AMERICAN NATURALIST LIST OF RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. ALLEN, J. A.-On a Collection of Mammals from Arizona and Mexico, made by W. W. Price, with Field Notes by the Collector. Extr. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. VII, 1895. From the author. ALVORD, H. E.-Statistics of the Dairy. Bull. No. 11, Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Dept. Agric., Washington, 1896. ANDREWS, C. W.-On the Extinct Birds of the Chatham Islands. Extr. Novitales Zoologicae, Vol. III, 1896. From the author. BAILEY, L. H.-Plant-Breeding. Five Lectures upon the Amelioration of of Domestic Plants. New York and London: Macmillan & Co. From the publishers. BEECHER, C. E.-Sketch of the Life and Work of James Dwight Dana. Extr. Amer. Geol. Vol. XVII, 1896. From the author. Bulletins No. 35, 1895 and 36, 1896, Hatch Exper. Station of the Mass. Agric. College. Circulars 1-15 inclusive, second series, U. S. Dept. Agric. Div. Entomology. Washington, 1891-1896. From the Dept. Circulars 4, 1895 and 5, 1896, Bureau of Animal Industry. U. S. Dept. Agric. From the Dept. COPE, E. D.-Primary Factors of Evolution. Chicago, 1896. Open Court Pub. Co. Cox, U. O.-A Collection of Birds from Mount Orizaba, Mexico. Extr. The Auk, Vol. XII, 1895. From the author. CRANER, F.-On the Cranial Characters of the Genus Sebastodes. Contrib. to Biol. from the Hopkins Laboratory, II, Palo Alto, 1895. From the author. DARTON, N. H.-Geology of the Mohawk Valley in Herkimer, Fulton, Montgomery and Saratoga Counties. Part I, Stratigraphy-Preliminary Report on the Geology of Ulster County. Extr. Rept. State Geol. New York for the year 1893. Albany, 1894. From the author. DE VIS, C. W.-A Review of the Fossil Jaws of the Macropodidae in the Queensland Museum. Extr. Proceeds. Linn. Soc. N. South Wales, Vol. X, Ser. 2, 1894. From the author. EISEN, G.-Biological Studies on Figs, Caprifigs and Caprification. Extr. Proceeds. Calif. Acad. Sci., Ser. 2, Vol. V, 1896. From the author. FRAIPONT, J.-Les Cavernes et leurs Habitants. Paris, 1896. From the publishers, J. B. Baillière et Fils. GILL, T.-Notes on the Synonymy of the Torpedinidae or Narcobatidae. -Note on the Fishes of the genus Characinus. -The Nomenclature of Rachicentron or Elacate, a genus of Acanthopterygian Fishes. -Note on the Nomenclature of the Poecilioid Fishes. -The Nomenclature of the Fishes of the Caracinoid genus, Tetragonopterus. -On the Proper Name of the Gunnels or Butter-fishes Extr. Proceeds U. S. Natl. Mus., Vol. XVIII, 1895. From the Museum. -The Families of Symentognathous Fishes and their Nomenclature. Sharks. -Notes on the Genus Cephaleutherus of Rafinesque, and other Rays with Aberrant Pectoral Fins (Propterygia and Hieroptera). -Notes on Characinoid Fishes with Ctenoid Scales, with a Description of a New Psectrogaster. -The Differential Characters of Characinoid and Erythrinoid Fishes. GORDON, C. H.-Buried River Channels in Southeastern Iowa. Extr. Iowa Geol. Surv., Vol. III, Des Moines, 1895. Guide Zoologique. Communications diverses sur les Pays-bas publicés à l' occasion de 3 ième Congrés International, Leyde, Septembre, 1895. HAECKEL, E.-Die Cambrische Stammgruppe der Echinodermen. Aus Jenaischen Zeitschr. f. Naturw., XXX, Bd. 1895. HOLMES, W. H.-Archeological Studies Among the Ancient Cities of Mexico. Field Columbian Mus. Pub., No. 8, Anthropol. Ser., Vol. I, No. 1, Chicago, 1895. From the author. LORY, P. AND G. SAYN.-Sur la Constitution du Système Crécaceé aux Environs de Chatillon-en-Diois, Grenoble, 1895. From the author. Maps from the Geological Survey of Canada. Ottawa, 1895. Nineteenth Annual Report Department of Geology and Natural Resources of Indiana for 1894. Indianapolis, 1894. OSBORN, HERBERT AND C. W. MALLY.-Entomological Work for 1895. Bull. No. 32, 1896. Iowa Agric. College. PARVIN, T.