Statistics of Railways in the United States_ covers the year ending
June 30, 1897. The year is characterized as having been for the
transportation industry one "of deferred expectations." While the
years from 1890 to 1893 each closed with increased gross earnings as
compared with the preceding year, 1893-'94 was disastrous, showing a
large decrease; no recovery took place in 1894-'95, but an increase
took place in 1895-'96. A downward turn came again in the year of the
present report, with no revival till the last month of the twelve. The
total increase in mileage for the year of the report was only 1,651.84
miles, the smallest increase and the smallest percentage of increase
noted in any year since 1890. "In many States," says the report,
"railway construction seems to have been practically abandoned.
Especially is this noticeable in the more populous districts of the
country--a result which is not entirely due to the general commercial
depression, but to the marvelous increase in electric railways for
suburban and short-distance traffic. The influence of electric
construction upon steam transportation is noted in certain of the
reports of State railway commissions for the current year." These are
only two of the numerous interesting facts presented in the report.
_Small Accumulators, how Made and Used_, is the first of a series of
popular scientific handbooks for students and engineers. The
particular subject has been selected for beginning the series under
the suggestion of a large number of requests for advice which the
author, _Percival Marshall_, had received in his capacity as editor of
the Model Engineer and Amateur Electrician. The work is intended to be
an elementary handbook--"a practical and trustworthy guide"--for
amateurs and students. The theory of the accumulator is explained,
directions are given for making them, types of small accumulators are
illustrated, the charging and use of accumulators are explained, and
the applications are shown. Useful receipts and a glossary of
technical terms are given. (The book is published by Spon &
Chamberlain, New York. Price, 50 cents.)
In his _Better World Philosophy--a Sociological Synthesis_ (Chicago:
the Ward Waugh Company), _J. Howard Moore_ utters a protest against
the egoism or selfishness of our day, and suggests an ideal scheme.
The problem of life is defined as being the relation of each
individual to the rest of the universe, and is peculiarized by the
existence of the social problem involving relations of individuals to
each other different from those sustained to the impersonal universe.
There are in the nature of living beings the egoistic element, which
impels action in behalf of self, and the altruistic element, which
prompts or prevents movement out of consideration to others. At
present the egoistic element predominates, with results that make a
picture far from bright. In the social ideal the strong should
supplement the weak as they would like to be supplemented if they were
weak; individuals not unequal but diverse may mutualize their efforts
to the advantage of all; and each individual should perform in the
social economy that function for which he is best fitted, and should
receive in return "a graceful equity in the means for satisfying his
desires."
Among the books announced for issue soon by Henry Holt & Co. are _The
Book of Vertebrate Zoölogy_, by Prof. _J. S. Kingsley_, author of The
Elements of Comparative Zoölogy, published by the same house, which
can be used as a companion to McMurrich's Invertebrate Zoölogy;
_Elementary Studies in Chemistry_, by Prof. _Joseph Torrey_, of
Harvard, which, while it is characterized by the emphasis laid upon
quantitative laboratory work in general chemistry, will be a
comprehensive text-book on the whole subject; and _Moulds, Mildews,
and Mushrooms_, a guide to the systematic study of the fungi and
_Mycetozoa_ and their literature, by Prof. _Lucien Underwood_, of
Columbia University.
Miss Cornelia E. Horsford, being interested in the question of the
origin of certain ancient ruins situated on the Charles River, Mass.,
and elsewhere in America, which were discovered by the late Prof. E.
N. Horsford and were believed by him to be relics of the settlements
formed by the Norsemen in the tenth century, commissioned Mr.
Thorstein Erlingsson to examine for comparison certain ancient
dwellings in Iceland, in the summer of 1895. The inquiries assigned to
him related to the method of construction of the long houses, square
buildings, hillside cots with pavements, mounds, things and doom
rings, irrigation and drainage, ditches, river dams, hithes and ship
docks, or _nauts_, grave-hills, and forts. The results of the study
are given, with illustrations, in a small book, _Ruins of the Saga
Times_, by _Thorstein Erlingsson_. (Published by David Nutt, London.)
Mr. Erlingsson's report is supplemented by an outline of already
ascertained knowledge regarding early Scandinavian home building,
derived from previous excavations and investigations furnished by F.
T. Norris and Jön Stefánsson, and a summary in French by M. E. D.
Grand.
