Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/581

 wants of this country at the present time for sound information. Whatever may be the unattractiveness of the "dismal science," we are satisfied that a large share of it is due to the culpable dullness of writers on economics. If a book upon money is stupid, the author must take the responsibility, for his subject is in his favor, and he may count upon the interest of his reader if he does not succeed in extinguishing it. Professor Walker writes with a vigorous directness, a clearness of perception, and an artistic skill in the use of examples and illustrations, which give a keen pleasure to the reader, and make every chapter of his book entertaining as well as instructive. His views are stated with an epigrammatic point and argumentative force that will make the perusal of his book a pleasure to all into whose hands it may fall. Embroiled as we are in this country in conflicts of opinion upon all aspects of the money question—coinage and paper currency, mono-metalism and bi-metalism, depreciation and appreciation, expansion and contraction, high and low interest, national issues and banking agencies, and scores of other monetary problems—nothing is more needed than able popular presentations of the principles that underlie all this complex system of financial phenomena, and we have seen no book better adapted to clarify the public mind upon these subjects than this of Professor Walker.

preparing this work, Dr. Coues has undertaken a vast amount of labor. The whole subject of the bibliography of North American ornithology and of the synonomy of North American birds has been worked up anew from the very bottom, and nothing is given at second hand. Not only the birds of the Colorado Valley, but also all others of North America, are thus exhaustively treated. The popular character of this treatise is very marked. "Respecting the biographies or life history of the birds which constitute the main text of the present volume," writes Professor Hayden, "the author's view, that this portion of the subject should be so far divested of technicality as to meet the tastes and wants of the public, rather than the scientific requirements of the schoolmen in ornithology, will doubtless meet with general and emphatic approval." The volume before us forms Part I. of the treatise, "Passeres to Laniidæ."

book mainly consists of a translation of a little treatise on early education, said to be very popular in Germany. It is devoted to Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Kindergartens, and some useful hints may be picked out of it, though it will be chiefly useful in swelling the tide of Kindergarten literature, which is just now in fashion. The name of Herbert Spencer appears upon the cover of the title-page as author of a part of the book, and there are a dozen pages of extracts from him at the end. But from which of his works they are taken, or in what connection they are to be found, is not stated. The quotations, however, on the rights of children, are from a volume printed by Spencer twenty-nine years ago, parts of which he has since disavowed as no longer representing his views, and among them is the chapter on the rights of children.

paper treats of the old question of the influence of plants in houses on the conditions of health. The author is inclined to agree with Pettenkofer, that, as decomposers of carbonic-acid gas or as generators of ozone, plants in rooms are really of little or no value; but, as a means of supplying moisture to the air of furnace heated houses by the process of transpiration, they become important agents in promoting the health of the inmates. This conclusion is based on the writer's own investigations, the results of which are given in the paper.