Another of Appletons' Home-Reading Books is _News from the Birds_, which the author, _Leander S. Keyser_, explains has been written with two purposes in mind: first, to furnish actual instruction, to tell some new facts about bird life that have not yet been recited; and, second, to inspire in readers a taste for Nature study. It is by no means a key for the identification of the birds; but, instead of telling all that is or may be known respecting a particular bird, the author has sought only to recite such incidents as will spur the reader to go out into the fields and woods and study the birds in their native haunts. For the most part the author has given a record of his own observations, and not a reiteration of what others have said. He has gone to the birds themselves for his facts, and has made very little use of books. It has been Mr. _Ernest A. Congdon's_ aim, in preparing his _Brief Course in Qualitative Analysis_ (New York: Henry Holt; 60 cents), to render it as concise as possible while making the least sacrifice of a study of reactions and solubilities of chemical importance. The manual covers the points of preliminary reactions on bases and acids; schemes of analysis for bases and acids; explanatory notes on the analyses; treatment of solid substances (powders, alloys, or metals); and tables of solubilities of salts of the bases studied. A comprehensive list of questions, stimulative of thought, is appended. The book is intended merely as a laboratory guide, and should be supplemented by frequent "quiz classes" and by constant personal attention. The course has been satisfactorily given in the Drexel Institute within the allotted time of one laboratory period of four hours, and one hour for a lecture or quiz per week, during the school year of thirty-two weeks. _Lest we Forget_ is the title which President _David Starr Jordan_ has given to his address before the graduating class of Leland Stanford Junior University, May 25, 1898--"lest we forget" the dangers and duties and responsibilities laid upon us by the war with Spain. Though delivered before the "policy of expansion" was fully developed, the address describes with prophetic accuracy the dream of imperialism with which the minds even of men usually sane and honest have become infected, and points out a few of the logical results to which they would lead, and the dangers which will have to be incurred in gratifying them. We cite a few of the strong points made by the author: "Our question is not what we shall do with Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines; it is what these prizes will do to us." "Shall the war for Cuba Libre come to an inglorious end? If we make anything by it, it will be most inglorious." "I believe that the movement toward broad dominion, so eloquently outlined by Mr. Olney, would be a step downward." PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Adams, Enos, 2072 Second Avenue, New York. What is Science? Pp. 14.