270 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gain to the community; 3, that the equitable 

 adjustment of compensation would be ex- 

 tremely difficult ; and, 4, that the adminis- 

 tration of the land as public property by 

 state officials would entail all the vices of 

 officialism by no means involve the belief 

 that private landownership should continue 

 without change. Immense estates should 

 not be allowed to be held in permanency ; 

 but a fundamental change in land tenure is 

 not required for remedying this evil. In 

 England, abolition of primogeniture will do 

 it. Recognizing the right of the state to re- 

 strain the use of land in ways at variance 

 with public welfare, we may at the same time 

 hold that there are cases in which it is both 

 politic and practicable to exercise that right. 

 The publication frees Mr. Spencer beyond all 

 doubt from any possible charge of inconsist- 

 ency between the views formerly published 

 by him and those which he has more recently 

 expressed. 



Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay. 

 By Sir Archibald Geikie, with Por- 

 traits. New York: Macmillan & Co. 

 Pp. 397. Price, $4. 



Sir Andrew Ramsay was one of the 

 leaders in the geology of his time, and, by 

 virtue of his pleasant and strong qualities, 

 exercised a wide influence over his contem- 

 poraries. He joined the Geological Survey of 

 the United Kingdom when it was still in its 

 infancy, and remained on its staff during the 

 whole of his active scientific career a period 

 of forty years. " So entirely," says Sir 

 Archibald Geikie, " did he identify himself 

 with the aims and work of the survey and so 

 largely was he instrumental in their develop- 

 ment, that the chronicle of his life is in a 

 great measure the record also of the prog- 

 ress of that branch of the service. Recog- 

 nizing this intimate relation, I have woven 

 into my narrative such additional details as 

 might perhaps serve to make the volume not 

 only a personal biography, but an outline of 

 the history of the Geological Survey of the 

 United Kingdom." From the summary of 

 Ramsay's work given by the author, it ap- 

 pears that his earliest and his latest labors 

 beginning with a pamphlet on the geology of 

 Arrau, and ending with the second edition 

 of a monograph on North Wales were in 

 structural geology. " Between these two 



limits he accomplished a large amount of 

 investigation directed toward the elucida- 

 tion of the geological structure of Brit- 

 ain." His two presidential addresses to 

 the Geological Society mark a distinct epoch 

 in stratigraphical work, in that in them he 

 indicated the historical meaning of the im- 

 perfection of the geological record which 

 had been pointed out by Darwin. His phys- 

 iographical work was abundant, remarkably 

 original, and important, and bore on denuda- 

 tion in general, the history of river valleys, 

 and the results of the operations of ice. 

 Connecting his stratigraphical with his phys- 

 iographical researches was a series of papers 

 discussing the former existence of continents 

 or of terrestrial conditions, during -the de- 

 position of the geological record. His prin- 

 cipal contributions to the literature of the 

 history of geology were two inaugural lec- 

 tures at University College, and his address 

 as President of Section C of the British As- 

 sociation of 1881, which embodied historical 

 reviews. He was a thorough uniformitarian 

 in his theories to the end. His literary 

 work included criticisms and lively articles 

 in the Saturday Review. A still wider view 

 of the extent of his influence is afforded 

 when it is recollected that for nearly thirty 

 years he was a teacher of geology, that he 

 was an able debater in the Geological So- 

 ciety and a brilliant lecturer, and that he 

 had the practical training of men on his 

 staff in the Geological Survey who have 

 since become conspicuous in educational 

 life. 



The Evolution of the Massachusetts Pub- 

 lic-School System. By George H. Mar- 

 tin. International Education Series. New 

 York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 284. 

 Price, $1.50. 



Two very significant statements are made 

 by the editor in his preface to this book. 

 The inhabitant of Massachusetts receives, on 

 an average, nearly seven years of schooling, 

 while the citizen of the nation at large en- 

 joys only four years and three tenths of such 

 training. In the same State the average 

 earnings apportioned to each man, woman, 

 and child would be seventy-three cents per 

 day ; elsewhere in the United States this 

 amount is represented by forty cents. 



" There would seem to be some connec- 



