LITERARY NOTICES. 



415 



tions of the Government tend directly 

 to dwarf individual research; geology 

 itself tends to become a purely official 

 science. " We confidently appeal, 1 ' says 

 Mr. Herbert, " to the best literary and 

 scientific thought of the country to 

 come to our aid and join us in the effort 

 to effect a reform and arrest this perni- 

 cious tendency." It is needless to say 

 that " The Popular Science Monthly " 

 most cordially and earnestly indorses 

 this appeal. If we want to preserve 

 our intellectual liberty and encourage 

 individual initiative, we must see to it 

 that we do not establish any scientific 

 pontiffs at Washington. And if in an 

 unguarded moment we have established 

 any such, and given them the means of 

 stretching the arm of authority into 

 every portion of our territory and lay- 

 ing the foundations of the Church of 

 Official Science, the sooner we proceed 

 to recall the powers so dangerously 

 conferred, the better will it be for the 

 commonwealth. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Upland and Meadow. A Poaetquissings 

 Chronicle. By Charles C. Abbott, M. D. 

 New York: Harper & Brothers. Pp. 

 397. 



The readers of the " Monthly " already 

 know much of Dr. Abbott as a naturalist 

 and antiquary ; for he has not unf requently 

 visited our pages, bringing with him con- 

 tributions, the fruit of his researches among 

 the gravels of the Delaware, and of his ram- 

 bles along the streams and through the 

 swamps that happen to be near Trenton. 

 An unreflecting reader might think, from 

 the fullness of Dr. Abbott's budgets of Na- 

 ture-lore, and the variety of interest which 

 they contain, that there must be rare quali- 

 ties in those particular gravel-beds and 

 swamps, but the thought would not be jus- 

 tified. Presumably they are very much like 

 the gravel-beds and swamps that may be 

 found anywhere else, and the rare quality is 

 in the observer. Dr. Abbott has also rare 

 gifts at description, and the faculty of 

 making his reader conceive the scenes and 

 the curiosities almost as if he were along 



with his guide and looking at them. These 

 merits of observing power and of descrip- 

 tion are well exemplified in this volume, 

 which delineates what appear to be about a 

 round year's rambles, with observations of 

 animals and plants, and other objects of 

 scientific interest. Keen observer as Dr. 

 Abbott is, he found those things in the ob- 

 servations and histories of the old men he 

 met that made him sorry that he could see 

 so little, or that he had not lived in times 

 when New Jersey nature was richer ; he in- 

 variably wished, when he had talked with 

 them, that he had been his own grandfather ! 

 Then there were men of his own time who 

 could teach him better than he knew what 

 to see. " To realize what a wealth of ani- 

 mal and vegetable life is ever at hand for him 

 who chooses to study it, let a specialist visit 

 you for a few days. Do not have more than 

 one at a time, or you may be bewildered by 

 their enthusiasm. I have had them come 

 in turn botanists, conchologists, entomol- 

 ogists, microscopists, and even archaeologists. 

 What an array of names to strike terror 

 to the breasts of the timid ! yet they were 

 all human, and talked plain English, and, 

 better than all, were both instructive and 

 amusing." The botanist found a plant not 

 previously known to grow in New Jersey ; 

 the conchologist a diminutive bivalve with 

 an enormous name, and microscopic shells 

 whose tongues he had to examine and count 

 their teeth ; the entomologist chased insects 

 with the speed of an express train, and 

 caught kinds before unseen ; the microsco- 

 pist dipped up a pint-jar of muddy water, and, 

 examining its contents at leisure, announced 

 new infusoria, novel forms of imperceptible 

 life, and gave to them startling names. So 

 Dr. Abbott, in turn, resolved to be a botan- 

 ist, a conchologist, a student of insect-life, 

 a microscopist, and an archaeologist. Even 

 in winter, he finds Poaetquissings full of 

 life ; birds that are supposed to have gone 

 away to the South chirping around and 

 seemingly not troubled by the cold or by 

 any lack of food ; fishes under the ice ; 

 witch-hazels and chickweed and whitlow- 

 grass and sassafras and alder and skunk- 

 cabbage and dandelion blooming with the 

 snow all around, and other flowers cominsr 

 in as February and March advance. As the 

 changing season proceeds, there are more 



