with specialists in the kindred subjects of Social Science, Jurisprudence, and Political Fconomy, which are represented at this annual meeting in Saratoga. By conference with co-workers historical students may widen their horizen of interest and cause their individual fields of labor to become more fruitful. The leading spirits in this movement are Prof. Jno. Eaton, Prof. F. B. Sanborn, Prof. C. K. Adams, Prof. M. C. Tyler and Prof. H. B. Adams. THE American Wood Preserving Company have been awarded the city contract for paving Chestnut Street, St. Louis, from Jefferson to Grand Avenue with gum lumber treated by the zinc-gypsum process. DR. LEWIS SWIFT, director of the Warner observatory, has received intelligence of the discovery of a comet by Prof. E. E. Barnard, of Nashville, on the night of the 19th instant, and the discovery was verified by the motion of the comet the next night. It is in the head of the Wolf, right ascension 15h., 50 m., and 30s., declination south 17° 10′, and is moving slowly in an easterly direction. It seems to be growing brighter, and is probably coming toward the earth. This is the first comet discovered in the northern hemisphere this year. ITEMS FROM PERIODICALS. Subscribers to the REVIEW can be furnished through this office with all the best magazines of this Country and Europe, at a discount of from 15 to 20 per cent off the retail price. To any person remitting to us the annual subscription price of any three of the prominent literary or scientific magazines of the United States, we will promptly furnish the same, and the KANSAS CITY REVIEW, besides, without additional cost, for one year. THE August Harper's is especially noteworthy for its papers on American places"The Gateway of Boston," in which W. H. Rideing describes and Messrs. Halsall and Garrett picture Boston Harbor; Salt Lake City, described by Ernest Ingersoll, with fifteen illustrations; and Richfield Springs, a paper with special reference to their medicinal waters, by F. J. Nott, M. D. Mr. Boughton will continue his chatty "Artist Strolls in Holland" in company with Mr. Abbey. Art will be represented by a paper on the work of the "Associated Artists" by Mrs. Harrison, with charming illustrations of the needlework designs of Mrs. Wheeler, Miss Dora Wheeler, and others, as well as by the frontispiece reproduction of Mr. Dewing's rose-painting, “A Prelude;" sport, by "Antelope Hunting in Montana," with illustrations by Beard and Frost; history, by the first of a series of brilliantly written and illustrated papers on "The Great Hall of William Rufus," by Treadwell Walden. William Black's and E. P. Roe's novels will have their usual superb illustrations by Abbey, Gibson, and Dielman, and more of the charming landscape illustrations by Alfred Parsons will accompany a further installment of Mr. Sharp's poem-pictures, "Transcripts from Nature." There will also be stories and poems by Mrs. Macquoid, Mr. Bynner, Lucy Larcom, Mrs. Fields, and others. A paper on "The Building of the Muscle" will be contributed by Julian Hawthorne. Among Mr. Curtis's topics in the "Easy Chair" are National Conventions and College Commencements. THE Magazine of American History for August comes laden with a variety of agreeable surprises. It will attract many readers. The opening article, "The Story of a Monument," by S. N. D. North, of the Utica Herald, is a timely production, and of curi ous interest to the public in general. The illustrations add greatly to its value, of which is the fine portrait of Ex-Governor Horatio Seymour-frontispiece to the magazine. The next article introduces a learned discussion of the new and novel question, "Did the Romans colonize America?" The author, M. V. Moore, foreshadows futher papers, and from the masterly skill with which he handles the subject they will naturally excite wide attention. Tourist in Spain, II; Dinky, Mary Beale THE North American Review for August | Oriole, Thomas William Parsons; A Cook's contains an article by Justice James V. Campbell on "The Encroachments of Capital," which will command the serious attention of all readers. Richard A. Proctor treats of "The Origin of Comets," and succeeds in presenting that difficult subject in a light so clear that persons who have little or no acquaintance with astronomy can follow his argument. "Are we a Nation of Rascals?" is the startling title of an article by John F. Hume, who shows that states, counties and municipalities in the United States have already formally repudiated, or defaulted in the payment of interest on an amount of bonds and other obligations equal to the sum of the national debt. Judge Edward C. Loring finds a "Drift toward Centralization" in the recent judgment of the United States Supreme Court on the power of the Federal Govern ment to issue paper money, and in the opinion of the minority of the same court rendered in the suit for the Arlington prop. erty. Julian Hawthorne writes of "The American Element in Fiction," and there is a symposium on "Prohibition and Persuasion," by Neal Dow and Dr. Dio Lewis. THE Atlantic Monthly for August has the following attractive table of contents. In War Time, XV., XVI., S. Weir Mitchell; Carpe Diem, E. R. Sill; The Twilight of Greek and Roman Sculpture, William Shields Liscomb; The Zig Zag Telegraph, Lloyd G. Thompson; The Rose and the are as THE Popular Science Monthly for August is promptly on hand. The contents follows: Hickory-Nuts and Butter-Nuts, by Grant Allen; The Ghost of Religion, by Frederic Harrison; Retrogressive Religion, by Herbert Spencer; Some Rambles of a Naturalist, by Charles C. Abbott, M. D.; Scientific Philanthropy, by Lee J. Vance, B. S.; The World's Geyser Regions, by A. C. Peale, M. D.; (Illustrated.) Reparation to Innocent Convicts, by Dr. Henrich Jaques; The Chemistry of Cookery, by W. Mattieu Williams; My Monkeys, by M. J. Fisher; The Salt-Deposits of Western New York, by Frederic G. Mather; The Morality of Happiness, by Thomas Foster; The Mystic Properties of Numbers, by Etienne de la Roche; Sketch of Professor Felipe Poey, by Professor David S. Jordan; (With Portrait.) Editor's Table; Science and the Temperance Reform; Literary Notes; Popular Miscellany; Notes. The Academic, Agricultural, Normal and Engineering Schools will open the 2d Monday (8th) of September, 1884. The Law and Medical Schools will also open September 8th. THE DEPARTMENTS OF INSTRUCTION ARE: 1. The Academic Schools of Language and Science. 