-A Physician on Vivisection. Extrs. Ann. Address before the Amer. Acad. Med., Washington, 1891. Cambridge, 1895. From the author. Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1892-93, Vol. 2, Washington, 1895. Report of the United States Commission to the Columbian Historical Exposition at Madrid, 1892-93. With special papers. Washington, 1895. From the Commission. RIBOT, TH.-The Psychology of Attention. Chicago, 1896. From the Open Court Pub. Co. SCUDDER, S. H.-Revision of the American Fossil Cockroaches, with Descriptions of New Forms. Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 124. Washington, 1895. -Canadian Fossil Insects. Contributions to Canadian Paleontology, Vol. II, pt. 1. Ottawa, 1895. From the Geol. Surv. Canada. Seventh Annual Report of the Rhode Island Agric. Exper. Station, 1894. Providence, 1895. SPIVAK, C. D.-Menstruation. Reprint from the Times and Register, 1891. From the author. STANTON, T. W.-The Fauna of the Knoxville Beds. Bulletin of the U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 113. Washington, 1895. Tenth and Eleventh Annual Reports, Bureau of Animal Industry, 1893–94. Washington, 1896. TRAQUAIR, R. H.-The Extinct Vertebrata of the Moray Firth Area. Reprint from J. A. Harvie-Brown and T. E. Buckley's "Vertebrate Fauna of the Moray Basin." Edinburgh, 1896. WARD, J. H.-Prophets, Saints and Scientists, the Oracles of the Ages. Dover, New Hampshire, 1896. From the author. WETTSTEIN, R. v.-Monographie der Gattung Euphresia. Arbeiten des botanischen Instituts der k. k. deutschen Universität in Prag, No. IX, Leipzig, 1896. From the author. WHITEAVES, J. F.-Revision of the Guelph Formation of Ontario, with Descriptions of a Few New Species. -Systematic List, with References, of the Fossils of the Hudson River or Cincinnati Formation at Stony Mountain, Manitoba. Palaeozoic Fossils, Vol. III, Pt. 2. Ottawa, 1895. From the Geol. Surv. Canada. WOODWARD, A. S.-Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum. Pt. III, London, 1895. From the British Museum. General Notes. MINERALOGY AND CRYSTALLOGRAPHY? Etched Figures on Some Minerals.-Traube brings into deserved prominence the value of the method of etching, and gives the results of an extended series of experiments on the etched figures of a number of minerals. He mentions especially those cases in which the etched figures indicate a higher symmetry than that occasionally shown by the geometrical development of the crystal form. He evidently lays more stress on the etched figures of crystals than on the occasional growth of planes corresponding with a lower symmetry. K F and K F, HF are mentioned as giving good results in many cases where the problem is to etch one of the more refractory silicates, and a caution is given that care must be taken in the use of such powerful reagents. On cuprite etched figures were produced by H2SO, HCl, HNO, and KOH, dilute HNO, giving the sharpest figures. The etching indicates a holohedral regular symmetry, notwithstanding that Miers has observed faces of the form (986) in a position suggesting gyroidal hemihedrism. Phosgenite gives sharp figures with hydrochloric, sulphuric, nitric and acetic acids, also with the caustic alkalies, all pointing toward holo1 Edited by Prof. A. C. Gill, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 2 Neues Jahrb. B. B. X, pp. 454-469, 1896. hedral symmetry. The forms developed on some crystals from Monte Poni had suggested trapezohedral hemihedrism in the tetragonal sys tem. Wulfenite from several localities has been reported to be hemimorphic, on the strength of the polar development of the crystal form, but neither the etched figures nor the pyroelectric behavior of the crystals bears this out. Both wulfenite and scheelite act alike in these