562 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



he makes a spring : in order that he may 

 not be killed, he kills. No one is more to 

 be dreaded, for his delirium sustains him ; 

 his strength is prodigious. ... So France, 

 exhausted by fasting under the monarchy, 

 made drunk by the drug of the ' Social 

 Contract,' and other fiery beverages, is 

 struck by paralysis of the brain. She is 

 about to enter upon the period of somber 

 delirium. Behold her capable of daring, 

 suffering, and doing all, capable of incredi- 

 ble exploits and of abominable barbarities." 

 It remains only to add that Mr. Durand's 

 translation aims primarily at accuracy, but 

 that he has preserved much of the effective- 

 ness, also, of M. Taine's vivid style. 



The Harrowgate Waters : Data, Chem- 

 ical and Therapeutical, with Notes on 

 the Climate of Harrowgate. By George 

 Oliver, M. D. London : E. Lewis. Phil- 

 adelphia: Presley Blakiston. Pp. 224. 



Harrowgate is a kind of British Sara- 

 toga, having within a district of two miles 

 eighty medicinal springs, no two of which 

 are alike, and some of which are asserted 

 to be, both from a chemical and from a 

 therapeutical stand-point, unrivaled else- 

 where. For these, and for certain climatal 

 advantages ascribed to the place, it is claimed 

 to be far superior to all other English health 

 resorts. The volume, which is addressed 

 particularly to medical readers, aims to give 

 a scientifically correct account of the quali- 

 ties of the waters, the diseases they are 

 good for, and the most efficient methods 

 of application. 



Report of the Commissioner of Educa- 

 tion for the Year 1879. Washing- 

 ton: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 



757. 



The commissioner is able to report a 

 continually increasing demand upon his 

 office for information, the present demand 

 being greater than ever before. The mul- 

 titude of details embraced in the report do 

 not admit of collation into a paragraph, 

 and we can only refer to a few isolated facts. 

 The colored schools numbered 14,472, and 

 their pupils 700,360, of whom 1,933 were 

 college and 903 were professional students. 

 Normal schools were established in all the 

 States except Delaware, Florida, and Neva- 

 da; and they sent out during 1879 3,347 



graduates. The Kindergartens were in- 

 creasing, but under private enterprise, while 

 the attempt to introduce them into the pub- 

 lic-school system was attended with embar- 

 rassment. The condition of scientific and 

 technical schools was promising; and the 

 institutions, having excited the people to 

 an appreciation of scientific methods and 

 processes in their application to agriculture 

 and the mechanic arts, were rising in fa- 

 vor. Regarding original investigations and 

 publications by professors in American 

 schools, the commissioner remarks that " it 

 is a matter of just pride that our institu- 

 tions are extending their activities in this 

 direction, and that their publications and 

 their positive contributions to the progress 

 of science receive honorable recognition 

 from the scholars of other nations." 



Mechanics' Liens, how Acquired and En- 

 forced. A Treatise referring to and 

 citing the latest Statutes and Decisions, 

 and designed for General Circulation 

 among Lawyers, Builders, Mechanics, 

 and Owners. To which is added an Ap- 

 pendix of Forms. By James T. Hott, 

 of the New York Bar. New York : P. 

 F. McBreen. Pp. 310. Price, $2.25. 



The subject of this book is of immediate 

 interest to every property-owner and every 

 workman, for every owner's property may 

 become the object of a lien, and the work- 

 man of nearly every class may be in a po- 

 ; sition to hold a claim of that nature. It is 

 therefore important to both classes to be 

 able to know what a lien is, under what 

 conditions it may exist, and what is the law 

 relative to it. This the book aims to tell, 

 as briefly as is possible consistently with 

 giving a satisfactory statement. The author 

 has examined more than a thousand legal 

 authorities on the subject, and has arranged 

 the whole mass of information which he 

 has collected covering the whole case, so 

 far as has been decided, in chapters, each 

 of which covers a particular department. 

 The points are presented briefly and clearly, 

 and each one is enforced by a reference to 

 the particular law or decision by which it is 

 made effective. The work has been pre- 

 pared with especial reference to the city and 

 the State of New York, but the principles 

 it embodies are of general application. 