_The Quarterly Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland_ was issued during the thirty-seven years from the
beginning of 1871 in the form styled demi-octavo. The small pages of
this size entailed some inconveniences, especially when ample plates
and tables were needed for illustration. With the double number
(August and November, 1898) a new series was begun, in the form styled
imperial octavo, with a page considerably larger than in the old form
and corresponding in size with the important publications of some of
the continental societies of Europe. This number contains the
proceedings of seven meetings of the society and important
anthropological articles, some of them on American subjects. Among
them is a criticism, by Prof. W. Z. Ripley, on Deniker's
Classification of the Races of Europe.
In _How to Swim_ (Putnams, $1) Captain _Davis Dalton_, Chief Inspector
of the United States Volunteer Life-Saving Corps, gives a practical
treatise upon the art of natation, together with instruction as to the
best methods of saving persons imperiled in the water and of
resuscitating persons apparently drowned. The treatise covers every
branch of the art, and abounds in cautions in connection with nearly
every topic, against the mistakes that may arise from timidity or the
carelessness of over-confidence. The author holds that swimming is an
art to be acquired and learned like other athletic arts, although it
depends upon natural principles. The best movements for taking
advantages of the physical laws involved in it have been studied by
competent men, and a brief and clear presentation of them is attempted
here. First, we have the lessons for the beginner, who must, before
all things, "have confidence." The different strokes are described in
detail and illustrated; the different modes of swimming and the
postures, swimming in clothes, taking off clothes in the water, diving
and swimming under water, swimming in waves, and other features are
explained; and, finally, the life-saving directions are given, and
public education in swimming is insisted upon.
_The Southern Magazine_ is a new monthly, published at Manassas, Va.,
by the Southern Publishing Company, of which we have the third number,
that for August. It has a definite flavor of the old South, for which
we find no fault with, for there was much about the old South which
ought to be preserved, and no little that was too precious to be lost.
Among the matters of special interest in this number are the Sketch of
Sidney Lanier, by Ellen Manderson, with selections from his writings;
The Last Meeting of the Confederate Cabinet (held, by a curious
coincidence, at Abbeville, S. C., where secession was started), by
Walter L. Miller; an account of the University of Virginia, by John S.
Patten, which appears to be the first of a series on Southern
Educational Institutions; and an article on South Carolina in Letters,
by Colonel J. P. Thomas.
The fifth yearly number of _L'Année Psychologique_ of MM. _Alfred
Binet_, _H. Beaunis_, and _Th. Ribot_ is a volume of 902 pages, of
which 591 pages are included in the first part, devoted to Original
Memoirs and General Reviews. The papers are nineteen in number, on
such subjects as muscular fatigue, the foreshortening of objects
rising from the horizon, stereognostic perception and stereoagnosy,
suggestibility, applications of the calculation of probabilities to
psychology, colored audition, mental labor and nutritive changes,
measure of mental fatigue, sensations of smell, phonographs and the
study of the vowels, cephalometry, pedology, volume of the arm and
muscular force, chronophotographic and other apparatus, and muscular
sense; and the authors are MM. Van Biervliet, of Ghent; Blum, of
Nîmes; Bourdon, of Rennes; Claparède, of Geneva; Clavière, Delage,
Demeny, Druault, Mlle. Joteyko, MM. Larguier, Manouvrier, Marage;
Marbe, of Würzburg; Obersteiner, of Vienna; Tscherning and
Zwaardemaker, of Utrecht. M. V. Henri's paper on Muscular Sense would
make a volume by itself. The second part--Analyses--consists of
reviews of psychological publications entered under ten headings. The
Bibliography contains 2,558 titles, and the index of authors fills
upward of seventeen double-columned pages. (Paris: Scheicher Frères.)
Valuable papers on Comparative Tests of Bituminous Steam Coals, by
John W. Hill; the Artificial Preservation of Railroad Ties by the Use
of Zinc Chloride, by W. W. Curtis; and the Theory of Concrete, by G.
W. Rafter, are given in the _Proceedings of the American Society of
Civil Engineers_ (vol. xxv, No. 4, April, 1899), together with
discussions respecting street grades and cross-sections in asphalt and
cement and to loads and maximum stress on members of a bridge truss;
also biographical sketches of D. L. Barnes and W. R. Michie.
