# Popular Science Monthly/Volume 43/June 1893/Literary Notices

Layout 4
Prisoners and Paupers. A Study of the Abnormal Increase of Criminals, and the Public Burden of Pauperism in the United States; the Causes and Remedies. By Henry M. Boies, M. A. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1893. Pp. 318. Price, $1.50.
Mr. Boies had peculiar facilities for the production of such a work as this and he has used them ably. In his preface he says that he has in this work not only endeavored to give a general view of the subject as it appears in this country, "to emphasize the waste of human sympathy and public funds which results from what appears to be inconsiderate and misdirected methods of treatment," but he proposes a most feasible—he says, "positive remedy."
The eleventh census of the United States, which is now being published, "furnishes statistics of a national growth in numbers, wealth, and general prosperity unparalleled in the history of civilization." Nevertheless, this census, says the author, makes some disclosures which are "appalling in the highest degree to our confidence in the future." One of these is the extraordinary increase in the criminal classes; and he shows that while in 1850 the proportion of criminals was 1 in 3,500 of the population, it increased in 1890 to 1 in 786·5, or 445 per cent; while the increase of population in the same period was only 170 per cent.
Mr. Boies claims that "such a disproportion can not continue indefinitely without a relapse into barbarism and social ruin." And he explains his statement by telling that such a condition of affairs does not exist in any other civilized nation. He attributes the first cause for crime and pauperism to the unnatural increase of intemperance; the second, "the crowding of the people to the centers."
The third cause lies in the existing laws for the punishment of criminals and the unintelligent manner in which they are administered. And having thus briefly summarized the conditions of paupers and prisoners generally and the causes for their existence, the author reviews the awful criminal condition of Pennsylvania, and in the sixth chapter begins an examination of the classes which form the prison and pauper population of the country.
In this part of the work it is stated that that portion of the population which is foreign-born, or having one or both parents foreign-born, furnishes over one third of the criminals and three fifths of the paupers of the country, whereas they constitute only one fifth of the whole number. From this the author concludes that to avert the danger "which has become imminent, and threatens our very existence, . . . Congress must regulate immigration as the initial remedy."
The excessive increase of criminals from the negro population occupies the next chapter, and the anomalous proportion of criminals among the population of African descent is so startling that Mr. Boies analyzes the causes very minutely. It appears, he says, that although "they constitute less than 13·51 per cent of the total population, yet they contribute one third of our convicts, though only 8·8 per cent of our paupers." Further on he says that this alarming increase "is quite as important and threatening as the foreign element," which has been considered. The cause for this disparity of criminals and paupers he claims is that "a ruling white minority (in the South), possessing the wealth, stands over a black majority which is paid for their labor actually less than the fairly comfortable subsistence which they received as slaves, and denies to them every right of equality. . . . This is as hostile to true Americanism as was slavery." And he continues. ​that as a remedial measure, "Congress must therefore enforce. . . the protection of the colored race in the enjoyment of the rights it has conferred upon it in the face of the world."
In the chapter, Intemperance as a Cause, Mr. Boies claims that alcoholic drink is the direct or indirect cause of 75 per cent of all the crimes committed, and of at least 50 per cent of all the sufferings endured on account of poverty, and that "the terrible effects of this curse of humanity are displayed to all the elements of our population, the native, the foreign, the colored, and the urban alike." As one of the remedies against intemperance he suggests the establishment of cheap coffee and tea houses and social halls, after the fashion of those established by the Salvation Army in England; and he adds that "as the way to a man's heart is through his stomach," give him good, cheap food, and his desire for stimulants will cease.
The author entirely disapproves of the present general conditions of the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment, or rather the manner of imprisonment, of criminals. He claims that the penal code should be reorganized, and that more consideration should be shown to "youthful delinquents;" for "county jails are nurseries of crime," and he attributes this to the "wrong management of the prisoners." "No State," he says, "should tolerate" "the infamous jails as they at present exist in county towns." And, "until the whole penal system is reorganized upon the basis of common sense," he offers some excellent suggestions as to the segregation of the different types of prisoners—the one from the other, as well as to how the number of prisons could be and should be lessened.
The work is illustrated with fourteen plates, and is a most valuable addition to the social and economic literature of the nation.