2. The Professional Schools of Agriculture, Pedagogics, Engineering, Art, Law and Medicine, and at Rolla, the School of Mines and Metallurgy. These Schools of the University are open to young men and to young women. Excepting in the Law, Medical and Engineering Schools, (each $40.00,) and the Commercial School, the entire expense for the year for tuition and contingent fees, is $20.00. Board in private families, $3.00 to $4.50, and in clubs at about twothirds of these rates. In the means of instruction and illustration, none of the institutions of learning in Missouri have superior advantages. The association of the several schools with each other is deemed a circumstance of decided advantage. When, for example, a student has entered the Law or Medical School, he has access to all the departments of Academic instruction without any additional expense. Commencement day is the first Thursday of June, 1885. Send for Catalogue to Librarian, Missouri State University, Columbia, Missouri. SAMUEL S. LAWS, President. THE FORCES OF INORGANIC NATURE-SOME NEW PHILOSOPHY. REV. JAMES W. HANNA. Some years ago the writer left college armed with a bundle of diplomas, pleased especially with what he knew of science. With Espy's theory of meteorology in his cranium, he began making observations for himself. The result was that he soon discarded most that passed for science in meteorology. He concluded also that the causes of heat and cold were but partly understood. Frosts in June and thaws in January were caused by something that our philosophy knew little of. Indian Summer next became a study,-then the nature of heat, and the forces of organic and inorganic nature. The method was to study well the books, but to get behind the books, and ask Nature if certain things were so. An assortment was made of things established, and of things assumed; plausible theories were scrutinized, and the iconoclastic spirit was allowed full play. The result was I became a scientific doubter. Or, rather, a doubter of much of the theories of the scientists. I will not shock the reader by a full disclosure And in this article I will as much as possible avoid antagonizing him. My debate against old theories, which would make quite a chapter, may lie with the rubbish. This article is devoted to bringing in some of the new. The first great point reached, and which after careful study, was fixed and became a rallying point was this: All the attractive forces of inorganic nature are one. That is to say, gravitation, cohesion, adhesion, capillary attraction, chemical affinity, VIII-15 electrical attraction, magnetic attraction, contraction of solids, liquids and gases, all these are simply manifestations of the same force under different conditions. These are names by which we designate phenomena, or the causes of phenomena, the names of forces, as force manifests itself in its tendency to bring things together, and hold them together. We have not space here for the argument by which the above conclusion is reached. The realm of physics abounds with data which, when properly considered, make the conclusion irresistible. It is all clear sailing with not a breaker in the pathway. Accepting the above as established, the question arises: What causes this force? What is its origin ? As we wait to learn, we reach another conclusion. There is in nature another force, repulsion. A force equal in operation, equal in importance with attraction. It is as everywhere present, it operates in as many varied conditions, it is scarcely less powerful. These two forces are correlated. They pertain to opposite conditions; what gives strength to the one, gives apparent weakness to the other. They never destroy but in all cases they act against each other. Repul sion is seen in the expansion of gases, in the expansion of metals, in electrical repulsion, in the repellent power of heat in all its manifestations. In the Sun there is a repellent power co-ordinate with the attractive power. This drives volatile matter from the comets, thus making their tails; this causes the diurnal revolution of the planets. This gives to the several planets their several distances from the Sun. Thus all along the line, from the highest manifestation in the heavens to the minutest exhibitions of earth, we have these two forces side by side; the one as much a factor in the world of phenomena as the other. Accepting this also as established, the question arises: What causes this force? What is its origin ? As heat expands gases and metals, as it makes solids liquid, and makes liquids vapor, as it overcomes chemical affinities, as it dissipates magnetic power, changes electrical conditions, and seems to be the great repellent factor in the solar system, we cannot but inquire into the nature of heat, and ask, is it a factor in gravitation? Does it play a part here as it does in all other conditions of the attractive force? We are inclined to give this query an affirmative answer. But an affirmative answer here requires an abandonment of the current theory of heat. For all scientists are teaching us that heat is but a mode of motion. We are being led to look at it as something real—and, the most potent of all the realities in nature. A survey of organic nature and its forces, the forces by which living bodies are builded, and the surrender made in their dissolution, tended the more to confirm this view and to demand a new hearing of the whole question as to the nature of heat. As this investigation was made about nine years ago, I am not sure that I can follow the lines of inquiry as they were followed then, but an important question was, whence the heat of friction? The conclusion reached was that it is from electricity. Some of the reasons for this conclusion will appear as we ad vance. |