A valuable addition to D. Appleton and Company's International
Education Series, and a sprightly book in itself withal, is _Montaigne
on the Education of Children_, a volume of selections bearing on the
subject from the writings of the quaint old Frenchman, translated and
annotated by L. E. Rector. The significance of Montaigne, as the
editor of the series observes in his preface to the volume, lies
chiefly in his protest against pedantry, and the translator finds
Montaigne's modernity shown in his attempt to degrade men learning
from the first place, and to lay the emphasis on fitness for practical
life, ability to use one's judgment, and morality and virtue. While
Montaigne had limitations and defects in his educational views, such
as are pointed out by Dr. Harris, he still appears to have been far in
advance of his own time, and in some respects of the present time as
well. The solution of the human problem, success in dealing with
one's self and his fellows, was his ideal. The translator shows how
Locke and Rousseau, and, of course, all educational writers who have
built upon these, drew from him. The subjects of the selections given
here are the Education of Children, Pedantry, the Affection of
Fathers, Liars, Physiognomy, Anger, the Art of Conversation, Idleness,
Experience, and History.
An essay on _The Object of the Labor Movement_, by _Johann Jacoby_,
translated by Florence Kelley, and published by the International
Publishing Company, advocates co-operation, demands that the employer
recognize the laborer whom he employs as a being fully his own equal
and treat him accordingly, and claims of the State an especial
consideration of the working class as an act of reparative justice.
The _Transactions of the First and Second Regular Meetings of the
Wyoming State Medical Society_, May 13 and November 1, 1898, shows
that that body is vigorous and active, and that the doctors of Wyoming
are interested in maintaining the dignity and reputation of their
profession. It is represented that fully fifty per cent of the regular
physicians of the State have already been enrolled as members of the
society.
Mr. _Frederick H. Gelman's Elements of Blowpipe Analysis_ (New York:
The Macmillan Company; 60 cents) is intended to serve the twofold
purpose of giving the student a general outline of the analysis and of
introducing him to the methods of determinative mineralogy. Every
effort has been made to simplify the account. The first chapter is
devoted to Apparatus and Details, and the second to the General
Outline of Blowpipe Analysis. Then the general reactions for the
detection of the metallic elements in simple compounds are described,
the behavior of some of the principal ores before the blowpipe, and
comparative tables.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Abbot, A. C., M. D. The Hygiene of Transmissible Diseases, their
Causation, Modes of Dissemination, and Methods of Prevention.
Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders. Pp. 311. $2 net.
Allin, Arthur. Extra-Organic Evolution and Education. Pp. 8.
Baker, Charles Whiting. Monopolies and the People. Third edition,
revised and enlarged. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 368.
Baker, M. N. Potable Water and Methods of Detecting Impurities. New
York: D. Van Nostrand Company. Pp. 97. 50 cents.
Baskett, James Newton. The Story of the Fishes. New York: D. Appleton
and Company. (Appletons' Home-Reading Books.) Pp. 297.
Borodine, N., Editor. Revue Internationale de Pêche et de
Pisciculture. (International Review of Fisheries and Fish-Culture.)
No. 1. August, 1899. (Three times a year.) St. Petersburg, Russia.
Published by the Russian Imperial Society of Fisheries and
Fish-Culture. (In English, German, and French.) Pp. 37, with
supplement of one folded page. Annual subscription, four francs.
Bulletin, Le, Médical de Quebec. Volume I, No. 1. September, 1899.
Published under the direction of the Medical Society of Quebec.
Monthly. Pp. 56. $2 a year.
Burgess, O. O., M. D. Consciousness, Being, Immortality; Divine
Healing and Christian Science. San Francisco. Pp. 20.
Christian Science Publishing Society, Boston. Legal Aspects of
Christian Science. Decisions of Courts, Opinions of Lawyers, etc. Pp.
83.
Conn, H. W. The Story of the Living Machine. New York: D. Appleton and
Company. (Library of Useful Stories.) Pp. 191. 40 cents.
De Morgan, Augustus. Elementary Illustrations of the Differential and
Integral Calculus. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company. Pp.
144. $1.
Descartes, René. Discourse on Method; or the Method of Rightly
Conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences. Translated,
etc., by John Veitch. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company.
(Religion of Science Library.) Pp. 87. 25 cents.
