individual is such as to repel all effort for its improvement. Here
the law must step in, and secure the community against the dangers to
which the existence of such individuals exposes it. There is a certain
element in the population which wishes to live, and is determined
to live, on a level altogether below anything that can be called
civilization. Those who compose it are nomadic and predatory in their
habits, and occasionally give way to acts of fearful criminality. It is
foolish not to recognize the fact, and take the measures that may be
necessary for the isolation of this element. To devise and execute such
measures is a burden a thousand times better worth taking up than the
burden of imposing our yoke upon the Philippine Islands and crushing
out a movement toward liberty quite as respectable, to all outward
appearance, as that to which we have reared monuments at Bunker Hill
and elsewhere. The fact is, the work before us at home is immense;
and it is work which we might attack, not only without qualms of
conscience, but with the conviction that every unit of labor devoted to
it was being directed toward the highest interests not of the present
generation only, but of generations yet unborn. The "white man," we
trust, will some day see it; but meanwhile valuable time is being
lost, and the national conscience is being lowered by the assumption
of burdens that are _not_ ours, whatever Mr. Kipling may have said
or sung, or whatever Governor Roosevelt may assert on his word as a
soldier.
_SPECIALIZATION._
That division of labor is as necessary in the pursuit of science as
in the world of industry no one would think of disputing; but that,
like division of labor elsewhere, it has its drawbacks and dangers is
equally obvious. When the latter truth is insisted on by those who
are not recognized as experts, the experts are apt to be somewhat
contemptuous in resenting such interference, as they consider it.
An expert himself has, however, taken up the parable, and his words
merit attention. We refer to an address delivered by Prof. J. Arthur
Thompson, at the University of Aberdeen, upon entering on his duties
as Regius Professor of Natural History, a post to which he was lately
appointed. "We need to be reminded," he said, "amid the undoubted and
surely legitimate fascinations of dissection and osteology, of section
cutting and histology, of physiological chemistry and physiological
physics, of embryology and fossil hunting, and the like, that the chief
end of our study is a better understanding of living creatures in their
natural surroundings." He could see no reason, he went on to say, for
adding aimlessly to the overwhelming mass of detail already accumulated
in these and other fields of research. The aim of our efforts should
rather be to grasp the chief laws of growth and structure, and to rise
to a true conception of the meaning of organization.
The tendency to over-specialization is manifest everywhere; it may be
traced in physics and chemistry, in mathematics, in archæology, and in
philology, as well as in biology. We can not help thinking that there
is a certain narcotic influence arising from the steady accumulation
of minute facts, so that what was in the first place, and in its early
stages, an invigorating pursuit becomes not only an absorbing, but
more or less a benumbing passion. We are accustomed to profess great
admiration for Browning's Grammarian, who--
"Gave us the doctrine of the enclitic _De_ Dead from the waist down,"
but really we don't feel quite sure that the cause for which the old
gentleman struggled was quite worthy of such desperate heroism. The
world could have got along fairly well for a while with an imperfect
knowledge of the subtle ways of the "enclitic _De_," and indeed a large
portion of the world has neither concerned itself with the subject nor
felt the worse for not having done so.
What we fear is that some people are "dead from the waist down," or
even from higher up, without being aware of it, and all on account of
a furious passion for "enclitic de's" or their equivalent in other
lines of study. Gentlemen, it is not worth while! You can not all hope
to be buried on mountain tops like the grammarian, for there are not
peaks enough for all of you, and any way what good would it do you?
There is need of specialization, of course; we began by saying that the
drift of our remarks is simply this, that he who would go into minute
specializing should be careful to lay in at the outset a good stock of
common sense, a liberal dose (if he can get it) of humor, and _quantum
suff_. of humanity. Thus provided he can go ahead.
Scientific Literature.
SPECIAL BOOKS.
