On July 27 western Pennsylvania suffered in a similar manner, especially along the Cecil valley.

On July 29 a destructive storm swept over parts of Ohio and Indiana, doing much damage at Glouster, Sidney, and South Charleston, O., Huntington, Ind., and other points.

On August 13 a tornado passed through Perry county. Ala., killing at least fifteen men and injuring many others. Fires.-Fire, caused by spontaneous combustion of wool, destroyed part of the wharf front of the Mallory Steamship Line, Galveston, Tex., July 2; loss, about $200,000.

On August 22, a fire of undoubtedly incendiary origin destroyed the Exposition building and half of the covered half-mile track at the Buffalo Driving Park, Buffalo, N. Y.. besides several dwelling houses. All the election booths of the city, which were stored in the Exposition building, were also destroyed. Loss, over $200,000.

On September 6, Yore's opera house and adjoining buildings, Benton Harbor, Mich., were burned, causing the death of eleven firemen and injury to several others. Loss, about $65,000.

The main building of Mount Holyoke Seminary and College, South Hadley, Mass., was destroyed by fire on the evening of September 27, fortunately without loss of life. The fire started under the gymnasium, probably in the drying room connected with the laundry. Loss, about $200,000, fairly covered by insurance.

Railroad Wrecks.-On July 11, near Logan, Ia., a train on the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, conveying an excursion of Union Pacific employés from Omaha, Council Bluffs, and Missouri Valley, was struck by a freight. Thirty-one were killed, and as many more injured.

A terrible railroad disaster occurred near Atlantic City, NJ., on the " Meadows," on the evening of July 30. A train over the West Jersey road, carrying a Redmen's excursion, from Bridgeton and Salem, N. J., and other points, was run into at the Reading crossing by an express from Philadelphia. Forty-four people were killed, and more than that number injured. The evidence seems to show that, owing to some oversight or carelessness, the engineer of the Reading express, who was killed, ran his train past the danger signal displayed from the signal

tower.

Miscellaneous.-Fifty-eight lives were lost in the disaster at the Twin Shaft, Pittston, Penn., June 28 (p. 489). On July 16 twenty men were drowned by the capsiz

ing of a flat-bottomed ferryboat in the old river channel at Cleveland, O. The accident was the result of a panic due to waves from a passing tug washing over the gunwale of the ferryboat and causing a rush of passengers to one side.

On August 9 six persons were killed and sixty-two injured by a car on the Columbia & Donegal Electric railway jumping the track and being wrecked, near Columbia, Penn. It appears that the brake refused to work just as a heavy grade was reached.

Foreign:

Later dispatches confirmed the worst reports of the extent of the tidal-wave disaster in northeastern Japan on the evening of June 15 (p. 490).

It appears that without any warning except some slight earthquake shocks a series of huge waves inundated the northern coast of Japan from Sendai to Aomori, a distance of over 200 miles. Over 30,000 people were killed, and about 12,000 houses destroyed. The centre of the desolated coast line was the town of Kamaishi, in Iwate prefecture, about 300 miles northeast of Tokio. A letter from Yokohama dated June 20 says:

"It seems clear that the wave originated at a short distance from the Japan coast. Some displacement of the ocean bed about the southern edge of the great Tuscarora Deep probably caused a disturbance, the western section of which, in the form of a sea wave, eighty feet in height at some points, impinged upon an extent of coast line some 300 miles fro the southwest to northeast."

The fear apponch to this disaster in recent years was the earthquake which devastated the prefectures of Aichi and Gifu ih October, 1891 (Vol. 1, p. 523).

Another earthquake visitation in northeastern. Japan was recorded on the night of August 31, destroying Dokugo and other towns. Thousands were reported killed, and there was incalculable damage to property. Simultaneously the southern coasts were swept by a typhoon causing great loss of life and property.

On July 26 a tidal wave five miles wide inundated the coast of Hai-Chau, northeast of the province of KiangSoo, China, destroying many villages, ricefields, and cattle, and causing an estimated loss of 4,000 human lives.

On July 27, a fire in the great shipyards of Harland & Wolff and Workman, Clark & Co., Belfast, Ireland, destroyed buildings and machinery valued at $1,250,000.

Över 100 houses were burned in Port au Prince, Hayti, July 22-24; loss, about $1,000,000.

On July 23 the German gunboat Iltis, a single-screw iron steamer of 480 tons' burden, mounting two guns, foundered in a typhoon off the Shan-Tung promontory,

China. Seventy-five officers and men were drowned; it is said that only ten lives were saved.

By the explosion of a powder magazine at Funfkirchen, Hungary, July 30, five persons were killed and over 100 injured.

By the overflowing of the rivers Rama and Siquia in Nicaragua, July 29, property to the value of $1,000,000 was destroyed. The loss of life was small.

A court of inquiry into the loss, on June 16, of the Drummond Castle (p. 490), decided that the casualty was caused by sufficient allowance not having been made for the easterly current, the effect of which would doubtless have been counteracted if the master had made frequent use of the lead.