The Great Commanders Series. Edited by General James Grant Wilson. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
Admiral Farragut. By Captain A. T. Mahan, U. S. N. Pp. 333. Price, $1.25.—General Taylor. By General O. O. Howard. Pp. 386. Price, $1.50.—General Jackson. By James Parton. Pp. 332. Price, $1.50.
The issue of what gives promise of being a very attractive series of biographies has been begun under the above general title. The first volume is a life of Admiral Farragut. The career of the most celebrated of America's naval heroes is sufficiently picturesque to warrant its being given the leading place. Captain Mahan's account of it is of a popular character, being neither a monograph on naval warfare on the one hand nor a juvenile story on the other. A few pages suffice to tell of Farragut's parentage, birth, and his meeting with Commander Porter, which determined the course of his life. His boyhood, before the beginning of his naval career, was too brief for much incident, for his warrant as midshipman dates from the middle of his tenth year. The record proceeds with Farragut's first cruise on board the Essex during the War of 1812. A dozen somewhat eventful years followed, bringing the young man to the rank of lieutenant. The years from 1825 to 1860 take comparatively little space, for they represent mostly the routine service of a naval officer in time of peace. Then come his grand achievements in the civil war—the New Orleans expedition, the operations at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and the entrance of Mobile Bay. These events are described with much detail and vividness, and the several operations are illustrated by charts. A short chapter is devoted to the admiral's five years of life after the war, and a sympathetic estimate of his character closes the volume.
In the Life of Zachary Taylor is given a record rich in those details which often reveal more of the subject's character than his most formal and deliberate acts. We have a glimpse at his early life in the frontier territory near Louisville, Ky., then an account of his first few years in the army, his service in the Northwest Territory during the War of 1812, his campaigns against the Indians in Florida and elsewhere, all leading up to his magnificent achievements in the Mexican War. His part in this contest is described in a sympathetic and picturesque manner. Close upon the heels of it comes his election to the presidency, and a sketch of his administration, of little over a year, brings his life to a close.
In James Parton's biography of Jackson is seen the hand of a master historian. Vigorous, as befits the history of such a strong personality, it is everywhere judicious, ​faithful, and conscientious. Jackson's faults and autocratic acts are not concealed, while bis sterling qualities and remarkable achievements are set forth in due prominence. The account of Jackson's campaign in defense of New Orleans is given large space in the volume. It is told with much vivid detail, and has the fascination of a tale of brave and forceful deeds, which it is. This book is notable, too, as being the last literary labor of its author, who passed away two months after it was completed.
The series is to be continued with lives of Washington, Greene, Sherman, Grant, Lee, and many others.
The Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons. By the Baron J. De Baye. Translated by T. B. Harbottle. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1893. Pp. 135, 4to. Price, $7.
This work, which is illustrated with thirty-one cuts in the text and seventeen full page engravings, although of considerable value to archæological students, does not shed much ethnographic light. As a matter of fact, all attempts at an arrangement of antique arts and industries must to a certain extent be arbitrary and artificial, as chronological classification can not be fully carried out in the present condition of archæological research. Baron de Baye claims that the Jutes occupy the first place, chronologically, among the invading barbarians of Great Britain. The Saxons and Angles followed soon afterward, and, according to the author, they all settled in Kent, in which county the most perfect archæological specimens of the ancient Anglo-Saxon industries are found. The baron uses Eutropius, Ptolemy, and Tacitus very freely in his proofs of the German ancestry of the early Britons; but it is an incontestable fact that long before the advent of the Anglo-Saxon barbarians, the Kelts, who were settled in Ireland, had made incursions into England. The archæological specimens of Anglo-Saxon industries which are illustrated in the beautiful volume we have under observation clearly resemble the accepted evidences of an earlier industrial condition among the Irish Kelts, and, more distinctly than the authorities quoted by Baron de Baye, assert their parentage as Keltic and not Germanic.
