Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/873

Rh "the duties on iron during the generation after 1815 formed a heavy tax on consumers; that they impeded, so far as they went, the industrial development of the country; and that no compensatory benefits were obtained to offset these disadvantages." The history shows also that three different arguments have been urged at different times in favor of protection. First was the "young industries" argument, which began to lose strength shortly after 1832; next was the "home market" argument, to which the situation during the War of 1812 gave some vigor; and last was the argument based on the difference in wages in Europe and the United States, which, curiously, was first a free-trade weapon before the protectionists took it up. As a whole, "one does not find in the popular discussions of fifty years ago, more than in those of the present, precision of thought or expression." Through all tariff changes and discussions our manufactures kept on growing, as they would have done under any circumstances, Prof. Taussig seems to believe, by the sheer force of the nature of things. The history of the existing tariff is given with considerable fullness.

the field in which the three domains of the chemist, the doctor, and the lawyer come together, has had its boundaries enlarged within the past ten years by the addition of the putrefactive and the physiological alkaloids. In this short period the activity of various investigators has brought to light a large number of facts concerning these substances. To collect, arrange, and systematize these discoveries, the reports of which were scattered through many journals, transactions, and other publications, has been the first object of the authors of this volume.

The work opens with a historical sketch of the subject, which is followed by a chapter of cases of poisoning by foods containing poisonous ptomaines. Poisoning by cheese and milk is treated with especial fullness, Prof. Vaughan being especially qualified to speak on this subject, since he is the discoverer of tyrotoxicon. The relation of ptomaines to disease is next taken up, and five theories which have been proposed in answer to the question, How do micro-organisms produce disease? are examined. The theory that the symptoms of infectious disease are caused by chemical poisons, ptomaines, which the bacilli produce by splitting up complex compounds in the body, is deemed by the authors practically demonstrated, and they cite the evidence for this theory as regards anthrax, cholera, tetanus, and other diseases. In the next chapter certain ptomaines which resemble in their reactions the vegetable alkaloids are described, and the danger of mistaking the former for the latter is pointed out. Several methods of extracting ptomaines are given, and the chemical descriptions of a large number of these substances follow. Similar descriptions of the leucomaines are given, and a twenty-page bibliography of the two classes of substances closes the volume.

Vol. IV, No. IV, of Studies from the Biological Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University (N. Murray, Baltimore, $1), opens with a short paper by Prof. W. K. Brooks, on "The Life-History of Epenthesis McCradyi," a species of hydro-medusa, illustrated with three plates. This is followed by "Observations on the Development of Cephalopods: Homology of the Germ-Layers," by S. Watase, with two plates. There are also two papers by F. Mall, M. D., one on "Development of the Ear of the Chick," with two plates, and the other on "The Branchial Clefts of the Dog, with Special Reference to the Origin of the Thymus Gland," with three plates. Mr. T. H. Morgan reports some "Experiments with Chitin Solvents."

The California Florist (Santa Barbara, Cal., $1 a year) is an illustrated monthly devoted to Pacific coast floriculture. It is popular and practical in character, and is edited with intelligence and good taste. The first number was that for May, 1888.

Mr. Hubert Howe Bancroft has prepared, and the History Company, San Francisco, publishes, uniform with the series of the "History of the Pacific States of North America," California inter Pocula, or