affected the compass direction, this being the period of maximum sun-spot activity. On the average there have occurred two such storms monthly, which deflected the compass by one-quarter of a degree or more. A comparatively large number of earthquake records were also obtained during the year, the most notable one being the Indian earthquake of last April."

Mr. Alfred H. Brooks, of the United States Geological Survey, gives us the following summary of what is known of Alaska in the Popular Science Monthly for January:

Explorations by United States Geological Survey..
Geologic and topographic reconnoissance surveys..
Explorations by other departments.

Square Miles. 80,000

60,000

. 50,000

Coastal province, shore line surveyed by Coast Survey and some geological surveys made by Geological Survey..... 120,000 Unmapped and practically unexplored......

Total area of Alaska....

.310,000

..620,000

SOME RECENT DISCOVERIES OF FOSSILS.-There is a fascination. for student and layman alike in the discovery and restoration of extinct reptiles of past geological eras. The activity shown during the last few years in investigations along these lines has advanced the study of vertebrate paleontology to a point where a reclassification was necessary. This is notably shown when the skeleton of a reptile, which has been named Tyrannosaurus Rex, was unearthed by a party of explorers from the American Museum of Natural History in New York city. The monster mentioned was thirtynine feet in length and stood nineteen feet in height. It is of special interest from the fact that it was a land animal. The remains of land animals are much less frequently preserved than the remains of amphibia or water animals, as decay on the surface of the land is complete. The only chanceof the preservation of the skeleton of a land animal would be when the animal perished by drowning or when the body was washed. into the water and was gradually covered by the accumulating sediments that were afterwards consolidated.

From Russia comes the news of the interesting discovery of skeletons of extinct reptiles in nodules that local road builders had been in the habit of extracting from the sandy cliffs of the river. Dwina, near Archangel, in Northern Russia. The discovery was made by Professor Amalitzky, of Warsaw, a few years ago. He has since revealed several skeletons of the extinct Pariasaurus, a vegetarian reptile about as large as an ox, but not so high in the

legs, as well as the remains of a huge carnivorous reptile with a skull two feet long and enormous tiger-like teeth, which has been named Inostransevia, a name as terrible as the monster it designates. This reptile probably preyed upon Pariasaurus.

SICILY'S NEW RIVAL IN SULPHUR PRODUCTION.-Most of the sulphur of commerce has come from the Island of Sicily. For a long time extensive deposits were known to exist in Louisiana beneath a layer of difficult quicksand, which could not be reached by freezing or by sinking metallic-lined shafts, except at a cost that appeared prohibitory. So pipes ten inches in diameter were sunk to a depth of about 450 feet. Sulphur melts at about 240 degrees F. Accordingly superheated water was forced down the pipes, and the liquid sulphur was drawn up through a second tube within the main pipe. About 350,000 tons of sulphur are thus being taken out per year.

A NEW PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF HYDROGEN.-Commercial hydrogen has usually been made by the action of sulphuric acid on iron or zinc. A new method is the use of the reaction of alkaline hydrates on metallic aluminum. The reaction is 2A1+3NaOH=3H+AIO3Na3. The principal point in favor of the new process is that five kilogrammes of material per cubic meter of gas are needed, as against seven kilogrammes in the old process. This is probably what commended its use to the Russian aerostatic corps during the recent war. Its cost is much higher than the cost of the acid process.

Boston, Mass.

M. J. AHERN, S. J.

Book Reviews

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF ST. PATRICK, with appendices, etc. By the Most Rev. Dr. Healy, Archbishop of Tuam. Pp. 754. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, Ltd., Upper O'Connell street; Sealy, Bryers & Walker, Middle Abbey street. New York: Benziger Brothers.

A new life of St. Patrick is always in order and always welcome, but it has a special fitness at this time, when the intellectual, industrial and political revival in Ireland is assuming large and lasting proportions. The study of the life of their apostle and patron will fill Irishmen at such a time with the true spirit-the desire to advance their temporal interests in such a manner as to conserve their eternal welfare. They can do this only by holding fast to that sterling faith and morality which they have received from their ancestors, and which they learned from St. Patrick, and which they preserved at every sacrifice. But let the author speak:

"Our chief purpose in writing this new life of St. Patrick, when so many lives already exist, is to give a fuller, and we venture to hope, more exact account of the saint's missionary labors in Ireland than any that has appeared since the Tripartite Life was first written. For this purpose we have not only studied Colgan's great work and made ourselves familiar with the really valuable publications of our own times, but we have, when practicable, personally visited all the scenes of the saint's labors, both at home and abroad, so as to be able to give a local coloring to the dry record, and also to catch up, as far as possible, the echoes, daily growing fainter, of the once vivid traditions of the past.

"We have no new views to put forward. We shall seek to follow the authority of the ancient writers of the acts of St. Patrick, which we regard as in the main trustworthy. Those who do not like miracles can pass them over, but the ancient writers believed in them, and even when purely imaginary these miraculous stories have an historical and critical value of their own.