Apart from this too frequent error of the ethnographer, the author has compiled a very valuable addition to the archæological literature of England. The chapters on Anglo-Saxon fibulæ are not alone interesting but important, although they stamp the evidence of origin as Scandinavian rather than German. In these chapters the author proves with tolerable clearness an archæological point which has occupied the attention of savants for centuries, for he shows that the fibulae which have been discovered in Kent and the Isle of Wight are of continental origin, and precisely similar in construction to the ornaments of Gothic manufacture which have been found in the barbarian cemeteries of the continent. This discovery at once establishes a proof of intercourse, and illustrates the artistic influence exerted over that part of Britain which was near to France; while in other parts of the work we have, upon comparison with the catalogue of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, distinct evidences of a Keltic origin for the industrial arts of the early Britons.
The author's analysis of the uses of the beads and crystal balls which have been found in the graves of the Anglo-Saxons is very interesting. In Nenia Britannica it is claimed that they were used for occult purposes, whereas Mr. Roach Smith is of opinion that "all the objects exhumed are capable of a perfectly simple explanation." Baron de Baye, however, asserts with somewhat of authority that they were used as talismans against sickness and "to neutralize the force of the enemy's blows." The work is excellently printed and got up, and the plates and references will be found to be of exceeding interest to ethnographical students.
Faith-Healing, Christian Science and Kindred Phenomena. By J. M. Buckley, LL. D. New York: The Century Company. Pp. 308.
Besides the subjects named in the title, those of Astrology, Divination, and Coincidences; Dreams, Nightmare, and Somnambulism; Presentiments, Visions, and Apparitions; and Witchcraft, are treated of in this volume. In his discussions the author has adopted certain principles as working laws, ​namely: "That before endeavoring to explain how phenomena exist it is necessary to determine precisely what exists; and that so long as it is possible to find a rational explanation of what unquestionably is, there is no reason to suspect, and it is superstition to assume, the operation of supernatural causes." His course, therefore, is to ascertain the facts and find a common-sense explanation for them. In investigating phenomena, some of which it is claimed are connected with religion and others with occult forces, it is necessary to proceed without regard to the question of religion. We look more closely at the chapters on Faith-healing and Christian Science and the Mind Cure as relating to the most vital subjects. In questions of faith-healing allowances must be made for the operation of natural causes, unobserved or concealed, for the excited minds of witnesses, and for other circumstances that mask the real facts; but, after all deductions have been made, the author believes it must be admitted that "most extraordinary recoveries have been produced, some of them instantaneously, from diseases in general considered incurable by ordinary treatment, in others known to be curable in the ordinary process of medicine and surgery." The cases remaining to be accounted for are those in which the effect is unquestionably produced by a natural mental cause, and those in which the operation of occult causes is claimed. In these cases, of both classes, subjective mental states are important factors. With or without belief they can produce effects either of the nature of disease or cure. Active incredulity is often more favorable to sudden effects than mere stupid, acquiescent credulity. Surprise at seeing an unexpected effect may lead the mind to succumb to the dominant idea. Concentrated attention, with faith, can produce powerful effects; may operate efficiently in acute diseases, with instantaneous rapidity upon nervous diseases, or upon any condition capable of being modified by direct action through the nervous or circulatory system. Cures may be wrought in diseases of accumulation with surprising rapidity where the increased action of the various excretory functions can eliminate morbid growth. Certain inflammatory conditions may suddenly disappear under similar mental states, so as to admit of helpful exercise; which exercise, by its effect upon the circulation, and through it upon the nutrition of diseased parts, may produce a permanent cure. The mind cure, apart from the absurdities associated with it, and from its repudiation of medicine, has a basis in the laws of Nature. The pretense of mystery, however, is either honest ignorance or consummate quackery. All the practitioners are unable to dispense with surgery where the case is at all complex and mechanical adjustments are necessary, and they can not restore a lost member; but in certain displacements of internal organs the consequence of nervous debility, which are sometimes aided by surgery, they sometimes succeed by developing latent energy through mental stimulus. The claims of Christian faith-healers to supernatural powers are discredited by facts which are cited; and faith cure, technically so called, as now held by many Protestants, is pronounced "a pitiable superstition, dangerous in its final effect." It is harmful because it tends to produce an effeminate type of character which shrinks from pain, and to concentrate attention upon self and its sensations. It sets up false grounds for determining whether a person is or is not in favor with God; it opens the door to every superstition. Practically it gives support to other delusions which claim a supernatural element. It diminishes the influence of Christianity by subjecting it to a false and inconclusive test; diverts attention from the moral and spiritual transformation which Christianity professes to work; destroys the ascendency of reason; and irresistibly tends, in some minds, to mental derangement. "Little hope exists of freeing those already entangled, but it is highly important to prevent others from falling into so plausible and luxurious a snare, and to show that Christianity is not to be held responsible for aberrations of the imagination, which belong exclusively to no race, clime, age, party, or creed." The relation of the mind-cure movement to ordinary medical practice. Dr. Buckley concludes, is important. "It emphasizes what the most philosophical physicians of all schools have always deemed of the first importance, though many have neglected it. It teaches that medicine is but occasionally necessary. It hastens the time when patients of ​discrimination will rather pay more for advice how to live and for frank declarations that they do not need medicine than for drugs. It promotes general reliance upon those processes which go on equally in health and disease. But these ethereal practitioners have no new force to offer; there is no causal connection between their cures and their theories.…Recoveries as remarkable have been occurring through all the ages as the results of mental states and Nature's own powers."
