130 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



property. It appears that most juvenile criminals are undersized and 

 sickly, and many have a feeble intellect, bluntness of feeling, or unstable 

 will. The operation of heredity has fastened these defects upon them, as a 

 rule, so that they must be regarded as belonging to a decadent class. Be- 

 sides the production of such disabilities the influence of parents often oper- 

 ates to rear young criminals through the conditions and associations of the 

 home. From this examination of the production of juvenile crime our 

 author turns to consider measures of repression. He finds that the plan of 

 suspended sentence is very promising, especially with first offenders. A 

 fine which may be paid in installments, or, in other words, a sentence to 

 compulsory labor without imprisonment, also commends itself to him, but 

 he has little faith in the eflScacy of corporal punishment, in spite of the 

 recent advocacy of it. Ordinary imprisonment, which he discusses in con- 

 siderable detail, he also finds unsuitable for the young. The corrective 

 institutions that have become numerous of late years seem to him to go to 

 the root of the difficulty, as they aim to correct the defective physical and 

 moral condition of the juvenile delinquent, and thus aid him to keep from 

 future lapses. Mr. Morrison urges more intelligent supervision of inmates 

 after their discharge from such institutions, which could be combined with 

 conditional release before the expiration of the term of commitment. The 

 book can not fail to be of service to all who have to deal with vicious tend- 

 encies in the young. 



It is a long step from the time when prehistoric man fashioned his rude 

 weapons and battled with the rhinoceros and cave bear to the era of such a 

 civilization as that of the Akkads, depicted for us by Mr. Anderson.* To 

 these early Chaldeans Babylon and Assyria were indebted for their cunei- 

 form characters and much of their culture. At Lippur, 3800 B. c, they 

 possessed an extensive library. Some of their works on astronomy, being 

 unearthed three thousand years later, proved sufficiently new to be studied 

 by the Assyrians. In art they showed more skill than succeeding nations, 

 and also made considerable progress in science, being acquainted with the 

 sidereal year and reckoning the latitude of stars. They used the clepsydra, 

 lever and pulley, lenses, and possibly telescopes, since tablets have been 

 found apparently referring to the four moons of Jupiter. 



It is almost incredible that the name and memory of a nation so exten- 

 sive as to include all of Asia Minor and northern Syria, and powerful 

 enough to be courted by Egypt in the time of the great Sesostris, could be 

 blotted out of history for two thousand years. Yet this is tho care in re- 

 gard to the empire of Khita. and the story of her greatness has to be inter- 

 preted anew for us from the walls of Thebes and Egyptian temples. The 

 Hittite inscriptions which are found in Asia Minor are as yet a riddle to 

 scholars. 



Other of the ancient civilizations happily did not fall into such oblivion, 

 and concerning the distinctive features of each of these Babylonia, Egypt, 

 Phoenicia, the Hebrews, the Arabs, and ancient Persia the author dis- 

 courses ably and graphically. 



* Ttie story of Extinct Civilizations of the East. By Robert E. Anderson. New York : D. Apple- 

 ton & Co. Pp. :>13. Price, 40 conts. 



