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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the cells are the units in which life exists 

 and acts is emphasized. The author has en- 

 deavored to include all the useful points of 

 the older text-books, and to add such new 

 matter as the recent progress of physiologi- 

 cal and hygienic science demands. Avoid- 

 ing technical terms, he has sought to express 

 the truths in simple language, " such as he 

 would use in instructing a mother as to the 

 nature of the sickness of her child." The 

 subjects of alcohol and other narcotics are 

 made prominent in all the books, and are 

 discussed fully in the third of the series. 

 The relation of respiration and oxidation to 

 the disappearance of food, to the production 

 of waste matters, and to the development of 

 heat and force, is dwelt upon. Simple and 

 easy demonstrations, many of them new, 

 are provided at the ends of chapters. A 

 chapter on Repairs of Injuries, or the res- 

 toration of the natural functions, when im- 

 paired, by the body, is new in a school text- 

 book. 



In Yetta Segal* a slender thread of a 

 story is used by Mr. Rollin as the vehicle 

 for a theory of " type fusion " or convergence 

 which he thinks has not received sufficient 

 attention from social or scientific students. 

 There are a pair of lovers, one of whom is 

 discovered at a critical period in the court- 

 ship to have negro blood in his veins, and 

 a philosopher who comes forward to satisfy 

 the parties (who hardly need it) that this is 

 no serious matter, but is all according to 

 human evolution and the destiny of the 

 race. " You must be impressed," he says, 

 " by the fact that there are a great many 

 people here and there, of mixed blood, and 

 that the number is increasing ; ... it is 

 well that not a few are indeed truly admi- 

 rable specimens of the human race. Such 

 phenomena must be interpreted in a way 

 consistent with man's nature : if he is de- 

 velopmental ; if he shall attain a higher 

 status through struggle, or through means 

 that are seemingly, or for the time, degrad- 

 ing ; if he is moving from the simple to the 

 complex, as to organization ; if universal 

 movement tends to unific existence — then 

 race interchange, with elimination of pecul- 

 iar characteristics, has probably made its 



* Yetta S6pi]. By Horace J. Rollin. N.w 

 York : G. W. Dillingham & Co. Pp. 174. 



appearance as a phase of infinite order, 

 and for the benefit of future man. ... It 

 is presumptuous for the wisest to assert 

 that the man of lower type has no element 

 of strength peculiar to his race which the 

 most advanced does not need in his pres- 

 ent organization. It may be needed either 

 for present protection in the way of re-en- 

 forcement, or as an element of strength for 

 further advancement." Mr. Rollin does not 

 advocate type fusion or wish to accelerate 

 the movement, but presents it as a fact 

 and factor in human evolution deserving 

 more extensive and thorough study than it 

 has received. 



The increasing attention which of late 

 years has been given to the study of com- 

 parative anatomy has finally resulted in what 

 promises to be a complete and detailed ac- 

 count of the structure of a subhuman mam- 

 mal* The author, Dr. Jayne, believes that 

 a course in mammalian anatomy offers a 

 valuable preliminary to the study of medi- 

 cine, and this is the purpose for which the 

 book has been made. This is to a certain 

 extent true, especially where, as in the case 

 of the cat, there is so close a similarity to 

 the structure of the human body. But the 

 chief scientific interest and value of such 

 a work must lie in its broader philosophic 

 aspects ; in the aid which it can not but give 

 in clearing up some of the many mooted 

 points of evolutional biology, and in the 

 stimulus which it will impart to the study of 

 relationships among the lower animals. The 

 present volume, the first of the series, deals 

 only with the skeleton of the cat, each bone 

 being first studied individually, then in its 

 relations to other bones and to the mus- 

 cular system and the skeleton as a whole, 

 and finally in comparison with the corre- 

 sponding portion of the human skeleton. 

 There are 611 extremely good illustrations, 

 and the printing of the volume is unusually 

 clean and attractive. 



Among the articles of special value in 

 recent numbers of the (bimonthly) Bulletin 

 of the Department of Labor, under the edi- 

 torial control of Commissioner Carroll B. 

 Wright and Chief Clerk 0. D. Weaver, are 



* The Mammalian Anatomy of the Cat. By 

 Horace Jayne, M. D. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippin- 

 cott Company. Illustrated. Pp.816. Price, $5.00. 