A Dictionary of Terms used in Medicine and the Collateral Sciences. By the late Richard D. Hoblyn, M. A. Oxon. Twelfth edition. Revised throughout, with numerous Additions, by John A. B. Price, B. A., M. D., Oxon. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 822. Price, $2.25.
The appearance of the twelfth edition of this dictionary, with revisions and additions, which include even the terms used in the very modern science of bacteriology and bring the book fully up to date, places a useful work at the disposal of physicians and students. It is, of course, not exhaustive; but it contains descriptions of all the ordinary terms relating to medicine, and these, although necessarily brief, are full enough for all practical purposes. Under the head of poisons, eight or nine pages are devoted to a classification of the commoner ones, in which the symptoms and most approved methods of treatment are given.
Its small size and good print make the contents of the volume readily accessible, and the names on the title-page are sufficient guarantees of accuracy.
A Manual of Practical Medical and Physiological Chemistry. By Charles E. Pellew, E. M. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 314. Price, $2.50.
With the recent attempts to regulate the conferring of medical degrees by means of State legislation has come a tendency in the more prosperous medical schools to make their curriculums even more extended than the law requires. One of the most important innovations in this line has been the incorporation into the regular courses of a system of laboratory work, by means of which each student is given facilities for the actual chemical and microscopic study of the proximate principles, the elements entering into the composition of the human body and its secretions, and the reactions and histological characteristics produced by various pathological conditions, which are of value in diagnosis. The study of these subjects, in a practical way, has until quite recently been confined, in this country at any rate, to a few physiologists and post-graduate workers, so that an elementary text-book suited to less practiced students became a necessity. Mr. Pellew's book was designed to fill this need. Its treatment of the subject is neither original nor exhaustive, but it is very well adapted to the use of elementary students. It is printed on heavy paper, and contains several well-prepared plates and numerous line drawings.
Ethnographische Beschrijving van de West en Noordkust van Nederlandsch Nieuw-Guinea (Ethnographical Description of the Western and Northwestern Coasts of Dutch New Guinea). By F. S. A. de Clercq and J. D. E. Schmeltz. One vol., 4to, pp. 300, plates xlii. Leyden: P. W. M. Trap.
This magnificent work describes the collections made by Mr. F. S. A. de Clercq in New Guinea in the years 1887 and 1888, which are now in the Royal Ethnographic Museum at Leyden, Holland. The descriptive portion of the work is mainly by Dr. J. D. E. Schmeltz, conservator of the museum. The book is a model of its kind. It is furnished with a full list of all authorities quoted, a list of all places mentioned, an excellent map, and admirable indices—all necessary, but, unfortunately, often omitted in ethnographic writings.
