270 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



himself to speak on philosopTiical sub- 

 jects with altogether too slender an 

 equipment of necessary knowledge. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The History and TnEORY of Monet. By 

 Sidney Sherwood, with Addresses by 

 Dr. William Pepper and others. Phila- 

 delphia : J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 

 413. Price, $2. 



The American people has heard more 

 about the theory of money during the past 

 summer than in a long time before. Much 

 that has been said has been erroneous, and, 

 unfortunately, the error has often been put 

 forth so speciously that many of those who 

 have not given the subject of finance serious 

 study have mistaken the false for the true. 

 During the early months of 1892, when the 

 subject of money was also attracting con- 

 siderable attention, a series of lectures was 

 delivered in Philadelphia, under the ausjiices 

 of the American Society for the Extension 

 of University Teaching, aud the patronage 

 of the bankers of Philadelphia. These lec- 

 tures were given by Dr. Sherwood, of the 

 Wharton School of Finance and Economy, 

 and, with certain supplementary matter, con- 

 stitute the volume before us. The twelve 

 lectures are evenly divided between history 

 and theory ; under the former head the prin- 

 cipal topics are coinage, past fluctuations in 

 the supply of the coin metals, the develop- 

 ment of credit, the history of the Bank of 

 England, and the history of American cur- 

 rency. The first lecture on theories is also 

 historical, while the remaining five are de- 

 voted wholly to monetary theories now cur- 

 rent. Dr. Sherwood affirms that the prac- 

 tical law of value of money is the law 

 of demand and supply. Governments can, 

 within narrow limits, make money more or 

 less desirable and more or less plenty, thus 

 affecting its value. He presents the argu- 

 ment both for and against a large volume of 

 currency, and then sets forth certain impor- 

 tant facts that bear upon this matter. Paper 

 money he describes as a promise to pay. In 

 treating of banks of various kinds he states 

 that there is a growing tendency to divorce 

 note-issue from the deposit and discount 

 functions of banks ; that the latter functions 

 are constantly becoming more important, 



while there are tendencies both for and against 

 the extension of the former. The eleventh 

 lecture deals with the monetary question of 

 greatest current interest the Battle of the 

 Standards, or monometallism versus bimetal- 

 lism. Dr. Sherwood gives the arguments of 

 both parties in the controversy, and states 

 his conviction that bimetallism based on an 

 agreement of the chief commercial nations 

 would be advantageous, but attempted by 

 one nation alone would be disastrous. 

 France maintained it only so long as certain 

 accidental conditions existed. The policy of 

 the United States under the Sherman law is 

 not bimetallism. The subject of the closing 

 lecture monetary panics is also a timely 

 one. The lecturer points out seven causes 

 of panics, and states the measures taken 

 by financial institutions for allaying them. 

 Each of the lectures was followed by a dis- 

 cussion, which is reported. Appended to the 

 volume are a syllabus of the lectures and a 

 list of books for reading. Addresses made 

 by Dr. William Pepper, Mr. William H. 

 Rhawn, and others, at the opening and 

 closing of the course, are also included. 



Brief Guide to the Commoner Butterflies 

 OF the Northern United States and 

 Canada. By Samuel Hubbard Scudder. 

 New York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 206. 

 Price, $1.25. 



The Life of a Butterfly. By S. H. Scud- 

 der. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 

 Pp. 186. Price, $1. 



The former of these small volumes is a 

 manual for amateur collectors. The author 

 has aimed to guard against alarming the 

 beginner by its size, and to give quite full 

 life-histories of the butterflies that are in- 

 cluded in it. It is described further in his 

 own words as follows : " I have accordingly 

 selected the butterflies less than a hundred 

 of them which would almost surely be met 

 with by any industrious collector in the 

 course of a year's or two years' work in the 

 more populous Northern States and in Can- 

 ada, and have here treated them as if they 

 were the only ones found there. I have 

 omitted many species which are common 

 enough in certain restricted localities (such, 

 for instance, as our White Mountain butter- 

 fly), and included only those which are com- 

 mon over wide areas. As the earlier stages 

 of these insects are just as varied, as inter- 



