418 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



family of Oceana is still growing, and will 

 have a sovereign voice in the coming fort- 

 unes of mankind." 



The Adirondacks as a Health Resort. 

 Edited and compiled by Joseph W. 

 Stickler, M. D. New York : G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons. Pp. 198. Price, $1. 



The purpose of this work is to show the 

 benefit to be derived from a sojourn in the 

 wilderness, in cases of pulmonary phthisis, 

 acute and chronic bronchitis, asthma, hay- 

 fever, and various nervous affections. The 

 author regards it as a fact that climate 

 plays a very important part in the treat- 

 ment of certain morbid states of the system, 

 particularly in catarrhal affections of the 

 respiratory apparatus and various forms of 

 nervous disease. He relates as of his own 

 experience that he obtained immediate and 

 permanent relief in bronchitis from a so- 

 journ in the Adirondacks. He also met, 

 while there, several invalids who, having 

 been in a precarious state of health, had 

 been similarly relieved during their sojourn. 

 He accordingly requested various persons, 

 who had tried a change of climate as a 

 means of regaining health, to give him hon- 

 est expressions of their experience while in 

 the region of the Adirondacks. This book 

 is compiled from their letters as they were 

 sent to him. 



What does History teach ? By John 

 Stuart Blackie. New York : Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. Pp. 123. Price, 15 

 cents. 



The substance of this book was delivered 

 in two lectures before the Philosophical In- 

 stitution of Edinburgh, the first of which 

 related to the lessons taught for the state, 

 and the second to those taught for the 

 Church. In the former category is the 

 teaching that the family is the basis of the 

 state and society. From the history of the 

 downfall of Greece is drawn the lesson of 

 failure and disaster brought about by the 

 want of unity between the several states ; 

 from the fate of the Roman Republic that 

 of the evil engendered by the perpetual 

 conflict between the aristocracy and democ- 

 racy. From these lessons and other exam- 

 ples, the author deduces a conclusion favor- 

 able to the security afforded by the English 

 system, as preferable to what a democracy 



can offer ; yet there may be an exceptional 

 case in the United States, where " the ex- 

 periment of a great democratic republic for 

 the first time in the history of the world 

 for Rome in its best times, as we have seen, 

 was an aristocracy will be looked on by all 

 lovers of their species with the most kindly 

 curiosity and the most hopeful sympathy. 

 Here we have the stout, self-reliant, sober- 

 minded Anglo-Saxon stock, well trained in 

 the process of the ages to the difficult art of 

 self-government ; here we have a Constitu- 

 tion framed with the most cautious consid- 

 eration, and with the most effective checks 

 against the dangers of an overriding de- 

 mocracy; here also a people as free from 

 any imminent external danger as they have 

 unlimited scope for internal progress. Under 

 no circumstances could the experiment of 

 self-government on a great scale have been 

 made with a more promising start. No 

 doubt they have a difficult and slippery 

 problem to perform." To the Church are 

 tausrht the lessons of avoiding controversv 

 and of making religion practical. 



Transactions of the Anthropological So- 

 ciety of Washington. Vol. III. No- 

 vember 6, 1883, to May 19, 1885. Wash- 

 ington: Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 



204. 



The number and scope of the papers 

 printed in this volume, and the breadth of 

 the discussions upon them, show the An- 

 thropological Society to be an active body 

 and earnestly interested in its work. A 

 considerable number of the papers relate to 

 American anthropology, a branch of the 

 science to which this society may properly 

 devote special attention, and for the study 

 of which it has great advantages in the in- 

 clusion among its members of so many per- 

 sons who are or have been connected with 

 the geological survey. Many of the papers 

 and the discussions upon them relate direct- 

 ly or indirectly to the mounds and the 

 mound-builders, and frequently call up the 

 question whether the mound-builders were 

 identical with our Indians, or were of an 

 earlier and superior race. Much may be 

 found here to have been said on both sides 

 of this subject. Among the other papers 

 are some by Mr. Lester F. Ward from the 

 mental side of anthropological study; an 

 address by Mr. E. B. Tylor on " How the 



