." Discussed by Professors Abbe and Moore.

Prof. Alex. G. McAdie read a paper on "Fog Studies." Discussed by Professors Bigelow and Moore, Mr. Clayton, and Rev. Father Odenbach.

Mr. M. W. Hayes read a paper on "Value of the Climate and Crop and Storm Warning Services of the Weather Bureau to the Industries of Cuba and Other Islands of the West Indies."

Mr. G. H. Noyes read a paper on "Value of the Climate and Crop and Storm Warning Services of the Weather Bureau to the Industries of Porto Rico." Discussed by Mr. J. L. Cline.

Mr. F. P. Chaffee read a paper on "Meteorology in the Public Schools: How Much Should Be Attempted? Methods of Teaching." Discussed by Messrs. Blandford, Oberholzer, Watts, Clark, and Jennings, Professor Abbe, Messrs. J. Warren Smith, Hackett, Connor, and the chairman.

Mr. G. A. Loveland read a paper on "Meteorology in Colleges: To What Extent Is It Taught at Present? Should It Be Offered as an Undergraduate or as a Post-graduate Course?" Discussed by Dr. Fassig and Professor Abbe.

Dr. W. M. Wilson read a paper on "Climate and Man; with Special Regard to Climate and Climatic Elements as Curative or Causative Agencies of Disease, Etc."

Dr. I. M. Cline submitted a brief "Synopsis of a Course of Lectures in Medical Climatology."

Mr. R. H. Dean read a paper on "Influence of Climate on Animal Life." And a dozen or more other papers, some of which it is our purpose to reproduce.

MALARIAL FEVER: ITS CAUSE, PREVENTION AND TREATMENT. Containing full details for the use of Travelers, Sportsmen, Soldiers and Residents in Malarious Places. By RONALD Ross, F. R. C. S., D. P. II., F. R. S., Walter Myer Lecturer Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Ninth edition, revised and enlarged. Illustrated. Longmans, Green & Co., 91 and 93 Fifth Ave., New York, London and Bombay.

This little book of 80 pages contains the gist of recent knowledge of malarial fever and how to prevent it; where the disease prevails, its germs, and how it is propagated by mosquitoes; with a brief account of how to get rid of and how to prevent mosquitoes.

MATTISON METHOD OF MORPHINISM. A Modern and Humane Treatment of the Morphine Disease. By J. B. MATTISON, M. D., Medical Director Brooklyn Home for Narcotic Inebriates. Published for the author. Price, $1.00. E. B. Treat & Co., New York.

A monograph of forty pages, giving the gist of thirty years' experience in the study and treatment of the morphine disease,

with a sketch of the treatment by others, the superiority of his own, and a description of it.

THE FOOD VALUE OF GUM GLUTEN IN COMPARISON WITH OTHER CEREAL PRODUCTS AND SO-CALLED GLUTENS. A complete digest of our present knowledge of its Characteristics and Application in Dietetic Therapeutics. By Prof. NELSON CLARK PARSHALL. Published by The Pure Gluten Food Co., Chambers St. and West Broadway, New York.

"Gum Gluten" is the trade-mark characteristic of wheat gluten produced by this company, which it claims to be of superior quality, more nourishing than meat, and purports to show the sufficiency and superiority of vegetarianism.

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

CHRISTIANITY A PRACTICAL CREED.

Some of the greatest questions with which humanity has ever had to deal are still to be settled-are, indeed, pressing down upon our own time and day with startling actuality. Now, indeed, is the time for the Christian ideals and precepts of purity, of brotherhood, of kindness, of truthfulness, of fair dealing, of charity, to be kept in sight and mind, in international relations, in the relation of races, in the relations between employers and employed-in a word, throughout the entire world of affairs. It is a practical man, a student of economics-the Hon. Carroll D. Wright-who makes the following remarkable statement: "I believe that in the adoption of the philosophy of the religion of Jesus Christ as a practical creed for the conduct of business lies the easiest and speediest solution of those industrial difficulties which are exciting the minds of men to-day and leading many to think that the crisis of government is at hand." From "A Lay Sermon for Christmas" in the December Century (Editorial).

