The Portland daily press., 1875-05-22
Recent Publications.


Brown Blackwell. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons For sale by Lorug, Short & Harmon.
This work embraces five essays on the follow
ing subjects: Sex and Evolution; Sex and
Work; The Alleged Antagouism between
Growth and Reproduction The Building of
Brain; and the Trial by Science. The author
thus clearly states the fundamental idea Of the
book: "It is the central theory of the present
volume that the sexes in each species of beings
compared upon the same plane, from the lowest
to the highest, are always true eQui0a,ents-
equals but not identicals in development and
in relative amounts of all normal force" the
object of the first essay is to prove, by a study
of the sexes from the lowest organization in
which sex appears, up to the highest, that in
species, or in large number of individuals, the
aggregate force of females is equal to the ag-
eregate force of males. For she says if they are
not equal and natural selection has, since the
origin of sex, tended to make the male the
stronger, where will this inequality end? In the
total destruction of the race. For great inequal-
ity,in the parents produce unstable equilibrium
of forces in the offspring, which makes the off
spring much more liable to disease and death :;
and this tendency, constantly increasing, must
lead to total .annihilation of both sexes.
Stable equilibrium, therefore, is necessary for
the continuance of race of beings, and this
stability can be obtained only by equality of
the genetic elements. Having proved a priori
that the sexes must be equal, the author now
appeals to facts to bear out her conclusions. AS
a proof that the greater size of males among
higher animals cannot be taken: as an indica-
poEt tba NJ ;fu IF tLa ola
reminded that in some classes of animals the
males are not the larger and stronger, some-
times even, they are mere specks, parasites on
the larger and more active female. Reptiles
and all animals below them are an exception
to what we generally consider the rule, viz. that
the male is the larger. In these lower animals
the structural difference between the sexes is
very slight. When we go up higher and find
the male becoming the larger we also find the
structure of the female becoming more complex
relatively: that is, the sexes become more wide
ly differentiated, structurally smaller size is
equalized by complexity of structure; greater
strength and activity in males find their equiv
alent in greater parental love and direct nurture
of offspring in females Thus we are led on
through all the characteristics of living beings
till we come to man, to prove the equivalence
of the sexes in whom, is the ultimate OBJ
ject of the essay In addition to the
equivalences already established,are added sew
eral peculiar to human beings, that the more
aggressive and constructive intellect of the
male If balanced by higher intellectual in
sight, combined with greater facility in cop
ing with details and reducing them to harmoni =
adj iuatn pt in tha fap, nd hat NOR
ais, unlike practical virtues and vices and va
ried moral perceptions must still be regarded
as scientific equivalents. That the author does
not regard the sexes Identical in attributes, is
evident when she says that the ditferentiations
of male and female extend to all characteristics,
physiological and psychological. The fundamen-
tai ideas of this essay extend throus b the 9TH
ers, leading the author to condemn strongly
DR.. Clarke's standpoint in sex in Educa-
tion," but to approve the modified views he
puts forth in Building Brain" To those
who were discouraged by the gloomy picture of
| woman's physiological position which DR..
Clarke drew in Sex IN Education" and to
those who doubted the trnthfulness of it, this
| book will be ray of light, at least; for wom-
| ans word on these subjects, must have more
| weight than that Of man of equal ability.
| THE HISTORY OF LAWYERS, ANCIENT AND MOD
ERN. By William Forsyth author Of "History Of
Trial by jury, "Ife of Cicero etc, with ilustra-
tions. Boston: Estes s. Lauriat, 143 Washington
street. For sale by Dresser, Mcclellan & Co.
The history of lawyers worthily written
| would fill many volumes the size of this. 1t
would be history of great events which the
| world would gladly remember and to which
the world owes the largest part of the liberties
| it now enjoys. 1t would contain stories OF up
| rightness under strong temptation, of sef-Sac'
| rifce, of high honor, of courage in danger, of
love of liberty unquenched by age and of integ-
rity undisturbed by the scaffold. 1t would tell
of Papinan, who, when the Emperor Claudus
| had murdered his own brother, went to his
death rather than defend the deed, of Males
herbes, whose seventy years and the sure pros
pect of the ignominous death which followed
only four months later, did not prevent from
defending in misfortune the Royal Master
| whose favors he had received in more prosper
Gus times; and of Coke, whose eighty years of
wisdom and honor, coupled with his unfinch
| ing courage, made him the mainstay of Eng
lish liberty in the Commons House of Parlia-
| ment Nor would it forget to tell Of that lofty
occasion when John Quincy Adams, an old
man. full of honors as of years, revisited the
haf-forgotten scenes of former trumphs to
| plead before the highest tribunal of his country
for the liberty of the Amistad Slaves II would
show that the very technicalities which in
criminal law sometimes defeat justice were
but struggles made against cruelty by honest
judges and lawyers whose humanity and sense
revolted against the barbarous enactments OF
legislators If woman or man were to be
hung for stealing five shillings it was no. in
human nature not to make 1t as difficult for