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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" Wages " ; " The Argument against Pro- 

 tective Taxes " ; " Sociology " ; " Theory 

 aud Practice of Elections," Parts I and II ; 

 " Presidential Elections and Civil-Service 

 Reform " ; and " Our Colleges before the 

 Country." These are all "topics of the 

 time," dealing with questions not only of 

 great public moment, but which are being 

 much agitated in many quarters. The vol- 

 ume is therefore timely in its appearance, 

 and, more than this, it is the kind of book 

 that is greatly needed. In reading it, we 

 have been much reimpressed with the au- 

 thor's rare ability in handling economical 

 and social questions. A clear, logical, inde- 

 pendent thinker ; a sound theorist, because 

 he always defers to facts ; a practical man, 

 because he trusts in established principles ; 

 and withal a vigorous, pointed, and attract- 

 ive writer, Professor Sumner is the man to 

 do eminently valuable work in educating 

 the public mind on subjects of economical 

 and social science. And sound teachers 

 upon these subjects are none too numerous. 

 The propagators of error, in numberless 

 forms, have the field. Some are misled by 

 half-knowledge, some prejudiced by party 

 feeling, some perverted and blinded by self- 

 interest, some fascinated by specious hob- 

 bies, so that the press teems with magazine 

 articles, pamphlets, and books, not calcu- 

 lated, to say the> least, to strengthen scien- 

 tific conceptions, or to bring men into the 

 agreement of reason on the various topics 

 of public and social concern. Perhaps the 

 worst of it is that the effect of all this chaos 

 of opinion is to undermine confidence in 

 principles and all belief in the possibility of 

 anything like valid and trustworthy social 

 and political science. In the present state 

 of things, where great pecuniary interests 

 are involved, the temptation to favor this 

 view is strong. No service, therefore, is 

 more important to the community than to 

 strip away the multitudinous fallacies in 

 which these subjects are involved, and to 

 show that there are clear, comprehensive, 

 and solid principles governing social and 

 political phenomena which must be recog- 

 nized and trusted before society can realize 

 anything like permanent prosperity. This 

 is the kind of work which Professor Sumner 

 is eminently fitted to accomplish, and we 

 cordially welcome his present work, as we 



have welcomed all his previous books, be- 

 cause it brings out and popularizes views 

 which it is of the utmost moment that our 

 citizens should understand and maintain. 

 We can here give no indication of the doc- 

 trines expounded in the varied discussions 

 of the work, and must be content to urge, 

 especially upon our young men, that this is 

 the kind of book to be thoroughly studied, 

 until its contents are assimilated and re- 

 duced to an established political and social 

 creed. 



The Microscope in Botany: A Guide to 

 the Microscopical Investigation of 

 Vegetable Substances. From the Ger- 

 man of Dr. Julius Wilhelm Behrens. 

 Translated and edited by Bev. A. B. 

 Henry, assisted by R. H. Ward, M. D. 

 Boston : S. E. Cassino & Co. Pp. 466, 

 with Thirteen Plates. Price, $5. 



According to the translator, this treatise 

 occupies a field almost entirely to itself in 

 the botanical literature both of Germany 

 and now of the English-speaking world, 

 and it is published with the hope that its 

 influence will be to stimulate in this country 

 investigations into the deeper problems of 

 plant-life. The study of the literature of 

 the subject shows that there is an open field 

 for American botanists, for existing works 

 almost exclusively involve the results of Ger- 

 man research, while a few are of French 

 origin, fewer still of English, and none what- 

 ever of American. The first purpose of the 

 work is to guide students in all those in- 

 quiries relating to the physical products of 

 cell-life in plants which may be conducted 

 under the microscope, by means of chemi- 

 cal and other reactions. While it deals with 

 the anatomical constitution of the cell, and 

 of plant - tissue, its inquiries relate much 

 more to physiological and biological pro- 

 cesses than to matters purely anatomical 

 and histological. The part of Dr. R. H. 

 Ward in the preparation of the work con- 

 sists in the revision of the two chapters 

 which deal with the microscope and its ac- 

 cessories ; and in these considerable changes 

 have been made, as is proper in a work of 

 the kind intended for American study, in 

 the omission of illustrations and descrip- 

 tions in the Continental style, which is com- 

 paratively unused and unavailable here, and 

 the substitution of American forms. All 