HUMAN LIFE.

"Human life has been strikingly compared to the burning of a candle. The flame, as it catches, flutters feebly, so that the least breath will quicken it; and again, when burned almost to the socket, it flickers and easily goes out. Thus the body which in middle life may bear the severest shocks of sickness and privation, in infancy and in old age succumbs to but slightly unfavor

able conditions. The extinction of life at the end of its natural cycle, after the course has been finished and the allotted work has been done, can scarcely be regretted, but the lives cut off before they are well begun are an absolute loss to the community, of the extent of which most of us have little conception. Health is the normal condition of the human mechanism, while disease and premature death are in large part unnecessary. They are to be overcome, however, not by an abrogation of the intellectual faculty, but by its exercise. Those only who seek ardently to discover, and implicity to obey, the inexorable laws of nature, will survive in the struggle for existence to round out their sum of years and to benefit their kind."-From "The War Against Disease," by C. E. A. Winslow, The Atlantic for January.

PROVISION FOR HEALTH AND CLEANLINESS.

It is not to be supposed that during all these years the day nurseries have been neglected by the Board of Health, that one power of autocratic privilege among us which, when even democracy fails to bring about a reform, steps in and brings the unwary to account. The board has been most vigilant in looking after the nurseries, in making inspections, in limiting the number of children admitted; in requiring iron beds and wire mattresses with blankets over them instead of mattresses of any kind; in enforcing the use of hair pillows when any were used; in insisting upon just so much space about and under each bed, and just so many cubic feet of air for each child in the room; in seeing to it that the outside garments of the children are fumigated daily. When an infectious disease breaks out in the tenements, children from that house are not allowed in the nursery until all danger of contagion is over. If there is no regular physician in daily attendance, one "must be within call, and any child showing unusual symptoms or eruptions must be isolated at once until its case can be decided upon.

Cleanliness has been made an absolute rule in all nurseries, some of the managers going so far as to decline a child whose mother has been reproved for the third time for bringing her baby dirty. The question of cleanliness, by the way, involves some of the most interesting points in the managers' discussions. Shall a daily bath in the nursery be insisted upon? Shall a child's clothing be changed throughout every day? The settlement of these questions not only involves the nurseries in extra labor, but conflicts

with the prejudices and precepts of parents. One child, found at home "sewed up for the winter," said to her visitor: "Don't rip me. Ma will be mad." So widely do domestic customs differ among us.-Lillie Hamilton French in the December Century.

SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION IN THE SOUTH.

Some of the most interesting experiments in rural school consolidation and improvement have been in progress for several years past in the part of the country that has heretofore been regarded as the least progressive in educational matters. In the States of North Carolina and Georgia the conditions are quite different in every way from those prevailing in New England and the Middle West, where the school consolidation movement has attained its greatest impetus. Yet it has been fully demonstrated in each of these States that it is cheaper and better to transport a dozen children four or five miles to a central school than to employ a teacher and provide a schoolhouse for these children near their own homes. The State School Commissioner of Georgia has asked the Legislature to confer upon the county boards of education the authority to consolidate the weak and inefficient schools of a number of sparsely-settled communities into one strong central school whenever, in their judgment, such consolidation is deemed wise and proper. In North Carolina the number of school districts was reduced last year more than a thousand; the patrons of the schools in that State continue to ask for consolidation and centralization. Farther South, in Florida, one countyDuval-has concentrated schools over an area of about one hundred square miles. Here, as in other Southern States, where the transportation system has been introduced, the wagons are owned by the counties. Drivers and teams are hired by contract let to the lowest bidder.-From "The Consolidation of Country Schools: Notes on the Basis and Progress of the Movement in Many States," by William B. Shaw, in the American Monthly Review of Reviews for December.

THE MOST AMERICAN BOOKS.

In a group of articles written for the Book Number of The Outlook, Owen Wister, Brander Matthews, Hamlin Garland, Col. T. W. Higginson, Edward Dowden, Dr. Edward Everett Hale, and several other authors discuss the rather novel question, What ten books or parts of books are most characteristic of American life and genius? There is a considerable divergence of opinion.