Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/784

704 France, Germany, Holland, and Sweden. Views and plans of many of these buildings are given, which show that in securing convenient interiors neat and attractive exteriors have not been sacrificed. Nearly all of the groups of small houses described have been erected by large commercial corporations for their workpeople. Judging from the number of examples given here, France and Germany seem to lead in this sort of dwellings. In the United States examples are taken from Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Illinois. The model lodging houses described are confined to Baltimore and five British cities. The author of this report has given prominence to the financial returns from model houses, being convinced that there can be no permanent solution of the housing problem unless improved housing can be shown to pay. Moreover, for the sake of the self-respect in the persons benefited, which a wise philanthropy seeks to build up, such operations should be self-supporting. Model housing has a view to the morals as well as the health of the tenants, aiming to correct the abuse of adults and children of both sexes huddling into the same sleeping rooms. In cities rapid transit has an important influence on the housing problem. For the workingman's purposes space is measured by time, not by distance. Taking into consideration all the agencies that are now operating against unwholesome congestion, the outlook is decidedly hopeful.

There is much food for thought in the relation between man and the animals that he has trained to his service. The most obvious result of their association with him has been to promote most efficiently his ascendency over the actively hostile or inertly resistant features of his environment. This association, also, has greatly modified the numbers, distribution, and development of the domesticated animals, while the necessity of controlling and caring for his dependents has had its influence upon the intellectual growth of man himself. These considerations and others are suggested in the attractive volume on the Domesticated Animals recently issued from the press of the Scribners. It is no dry and formal treatise that Prof. Shaler here presents, nor yet a string of more or less authentic "stories about animals." He has pursued a happy mean by giving facts not only interesting in themselves but having a bearing also upon those problems of the origin, evolution, and intelligence of animals with which science has long been engaged. The first place in the volume is given to the dog—the first of the lower animals to be domesticated. Prof. Shaler discusses the ancestry of domesticated dogs, the variations induced by civilization, the evils of specialized breeding, and the future development of the species. He describes the peculiarities of character exhibited in the principal breeds, and gives considerable attention to canine intelligence, especially with reference to the expression of emotions. The intelligence of dogs is also compared with that of other animals, and it is only in this comparison that cats figure in the book. The horse is described in much the same way as the dog. Briefer consideration is given to the beasts for burden, food, and raiment, among which camels, elephants, and pigs are included with the commoner kinds. There is an interesting chapter on barnyard and water fowl, pigeons, song birds, and falcons; the few useful insects are also duly