of Politics, Prof. _Woodrow Wilson_ has taken a comprehensive view.
Designing a book for study and instruction, he has sought to set forth
the evolution of existing systems of government from the beginning.
Possessing no model, no text-book of like scope and purpose having
apparently hitherto been attempted, he has had to make his own type;
and, in the absence of anything else to refer the student to, has been
obliged to include much that might otherwise have been omitted. The
volume is consequently large; but this disadvantage, if it be one, is
compensated for by the fact that the student has the whole subject
before him. For his descriptions the author has chosen governments
which are types of their several kinds. An indispensable prerequisite
to studies of things of this sort is a knowledge of the constitutions
of the states of classical antiquity; hence the institutions of Greece
and Rome are studied: Greece, which furnished the spirit and inspiration
under which the world has advanced; and Rome, which laid the foundations
of modern jurisprudence. Before these, even, a glance at The Earliest
Forms of Government, their Origin and Evolution, was required. Then,
coming to modern systems, which are also traced in their historical
development, "the government of France serves excellently as an example
of a unitary government of one kind, and Great Britain equally well as
an example of a unitary government of another kind; Germany exhibits a
federal empire, Switzerland a federal republic of one sort, the United
States a federal republic of another; Austria-Hungary and Sweden-Norway
show the only two existing European types of dual monarchies." Russia
might have been presented as having a place apart in European politics,
but the book was full. The work has been prepared in the belief that
"our own institutions can be understood and appreciated only by those
who know other systems of government as well and the main facts of
general institutional history." The accounts of the particular systems
of government are followed by short chapters on the Nature and Forms
of Government; Law, its Nature and Development; the functions and
the objects of government; and summaries, in which the conclusion is
expressed that law grows with the growth of the community, can not leap
too far ahead of it, and must not lag behind it; and that "the method
of political development is conservative adaptation, shaping old habits
into new ones, modifying old means to accomplish new ends."
* * * * *
Mr. _H. E. Parkhurst_ has made in his _How to Name the Birds_[22] a
book on a different plan from the other books about birds that are
now appearing so abundantly--not to rival them, but to serve as an
introduction to their more general use. It is intended to aid the
field ornithologist in determining an unknown species, by calling his
attention to their more obvious features and those more distinguishable
from a distance than those which observers using the ordinary bird books
have to depend on as a means of recognition. Color is chiefly relied
upon, and, as a further means of finding the birds, they are grouped
by the seasons, when they may be seen in a given locality--the summer,
winter, migrant, and permanent birds, and birds of prey. The first four
groups are subgrouped according to color, and the larger color groups
are further subdivided. Other devices and signs are contrived, so that
a complete description of the bird, as it will appear to the amateur
watching it from a little way off, is given in three or four lines.
To this a brief comment is added regarding the nesting and habits of
the bird. These descriptions are preceded by an analytical key similar
to the botanical keys; and the study is aided by giving three pages
of diagrams illustrating the distinctive areas of the bird's body, to
which reference is made in describing the colors, stripes, and spots.
The list comprises only those birds that are normally found within the
territory described in the title as regular summer or winter visitants,
as migrants, or as permanent species.
* * * * *
A very important contribution to the economy of city administration is
the quarterly _Supplement to Municipal Affairs_, June, 1898, in which
the late superintendent of street cleaning in the city of New York,
_George E. Waring_, Jr., presents his observations on street-cleaning
methods in European cities, and general reports of his own work in
that line. The observations in Europe, made in the summer of 1896, in
a special study of the subject, for the information and improvement
of Mr. Waring's own department, include accounts of the conditions as
to cleanliness and the methods of doing the work in Vienna, Budapest,
Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Brussels, London, Birmingham, Paris, Turin, and
Genoa. Mr. Waring finds that the regulations under which the streets are
really kept clean in those cities are no better than ours; "but there is
the immense difference that in Europe laws and ordinances mean something
and are executed, while here they are treated as mere matters of form."
The reports of Mr. Waring's own work in New York embrace a review of the
general operations of the department, the report of the snow inspector,
and an account of the highly successful plan for the adjustment of labor
questions instituted by Mr. Waring.
