LITERARY NOTICES. 



855 



of knowledge and the establishment of new 

 truth. But this state of things can not last. 

 Science is destined to make its way, and the 

 science which furnishes a new method and 

 new aids in the study of human affairs is 

 bound to force the recognition that has not 

 yet been accorded. There are many gropers 

 in the field of so-called " Social Science," 

 and, although their results are of but little 

 value, they attest a vague belief in the so- 

 cial order as something capable of rational 

 elucidation. What we want is better 

 methods of conducting the investigation and 

 a truer spirit of science in their pursuit. The 

 work here noticed, in proportion as it be- 

 comes known, is certain to be tributary in 

 an eminent degree to this desirable end. 



Report on the Thermal Springs of the 

 Yellowstone National Park. By A. 

 C. Peale. Author's edition. Washing- 

 ton. Pp. 454, with Plates and Charts. 



The report is a Part extracted from the 

 report of Dr. Hayden's "Geological and 

 Geographical Survey of the Territories for 

 1878," and well deserves the distinction of 

 a separate publication. It gives full ac- 

 counts of all the geysers and hot springs of 

 the park, arranged in the order of the river 

 systems to which they belong, with the his- 

 tory of our knowledge of them, and of the 

 region as a whole, accompanied by illustra- 

 tions tinted in the natural colors, and maps, 

 in which each spring and phenomenon de- 

 scribed is indicated by a corresponding 

 number. The reader of the historical in- 

 troduction will be surprised to learn how 

 short a time these wonders, now familiar 

 and world - renowned, have been known. 

 John Coulter, of Lewis and Clark's expedi- 

 tion, was the first man who ever saw them, 

 and his accounts of them, first given in 

 1810, were not believed at all. James 

 Bridger next told of them, in 1 844, and was 

 likewise discredited. Even the newspapers 

 were afraid to publish any of his stories. 

 Captain John Mullan, in 1853, heard some- 

 thing about the hot springs and geysers 

 from the Indians ; and Captain Reynolds, in 

 a report to the Fortieth Congress, admitted 

 that Bridger might possibly have seen such 

 springs as he described. The first authen- 

 tic description of the springs was published 

 by David E. Folsom in the "Lakeside 

 Monthly," Chicago, in 1870. Other explo- 



rations were made at about this time, and 

 other magazine articles, some of them illus- 

 trated, were published concerning the phe- 

 nomena ; and the first scientific accounts of 

 the region were given by the geological sur- 

 veys of 1871 and 1872. 



The Diseases of the Liver, with and 

 without Jaundice. By George Har- 

 let, M. D., F. R. S. Philadelphia : P. 

 Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 751. Price, 

 $5. 



The author published in 1863 a mono- 

 graph on " Jaundice," with observations on 

 the special application of pathological chem- 

 istry to the detection and treatment of dis- 

 eases of the liver and pancreas. With the 

 fruit of twenty years of additional experi- 

 ence, he has again gone over the subject 

 and produced the present treatise, which, 

 although it embodies the whole substance 

 of the original monograph, " bears no more 

 resemblance to it than a mature adult does 

 to the suckling from which he sprung." 

 While the scientific principles on which 

 both works are founded are identical, the 

 present one is much larger than the former, 

 and contains in a condensed form a consid- 

 erable amount of clinical and scientific data 

 that have never before been collected into 

 one volume. As in other branches of sci- 

 ence, many old theories have been aban- 

 doned. The work being intended for the 

 use of the " qualified brethren " of the au- 

 thor, he does not undertake to discuss them, 

 but, in order that the reader may see how 

 many of them have been given up and how 

 many new ones espoused, he has put his 

 own views, in accordance with the facts and 

 arguments expressed throughout the vol- 

 ume, into a concise and diagrammatic tab- 

 ular form. 



"Bulletin of the American Museum of 

 Natural History." Vol. I, No. 4. 

 New York: Printed for the Museum. 

 Pp. 40, with Plates. 



The present number of the " Bulletin " 

 is wholly occupied with a contribution by 

 Joseph B. Holder on " The Atlantic Right 

 Whales," in which he maintains that the 

 black whale so called of the temperate At- 

 lantic, which was lately introduced to sci- 

 ence as a recent discovery, and is now after 

 a long period of nearly total extinction rap- 

 idly increasing in numbers, "is the one 