latter respects and appear to be pyramidal hemihedral, without difference in the two directions of the vertical axis. Chalcolite, disthene, tourmaline, vesuvianite, dioptase, willemite, nepheline, beryl, adularia and some of the triclinic feldspars were also etched, with the result of confirming the higher symmetry in each case where doubt could exist. Nepheline, as already established by Baumhauer, belongs to the pyramidal hexagonal class of Groth (1st hemimorphic tetartohedral division of the hexagonal system, Liebisch). Pollucite, Mangano-columbite and Microlite from Rumford, Maine.-These minerals were discovered in pegmatite associated with quartz, feldspar, muscovite, tourmaline, lepidolite, spodumene, amblygonite, beryl, cassiterite and columbite. They are described by H. W. Foote. The pollucite, though rare, occurs in rather large masses difficultly distinguishable from white quartz. The analysis proves the mineral to be chemically identical with that from Hebron, Maine, and seems to sustain the view of Wells that the formula is H,Cs, Al(SiO3). The Mangano-tantalite is in the form of dark reddish-brown crystals resembling rutile. A qualitative analysis revealed the presence of Mn, Ta and Ni. The specific gravity, 6.44, would indicate that the last two elements are present in about equal proportions. The form differs somewhat from columbite, as shown among other facts adduced, by the axial ratios. Mangano-columbite. .83591.8817 Microlite in beautiful honey-yellow crystals 2 mm. in diameter have a specific gravity of 5.17. The prevailing form is the octahedron, modified by the dodecahedron and sometimes by (113). Epidote and its Optical Properties.-The peculiar appearance of a gray epidote from Huntington, Mass., led to its detailed investigation by Forbes.* The light color is evidently due to the low percent3 Am. Jour. Sci., CLI, pp. 457-461, June, 1896. * Am. Jour. Sci., CLI, pp. 26--30, 1896. age of iron, as shown by the subjoined mean of two closely agreeing analyses. This corresponds with the accepted epidote formula. Some of the angles vary quite considerably from those given by Kokscharow-possibly due in one or two cases to the striated character of the faces. The optical properties are unusual. The axis of greatest optical elasticity lies in the obtuse angle ß, making an angle of 1° 51' to 2° 47′ with the vertical axis, according to the nature of the light used. The optical sign is positive-an unusual thing for epidote. The indices are =1.714, 8=1.716, and y = 1.724. The double refraction is thus The optical angle over == .010, the least value known for the mineral. a, 90° 32', is exceptionally large. A comparison of the data at hand seems to show that with increasing percentage of iron the double refraction becomes stronger, the index of refraction increases, while the optical angle (over a) grows larger, and when it passes 90° the crystals become optically negative. Miscellaneous Notes.-Leiss gives details concerning several new models of optical instruments as manufactured by Fuess of Steglitz, near Berlin. The most important of these are a petrographical microscope, a theodolite-goniometer, an optical angle instrument, and a number of devices for universal motion.-Viola shows the application of the quaternion method to the discussion of crystal symmetry, and arrives at results concordant with those of Fedorow, Schönflies and others.-Schwarzmann' describes a scale for reading directly with approximate accuracy the apparent optical angle 2E, without the labor of calculating it by Mallard's formula.-Crystallographers will be much interested in the results obtained by Rinne' in certain experi Neues Jahrb., B.B. X, pp. 179-195; also pp. 412-439, 1895. Neues Jahrb., 1896, Vol. I, pp. 52-56. Neues Jahrb., 1896, Vol. I, pp. 139-148. |