Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/723

Rh trees; and not a lake or a swamp is to be found in the entire region. The water is pure and abundant, and sulphur and iron springs are not rare. "One great benefit to invalids of all classes lies in the purity of the air, which the extraordinary forest growth does much to render equable in temperature and moisture. Dust is unknown. The electrical phenomena of the summer storms are exceptional. . . . Notwithstanding the utter disregard of the laws of health by the inhabitants, they are a long-lived race of people."

volume is the fifth of Griggs's series of Philosophical Classics. President Porter enforces the description implied in the title that his treatise is both expository and critical. It proposes first to interpret and then to criticise the principal features of Kant's ethical system, and the one in order to effect the other. In performing his work, the author has thought it best to state the theory very largely in Kant's own language, with such comments as might be required to make it intelligible; and he has done this, both in order that he might be entirely just to Kant himself, and that he might aid the unpracticed student in the task of interpreting the German philosopher. Besides a brief general introduction, President Porter gives a summary or condensed review of the distinctive positions taken by Kant upon the most important topics as compared with those of other writers, and strictures upon Kant by a few German critics.

volume is in the main a statement of facts, given in their most concise shape, without varnish, with some statements of opinion in which both sides are represented for guidance in making up the mind on the tariff issue. It is prepared for the furtherance of free-trade principles, which the editor assumes in the introduction, are supported by the facts of history and of present experience, as well as by the principles of economics. In it are a short history of the tariff, quotations from American leaders and party utterances on revenue reform, "Protectionist Points and Free-Trade Facts," and valuable tables. Free trade is admitted to have several shades of meaning. The free-trade cause is said to include the great body of men who oppose the principle of trade-restriction called protection, and whose common aim is to get this "mischievous element" out of the tariff and confine taxes to the support of the Government. This implies a "tariff for revenue only. . . . The immediate steps to this end are the freeing of crude materials from duty at the bottom, and the reduction of excessive duties at the top. All shades of revenue reformers unite in these steps, and are willing that their success should be the test of further advances in freeing trade."

pamphlet embodies the substance of an address delivered before the Fortnightly Club of Rochester. After reviewing the whole subject, the author reaches the conclusions that the misgovernment of cities is due to the imperfections of human nature, imperfections of our election machinery, and mistaken ideas about the proper functions of city government. The reforms needed are proportional representation, business administration, and that elevation of humanity which is both a cause and a consequence of good government.

15 is "On the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Fauna of California," by Dr. C. A. White. No. 16 is "On the Higher Devonian Fauna of Ontario County, New York," by J. M. Clarke. No. 17 is "On the Development of Crystallization in the Igneous Rocks of Washoe, Nevada," etc., by Arnold Hague and J. P. Iddings. No. 18 is "On Marine Eocene, Fresh-Water Miocene, and other Fossil Mollusca of Western North America," by Dr. C. A. White. No. 19 is "Notes on the Stratigraphy of California," by George F. Becker. No. 20 is "