For an account of the storm which swept over a portion of Paris, France, on September 10, see page 683.

Science:

LITERATURE.

What is Electricity? By John Trowbridge, S. D. Illustrated. The International Scientific Series. Volume LXXV. 315 pp. Indexed. 12mo. $1.50. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

Being addressed mainly to non-scientific readers, the book sums up in plain and popular form the views of scientific men in regard to the nature of electricity. According to modern ideas the continuance of all life on earth is due to the electrical energy which we receive from the sun, and physics in general can be defined as that subject which treats of the transformations of energy. Professor Trowbridge's aim, therefore, has been to present the varied phenomena of electricity in such a manner that the reader can perceive the physicist's reasons for supposing that all space is filled with a medium which transmits electro-magnetic waves to us from the sun. This he does clearly and lucidly.

The Pith of Astronomy (Without Mathematics). The latest facts and figures as developed by the Giant Telescopes. By Samuel G. Bavne. With illustrations. 122 pp. 16mo. $1.00. New York: Harper & Bros.

The object of this book is to put the main astronomical figures and facts before the reader in the simplest way, so that they may be readily understood by even a beginner.

The Scenery of Switzerland and the Causes to Which it is Due. By the Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M. P., F. R. S., D. C. L., LL. D. With a map and illustrations. 371 pp. With an appendix. 12mo. $1.50. New York: Macmillan & Co.

*

*

"There are extant plenty of works treating of physical geography, and particularly of that of Switzerland, but they appeal to specialists, not to the general reader. There is no book which the traveller in Switzerland could carry with him and use more advantageously than this. Sir John begged Tyndall to write just such a book, but he had too much to do. Then Tyndall died, and thus on Sir John devolved the task of writing the volume under notice. * Very interesting is the description of the changes which have taken place in Switzerland, his story of the day when Switzerland was an ocean and of the time when Mont Blanc was 12,000 feet higher than it is now. The author has the gift of clearness of expression, and his volume is a valuable addition to physical geography. With the many engravings introduced, a subject which to many would seem difficult and complex becomes perfectly understandable."

Popular Scientific Lectures. By Ernst Mach, of the University of Vienna. Translated by Thomas J. McCormack. 313 pp. 44 cuts. Cloth $1.00. Paper 35 cents. Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co.

To all lovers of science and indeed all thinking persons, this attractive book contains much of interest, logically developed in language readily understood. Many simple experiments are described, and the principles demonstrated are explained. Among the topics treated are: The forms of liquids; The causes of harmony; Why has man two eyes? Symmetry, Comparison in physics, the Conservation of Energy, Instruction in the classics and sciences, and Mental adaptation,

Political Economy, Civies, and Sociology:

The Populist Movement. By Frank L. McVey, Ph. D. Economic Studies. 209 pp. 12mo. Paper, 50c. New York: Macmillan & Co.

A summary from newspaper reports of the rise and progress of the populist party, beginning with the Grange, etc., and coming down through the national conventions since 1889. The platforms are analyzed, tables of voters, popular and in legislature, presented, and a bibliography is appended. "Taken all in all, the people's party," says the writer, has not added anything but variety to our political life. The entire movement is the result of discontent. Party organization of lasting qualities must be based on more than discontent."

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. By Frederick L. Hoffman, F. S. S. Publications of the American Economic Association. 329 pp. 8vo. Cloth, $2.00; paper, $1.25. New York: Macmillan & Co.

A great mass of facts and statistics are offered to sustain the writers' startling conclusions-that the colored population is gradually parting with its virtues and the moderate degree of economic efficiency developed under the régime of slavery, and that its low state of morality and diminishing vitality make its gradual extinction only a question of time.

Bimetallism: or, The Evils of Gold Monometallism and the Benefits of Bimetallism. By Wharton Barker. With a portrait on cover. 330 pp. 8vo. $1.00. Philadelphia: Barker Pub. Co.

Compiled from the Philadelphia American, whose columns "dur ing the past eighteen months have discussed the monetary question in all its phases." In twenty-six chapters, the arguments for freesilver coinage are presented, based on the theory that money is an instrument of association, that a decrease in its volume means a decrease in prices, and that this in its turn paralyzes industry. The work is a leading one among those advocating free-silver coinage.

International Bimetallism. By Francis A. Walker, Ph. D., LL. D., author of Political Economy. 297 pp. Indexed. 12mo. $1.25. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

This book is the outcome of a course of lectures delivered at Harvard University, and was prepared without reference to the presidential campaign of 1896 in the United States. The volume, however, will not only prove instructive with reference to the question underlying that great struggle, but will also prove a most valuable work of reference, treating as it does of the precious metals from the earliest times down to the present day.

The Battle of the Standards. By James H. Teller. With an introduction by Henry M. Teller. The Ariel Library series. 142 pp. 12mo. Paper, 25c. Chicago: The Schulte Pub. Co.