7o6^ 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the whole ground, which most schoolbook 

 writers cling to, and aims chiefly to impress 

 the principles of the science upon the pupil's 

 mind. Enough descriptive matter is used to 

 illustrate these principles, but not so much 

 as to obscure the main purpose of the book. 



British Locomotives ; their History, Con- 

 struction, AND Modern Development. 

 By C. J. BowEN Cooke. New York : 

 Macmillan & Co. Pp. 381. Illustrated. 

 Price, $3. 



The usual books on this and kindred 

 subjects are either so technical as to be in- 

 comprehensible to the general reader, or so 

 popular as to be of no considerable value to 

 any one. Mr. Cooke has attempted to strike 

 a happy medium, and while giving the me- 

 chanical construction and action of locomo- 

 tives, accurately and in detail, he does so in 

 untechnical language, and assists his text with 

 carefully prepared drawings and diagrams. 

 An idea of the scope of the work may be 

 gathered from some of the chapter head- 

 ings : Early History ; Action of the Steam in 

 the Cylinder ; Valve Motion ; The Boiler ; 

 General Details ; How an Engine is put to- 

 gether ; Classification of Engines ; Brakes ; 

 Compound Locomotives ; Combustion and 

 Consumption of Fuel, and Engine Drivers 

 and their Duties. The book is nicely printed 

 and fully illustrated. 



Text-book of Elementary Biology. By H. 

 J. Campbell, M. D. New York : Mac- 

 millan & Co., 1893. Hlustrated. Pp. 

 284. Price, $1.60. 



This book belongs to the series of Intro- 

 ductory Science Text-books which this firm 

 is now publishing, and is one of its most im- 

 portant volumes. The subject is one about 

 which students should have something more 

 than vague ideas; and yet, unfortunately, 

 this is about the extent of their ordinary 

 biological knowledge at the time of gradua- 

 tion. Biology lies at the root of human 

 physiology, and this in turn should dictate 

 that self-care and self-preservation upon 

 which all our other actions in life depend. 

 The scheme of the book is, first, a discourse 

 on living as distinguished from non-living 

 matter ; followed by an examination into the 

 properties and characteristics of protoplasm. 

 Then the cell in its various forms, followed 

 by a chapter on embryology. The tissues, 



both animal and vegetable, are next dis- 

 cussed; and finally there are several pages 

 pointing out the differences between plants 

 and animals, which sum up as follows : 



" We have thus seen that there is no sin- 

 gle attribute of animals which is not shared 

 by some plants ; and, on the other hand, 

 there is no plant characteristic which is pos- 

 sessed by plants alone ; hence it is necessary 

 to allow that plants and animals are funda- 

 mentally identical, and, in fact, are only divi- 

 sions of a single vital stock." An elementary 

 examination follows of the forms of life usu- 

 ally considered in introductory text-books 

 the amoeba, yeast plant, vorticella, tapeworm, 

 leech, etc. 



Dr. Campbell has given us a work weU 

 suited to beginners, and hence an important 

 addition to our text-books on the subject. 

 The book is well printed and illustrated. 



A Review of the Systems of Ethics 



FOUNDED ON THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 



By C. M. Williams. New York and 

 London : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 681. 

 Price, $2.60. 



We have in this volume a substantial 

 contribution to the literature of its subject. 

 It consists of two parts, the first being a 

 presentation of the most prominent systems 

 of evolutionary ethics, under the names of 

 their respective propounders, while the sec- 

 ond is a general examination of the whole 

 field. The authors whose views are set forth 

 are Darwin, Wallace, Haeckel, Spencer, 

 Fiske, Rolph, Barratt, Stephen, Carneri, 

 H off ding, Gizycki, Alexander, and Ree. Mr. 

 AVilliams must be a hero-worshiper who 

 sees all wisdom in Darwin, else he would not 

 have lugged in the great biologist's name at 

 the head of this list. He calls Darwin " the 

 first laborer in this line," and says that " a 

 review of evolutional ethics must, therefore, 

 in order to start with the proper origin of 

 the science, begin with Charles Darwin." 

 He gets together ten pages of extracts from 

 Darwin's works, the first four pages of which 

 relate to nothing but instinct and heredity. 

 These are from the Origin of Species, which 

 appeared in 1869, and the essay on Instinct 

 prepared for that work, but not published till 

 after Darwin's death. Then follow quota- 

 tions from the Descent of Man, some of 

 which do relate to ethics, but the date when 