The comparison between the United States in 1790 and Australia in 1891,
with which Mr. _A. F. Weber_ opens his essay on _The Growth of Cities
in the Nineteenth Century_[10] well illustrates how the tendency of
population toward agglomeration in cities is one of the most striking
social phenomena of the present age. Both countries were in nearly
a corresponding state of development at the time of bringing them
into the comparison. The population of the United States in 1790 was
3,929,214; that of Australia in 1891 was 3,809,895; while 3.14 per cent
of the people of the United States were then living in cities of ten
thousand or more inhabitants, 33.20 per cent of the Australians are
now living in such cities. Similar conditions or the tendency toward
them are evident in nearly every country of the world. What are the
forces that have produced the shifting of population thus indicated;
what the economic, moral, political, and social consequences of it; and
what is to be the attitude of the publicist, the statesman, and the
teacher toward the movement, are questions which Mr. Weber undertakes
to discuss. The subject is a very complicated and intricate one, with
no end of puzzles in it for the careless student, and requiring to be
viewed in innumerable shifting lights, showing the case in changing
aspects; for in the discussion lessons are drawn by the author from
every country in the family of nations. Natural causes--variations in
climate, soil, earth formation, political institutions, etc.--partly
explain the distribution of population, but only partly. It sometimes
contradicts what would be deduced from them. Increase and improvement
in facilities for communication help the expansion of commercial
and industrial centers, but also contribute to the scattering of
population over wider areas. The most potent factors in attracting
people to the cities were, in former times, the commercial facilities
they afforded, with opportunities to obtain employment in trade, and
are now the opportunities for employment in trade and in manufacturing
industries. The cities, however, do not grow merely by accretions
from the outside, but they also enjoy a new element of natural growth
within themselves in the greater certainty of living and longer
duration of life brought about by improved management and ease of
living in them, especially by improved sanitation, and it is only
in the nineteenth century that any considerable number of cities
have had a regular surplus of births over deaths. Migration cityward
is not an economic phenomenon peculiar to the nineteenth century,
but is shown by the study of the social statistics and the bills of
mortality of the past to have been always a factor important enough
to be a subject of special remark. It is, however, a very lively one
now, and "in the immediate future we may expect to see a continuation
of the centralizing movement; while many manufacturers are locating
their factories in the small cities and towns, there are other
industries that prosper most in the great cities. Commerce, moreover,
emphatically favors the great centers rather than the small or
intermediate centers." In examining the structure of city populations,
a preponderance of the female sex appears, and is explained by the
accentuated liability of men over women in cities to death from
dangers of occupation, vice, crime, and excesses of all kinds. There
are also present in the urban population a relatively larger number
of persons in the active period of life, whence an easier and more
animated career, more energy and enterprise, more radicalism and less
conservatism, and more vice, crime, and impulsiveness generally may be
expected. Of foreign immigrants, the least desirable class are most
prone to remain in the great cities; and with the decline of railway
building and the complete occupation of the public lands the author
expects that immigrants in the future will disperse less readily than
in the past, but in the never-tiring energy of American enterprise
this may not prove to be the case. As to occupation, the growth of
cities is found to favor the development of a body of artisans and
factory workmen, as against the undertaker and employer, and "that
the class of day laborers is relatively small in the cities is reason
for rejoicing." It is found "emphatically true that the growth of
cities not only increases a nation's economic power and energy, but
quickens the national pulse.... A progressive and dynamic civilization
implies the good and bad alike. The cities, as the foci of progress,
inevitably contain both." The development of suburban life, stimulated
by the railroad and the trolley, and the transference of manufacturing
industries to the suburbs, are regarded as factors of great promise
for the amelioration of the recognized evils of city life and for the
solution of some of the difficulties it offers and the promotion of its
best results.
[10] The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century. A Study in
Statistics. By Adna Ferrln Weber. (Columbia University Studies In
History, Economics, and Public Law.) New York: Published for Columbia
University by the Macmillan Company. Pp. 495. Price, $3.50.
* * * * *
DR. _James K. Crook_, author of _The Mineral Waters of the United
States and their Therapeutic Uses_,[11] accepts it as proved by
centuries of experience that in certain disorders the intelligent
use of mineral waters is a more potent curative agency than drugs.
He believes that Americans have within their own borders the close
counterparts of the best foreign springs, and that in charms of scenery
and surroundings, salubrity of climate and facilities for comfort, many
of our spas will compare as resorts with the most highly developed
ones of Europe. The purpose of the present volume is to set forth
the qualities and attractions of American springs, of which we have
a large number and variety, and the author has aimed to present the
most complete and advanced work on the subject yet prepared. To make
it so, he has carefully examined all the available literature on the
subject, has addressed letters of inquiry to proprietors and other
persons cognizant of spring resorts and commercial springs, and has
made personal visits. While a considerable number of the 2,822 springs
enumerated by Dr. A. C. Peale in his report to the United States
Geological Survey have dropped out through non-use or non-development,
more than two hundred mineral-spring localities are here described for
the first time in a book of this kind. Every known variety of mineral
water is represented. The subject is introduced by chapters on what
might be called the science of mineral waters and their therapeutic
uses, including the definition, the origin of mineral waters, and the
sources whence they are mineralized; the classification, the discussion
of their value, and mode of action; their solid and gaseous components;
their therapeutics or applications to different disorders; and baths
and douches and their medicinal uses. The springs are then described
severally by States. The treatise on potable waters in the appendix is
brief, but contains much.
[11] Mineral Waters of the United States and their Therapeutic Uses,
with an Account of the Various Mineral Spring Localities, their
Advantages as Health Resorts, Means of Access, etc.; to which is
added an Appendix on Potable Waters. By James K. Crook. New York and
Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co. Pp. 588. Price, $3.50.
