Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/137

Rh Judging from the account of Mr. Loomis, there is much enjoyment to be had incidentally from a scientific expedition to a strange land. Merely passing over unfamiliar ground and observing its natural features, its inhabitants in their everyday aspect, and its ordinary sequence of events has its interest. But when the traveler is engaged in operations that are enough out of the common to appear somewhat weird to the non-scientific native and arouse his active curiosity, traits are brought out that do not appear to the ordinary visitor. A more realizing sense of the physical, political, and industrial condition of a strange land, too, is obtained when one has to accomplish a definite piece of work with the means that it affords than, when one is concerned merely with passing through it. Personal equation is quite as much a factor in books of travel as in scientific observations. How much we prefer the writer who jots down the points that we take an interest in and answers the queries that arise in our minds as we follow his narrative! The reader with scientific tastes especially will enjoy Mr. Loomis's book. It describes the journey of the United States Scientific Expedition to West Africa in 1889-’90, the preparations for viewing the eclipse of the sun, and the return. After crossing the Atlantic, stops were made at the Azores, Cape Verd Islands, Sierra Leone, and on the Gold Coast before the destination of the expedition—Saint Paul de Loan da—was reached. On the return, Cape Town, the diamond mines of Kimberley, Saint Helena, Ascension, and Barbados were visited. The book gives abundant evidence that our author, in addition to his ability to record matters of exact observation, is not without a realizing sense of the beautiful and inspiring in Nature. The volume is handsomely printed, and is copiously illustrated with reproductions of photographs taken by members of the expedition.

Another careful study of a special field has been added to the Criminology Series. The habitual criminal presents a much more serious problem than the occasional offender. Criminal habits, like most others, are formed in youth; hence any diminution that can be secured in the amount of juvenile crime will tend to reduce the most troublesome class of criminals. At present the author's study, of statistics and other pertinent facts indicates that juvenile crime is increasing in both Europe and America. Its distribution agrees substantially with that of adult crime. While the bulk of juvenile criminals are boys, Mr. Morrison finds that "female offenders are rather more likely to descend into the ranks of habitual criminals than male offenders." He accounts for this largely from the fact that "females are, as a rule, later in being subjected to reformative discipline than males, with the ultimate result that this discipline is less effective when at last it has to be resorted to. It is therefore," he continues, "no real kindness to female children, when they exhibit symptoms of habitual delinquency, to allow these symptoms to develop unheeded." As to the kinds of crime committed by children, our author finds that petty theft and vagabondage are by far the most prevalent, mental and physical immaturity making it impossible for the young to be serious offenders