Mr. _Lauros G. McConachie_, in the study and development of legislative
methods which he publishes under the title of _Congressional Committees_
(T. Y. Crowell & Co., New York, $1.75), assumes that a complete
breakdown of parliamentary machinery took place on the floors of
Congress under the sudden and vast augmentation of legislative burdens
which our senators and representatives had to confront after the civil
war. Two schools of reformers came to the front, one of which held up
the British parliamentary system as a model and directed attention
abroad in the search for light; while the other stood up for the
defense of American legislative methods as developments of American
political conditions. The author has sought a mean between these
schools, and has tried to glean from contemporary debates, memoirs,
newspapers, and other records the reasons assigned for each innovation
as it has entered and enlarged the codes, and has taken the testimony of
contemporary legislators upon the conditions prevailing in successive
stages in the history of the national House and Senate. Among the
lessons presented by the book are those of the tremendous power wielded
by the speaker of the House of Representatives and of "other anomalies
in a supposed elective folk congress."
* * * * *
_Whittaker's Mechanical Engineer's Pocket Book_, prepared by _Philip
R. Björling_, if it does not contain everything, contains a great many
facts and formulas concerning matters on which the mechanician is often
called upon to seek immediate information, a considerable proportion
of which are not easily subject to systematic classification. Among
the one hundred and thirty formulas and processes are those relating
to the flow and force of water and wind, the pressure of gases and
the air, the weight, proportions, and strength of parts of machinery;
stresses, rate of delivery of elevators, etc., gauges, tables of areas
and circumferences, squares, cubes, fourth and fifth powers and roots,
and items which can be indicated only by viewing them in detail. It is
a valuable and indispensable companion for the mechanical engineer. The
Macmillan Company. Price, $1.75.
* * * * *
_M. J. Costantin_ conceives that science consists in something more
than the mere accumulation, description, and classification of facts,
with which too many persons confound it, and that the important thing
is what the facts teach, and, as related to it or as what may help to
find it out, the theories that may be deduced from them. He applies
this principle to the evolution of plant life in his book _Les Végétaux
et les Milieux Cosmiques_ (Plants and Cosmic Media)--adaptative
evolution, which is essentially a study of the operation of the various
material factors of the environment on growth and development. "Guided
by Goethe's ideas, he invites us to witness the incessant variations
of organized existence everywhere visible in Nature," under the
influence of cold and heat, light, gravity, and the aquatic medium,
hoping in these studies to find new and decisive arguments in favor of
transformist conceptions. He aims to show how the new characteristics
produced by changes in the influence of these factors to which
plants are subjected may be fixed and gradually become hereditary.
(Published by Félix Alcan, Paris, in the _Bibliothèque Scientifique
Internationale_.)
* * * * *
Mr. _A. G. Elliot's_ little work on _Industrial Electricity_--a
translation and adaptation from the French of Henry D. Graffigny--is the
first and introductory volume of an electro-mechanical series published
by Whittaker & Co., London, and the Macmillan Company, New York. The
editor, in introducing the volumes, expresses the belief that there is
room for them because they explain in very clear and non-mathematical
language the many and various applications of electricity. Many thousand
copies of the original French editions have been sold. The present
volume is divided into short chapters, each dealing with a separate
branch of practical electricity-its nature, the units, magnetism and
induction, practical measurement, chemical generators, accumulators,
dynamo-electric machinery, electric light, electricity as a motive
power, electric chemistry and electro-plating, bells and telephones, and
telegraphs. In the succeeding volumes of the series the more important
branches of the subjects touched upon here will be treated separately
and in detail.
