LITERARY NOTICES. 



53 



recently yielded the most striking and im- 

 portant contributions to the subject, both 

 in dynamical and structural geology, and in 

 the department of ancient life. Prof. Le 

 Conte's residence in California, for the last 

 few years, has been favorable to the culti- 

 vation of this field, of which he has fully 

 availed himself by excursions of observa- 

 tions, and vacation-rambles with parties of 

 students and graduates, through regions 

 especially rich in geological interest. His 

 book contains the results of these personal 

 inquiries, and those of other observers, in- 

 cluding the revelations of remarkable fos- 

 sils by Prof. Marsh and the naturalists who 

 have devoted themselves to paleontological 

 exploration. 



The volume is written with great clear- 

 ness and with admirable judgment in re- 

 spect to the proportions of space allotted 

 to its multifarious topics. A prime object 

 with the author has been to interest his 

 readers, and for this purpose he has given 

 prominence to principles and subordinated 

 details, so that his work will prove attract- 

 ive to the general reader as well as to the 

 class-room student. It is profusely and ele- 

 gantly illustrated, in a style of which the 

 reader will be enabled to judge by referring 

 to the article on " Geysers," in the present 

 number of the Monthly, which is borrowed 

 from the volume. This treatise is by an 

 eminent working geologist, one who knows" 

 the subject thoroughly in its latest aspects, 

 and we can commend it without qualifica- 

 tion to all who desire an intelligent ac- 

 quaintance with the science, as fresh, lucid, 

 full, authentic, the result of enthusiastic 

 study and of long experience in the art of 

 teaching mature classes. 



Deterioration and Race Education, with 

 Practical Application to the Condi- 

 tion of the People and Industry. By 

 Samuel Royce. New York : Printed by 

 Edward 0. Jenkins, 20 North William 

 Street. Pp. 504. Price, $4.50. 



In this book education is considered 

 from a broad, humanitarian point of view, 

 and in connection with the great causes of 

 decay and deterioration that are operating 

 in society. The wealth of facts and materi- 

 als of all kinds that the author has brought 

 together seems to have proved somewhat 

 embarrassing to him, as he has hardly suc- 



ceeded in bringing them into close logical 

 method. But he has collected a great deal 

 of interesting material, interspersed with 

 valuable observations and reflections, and 

 the volume is pervaded by a reformatory 

 and progressive spirit. Mr. Royce's chap- 

 ter on " Classical and Scientific Education " 

 contains much good sense, and his opinions 

 are very decided, as the following passage 

 illustrates : " Emerson says that he has 

 not met in all his travels in America with 

 half a dozen men who could read Plato 

 profitably. This whole Greek and Latin 

 scholarship is an imposture, the writing of 

 miserable verses in these languages in- 

 cluded. There is not one teacher in ten 

 who has sufficient knowledge of these lan- 

 guages to derive from them a higher cult- 

 ure. The learned apparatus requisite for 

 their thorough understanding requires the 

 study of a lifetime. Must hundreds of 

 thousands of students in the land throw 

 away their years and opportunities for the 

 sake of a few hundred Latin and Greek 

 roots, which can be learned by any English 

 student with the help of an etymological 

 hand-book in a few weeks, if not days ? " 



Notes on Leather. By Lieutenant D. A. 

 Lyle. 



These "Notes," published by order of 

 the Secretary of War for the use of the Ord- 

 nance Department of the U. S. Army, con- 

 tain a large amount of useful and practical 

 information concerning hides and the manu- 

 facture of leather. Sundry fraudulent prac- 

 tices used in tanning are pointed out, and 

 their effects on the leather described. The 

 author does not undertake to give judgment 

 on the comparative merits of oak-tanned 

 and hemlock-tanned leather ; it would re- 

 quire an exhaustive series of experiments to 

 decide this question ultimately. 



Transactions of the Kansas Academy of 

 Sciences. Topeka : Kansas Publishing- 

 House. Vol. V. Pp. 75. 



Among the papers published in this vol- 

 ume are several natural history catalogues 

 relating to the botany and entomology of 

 Kansas, a meteorological summary for 1 8*76, 

 essays on evidences of ancient forests in 

 Kansas, on river-bluffs, the habits of prairie- 

 dogs, the influence of food-selection upon 

 animal life, etc. 