GENERAL NOTICES.
In _Every-Day Butterflies_[12] Mr. _Scudder_ relates the story of the
very commonest butterflies--"those which every rambler at all observant
sees about him at one time or another, inciting his curiosity or
pleasing his eye." The sequence of the stories is mainly the order of
appearance of the different subjects treated--which the author compares
to the flowers in that each kind has its own season for appearing in
perfect bloom, both together variegating the landscape in the open
season of the year. This order of description is modified occasionally
by the substitution of a later appearance for the first, when the
butterfly is double or triple brooded. As illustrations are furnished
of each butterfly discussed, it is not necessary that the descriptions
should be long and minute, hence they are given in brief and general
terms. But it must be remembered that the describer is a thorough
master of his subject, and also a master in writing the English
language, so that nothing will be found lacking in his descriptions.
They are literature as well as butterfly history. Of the illustrations,
all of which are good, a considerable number are in colors.
[12] Every-Day Butterflies. A Group of Biographies. By Samuel Hubbard
Scudder. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 386. Price.
$2.
Dr. _M. E. Gellé's_ _L'Audition et ses Organes_[13] (The Hearing and its
Organs) is a full, not over-elaborate treatise on the subject, in which
prominence is given to the physiological side. The first part treats of
the excitant of the sense of hearing--sonorous vibrations--including
the vibrations themselves, the length of the vibratory phenomena, the
intensity of sound, range of audition, tone, and timbre of sounds. The
second chapter relates to the organs of hearing, both the peripheric
organs and the acoustic centers, the anatomy of which is described in
detail, with excellent and ample illustrations. The third chapter is
devoted to the sensation of hearing under its various aspects--the
time required for perception, "hearing in school," the influence of
habit and attention, orientation of the sound, bilateral sensations,
effects on the nervous centers, etc., hearing of musical sounds,
oscillations and aberrations of hearing, auditive memory, obsessions,
hallucinations of the ear, and colored audition.
[13] L'Audition et ses Organes. By Dr. M. E. Gellé. Paris: Félix Alcan
(Bibliothèque Scientifique). Pp. 326. Price, six francs.
Prof. _Andrew C. McLaughlin's History of the American Nation_[14] has
many features to recommend it. It aims to trace the main outlines of
national development, and to show how the American people came to be
what they are. These outlines involve the struggle of European powers
for supremacy in the New World, the victory of England, the growth
of the English colonies and their steady progress in strength and
self-reliance till they achieved their independence, the development
of the American idea of government, its extension across the continent
and its influence abroad--all achieved in the midst of stirring
events, social, political, and moral, at the cost sometimes of wars,
and accompanied by marvelous growth in material prosperity and
political power. All this the author sets forth, trying to preserve
the balance of the factors, in a pleasing, easy style. Especial
attention is paid to political facts, to the rise of parties, to the
development of governmental machinery, and to questions of government
and administration. In industrial history those events have been
selected for mention which seem to have had the most marked effect
on the progress and make-up of the nation. It is to be desired that
more attention had been given to social aspects and changes in which
the development has not been less marked and stirring than in the
other departments of our history. Indeed, the field for research and
exposition here is extremely wide and almost infinitely varied, and
it has hardly yet begun to be worked, and with any fullness only for
special regions. When he comes to recent events, Professor McLaughlin
naturally speaks with caution and in rather general terms. It seems
to us, however, that in the matter of the war with Spain, without
violating any of the proprieties, he might have given more emphasis
to the anxious efforts of that country to comply with the demands of
the administration for the institution of reforms in Cuba; and, in the
interest of historical truth, he ought not to have left unmentioned the
very important fact that the Spanish Government offered to refer the
questions growing out of the blowing up of the Maine to arbitration
and abide by the result, and our Government made no answer to the
proposition.
[14] A History of the American Nation. By Andrew C. McLaughlin. New
York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 587. Price, $1.40.
Mr. _W. W. Campbell's Elements of Practical Astronomy_[15] is an
evolution. It grew out of the lessons of his experience in teaching
rather large classes in astronomy in the University of Michigan, by
which he was led to the conclusion that the extensive treatises on the
subject could not be used satisfactorily except in special cases. Brief
lecture notes were employed in preference. These were written out and
printed for use in the author's classes. The first edition of the book
made from them was used in several colleges and universities having
astronomical departments of high character. The work now appears,
slightly enlarged, in a second edition. In the present greatly extended
field of practical astronomy numerous special problems arise, which
require prolonged efforts on the part of professional astronomers.
While for the discussion of the methods employed in solving such
problems the reader is referred to special treatises and journals,
these methods are all developed from the _elements_ of astronomy and
the related sciences, of which it is intended that this book shall
contain the elements of practical astronomy, with numerous references
to the problems first requiring solution. The author believes that the
methods of observing employed are illustrations of the best modern
practice.