The main portion of the work is divided into three parts. In the first we have a description of each object—size, form, material, details, and provenance—with references to passages in any author where similar objects have been described or illustrated. Where necessary for comparison or illustration, sketches are introduced into the text. The objects described are divided into five groups: a, dress and adornment; b, houses and domestic utensils; c, objects used in trade, fishing, etc.; d, weapons; e, objects used on festal occasions, ceremonies, etc. The plates, more than forty in number and mostly colored, represent the objects ​described admirably. Among some of the more striking and interesting may be mentioned handsome headdresses of feathers, ear decorations of tortoiseshell, boar-tusk and red-bean breastplates, stone pounders for sago, paddles, drums, spears barbed along both edges, narrow shields elaborately decorated with carving and color, quaint carved figures, and wooden headrests or pillows. Two plates are devoted to portraits showing hairdressing, tattooing, and face ornaments. The coloring of the plates is done in Trap's best style. The second part of the work is a study in geographical distribution of the objects. A brief ethnographic sketch of New Guinea (based on Serrurier's classification) is presented. Four tables are then given in which the distribution of each type of objects is shown, and the fact is made plain that there are distinct areas of culture in the great island. A study of some ten pages follows upon the relationships shown by the ornamentation of the various objects. In 1884 Tan Rye prepared a complete bibliography of New Guinea; in Part in of this work Dr. Schmeltz completes this to the present date.
Messrs. de Clercq and Schmeltz are to be congratulated upon their work. The Netherlands Government is also to be greatly commended for the encouragement and aid which it has given to its publication. Public interest in ethnography is keen and intelligent in Holland.
Geological Survey of Missouri. Vol. II: A Report on the Iron Ores of Missouri. Pp. 365. By Frank L. Nason, Assistant Geologist. Also Vol. III: A Report on the Mineral Waters of Missouri. Pp. 256. By Paul Schweitzer, Assistant Geologist. Published by the Geological Survey, Jefferson City, 1892.
These volumes, which are issued by Arthur Winslow, State Geologist, are exhaustive treatises upon the subjects of their titles. Mr. Nason complains in his preface that the lack of railroads and good public roads made the survey difficult; but, nevertheless, his patient work, assisted by the cooperation of the intelligent citizens of the iron-ore districts, enabled him to compile a most interesting as well as valuable report.
In Chapter X of the Report on the Mineral Waters of Missouri Prof. Schweitzer makes some very interesting comparisons between the domestic waters and the mineral waters of Europe, which will be read with profit by those engaged in the merchandising of the Missouri waters. In these comparisons, the author was largely assisted by the observations of Prof. Arthur Winslow. Both volumes are elaborately illustrated. Embodied with Vol. III is a very useful appendix, containing a bibliography of mineral waters, chronologically arranged.
The Mound-Builders: their Works and Relics. By Rev. Stephen D. Peet, Ph. D. Vol. I, illustrated. Chicago: Office of the American Antiquarian. Pp. 370.
Dr. Peet claims that man's first appearance on the American continent was not contemporaneous with but toward the close of the Glacial period—about ten thousand years ago. As to the appearance of this prehistoric individual he quotes other students of the subject to prove that the great French archaeologist is in error when he claims that man, immediately after the Glacial period, was "of great stature." His research enables him to corroborate Dr. Thomas Wilson's summing up of the characteristics of palæolithic man, viz., "He was of short stature and strong of limb."
The author says, in his first chapter, that "In Great Britain. . . we go back of the Celts and Saxons to find the Britons and the Basques, who were comparatively modern." This is an error. Authentic records prove that not only were the Celts pre-Briton, but that the nomenclature of England was derived from the Celts of Ireland and Scotland, and was, at that time, precisely similar.
The chapter entitled The Stone Grave People is of important interest. In this the author devotes several pages to an analysis of the mound-building theory as it applies to America; and from the specimens of pottery that have been taken from the stone graves he builds a probable and interesting presumption of the facial characteristics of the prehistoric dwellers on this continent. In another chapter he seems to recede from his contention that the first appearance of man in America was after the Glacial period; for he accounts for the scarcity of images, etc., in the South by the assumption that during the dissolution of the glacial ​formation the mastodon retreated northward, and man—"the hunters"—followed.
The chapters on the Migrations, Village Life, and Defensive Works of the Moundbuilders will be read with considerable pleasure and benefit by archæological students. Dr. Peet has given the results of his research in a style that will be acceptable even to non-students. The work is profusely illustrated.
Practical Pocket-book of Photography. By Dr. E. Vogel. Translated by E. C. Conrad, F. C. S. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1893. Pp. 202. Price, $1.
