Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/718

702 is only equaled by his ignorance of the etiology and pathology of disease. Contagion, inoculation, and predisposition have to him a meaning that is alien to that attached thereto by the medical profession.

Our personal experience in Norway and the United States justifies our statement that if the author's reference to other countries is no more accurate than to these two, then, as a work on leprosy, the book is useless.

Its real purpose, however, is to promulgate the theory that the leprosy that exists to-day is perpetuated by vaccination. We can not trespass upon the space of these columns to discuss so unsubstantial a theory. One swallow does not make a summer, nor do one or more cases of leprosy inoculated with supposed vaccine sustain the author's thesis.

volume of the series in no way falls behind the previous issues, either in the intrinsic interest of the man and his career, or in the style of treatment. General Thomas was born on July 31, 1816, in the southeastern portion of Virginia. Little is known of his early life. In his nineteenth year he began the study of law, but shortly afterward was offered a cadet appointment at West Point, which he promptly accepted. He was graduated in 1840, twelfth in his class. Thomas's first commission was that of second lieutenant in the Third Artillery. He joined his regiment on Governor's Island, New York Harbor, but was soon ordered south to take part in the Florida War, where he gained much distinction and slight promotion. After this he served at several of the Southern military posts. He was with General Taylor during the Mexican war, and was brevetted major for brilliant work.

His personal appearance, about 1850, is thus described: "He was cast in a strong and large mold, and had many of the personal traits of Washington, whom in his intellectual and moral character he greatly resembled." In 1851 he was detailed as instructor of artillery and cavalry at West Point, and while serving here was promoted to a captaincy. It was also during his residence here that he married Miss Frances L. Kellogg, of Troy. In 1355, while in California, he was appointed a major. In 1861 he was advanced to a colonelcy after the resignation of A. S. Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and W. J. Hardee, all of whom joined the Confederacy. General Thomas seems never to have wavered in his allegiance to the Union.

He was appointed brigadier general in 1861. He played an important part in the civil war, and his achievements in its various battles form most of the bulk of the book. He has been accused of being too slow and ponderous in his military manœuvres, but the biographer emphatically denies this and says that the foundation for these statements was derived from his great caution and clear-headedness in military matters. After the war he was appointed commander of the Military Division of the Pacific, where he served only a year, his death occurring suddenly in 1870 from apoplexy. This series has a double value for youthful readers, being really history, in the form of biographical story.

is an elementary treatise on continuous-current dynamos and motors, which deals not only with the theories and laws governing their construction and action, but also with the application of these to their construction and running in the shop and power house. The first four chapters treat of the general principles of the machines, and serve as an introduction and preparation for the succeeding portions. Chapter V has to do with the mathematics of the magnetic circuit; and here the author has carefully abstained from using the higher mathematics and has only assumed for his student a knowledge of algebra and elementary geometry. Chapter VI deals with the theory of windings, losses, etc., and Chapter VII of the special features in motor designing. Chapters VIII, IX, and X relate to the practical application of the previously stated laws. In Chapters XI and XII, testing and handling the completed machine occupy the attention. The last two chapters deal with