* * * * *
_Franklin Story Conant_ was born in Boston in 1870; was educated in the
public schools of New England, at the University of South Carolina, and
at Williams College; and was a Doctor of Philosophy, Fellow, and Adam
T. Bruce Fellow in Johns Hopkins University. He showed great appetency
for biological investigation and devoted himself to it, at Baltimore,
Beaufort, N. C., Wood's Hole, and in Jamaica. He published a few papers
of mark, and would have published many more if he had lived. He went
to Jamaica in June, 1897, to continue his investigations, and worked
for nearly three months on the development and on the physiology of the
sense organs of the _Cubomedusæ_. After the death of the director of
the expedition, Dr. J. E. Humphrey, he took the burden upon himself, and
labored faithfully till he contracted yellow fever; returned to Boston,
and died there September 13, 1897. His associates of Johns Hopkins
University have published as a memorial volume of him his dissertation
on _The Cubomedusæ_, which he presented at the examination for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in June, 1897, accompanied by a brief
notice of his life and a portrait.
* * * * *
_Frederick H. Ripley_ and _Thomas Tapper_, authors of the Natural Music
Course, have arranged _A Short Course in Music_, consisting of two
books, for use in schools in which the more complete course is deemed
unnecessary or impracticable. In both books familiar songs are made the
basis of elementary music instruction. In these songs the compositions
of the best song writers are represented. Exercises in two and three
parts in simple form are included in the course. A brief summary of
elementary theory is inserted in the appendix. Few definitions are
given, the thought of the learner being so directed as to render them
either unnecessary or obvious. In the cultivation of tone and expression
the authors insist that it is the mind rather than the vocal organs that
at first needs attention. "If the pupil hears the ideal tone he will
almost instinctively imitate it." A number of portraits of composers are
given in connection with the songs. (American Book Company. Price, 35
cents.)
* * * * *
Mr. _Alfred Still_, believing that there was still room for a small
book in which the principles determining the behavior of single-phase
alternating currents under various conditions should be considered less
from the point of view of the man of science than from that of the
engineer, offers _Alternating Currents of Electricity and the Theory of
Transformers_ for the place. The book has been written, not only for
engineering students, but also for those engineers who, while having
extensive practical knowledge of the subject, are yet anxious to get a
correct elementary idea of the leading principles involved. Graphical
methods are used throughout, and the introduction of mathematics has
been carefully avoided. (Published by Whittaker & Co., London; The
Macmillan Company, New York. Price, $1.50.)
* * * * *
A paper by _A. B. Stickney_, president of the Chicago Great Western
Railway Company, on _The Currency Problems of the United States in
1897-'98_, takes the ground that currency is the creature of commerce;
that legislation has nothing to do with it; that its problems are purely
economical; and that the only thing that can be done for it is to
improve the machinery of exchanges.
* * * * *
A valuable and useful publication is New York _State Library Bulletin,
Legislation, No. 9_, containing a summary of legislation by States in
1897. This is the eighth annual number of the series, and its purpose is
to show at a glance what laws have been passed by States on any subject,
except those of purely local interest. The summaries, though concise,
so well cover the principal points of the laws cited that consultation
of the text of the laws may often be dispensed with. Constitutional
amendments receive special treatment. The references in the present
bulletin cover thirty-six States and three Territories.
* * * * *
Two memoirs, published under one cover by the Peabody Institute of
American Archæology and Ethnology, relate to explorations by _George
Byron Gordon_ in two districts of Honduras, affording relics different
in character. The work at the ruins of Copan having been suspended
during 1896 and 1897 by some act of the Government of Honduras, Mr.
Gordon had to turn his attention elsewhere, to explorations the
results of which are given under the titles of _Researches in the Uloa
Valley_ and _Caverns of Copan, Honduras_. The investigations in the
Uloa Valley afforded a rich fund of objects of interest and of novel
character--pottery adorned with elaborate and remarkably artistic
designs, stone images, whistles, terra-cotta stamps, and only one idol.
Human remains, of the most meager description, in connection with the
pottery furnish reasonable evidence of burial places, but, being only
crumbling fragments of bone, are too minute to supply any information
respecting the form of burials or the relative position of the objects
associated with them. The conclusions are drawn that the valley was
at one time well populated, but not for any length of time occupied
by the people whose ruined buildings of stone are found in the region
up to southern Mexico, and that it was visited by several distinct
peoples in ancient times. Some mounds covered with stone were discovered
which deserve further investigation. Five caves of different size and
character, described in the second memoir, were explored near Copan,
and afforded objects peculiar to themselves and evidences of sepulture.