Photography now exerts such an influence upon current literature and general events that a handbook such as that which Dr. Vogel has produced is not alone timely, but useful. One of the great difficulties under which beginners in the art bi photography labor is the fact that the formulas and instructions in most guides are too many, too complex, and too incomplete. In this little volume the author has selected only the simplest and best formulas for developers, intensifiers, etc., all of which have been accepted and are used by the professors of the Royal Technical High School of Berlin.
The first chapter is devoted to an examination of the different photographic apparatus in vogue among German experts, and contains also some very useful information on photographic objectives, or the combinations of lenses that are capable of giving an optical image. Instantaneous photography is also treated in this chapter, and some simple rules by which exposures should be determined will be read with profit by both amateur and professional photographers. Among the formulas for developers, the author draws attention to a new and concentrated para-amidophenol developer, which, under the name of "rodinal," has been introduced by the Aktiengesellschaft für Anilinfabrikation. This developer only needs dilution with water to be ready for use, and "is especially excellent for instantaneous photographs."
In the fifth part of Chapter IV, Dr. Vogel gives some very simple instructions for the recovery of silver from residues, which will be useful for those who use developers, intensifying baths, etc., in large quantities. The fifth chapter is devoted to the positive processes, which are examined in brief detail. The book is illustrated fully, and the selection of cuts and diagrams is admirably suited to the subject matter. The translator has added some important foot-notes to the general text, which was evidently written for the use of German students by Dr. Vogel.
Mineral Springs and Health Resorts of California. By Winslow Anderson, M. D. San Francisco: The Bancroft Company. 1892. Pp. 384.
Having regard to the value of the investigation of balneotherapy and the scientific internal administration of mineral waters, which has gone on with great benefit in Europe for centuries. Dr. Anderson, believing that California possessed valuable mineral springs, spent several years examining and comparing the waters of that State, and gives the result of his labors in this work. It is a perfect revelation of the mineral waters of California, and apparently leaves nothing unsaid either as to their efficacy as health restorers or of their comparative value against well-known European mineral waters. Although the greater part of the work is devoted to an exhaustive analytical examination of the waters, a fund of useful information is added on the ancient uses of mineral springs, their classification, and the theory of their origin, with the therapeutics or medicinal uses of the different waters. The book is profusely illustrated with cuts of the mineral springs and of California's most famous health resorts.
Elementary Text-book of Entomology. By W. F. Kirby, T. L. S. Second edition. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1892. Pp.281. Price, $3.
This work is elaborately got up, containing eighty-seven plates and over six hundred and fifty figures, representing a pictorial library of the insect world. In his introduction Mr. Kirby gives an unusually lucid explanation of the structures and zoological nomenclature of the insect tribe, which he divides into four classes of animals having bodies composed of a number of joints or segments. He pays reverent tribute to the researches of Linné, who divided all the insects known ​to him into seven orders in his work Systema Naturæ (1735). Fabricius (a pupil of Linné) prepared a new classification of insects, founded on the structure of the mouth, and he renamed all the Linnæan orders, even where they coincided with his own.
From these and other sources Mr. Kirby selects only the nomenclature that is modernly accepted, and he gives a most interesting study in this volume. The chapters on the Hymenoptera class will be found to be of more zoölogical value than any account of the habits of bees, wasps, ants, etc., that has yet been published; and as this family is, industrially, of more consequence to the public than any other of the insect class, the selection of the Hymenoptera species for his most elaborate history is well chosen.
The analysis of the Lepidoptera family is treated very exhaustively. It comprises especially butterflies and moths, and the plates at the end of the book very fully illustrate the principal members of the species.
The Student's Handbook of Physical Geology. By A. J. Jukes-Brown, B. A., F. G. S. Second edition, revised. London: George Bell & Sons. 1892. Pp. 666. Price, $2.25.
This is a recast of Mr. Jukes-Browne's Handbook of Geology, to which he has added over one hundred pages, chiefly dealing with physiographical geology and the substructure of the earth's crust. He shows pretty clearly that, although physiographical geology is in the nature of an incidental study, it is nevertheless the most perfect basis upon which to form accurate geological beliefs, and he places this part of the work, very properly, immediately following the chapters on Dynamic and Structural Geology.
