

558 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



physical, which may affect the reproductive 

 function. The book is an extremely satis- 

 factory one and calculated to do much good. 



Text-Book of Geology. By Sir Archibald 

 Geikie, F. R. S. Third edition, revised 

 and enlarged. London and New York : 

 Macraillan & Co. Pp. 114*7. Price, 

 $7.50. 



It is little enough to say of this text- 

 book, by the most eminent of living geolo- 

 gists, that it is a most able and authoritative 

 work. Its scope and characteristics were set 

 forth in the notice of its first edition, in the 

 twenty-second volume of this magazine. The 

 present edition has been entirely revised, and 

 in some portions recast or rewritten, so as to 

 bring it abreast of the continuous advance of 

 geological science. The additions made to 

 the text, which extend to every branch of 

 the subject, increase the volume by about 

 one hundred and fifty pages. The position 

 of the author as Director-General of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Great Britain and Ireland 

 has given him exceptional facilities for se- 

 curing the utmost fullness and accuracy at- 

 tainable in a geological treatise, and it is 

 greatly to the credit of the British Govern- 

 ment that it keeps such a man in such a 

 place. 



Essays on Rural Hygiene. By George 

 Vivian Poore, M. D., F. R. C. P. Lon- 

 don : Longmans, Green, & Co., 1893. 

 Crown 8vo, pp. 330. Price, $2. 



The author states that eight of the thir- 

 teen chapters of this work have been pre- 

 viously published as lectures, addresses, or 

 essays, but notwithstanding the desultory 

 manner of their appearance there is a con- 

 tinuity in the subject matter, and the book 

 has none of the characteristics of a collec- 

 tion of published papers. 



He tells us that the title Rural Hygiene 

 was chosen because it is only in places hav- 

 ing a rural or semi-rural character that it is 

 possible to be guided by scientific princi- 

 ples in our measures for the preservation of 

 health and the prevention of disease. He 

 considers that the hygienic arrangements in 

 cities are the products of expediency rather 

 than principle, and are not infrequently car- 

 ried out in defiance of the teachings of pure 

 science. He truly says that if the rural ele- 

 ment be entirely banished from our tomis, 



and if the fearful concentration of popula- 

 tion that is seen in the modem city, both in 

 England and America, be allowed to proceed 

 unchecked, we are in a fair way to increase 

 rather than decrease the liability of our 

 towns to suffer from epidemics. He ex- 

 presses the Utopian sentiment that before 

 the nineteenth century closes people will be- 

 gin to see the advantages not only of rural 

 features in the city but also of urban fea- 

 tures in the country. 



In the first and second chapters, on the 

 concentration of population in cities, it is in- 

 sisted that this is an indirect effect of our mod- 

 em sanitary methods, that give a fatal facility 

 for the packing of houses in dangerous prox- 

 imity to each other. It is shown that the re- 

 tention of a rural element in rapidly develop- 

 ing towns, by allowing open spaces to exist 

 between houses, has great advantages on the 

 score of health as well as on that of finance. 



Some of the shortcomings of modern sani- 

 tary methods are dealt with in the third chap- 

 ter ; such as the mixing of putrescible matter 

 with water, that leads to the dissemination 

 of water-borne diseases, to the pollution of 

 rivers, and the poisoning of wells. 



The fourth chapter, on the " living earth," 

 shows that by virtue of the animal and vege- 

 table organisms contained in humus it has 

 the marvelous power not only of turning or- 

 ganic matter into food for plants, but of pro- 

 tecting the air and water from animal pollu- 

 tions. 



The many evils associated with what are 

 known as modem sanitary fittings are re- 

 viewed in the fifth chapter, on the house. 

 It is insisted upon that no house can be se- 

 curely and permanently wholesome unless it 

 have tolerably direct relations with cultiva- 

 ble land. 



The sixth chapter discusses some of the 

 elementary facts in regard to air as well as 

 the relationship that exists between the earth 

 and the air. The latter is freshened by vege- 

 tation, and when the air in cities becomes too 

 foul to allow vegetation to flourish a danger 

 to health is in existence. 



The seventh chapter shows that, if we 

 want pure water, a scientific and careful dis- 

 posal of putrescible refuse is necessary ; and 

 the relations that exist between earth and 

 water are discussed. 



In the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh 