They were very dusty, although stalactites had formed in some of them,
and, although undoubtedly used by man many centuries ago, they do not
seem to indicate a constant occupation for an extended period of time,
or to furnish evidence of an extreme antiquity of man in the region.
The most striking feature about them is probably the entire difference
in character of the pottery from that found at Copan, only a few miles
away, and its want of resemblance with the pottery of any other locality
with which the author is familiar.
* * * * *
A series of Bulletins, _Some Miscellaneous Results of the Work of the
Division of Entomology_, of the United States Department of Agriculture,
is intended to furnish such material as was formerly published in Insect
Life, presenting the results of observations made in the office of the
bureau which are not extensive enough upon any one topic to form an
independent and complete bulletin. The second number contains notices by
different authors, mostly connected with the bureau, on twelve insects
predatory on economical plants, with numerous "general notes" and
correspondence.
* * * * *
_Under the Stars, and Other Verses_, is a small collection of ballads,
relating chiefly to naval fights, by _Wallace Rice_ and _Barrett
Eastman_, published by Way & Williams, Chicago. It is dedicated "to
the wider patriotism," and appears well adapted to inflame the martial
spirit, which is in this country already excited to an extremely
unhealthy extent.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. Cornell
University: No. 150. Tuberculosis in Cattle and its Control. By James
Law. Pp. 30; No. 151: Gravity or Dilution Separators. By H. H. Wing.
Pp. 12--Purdue University: No. 72. Field Experiments with Wheat. Pp.
12.--United States Department of Agriculture. Biological: No. 9. Cuckoos
and Shrikes in their Relation to Agriculture. By F. E. L. Beal and S. D.
Judd. Pp. 26: No. 10. Life Zones and Crop Zones of the United States. By
C. Hart Merriam. Pp. 79; No. 11. The Geographic Distribution of Cereals
in North America. By C. S. Plumb. Pp. 24; Botany: No. 20. Principal
Poisonous Plants in the United States. By V. K. Chesnut. Pp. 60.
Alexander, Archibald. Theories of the Will in the History of Philosophy.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 353. $1.50.
Allen, Alfred H., and Leffmann, Henry. Commercial Organic Analysis.
Third edition. Vol. I. Philadelphia: Blakiston's Son & Co. Pp. 557.
$4.50.
Babbler, The. Semimonthly. June and July, 1898. New York: E. Rock, 406
Fourth Avenue. Pp. 8. 10 cents. $2 a year.
Baillière, J. B., et Fils, 19 Rue Hautefeuille, Paris. Revue
Mensuelle de Bibliographie Scientifique (Monthly Review of Scientific
Bibliography), August, 1898. Pp. 20.
Carter, J. M. G. Advances in the Domain of Preventive Medicine.
Waukegan, Ill. Pp. 13.
Chemical Publishing Company, Easton, Pa. Catalogue. Pp. 26.
Columbia University Bulletin, June, 1898. Pp. 102, with plate.
Creighton, J. E. An Introductory Logic. New York: The Macmillan Company.
Pp. 392. $1.10.
Drake, N. F. A Geological Reconnaissance of the Coal Fields of the
Indian Territory. Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Palo Alto, Cal. Pp.
96.
Fitz-Maurice-Kelly, James. A History of Spanish Literature. New York: D.
Appleton and Company. (Literature of the World Series.) Pp. 423. $1.50.
Holden, Edward S. The Earth and Sky. A Primer of Astronomy for Young
Readers. (Appletons' Home-Reading Series.) New York: D. Appleton and
Company. Pp. 76, with plates. 28 cents.
Hering, Rudolph, New York. Dilution Process of Sewage Disposal. Pp.
9.--Bacterial Processes of Sewage Disposal. Pp. 14.
Industrialist, The. Ten times a year. June, 1898. Kansas State
Agricultural College, Manhattan. Pp. 80. $1 a year.
Iowa Geological Survey, Vol. VIII. Annual Report for 1897, etc. Samuel
Calvin, State Geologist. Pp.427.
Japan-American Commercial Journal. Monthly. Tokyo (Japan) Commercial and
Industrial Association. (English and Japanese.) Pp. 80.
