Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 56.djvu/291

Rh Moore utters a protest against the egoism or selfishness of our day, and suggests an ideal scheme. The problem of life is defined as being the relation of each individual to the rest of the universe, and is peculiarized by the existence of the social problem involving relations of individuals to each other different from those sustained to the impersonal universe. There are in the nature of living beings the egoistic element, which impels action in behalf of self, and the altruistic element, which prompts or prevents movement out of consideration to others. At present the egoistic element predominates, with results that make a picture far from bright. In the social ideal the strong should supplement the weak as they would like to be supplemented if they were weak; individuals not unequal but diverse may mutualize their efforts to the advantage of all; and each individual should perform in the social economy that function for which he is best fitted, and should receive in return "a graceful equity in the means for satisfying his desires."

Among the books announced for issue soon by Henry Holt & Co. are The Book of Vertebrate Zoölogy, by Prof. J. S. Kingsley, author of The Elements of Comparative Zoölogy, published by the same house, which can be used as a companion to McMurrich's Invertebrate Zoölogy; Elementary Studies in Chemistry, by Prof. Joseph Torrey, of Harvard, which, while it is characterized by the emphasis laid upon quantitative laboratory work in general chemistry, will be a comprehensive textbook on the whole subject; and Moulds, Mildews, and Mushrooms, a guide to the systematic study of the fungi and Mycetozoa and their literature, by Prof. Lucien Underwood, of Columbia University.

Miss Cornelia E. Horsford, being interested in the question of the origin of certain ancient ruins situated on the Charles River, Mass., and elsewhere in America, which were discovered by the late Prof. E. N. Horsford and were believed by him to be relics of the settlements formed by the Norsemen in the tenth century, commissioned Mr. Thorstein Erlingsson to examine for comparison certain ancient dwellings in Iceland, in the summer of 1895. The inquiries assigned to him related to the method of construction of the long houses, square buildings, hillside cots with pavements, mounds, things and doom rings, irrigation and drainage, ditches, river dams, hithes and ship docks, or nauts, grave-hills, and forts. The results of the study are given, with illustrations, in a small book. Ruins of the Saga Times, by Thorstein Erlingsson. (Published by David Nutt, London.) Mr. Erlingsson's report is supplemented by an outline of already ascertained knowledge regarding early Scandinavian home building, derived from previous excavations and investigations furnished by F. T. Norris and Jön Stefánsson, and a summary in French by M. E. D. Grand.

The Quarterly Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland was issued during the thirty-seven years from the beginning of 1871 in the form styled demi-octavo. The small pages of this size entailed some inconveniences, especially when ample plates and tables were needed for illustration. With the double number (August and November, 1898) a new series was begun, in the form styled imperial octavo, with a page considerably larger than in the old form and corresponding in size with the important publications of some of the continental societies of Europe. This number contains the proceedings of seven meetings of the society and important anthropological articles, some of them on American subjects. Among them is a criticism, by Prof. W. Z. Ripley, on Deniker's Classification of the Races of Europe.

In How to Swim (Putnams, $1) Captain Davis Dalton, Chief Inspector of the United States Volunteer Life-Saving Corps, gives a practical treatise upon the art of natation, together with instruction as to the best methods of saving persons imperiled in the water and of resuscitating persons apparently drowned. The treatise covers every branch of the art, and abounds in cautions in connection with nearly every topic, against the mistakes that may arise from timidity or the carelessness of over-confidence. The author holds that swimming is an art to be acquired and learned like other athletic arts,