LITERARY NOTICES. 



413 



State " is a moral issue; and the more 

 the question is looked at in that light, 

 the more irrelevant, or at least unne- 

 cessary, other lines of argument will ap- 

 pear. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Hygiene of Childhood. By Francis H. Ran- 

 kin, M. D. New York: D. Appleton & 

 Co. Pp. 140. Price, 75 cents. 



In this little volume plain and practical 

 advice is given in regard to taking care of 

 the health of children, from about two and 

 a half years of age to the completion of pu- 

 berty. Among the subjects here treated 

 which are liable to be carelessly regarded 

 by parents are sleep, regularity of the bow- 

 els, care of the skin, and school hygiene. 

 The author introduces also some observa- 

 tions on proper discipline — an essential in 

 securing the child's obedience to the laws of 

 health. The important subjects of food and 

 clothing receive full consideration. Until 

 very recently, as the author states, nearly 

 half the mortality in our larger cities was of 

 children under five years of age. When this 

 is contrasted with the few deaths of children 

 among people living in a state of nature, 

 the wholesale manner in which civilized 

 parents slaughter their offspring through 

 ignorance and carelessness becomes evident. 

 "When Catlin went among the Indians he 

 found that deaths of children under ten 

 years of age were very rare : in one of the 

 smaller tribes there had been only three in 

 ten years ; in the cemetery of another, 

 where the bodies were placed above-ground 

 on scaffolds, Catlin found only eleven bodies 

 of children in one hundred and fifty. With 

 the improvement of sanitary conditions in 

 cities the death-rate of the children has de- 

 creased, and there is no doubt that with the 

 spread of such knowledge as Dr. Rankin 

 gives will come a still better showing. 



Essays op an Americanist. By Daniel G. 

 Brinton, A. M., M. D. Philadelphia : 

 Porter & Coates. Pp. 489. Price, $3. 



In this volume Dr. Brinton has collected 

 a considerable number of his essays and ad- 

 dresses read on various occasions, and pub- 

 lished in the proceedings of the societies to 

 which they were presented. These he has 



revised, and in many cases extended ; and 

 to them he has added several papers never 

 before published. The special purpose which 

 he designs the volume to serve is stated in 

 the following words from his preface : "In 

 a number of points, as for example in the 

 antiquity of man upon this continent, in the 

 specific distinction of an American race, in 

 the generic similarity of its languages, in 

 recognizing its mythology as often abstract 

 and symbolic, in the phonetic character of 

 some of its graphic methods, in believing 

 that its tribes possessed considerable poetic 

 feeling, in maintaining the absolute autoch- 

 thony of their culture — in these and in many 

 other points referred to in the following 

 pages, I am at variance with most modern 

 anthropologists ; and these essays are to 

 show, more fully and connectedly than could 

 their separate publication, what are my 

 grounds for such opinions." Dr. Brinton 

 classifies these essays under four heads : 

 ethnologic and archaeologic, mythology and 

 folk-lore, graphic systems and literature, 

 linguistic. Their general range is indicated 

 by the following titles, which are only a 

 small part of the whole : A Review of the 

 Data for the Study of the Prehistoric Chro- 

 nology of America ; On Palaeoliths, Ameri- 

 can and other ; The Sacred Names in 

 Quiche Mythology ; The Writing and Rec- 

 ords of the Ancient Mayas ; Native Ameri- 

 can Poetry; Some Characteristics of Ameri- 

 can Languages ; and The Curious Hoax of 

 the Taensa Language. In the essays on 

 graphic systems a number of hieroglyphs 

 are figured. 



A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry. By 

 Prof. T. E. Thorpe, Ph. D., assisted by 

 Eminent Contributors. In Three Vol- 

 umes. Vol. I. London and New York : 

 Longmans, Green & Co. Price, $15. 



The subject-matter of this work is pretty 

 closely restricted to chemical technology and 

 medicinal chemistry, space being allowed for 

 purely scientific aspects of the science only 

 when they have some direct bearing upon an 

 art or manufacture. For all such matters 

 the student is referred to the new edition of 

 Watts's Dictionary of Chemistry, to which 

 the present work may be regarded as com- 

 plementary. In preparing the articles special 

 attention has been paid to the bibliography 

 of the subjects, and, in certain cases, to the 



