LITERARY NOTICES. 



759 



of society to another has been sharp oi' 

 sudden. " Time has been an essential ele- 

 ment in the formation of these strata." 



The various lines along which develop- 

 ment has taken place are thus summarized : 

 1. Subsistence ; 2. Government ; 3. Lan- 

 guage ; 4. The Family ; 5. Religion ; 6. 

 Home-Life and Architecture ; 1. Property. 

 In the author's plan each of these lines 

 is followed in detail, and the characteristic 

 features of each in the successive stages 

 of culture are presented in their order. 

 Thus subsistence is shown to have been 

 at first upon fruits and roots. Next in or- 

 der came fish, then farinaceous substances ; 

 later, meat and milk ; and lastly arose agri- 

 culture. It is obvious that food and the 

 methods of procuring and preparing it have 

 direct relation to culture, so that the status 

 of a primitive people may be determined 

 vei'y nearly by that standard. 



The author's elaborate discussion of the 

 genesis of the family will be read with close 

 attention, and will doubtless excite criti- 

 cism. We can only in the briefest manner 

 state without comment some of the aspects 

 and forms of the primitive family as pre- 

 sented in the work. The lowest status of 

 society is characterized by promiscuous in- 

 tercourse. The next stage was intermar- 

 riage of brothers and sisters. Out of this 

 arose the consanguineous family, or family 

 representing consanguinity and affinity, giv- 

 ing rise finally to the organization of the 

 family on the basis of sex. In this a check 

 was given to the intermarriage of brothers 

 and sisters, and following this occurred 

 marriage between single pairs. A higher 

 stage was the patriarchal family arising 

 from pastoral life. Lastly arose the mono- 

 gamian family, in which paternity of chil- 

 dren is assured, with ownership of property, 

 and lineal descent. 



Throughout the work it is made ap- 

 parent that the earliest steps in progress 

 were 'taken with difficulty, and required a 

 long period of time. But changes became 

 more rapid as society advanced. If 100,000 

 years be assumed as the period of man's 

 existence on earth, 60,000 years, on the 

 theory of progressive development, must 

 be assigned to savagery, 20,000 years to 

 the lower stage of barbarism, 15,000 years 

 to the middle and upper stages of barbarism, 



leaving but 5,000 years for the period of civ- 

 ilization. It would thus appear that during 

 three-fifths of the whole human period man 

 was scarcely more than a child. Whatever 

 changes of fact or of conclusion future in- 

 quiries may render necessary in the present 

 work, it will remain a monument of the 

 painstaking labor of the author. 



Principles of Theoretical Chemistry, with 

 Special Reference to the Constitution 

 of Chemical Compounds. By Ira Rem- 

 SEN, M. D., Ph. D., Professor of Chem- 

 istry in the Johns Hopkins Umversity. 

 Philadelphia : Henry C. Lea, 18Y7. Pp. 

 231. Price, $1.25. 



This is a contribution to chemical litera- 

 ture of special fitness and importance at the 

 present time, when the science is passing in- 

 to a new stage. Prof Remsen devotes him- 

 self to the theoretical aspects of what is 

 called the new chemistry, which he treats 

 with discrimination, presenting its claims 

 with clearness and weighing its defects with 

 fairness. He aims to show exactly upon 

 what basis our present conceptions of chem- 

 ical constitution rest. The need of a sifting 

 discussion of the subject is assumed to rest 

 upon the fact that the more recent views, 

 be they good or bad, are held by nearly all 

 the working chemists of the day. In regard 

 to the execution and purposes of his book, 

 the author remarks in his preface : " The 

 subject is, of course, not exhausted ; many 

 things have purposely been left out, either 

 because they have not yet reached such a 

 stage of development as to entitle them to a 

 place among the fundamental principles, or 

 because it was thought better to emphasize 

 more strongly those principles which are 

 treated. Should the reader miss anything 

 which he expected to find, he will please 

 carefully consider whether the grounds re- 

 ferred to are a sufficient excuse for the omis- 

 sion. The imperfections that will be noticed 

 are, partly at least, due to the imperfection 

 of our knowledge on some of the subjects 

 discussed. For instance, it seems to be im- 

 possible for us at present to treat the sub- 

 ject of valence in such a way as to lead to 

 satisfactory results, mainly for the reason 

 that we know so little in regard to it. What- 

 ever view of this property one may take, he 

 will find some difficulties which he cannot 

 surmount." 