Jordan, David Starr. Lest we Forget (address to graduating class). Pp.
36.--Description of a Species of Fish (Mitsukurina owsteni) from Japan,
the Type of a Distinct Family of Lamnoid Sharks. Pp. 8, with plates.
Kindergarten. The, Review. Monthly. Springfield, Mass.: Milton Bradley
Company. Pp. 64. $2 a year.
Lambert, P. A. Differential and Integral Calculus; for Technical Schools
and College. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp.245. $1.50.
Luce, W. B., Hingham Centre, Mass. Kites and Experiments in Aërial
Photography. Pp.32. 25 cents.
MacCurdy, George Grant, and Mohiliansky, Nicolas. Indices Ponderaux du
Crane (Weight Indices of the Brain). Paris. Pp. 16.
MacClure, Theodore R. A Quarter-Century of Public Health Work in
Michigan. Lansing. Pp. 48.
Mivart, St. George. The Groundwork of Science. A Study of Epistemology.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.328. $1.75.
Musick, John R. Lights and Shadows of our War with Spain. New York: J.
S. Ogilvie Publishing Company. Pp. 224.
Muter, John. A Short Manual of Analytical Chemistry, Qualitative
and Quantitative--Inorganic and Organic. Second American edition.
Philadelphia: Blakiston's Son & Co. Pp. 228. $1.25.
New Jersey, Geological Survey of. Annual Report of the State Geologist
for 1897. Pp. 368.
New World, The. A Quarterly Review of Religion, Ethics, and Theology.
September, 1898. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 200. 75 cents. $3 a
year.
New York State College of Forestry at Cornell University. Announcement.
Pp. 40.
Shufeldt, Dr. R. W. On the Alternation of Sex in a Brood of Young
Sparrowhawks. Pp. 4.
Smith. William B. Infinitesimal Analysis. Vol. I. Elementary; Real
Variables. New York. The Macmillan Company. Pp. 852. $3.25.
Thomson, J. J. The Discharge of Electricity through Gases. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp.203. $1.
University of Tennessee Record. Knoxville. Pp.80.
Venable, F. P., and Howe, J. L. Inorganic Chemistry according to the
Periodic Law. Easton, Pa.: The Chemical Publishing Company. Pp.266.
$1.50.
Wilson, L. L. W. History Reader for Elementary Schools. New York: The
Macmillan Company. Pp. 403. 60 cents.
Wright, Mabel Osgood, and Chapman, Frank M. Four-footed Americans and
their Kin. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 432. $1.50.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] Practical Plant Physiology. An Introduction to Original Research
for Students and Teachers of Natural Science, Medicine, Agriculture, and
Forestry. By Dr. W. Detmer. Translated from the second German edition
by S. A. Moor. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New York: The Macmillan
Company. Pp. 555. Price, $3.
[16] The Sphere of Science. By Frank Sargent Hoffman, Ph. D. New York:
G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 268. Price, $1.50.
[17] A Text-Book of Geodetic Astronomy. By John F. Hayford. New York:
John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 851, with plates.
[18] L'Année Psychologique. Edited by Alfred Binet--with the
Collaboration of H. Beaunis, Th. Ribot and Bourdon, Courtier, Farrand,
Flournoy, Philippe, Vaschide, and Warren. Editorial secretary, Victor
Henri. Fourth year. Paris: Librairie C. Reinwald. Schleicher Brothers,
publishers. Pp 849. Price, 15 francs.
[19] Introduction to the Study of North American Archæology. By Prof.
Cyrus Thomas. Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Company. Pp. 891.
[20] Handbook of Nature Study for Teachers and Pupils in Elementary
Schools. By D. Lange. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 339. Price,
$1.
[21] The State: Elements of Historical and Practical Politics. By
Woodrow Wilson. Revised edition. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 656.
Price, $2.
[22] How to Name the Birds. A Pocket Guide to the Land Birds and to the
Principal Water Fowl normally found in the New England States, New York,
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, for the Use of Field Ornithologists. By H.
E. Parkhurst. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 115. Price, $1.
Fragments of Science.