[15] The Elements of Practical Astronomy. By W. W. Campbell. Second
edition, revised and enlarged. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp.
264. Price, $2.
In _The Characters of Crystals_[16] Prof. _Alfred J. Moses_ has
attempted to describe, simply and concisely, the methods and apparatus
used in studying the physical characters of crystals, and to record
and explain the observed phenomena without complex mathematical
discussions. The first part of the book relates to the geometrical
characteristics of crystals, or the relations and determination of
their forms, including the spherical projection, the thirty-two classes
of forms, the measurement of crystal angles, and crystal projection
or drawing. The optical characters and their determination are the
subject of the second part. In the third part the thermal, magnetic,
and electrical characters and the characters dependent upon electricity
(elastic and permanent deformations) are treated of. A suggested
outline of a course in physical crystallography is added, which
includes preliminary experiments with the systematic examination of the
crystals of any substance, and corresponds with the graduate course
in physical crystallography given in Columbia University. The book is
intended to be useful to organic chemists, geologists, mineralogists,
and others interested in the study of crystals. The treatment is
necessarily technical.
[16] The Characters of Crystals. An Introduction to Physical
Crystallography. By Alfred J. Moses. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company.
Pp. 211. Price, $2.
A book describing the _Practical Methods of identifying Minerals in
Rock Sections with the Microscope_[17] has been prepared by Mr. _L.
McI. Luquer_ to ease the path of the student inexperienced in optical
mineralogy by putting before him only those facts which are absolutely
necessary for the proper recognition and identification of the minerals
in thin sections. The microscopic and optical characters of the
minerals are recorded in the order in which they would be observed with
a petrographical microscope; when the sections are opaque, attention
is called to the fact, and the characters are recorded as seen with
incident light. The order of Rosenbusch, which is based on the symmetry
of the crystalline form, is followed, with a few exceptions made
for convenience. In an introductory chapter a practical elementary
knowledge of optics as applied to optical mineralogy is attempted to
be given, without going into an elaborate discussion of the subject.
The petrographical microscope is described in detail. The application
of it to the investigation of mineral characteristics is set forth in
general and as to particular minerals. The preparation of sections and
practical operations are described, and an optical scheme is appended,
with the minerals grouped according to their common optical characters.
[17] Minerals in Rock Sections; the Practical Method of identifying
Minerals in Rock Sections with the Microscope. Especially arranged for
Students in Scientific Schools. By Lea McIlvaine Luquer. New York: D.
Van Nostrand Company. Pp. 117.
Mr. _Herbert C. Whitaker's_ _Elements of Trigonometry_[18] is concise
and of very convenient size for use. The introduction and the first
five of the seven chapters have been prepared for the use of beginners.
The other two chapters concern the properties of triangles and
spherical triangles; an appendix presents the theory of logarithms;
and a second appendix, treating of goniometry, complex quantities,
and complex functions, has been added for students intending to take
up work in higher departments of mathematics. For assisting a clearer
understanding of the several processes, the author has sought to
associate closely with every equation a definite meaning with reference
to a diagram. Other characteristics of the book are the practical
applications to mechanics, surveying, and other everyday problems;
its many references to astronomical problems, and the constant use of
geometry as a starting point and standard.
[18] Elements of Trigonometry, with Tables. By Herbert C. Whitaker.
Philadelphia: Eldredge & Brother. Pp. 200.
A model in suggestions for elementary teaching is offered in
_California Plants in their Homes_,[19] by _Alice Merritt Davidson_,
formerly of the State Normal School, California. The book consists
of two parts, a botanical reader for children and a supplement for
the use of teachers, both divisions being also published in separate
volumes. It is well illustrated, provided with an index and an outline
of lessons adapted to different grades. The treatment of each theme is
fresh, and the grouping novel, as is indicated by the chapter headings:
Some Plants that lead Easy Lives, Plants that know how to meet Hard
Times, Plants that do not make their own Living, Plants with Mechanical
Genius. Although specially designed for the study of the flora of
southern California, embodying the results of ten years' observation by
the author, it may be recommended to science teachers in any locality
as an excellent guide. The pupil in this vicinity will have to forego
personal inspection of the shooting-star and mariposa lily, while he
finds the century plant, yuccas, and cacti domiciled in the greenhouse.
In addition to these, however, attention is directed to a sufficient
number of familiar flowers, trees, ferns, and fungi for profitable
study, and the young novice in botany can scarcely make a better
beginning than in company with this skillful instructor.
[19] California Plants in their Homes. By Alice Merritt Davidson. Los
Angeles, Cal.: B .R. Baumgardt & Co. Pp. 215-133.
* * * * *