Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 23.djvu/731

Rh sources on subjects and questions appropriate to its sphere. The present number contains a portrait of Dr. George W. Beard, who was a leader in projecting the journal; the inaugural address of President Clark Bell, of the Medico-Legal Society, in which is embodied a review of the progress of medical jurisprudence in the several countries of the world; reports on coroners, medical. examiners, amendments to the lunacy laws of New York, and on the Pennsylvania lunacy laws, and miscellaneous matters.

notices of the principal resorts and attractions in the mountains, with directions for reaching them, and directories of hotels and boarding-houses, arranged by towns, the "Guide" contains some well-considered and condensed notes, intended to assist in geological observations in the Catskill region. The whole would be a valuable and desirable acquisition to tourists, but for the sprawling advertisements that are intruded among the reading-matter. In a book to which a price is attached, the two kinds of matter should occupy their separate pages.

volume is the fifth of the "American Science Series," the principal objects of which are defined to be "to supply the lack of authoritative books whose principles are, so far as practicable, illustrated by familiar American facts, and also to supply the other lack that the advance of science perennially creates, of text-books which at least do not contradict the latest generalizations." The list of the works to be included in the series shows that the publishers have made it a rule to go to authors whose names carry authority, and who speak as original investigators, having their facts at first hand. Professor Walker's discussion, in this volume, of the questions included under the general title of political economy in their varied and complicated aspects and relations is full and rich in citations of authorities and in illustrations, and covers such a multiplicity of topics that it would be impossible, in an ordinary notice, to give even an outline of it. It is conducted with such clearness as to make the book quite readable and readily understood. After the introductory chapter, or part, in which the "Character and Logical Method of Political Economy" are considered and its claims to be ranked as a science and its relations with other branches are discussed, the whole subject is topically divided and treated under the several heads of "Production," "Exchange," "Distribution," "Consumption," and "Some Applications of Economical Principles." The numerous questions growing out of the labor agitation, the subjects of the currency, paper money, bimetallism, protection vs. free trade, and other economic topics now vital among us, receive attention in their appropriate places.

character of this publication is well indicated by the subordinate title. It is intended not only to amuse and instruct, but also to direct the natural bent of its readers to some practical work; and the numbers we have seen of it seem well adapted to these purposes. In two of them we have a story illustrating the magical effects that may be wrought through simple applications of modern scientific discoveries; papers relating to natural history, astronomy, and physiology; and lessons and suggestions regarding various arts and sports with which youth may find it pleasant—and perhaps profitable—to amuse themselves.

from an author who has had such an influence upon the scientific thought of his countrymen as Herr Haeckel has exerted must have a value of its own, even though it be not directly scientific. The "Visit to Ceylon" records the impressions of a tourist; yet not of the ordinary tourist, who skims over a country and takes the merest superficial view of everything, but