SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 127 



over opposing Europe, compelled the recognition of an international prin- 

 ciple based on the affinities of peoples, and inaugurated, " not only a new 

 regime for Italy, but also a new public law for Europe." The empire of 

 Napoleon, which rose to its culmination while these things were going on, 

 was " nothing but an adventure out of accord with modern highly developed 

 civilization," exhausted France and checked the education of the people in 

 matters of government and habits of self-reliance. The rise of Prussia and 

 the establishment, under Bismarck, of the unity of Germany, are regarded 

 as an instance of the accomplishment of a noble end by the use of force. 

 The struggle culminated in the war of 1870, the ultimate consequence of 

 which was that "scarcely a vestige remained of those conditions of the 

 Congress of Vienna which for so many years had been the anxious care of 

 the European concert." The arrangement between Austria and Hungary, 

 creating a dual monarchy, " established a government which was the re- 

 sult, not merely of political ingenuity, but of experience, and one that on 

 the whole was successful " ; and Austria has taken its place among the 

 enlightened governments of Europe. The " Eastern question " is presented 

 as one in which the attitude of the powers is no longer determined in Eu- 

 rope, but in China, India, and Africa, the settlement of which seems to be 

 indefinitely postponed. The concluding chapters relate to present condi- 

 tions. 



Mr. Seward excuses himself in rather an apologetic way for undertak- 

 ing to write a book on Fossil Plants* for the Cambridge Natural Science 

 Manuals — a task which Professor Williamson, a founder of modern paleo- 

 botany, had considered too serious; but students of botany and geology 

 have cause to thank him for having consented to attempt the writing of a 

 book intended to render more accessible some of the important facts of the 

 science, and to suggest lines of investigation in it. The botanist and geol- 

 ogist, not being always acquainted with each other's subjects in a sufficient 

 degree to appreciate the significance of paleobotany in its several points 

 of contact with geology and recent botany, the subject does not readily 

 lend itself to adequate treatment in a work intended for students of both 

 classes, and the author has accordingly tried to shape his treatment with 

 this point in view, and so as to adapt it to both non -geological and non- 

 botanical students. As a possible aid to those undertaking research in this 

 field he has given more references than usually seem appropt^iate in an in- 

 troductory treatise — often to specimens of coal-measure plants in the Wil- 

 liamson cabinet of microscopic sections, now in the British Museum — and 

 has dealt with certain questions in greater detail than an elementary treat- 

 ment of the subject requires. His plan has been to treat certain selected 

 types with some detail, and to refer briefly to such others as should be 

 studied by any one desiring to pursue the subject more thoroughly, rather 

 than to cover a wide range or to attempt to make the list of types complete. 

 The book opens with a sketch of the history of paleobotany, which is fol- 

 lowed by a discussion of the relation of paleobotany to botany and geol- 

 ogy. A succinct review of geological history is then given, in which the 

 several principal formations are briefly described. The theory of the pro- 



* Fossil Plants. For Students of Botany and Geology. By A. C. Seward. With Illustrations. 

 Cambridge, England : The University Press. New York : The Macmillan Company. Pp. 452. 



Pries, $3. 