"We find it convenient to classify our authorities into three divisions. The ancient authorities are those that flourished before the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, that is, before A. D. 1172. The mediaval authorities will include all those who make reference to St. Patrick's acts down to the beginning of the seventeenth century. The modern authorities will comprehend the rest, including Colgan and Usher, who have written from that date (A. D. 1600) to the present time.

"We have resolved, however, to follow in the main the guidance

of the ancient authorities, who, if credulous in things supernatural, had no motive but to write the truth, so far as it was known to them, for the instruction and edification of posterity. There was then only one Church, and they could have had no motive in representing St. Patrick to be anything else than what he was known to them-a great and successful Christian missionary of the Catholic Church. "Those ancient authorities are in substantial agreement on all the main points of our apostle's history. Some shallow critics of our own time, by unduly indulging in what is mere speculation, have brought confusion into the acts of St. Patrick, but this confusion, like the morning mist on the mountain side, is rapidly passing away. We shall not follow their example; rather we shall adhere to the ancient authorities, and in so doing we follow the footsteps of the really great Irish scholars of modern times, like Colgan, Usher and O'Flaherty, who paid due regard to those ancient authorities, and under their guidance gave their own lives, with brilliant success, to the study of Irish history and antiquities.

"The writings of St. Patrick himself must naturally be made the basis of any reliable history of the saint. There is no doubt that the Confession and the Epistle to Coroticus were, as the Book of Armagh says of the former, originally written by his own hand. Every statement, therefore, in any life of St. Patrick, ancient or modern, clearly inconsistent with the tenor of these documents must be rejected without hesitation.

"Concerning the miracles related in most of the lives the reader will form his own judgment. Some of the stories are, in our opinion, of their own nature incredible; others are ridiculous, and several are clearly inconsistent with Patrick's own statement in the Confession. But we cannot reject a story merely because it is miraculous. The Confession itself records several miracles, and we are by no means prepared to say that St. Patrick was either deceived or a deceiver. The most famous lives of the great saints of that age are full of narratives of the miraculous. St. Athanasius wrote a life of St. Anthony, Sulpicius Severus has left a beautiful life of St. Martin, Paulinus of Nola has given us an authentic life of St. Felix-these were great prelates and accomplished scholars who had an intimate knowledge of those of whom they wrote, yet we find miracles recorded as undoubted events in every page of their narratives. The absence of the miraculous in any Patrician document is, therefore, no proof of its earlier date or more authentic character, as some modern critics seem to think. The most authentic and eloquent writings of that age are filled with such narratives of the miraculous, and the miracles were attested by most trustworthy witnesses and are narrated as undoubted facts by contemporary writers. In this

work our purpose is not controversial; it is to show St. Patrick as he was known to his contemporaries and their immediate successors who had known the man or received the living stories of his disciples. Most people will think such a narrative is of far more value from every point of view than the speculations of some of our modern critics and philologists, who would rather do away with St. Patrick altogether than admit that he got his mission from Rome.

"The manifold variations in the spelling of Irish words, and especially of Irish proper names, present great difficulty to a writer on Irish subjects and render it almost impossible to adopt a uniform system. As we have, on the whole, followed the guidance of the Rolls Tripartite, both as to the Irish text and its English version, we have thought it desirable to adopt also its system of spelling the Irish proper names. No doubt many of its forms are now archaic; still they exhibit, we think, the language, especially in this matter of proper names, in simpler and purer forms than those which are at present in use; and, moreover, tend to preserve a uniformity of usage which is surely to be desired. Hence we have adopted as a rule the spelling of the Tripartite, especially in proper names, except in the case of certain well-known words, where a departure from the existing usage might be misleading."

THE KEY TO THE WORLD'S PROGRESS. Being an Essay on Historical Logic. By Charles Stanton Devas, M. A. Oxon., sometime examiner in political economy at the Royal University of Ireland. 12mo., pp. 321. Longmans, Green & Co., 39 Paternoster Row, London; New York and Bombay. 1906. Those of our readers who know the "Manual of Political Economy," written for the Stonyhurst Philosophical Series by Mr. Devas, will not need to be told that the present work is well done. The encomiums which the learned author merited on the appearance of that book will, no doubt, be repeated on this occasion. The purpose of the writer and his defense, if one be needed, are so well set forth in the first part of the book that we shall quote at length without any apology:

"Many writers have sought in recent years and many still seek a meaning in man's history, an explanation of the course of society, a forecast of its future. Such names as the growth of civilization, the philosophy of history, the science of sociology, social dynamics or social evolution are some of those chosen to express a science as yet desired rather than attained, which is to solve the riddle of the universe. The keenness of the desire is shown by the eager welcome of one theory of evolution after another, though as yet