Perhaps the most interesting section of the work is that devoted to the underground circulation of waters. The mechanical effects of this subterranean water circulation are very important in geological research. In England and in many parts of the Continent and America they usually consist of landslips and cave formations; whereas in Ireland and in southern Germany the shell of land above the water is oftentimes "cracked," and, becoming detached from its moorings, travels a mile or two from its original location.
In the chapter on Igneous Rocks as Rock Masses, Mr. Jukes-Browne has given some highly interesting examinations of the porphyritic deposits of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, clearly indicating the volcanic structure of these countries. In dealing with the influence of earth movements, the author quotes Prof. Powell in connection with the probable system and time of the bed formation of Colorado, and he says: "All the facts concerning the relation of the waterways of this region to the mountains, hills, canons, etc., lead to the inevitable conclusion that the system of drainage was determined antecedently. . . to the formation of the eruptive beds (lavas) and (volcanic) cones." The work is profusely illustrated.
The Earth's History. An Introduction to Modern Geology. By R. D. Roberts, N. A. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1893. Pp. 270. Price, $1.50.
This is a useful little volume, giving an interesting sketch of the methods and chief results of geological inquiry; but the author errs, in the same manner that do most English scientists and writers of scientific English bibliology, inasmuch as that he assumes that "the geology of Great Britain is indeed, in epitome, the geology of the world." In his preface he says that although individual groups of rocks may be found developed on a grander scale in one or other of the continental areas, and that "particular scenic features, more majestic and impressive, may be found elsewhere; in no part of the world can so great a variety of geological phenomena (no doubt often in miniature), and so complete a system of natural agencies, either in active operation or displayed in their results, be observed than in Great Britain." The recent geological surveys of Arizona, California, and other American States had not apparently reached London when Mr. Roberts wrote his book, for in the ascertained stratigraphical conditions of these States we have a far more generous field for geological research than the well-ventilated analysis of British geological conditions can ever display. Nevertheless, the author has compiled a valuable text-book of preliminary examination of the study of geology, and in the chapters upon Aqueous Rocks and the Deposition in Past Times, and the Volcanic ​Action in Past Times, he has materially added to the existing literature upon geological research.
Three books in the series of English Classics for Schools, by the American Book Company, well illustrate the excellent idea on which the issue is based—which is that of presenting the best English books, of suitable size, with the accompaniment of full prefatory information concerning the subjects, environments, and authors of the works. The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers from the Spectator is introduced with an account of the Tatler, of which the Spectator was the direct outcome, and its characteristics, and biographical sketches of Addison, Steele, and Budgell, the authors of the Sir Roger de Coverley papers. To a similar edition of Sir Waller Scott's Marmion are prefixed a characterization of Scott's work in the poem, a description of the Scottish people of the time of the action, their customs and distinctions, an account of the significance of the battle of Flodden Field, and maps of the region and of the battle-ground. The Second Essay on the Earl of Chatham, by Lord Macaulay, is furnished with biographical sketches of the author and of William Pitt. These volumes are neat in appearance, moderate in price, and are suitable for the modest library as well as for the schoolroom.
Robinson's Arithmetics (American Book Company) have for many years had a wide use among the best American schools. In preparing new and revised editions, the object has been kept in view of retaining all the features which have contributed to their usefulness and popularity, and making only such changes as would add to their value and bring them up to date. In the Primary work, stress is laid upon teaching pupils to recognize numbers of objects before they are required to represent numbers by words or by figures. A valuable feature of the revision of the Rudiments consists in the addition of about forty pages of introductory exercises, of a general character, which adapt the book for use in a two-book series, in connection with the Practical Arithmetic, or it may be used without the introductory exercises, in a three-book series. The scheme of revision of the Practical Arithmetic has been rather one of judicious addition than of omission, and yet by an economical adjustment and by an occasional dropping out of useless matter it has been possible to add many valuable features and much new matter without materially increasing the size of the book. In the arrangement of subjects attention has been paid to placing those in sequence which run naturally and by easy stages into one another, and to giving early places to the most important and useful applications.
