LITERARY NOTICES. 



849 



of the Eocene. The second volume of the 

 Final Report is devoted to the mineralogy, 

 botany, and zoology of the State ; the first 

 part comprising the mineralogy and botany. 

 The minerals — for which, by reason of the 

 great number of species and varieties, their 

 rare chemical combinations, and their won- 

 derful crystalline development, the localities 

 of New Jersey are famous — are catalogued 

 by Mr. Frederick A. Canfield, with the aid 

 of the best collections. The Flora of the 

 State is divided by Dr. N. L. Britton, who 

 furnishes the catalogue, into a northern and 

 a southern, the division between which is 

 approximately indicated by the glacial mo- 

 raine. A minor division includes the marine 

 and coast group of plants, species, and varie- 

 ties especially characteristic of the sea- 

 beaches and salt or brackish marshes and 

 meadows ; and a fourth group is made of 

 species of especial western distribution, 

 which, however, have no special significance 

 in the consideration of the origin of the flora. 

 In all, 5,641 species and varieties of plants 

 are catalogued. 



Wheelbarrow : Articles and Discussions on 

 the Labor Question. Chicago : The 

 Open Court Publishing Company. Pp. 

 303. Price, $1. 



"Wheelbarrow" appears to be both 

 the title of this book and the pen-name of 

 the author. The volume is made up of arti- 

 cles contributed to The Open Court over this 

 signature, containing also two by Lyman J. 

 Gage, written in controversy with " Wheel- 

 barrow " over The Ethics of the Board of 

 Trade. The articles are intended to present 

 various topics of the labor question from the 

 standpoint of a common laborer, which was 

 the author's position in early life. His auto- 

 biography prefixed to the volume informs us, 

 however, that he rose from the occupation 

 of wheeling gravel on railways through the 

 grades of country school-teacher and brick- 

 yard laborer to that of lawyer. He served 

 in the army during the war with Mexico and 

 the civil war, and attained the rank of 

 brigadier-general, and we understand that 

 he is General M. M. Trumbull, of Chicago. 

 His portrait is inserted as a frontispiece to 

 the book. The tone of the " Wheelbarrow " 

 essays is against the revolutionary schemes 

 of some who call themselves workingmen, 

 vol. xxxvii. — 61 



and in favor of a manly Independence and a 

 generous fraternity on the part of laborers, 

 in their relations with their employers and 

 with each other. On the money question he 

 argues for a hundred cents' worth of silver 

 in the silver dollar; he opposes Henry 

 George's single-tax idea ; and he charges the 

 produce brokers with " making bread dear." 

 The volume contains also three essays on 

 The Poets of Liberty and Labor, namely, 

 Gerald Massey, Robert Burns, and Thomas 

 Hood. The articles are written in simple 

 and picturesque language, and the views they 

 contain are enforced by many anecdotes and 

 fables. 



Evolution and Disease. By J. Bland 

 Sutton. The Contemporary Science Se- 

 ries. New York: Scribner & Welford. 

 Pp. 285. Price, $1.25. 



The author's purpose in writing this book 

 has been to indicate that there is a natural 

 history of disease as well as of plants and 

 animals. It is difficult to define disease 

 when our remarks are restricted to the 

 human family; and it becomes obviously 

 more difficult when we attempt it, as the au- 

 thor has done, on a broad zoological basis. 

 It necessarily follows, he assumes, from the 

 relations between man and the higher ani- 

 mals, " that there should be a similarity in 

 the structural alterations induced by diseased 

 conditions in all kinds of animals, allowing, 

 of course, for the differences in environment. 

 This we know to be the case, and it is clear 

 that as there has been a gradual evolution 

 of complex from simple organisms, it neces- 

 sarily follows that the principles of evolu- 

 tion ought to apply to diseased conditions if 

 they hold good for the normal or healthy 

 states of organisms ; in plain words, there 

 has been an evolution of disease pari passu 

 with evolution of animal forms." In view 

 of the talk of physiological types of diseased 

 tissues, the author's earlier efforts were di- 

 rected to searching among animals for the 

 purpose of detecting in them the occurrence 

 of tissues which in man are found only 

 under abnormal conditions. The hypothesis 

 proved to be true in only a limited sense ; but, 

 " at the same time, the truth of an opinion 

 held by nearly all thoughtful physicians — 

 that disease may in many instances be re- 

 garded as exaggerated function — was forci- 



