702 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



each word, and, to make its pedigree com- 

 plete, it is traced through all the ascertained 

 successive changes, in their order, which it 

 has passed through in the several languages 

 through which it has come down, as if by 

 descent, to us. Thus, in the case of the 

 word " canopy," it is shown, by the brief, 

 clear notation which is adopted throughout 

 the book, that the word is derived in English 

 from the French, the French from the Ital- 

 ian, that from the Latin, and that from the 

 Greek ; and if the ultimate Aryan root can 

 be deduced, that is indicated. This, Mr. 

 Skeat believes, is the first attempt of this 

 kind that has been made, except partially. 

 Another notation, equally simple and plain, 

 shows cognate forms and distinguishes them 

 from descending forms. Many of the arti- 

 cles are quite full histories, and all are rich 

 in suggestions to the thoughtful student. 

 Mr. Skeat frankly confesses to a number of 

 short-comings. The remark to be made 

 about them is not so much that they exist, 

 as that the author should take the pains to 

 call attention to them. On review they ap- 

 pear generally to be such as must inevitably 

 beset the student who has to undertake so 

 large a subject alone, or such as every one 

 who attempts to advance into so extensive 

 a field, that has been heretofore so little or 

 so unskillfully cultivated, must expect to be 

 liable to. 



Our Merchant Marine : How it Rose, In- 

 creased, became Great, Declined, and 

 Decayed ; with an Inquiry into the Con- 

 ditions essential to its Eesuscitation and 

 Future Prosperity. By David A. Wells. 

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

 219. 



Professor "Wells undertakes a diagno- 

 sis of the disease with which our merchant 

 marine is afflicted, through the operation of 

 which, from having once been our pride and 

 boast, it has fallen in the course of a quar- 

 ter of a century into a contemptible insig- 

 nificance; or, to illustrate the subject by 

 figures, from carrying in 1855 75*5 per cent 

 of the imports and exports of the country, 

 by steady diminutions to carrying only 16*2 

 per cent of them in 1881. The most direct 

 cause of decay is found in our navigation 

 laws, under which the privileges essential 

 to the prosperity of an American merchant 

 marine are confined to American-built ves- 



sels, and denied to all ships bought abroad. 

 In connection with this cause others are 

 operating which bear with peculiar hard- 

 ship on American vessels and American 

 ship- building enterprises, such as high duties - 

 on imported materials used in ship-building, 

 and various local burdens, in the imposition 

 of which a positive discrimination appears 

 to be made against American vessels. Back 

 of these causes and under some of them 

 lies the fundamental cause, in the protective 

 system, some of whose most positive advo- 

 cates have avowed the belief that the policy 

 of the country is to discourage commerce, 

 and the provisions of which have been ad- 

 justed, whether designedly or not, in con- 

 sistency with this belief. No one measure, 

 the author concludes, " will arrest the decay 

 of American shipping, bring back prosperity 

 to our ocean carrying-trade, or revive the 

 industry of ship-building in this country. 

 The field of reform to be entered upon is a 

 very large one ; the number of details which 

 are to be attended to are numerous ; but 

 reform, nevertheless, is both possible and 

 practicable if the American people desire 

 and will it." He then mentions the most 

 essential measures of reform, the nature of 

 which is indicated generally by the refer- 

 ences we have made to the evils that de- 

 mand a remedy. 



Science Ladders No. I. Forms of Land 

 and Water. Pp. 67. No. III. Vegeta- 

 ble Life. Pp. 78. By N. D'Anvers, 

 author of " Heroes of North African 

 Discovery," etc. Both illustrated. New 

 York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Trice, 50 

 cents each. 



The author states that his design in plan- 

 ning the series of which these works are a 

 part h|ts been to teach the great laws of 

 Nature in language simple enough for every 

 child to read, and to awaken the powers of 

 observation and reasoning by means of pure- 

 ly elementary descriptions. " The Forms of 

 Land and Water" gives descriptions of the 

 earth and its general features and phenome- 

 na. " Vegetable Life " is intended to teach 

 the laws of the life and growth of plants and 

 to serve as an introduction to elementary bot- 

 any. The effort has not been a happy one. 

 The style is childish instead of simple, and 

 is calculated to lead to inexactness and con- 

 fusion ; pains are taken to give a knowledge 



