LITERARY NOTICES. 



275 



and the sixth book comprises accounts of 

 the applications that have been made of the 

 electric light in light-houses, war, naviga- 

 tion, in industry, the arts, and commerce, 

 its installation in mines and excavations, 

 railroad-stations, warehouses, and even in 

 agricultural operations. All of these ac- 

 counts are profusely illustrated with clear 

 representations of the machinery and appa- 

 ratus described, with a few landscapes elec- 

 trically lighted. The authors have also given 

 much information concerning the cost of es- 

 tablishing and maintaining the electric light 

 for these several purposes. The work is 

 thus not only one to be read, but also one 

 that may be profitably consulted for practi- 

 cal purposes. 



Bi-Monetism : The Money op Commerce 

 and the money of the state. by 

 Joseph Stringham. Oshkosh, Wiscon- 

 sin. Pp. 64. 



This pamphlet embodies the results of 

 an inquiry which the author has made into 

 the relations of the two moneys to each 

 other, and into the utility of gold, silver, 

 and paper as materials for money. He 

 concludes that gold is the sole money of 

 commerce, and will continue to be so as 

 long as present commercial customs con- 

 tinue, but that the demand within the 

 several States for paper or silver tokens 

 for use in internal business is sufficient to 

 absorb all the silver, and raise it to its coin 

 value in gold, and keep it there. Silver, 

 if its use for such a purpose should become 

 general in the states of Europe and Amer- 

 ica, might thus eventually gain a recognized 

 place as money in commerce, but not other- 

 wise; while, under existing circumstances, 

 "silver or any other metal could not be 

 coined at its commercial value in gold with- 

 out subjecting the coinage to frequeDt 

 changes." 



Guides for Science Teaching. The Oys- 

 ter, Clam, and other Common Mollusks. 

 By Alpheus Hyatt. With Plates. Pp. 

 65. Common Minerals and Rocks. By 

 William 0. Crosby. Pp.130. Boston: 

 Ginn, Heath & Co. 



We noticed several months ago some 

 volumes of a series of small hand-books 

 published under the supervision of the Bos- 

 ton Society of Natural History, which were 



designed as aids to teachers wishing to in- 

 struct their pupils in branches of that de- 

 partment, but not to be used as text-books. 

 We notice in addition to the works we then 

 named the two whose titles stand at the 

 head of this article. The manual on 

 mollusks is fully illustrated with excellent 

 plates, and Mr. Hyatt is strong in insisting 

 that teachers can not use any text-book as 

 a basis of good instruction, but must lead 

 children to see for themselves. The system 

 of classification set forth in Mr. Crosby's 

 book on minerals is practically illustrated 

 and exemplified in the arrangement of col- 

 lections in the museum of the society. 



The New Ethics : An Essay on the Moral 

 Law of Use. By Frank Sewall. New 

 York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 61. 



Mr. Sewall regards ethics as appertain- 

 ing to the will rather than to the intellect; 

 and suggests that it may be considered as a 

 kind of moral aesthetics, or " aesthetics on 

 the moral plane," and defined as a science 

 of taste that treats of the will of man as 

 subject to sensations of pleasure and of pain 

 from moral objects presented to it, and 

 capable of being affected and modified by 

 them. The object of moral education is to 

 adapt man to the moral law of the universe, 

 which, assuming that it is real, may be 

 expressed as the law of use, or of service, 

 " but the law of mutual service, not the 

 service of self." The author has no confi- 

 dence in intellectual culture as an element 

 of moral progress. 



Proceedings of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History. Vol. XX, Part IV, 

 January, 1880-April, 1880. Pp. 169; 

 Vol. XXI, Part I, Mav, 1880-December, 

 1880. Pp.112. Boston: Published by 

 the Society. 



The papers of most general interest in 

 the former of these two volumes are the 

 notice of the death of Dr. Thomas M. Brew- 

 er, by President Bouve ; and the review of 

 Professor Brewer's scientific labors, by Mr. 

 J. A. Allen. The other volume contains 

 notices of Mr. Bouve's withdrawal from the 

 presidency of the society, and of the deaths 

 of Dr. C. T. Jackson, Count Pourtales, Mr. 

 L. S. Burbank, and Mr. George D. Smith. 

 Many of the special papers, which concern 