Ædeology, by Dr. Sydney Barrington Elliot, is devoted to the physiology, hygiene, etc., of the generative life of man. The volume is compiled from a great variety of sources, and is characterized by that vague generality of statement which appeals to a prurient curiosity without doing much for the enlightenment of the reader. Full and explicit instruction in the physiology of the generative system, suitably timed and adapted in the education of the young, would be of great service to society, and there is nothing in this class of publications that will take the place of it or approach it in value. (New York, St. Clair Publishing Co., 260 pages; price, $1.50.)
In the sixth edition of M. Foster's Textbook of Physiology, the appendix by Dr. A. Sheridan Lea, on The Chemical Basis of the Animal Body, is bound by itself as Part V (Macmillan, $1.75). It has been enlarged, and now constitutes a treatise on the chemical substances occurring in the animal body. The several classes of proteids are first described, after which the chemistry of the enzymes, or soluble unorganized ferments, is given. Certain amorphous bodies allied to proteids—mucin, gelatin, keratin, etc.—and the few carbohydrates found in the human body then receive attention. Other groups are the fatty acids and their allies, the amides and amido acids, the uric-acid group, the ptomaines, and the various coloring matters. Cuts showing the appearance of crystals of many of the substances described are scattered through the text, and the volume has a separate index and a list of authorities quoted.
A treatise on Varicocele and its Treatment has been prepared by Prof. G. Frank Lydston, M. D. (Keener). After a description of the disorder, its causes are reviewed, and ​various modes of treatment, palliative and radical, are set forth. The volume has an index and a bibliography. A number of cuts illustrate the appearance of diseased parts and methods of operation.
Studies in American History, by Prof. Mary Sheldon Barnes (Heath, 60 cents), is a teachers' manual, consisting of a series of outlines for lessons. It is designed to direct pupils in studying history from the original materials, and to that end gives lists of authorities, with critical comments, summaries of points to be made under each head, notes, suggestions, and references for the teacher's reading. The studies are divided into seven groups, one being introductory and the others covering the history of the territory occupied by the United States from Columbus to 1892. Machine teachers had better let this book alone; it is a tool they can not handle.
An Elementary Treatise on Trigonometry, by E. W. Hobson and C. M. Jessop, has been issued from the press of Cambridge University (Macmillan, $1.25). It is a book for beginners in its subject, and parts are indicated which students are advised to pass over until they have been once through it. A large number of problems are given, many of them practical, and the answers are put at the end of the volume.
Having received from Prof. Kükenthal for examination some specimens of Apus brought from Spitsbergen, Mr. Henry Meyners Bernard has made a study of the species and come to the conclusion that it is a variety of Lepidurus glacialis, which he proposes to call L. Spitzbergensis. His observations of this Apus form Part I of a book, The Apodidæ, which he has contributed to the Nature Series (Macmillan, $2). In Part I, also, he undertakes to prove that Apus is an original crustacean easily derivable from an annelid. Going on, in Part II, the author maintains that Apus is, moreover, the original of all the modern crustaceans.
The Heredity of Acquired Characters is the title of a paper by Dr. Manly Miles, Lansing, Mich., which was published in The Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The inheritance of acquired character has been denied by Weissman, who claims the "continuity of the germ plasma as originally formulated, and all inheritable variations are assumed to be the result of fortuitous changes in the reproductive germs." Dr. Miles claims that it is impossible that a living substance, undergoing constant changes, can be "a substance of extreme stability" to "grow enormously without the least change in its molecular structure," as advanced in Weissman's theory, and he adds that the fact of the germ plasma being brought into intimate relations with the metabolism of the body plasma, the habits of the organism in modifying the general metabolism of the body must also exert an influence on the system of the germ cells, and, through their constantly changing substance, on the forms of activity that are transmitted from one generation to another. From Dr. Miles's standpoint it is an almost impossible supposition that from two germs of identical qualities and tendencies, two adult forms could be evolved, precisely alike in every detail. To arrive at such a perfect reproduction it would be necessary to have the same series of anastates in the constructive processes of every organ, and the same destructive metabolism throughout the entire period of growth, which, of course, could very rarely occur in the surrounding conditions of two individuals; but he admits that the repetition of an acquired habit for several generations, uniformly transmitted, might establish a dominant, inherited family characteristic.