Flynt, Josiah. Tramping with Tramps. Studies and Sketches of Vagabond
Life. With Prefatory Note by Hon. Andrew D. White. New York: The
Century Company. Pp. 396. $1.50.
Giles, William A., Chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Civic
Federation (Chicago). Papers on Reform Legislation, Corrupt Practices
Acts, and Pawnbroking in Different Countries. Chicago: R. R. Donnelley
& Sons Company. Pp. 35.
Griffith, G. W. The Influence of the Earth upon the Field of a Bar
Magnet. Pp. 4.
Harrington, Mark W. About the Weather. New York: D. Appleton and
Company. (Appletons' Home-Reading Books.) Pp. 246.
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. Contemporaries. Boston and New York:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 379. $2.
Holland, Frederick May. Liberty in the Nineteenth Century. New York:
G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 257.
Korscheldt, Dr. E., and Helder, Dr. K. Text-Book of the Embryology of
the Invertebrates. Translated by Matilda Bernard, and edited, with
Additional Notes, by Martin F. Woodward. Vol. II. Pp. 369. Vol. III.
Pp. 441. $3.25.
Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration. Report of the
Fifth Annual Meeting, 1889. Pp. 142.
Lo Blanco, Dr. Salvatore. The Methods employed at the Naples
Zoölogical Station for the Preservation of Marine Animals. Translated
by E. O. Hovey. United States National Museum. Pp. 42.
Newman, George. Bacteria, especially as they are related to the
Economy of Nature, to Industrial Processes, and to the Public Health.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 348.
Newton, Alfred, Gadow, Hans, and others. A Dictionary of Birds. New
York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 1088. $5.
Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. Press Bulletin No. 199. Plums. A
Comparison of Varieties. Pp. 2.
Oliver, Charles A. Description of an Adjustable Bracket for the Reid
Ophthalmometer. Pp. 3; A Case of Foreign Body in the Optic Nerve. Pp.
3; A Case of Reflex Irritation. Pp. 5; A Case of Fibroma of the
Eyelid. P. 1, with plate; A New Method for the Plantation of Glass
Balls into the Optical Cavity. Pp. 30.
Putnam, F. W. Address as Retiring President of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, Columbus Meeting, 1899.
Pp. 17.
Ribot, Th. The Evolution of General Ideas. Chicago: The Open Court
Publishing Company. Pp. 231. $1.25.
Russell, Charles T. The At-one-ment between God and Man. ("Millennial
Dawn." Vol. V.) Allegheny, Pa.: Watch-Tower Bible and Tract Society.
Pp. 507.
Stuver, E., M. D. The Importance of a Knowledge of the Phylogenetic
Development of the Child in the Prevention of Children's Diseases. Pp.
11.
Thompson, Ernest Seton. The Trail of the Sandhill Stag. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 93. $1.50.
United States Department of Agriculture. Farmers' Bulletins. No. 70.
The Principal Insect Enemies of the Grape. By C. L. Marlatt. Pp. 23;
No. 80. The Peach-Twig Borer. By. C. L. Marlatt. Pp. 15: No. 99. Three
Insect Enemies of Shade Trees. By L. O. Howard. Pp. 30;--Division of
Entomology. No. 37. The Use of Hydrocyanic-Acid Gas for Fumigating
Greenhouses and Small Frames. Pp. 10; No. 38. The Squash-Vine Borer.
Pp. 6; No. 39. The Common Squash Bug. Pp. 5.
United States Fish Commission. Check-List of the Fishes of Florida. By
B. W. Evermann and W. C. Kendall. Pp. 68.
Upsala, University of (Sweden). Bulletin of the Geological
Institution. Hj. Sjögren, Editor. Vol. IV, Part I, No. 7. 1898. Pp.
131, with four plates.
Weed, Clarence Moores, Editor. The Insect World. A Reading Book of
Entomology. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (Appletons'
Home-Reading Books.) Pp. 207. 60 cents.
Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. Bulletin No. 4. On
the Building and Ornamental Stones of Wisconsin. By Ernest R. Buckley.
Pp. 544.
Wisla. A Geographical and Ethnographical Publication (in Polish). Vol.
XIII, Nos. 1 to 5. Warsaw, Poland. Pp. 320.
Wright, Mabel Osgood. Wabenor the Magician. New York: The Macmillan
Company. Pp. 346.
Fragments of Science.
=The Dread of the Jew.=[41]--The Dreyfus affair and the furious
passions that it has awakened have their ultimate foundation in dread
and hatred of the Jews. There is a Jewish question, more or less
acute, in every continental country, and we are told by pessimists
that before long we shall have an anti-Jewish movement in the East End
of London. These facts naturally suggest an inquiry into the causes of
the dread and hate which the Jews inspire, and the asking once again
whether there are any good grounds for regarding the Hebrew race as a
menace to the Christian world. The main fact about the Jews on the
Continent which emerges from a study of the present situation is that
for some reason or other they inspire terror. That this terror is as
absurd and as unreasonable as is the terror caused respectively by
Jesuits and Freemasons, we ourselves do not doubt for a moment, but
that does not alter the fact that the sense of terror exists. It is
hardly too much to say that the majority of people on the Continent
honestly believe that unless the Jews are in some way or other curbed,
controlled, and kept down, something very dreadful will happen. In
Russia the vast Slavonic population and its leaders believe that
unless the Jews are impounded in the Polish Pale they will swamp the
true Russian, and utterly ruin and destroy the Russian nationality and
the Russian ideal. In Austria it is believed that if the Jews are
allowed to go on as they are going on they will get everything into
their hands--the land of the peasants, the sources of public
information and the press, and the nerves by which trade and commerce
are moved. In Germany it is much the same story, and there the Jews
are believed, unless stopped in time, to be about to monopolize the
universities. In France it is thought that the Jews, if not put down
with the strong hand, will capture the whole administration, as well
as "strangle commerce by their octopus grip." The Jews are called a
"parasitic race," whatever that may mean. It is said that the Jew
never becomes an agriculturist, that he is a usurer and a bloodsucker,
that he is a gross materialist, and that he has no ideals beyond the
precious metals; and that they habitually act together to further
their own racial interests and to injure those communities which have
been foolish enough to trust them. To take the charge of want of
patriotism first. How is it substantiated? We can not say that we have
ever seen any real evidence of want of patriotism in the Jews. Look at
the case of France at present. There is something extremely pathetic
in the way in which the French Jews cling to their nationality in
spite of all the hatred they inspire. The truth is, the Jew is a sort
of expert in patriotism. Did not the Maccabees teach the world one of
its first lessons in patriotism? Depend upon it, if the Jew is only
allowed to be a patriot he will not fail here. The charge, indeed, is
like that so often made in Russia against the Jews. They are accused
of not tilling the soil, their accusers ignoring the fact that no Jew
is allowed to buy, or to lease, or to occupy land, and is, in fact,
excluded by law from acting as a farmer. Take next the charge of
"aloofness." Probably this charge is well founded, but what can be
expected of a people so newly freed from the Ghetto? If you treat a
race for centuries as lepers, and visit its members with dire
penalties, if they do not keep "aloof" they are likely to remain for
some time disinclined to free intercourse. The third charge is, in
reality, that the Jews of the world, having obtained control of
cosmopolitan finance, act together in the interests of their race, and
inflict grievous injuries upon the nations. But what proof is there of
this? Curiously enough, Mr. Arnold White--though in other ways he
seems to encourage this charge--accuses the great Jewish financiers of
not doing this very thing. He tells us that after the Russians had
driven the Jews into the Pale they wanted to raise a loan. One would
have expected the great Jewish loanmongers to have absolutely refused
to help the enemy of the race. Instead they basely, as we think, found
Russia the money she wanted. But though this was a base act, it
certainly is not consistent with the charge that the Jews control the
international money market for tribal ends. We believe, in fact, that
this whole charge is a pure delusion. The great financiers, whether
Jew or Gentile, look for a profit, and not to deep and mysterious
racial aspirations. The charge that the Jews are steeped in
materialism, and so are a demoralizing element in the community, is
equally unfair and absurd. Many Jews may be fond of pomp of a vulgar
kind, and may affect what we confess personally to finding very
disagreeable forms of Asiatic luxury; but these are externals. In
essentials and as a race the Jews are no more materialistic than their
neighbors. And can we say that they are a demoralizing element when it
is universally confessed that the Jews are among the best fathers,
sons, and husbands in the world?
[Footnote 41: From an article in the London Spectator.]