850 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



interesting chapter on the " Early History 

 of Windmills." On the practical and eco- 

 nomical side it has chapters on " Wind, its 

 Velocity and Pressure"; "The Impulse of 

 Wind on Windmill-Blades " ; " Experiments 

 on Windmills " ; " The Capacity and Econ- 

 omy of the Windmill" ; and " Useful Data 

 in Connection with Windmill Practice " ; 

 with full accounts of the various European 

 and American machines. 



Proceedings of the United States Na- 

 tional Museum. 1884. Washington: 

 Government Printing-Office. Pp. 661, 

 with Two Plates. 



This is the seventh volume of the series 

 of papers established in 1878, which the In- 

 stitution publishes regularly in "signatures," 

 as sixteen pages are accumulated from time 

 to time, in order to present the matter as 

 early as possible to the public. At the end 

 of the "year the sheets are gathered up and 

 embodied in a volume. The articles in this 

 series consist, first, of papers published by 

 the scientific corps of the National Museum ; 

 and, second, of interesting facts and memo- 

 randa from the correspondence of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 



there has been a corresponding contraction 

 of the jurisdiction of its representative offi- 

 cer, and a diffusion of his powers among 

 many associates. When we recall the full 

 meaning of patria potestas, we are led to 

 exclaim, ' The fathers, where are they ? ' 

 and the patriarchs, do they live forever? 

 Quite often the serfs have become the sov- 

 ereigns, and the sovereign has been reduced 

 to a subject. Could great Augustus have 

 seen the base uses to which the title ' em- 

 peror ' had been put by barbarians, his heart 

 would have died within him* And who 

 would recognize in the common hangman, 

 or in the distrainer of house-rents, the sher- 

 iff or the constable of the proud Norman 

 court ? Could the voice of prophecy have 

 told Charles Mart el, who ruled the ruler of 

 the Franks, that his title of major or mayor 

 would descend to administrators of petty 

 villages, he would have had additional rea- 

 sons for moralizing upon the deceits of hu- 

 man greatness." 



Report or the Operations of the United 

 States Life-saving Service, for the 

 Year ending June SO, 1884. Washing- 

 ton: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 

 476. 



Local Institutions of Maryland. By 

 Lewis W. Wilhelm, Ph. D. Baltimore : 

 N. Murray. Pp. 129. Price, $1. 

 This work is a triple number of the se- 

 ries of "Johns Hopkins University Stud- 

 ies in Historical and Political Science." It 

 presents a careful review of the course of 

 growth of the institutions of the Common- 

 wraith in question, including the organiza- 

 tion of the land system: the constitution 

 and functions of the hundred ; the forma- 

 tion of the county ; with the history of the 

 beginnings of each, and the more tardy 

 growth of the towns. In the last section 

 we meet the interesting and suggestive ob- 

 servation, which we quote, that "no student 

 of society can have watched the operations 

 of the vital processes of the social organism 

 and failed to notice the complex growth of 

 certain institutions, and the corresponding 

 decay in authority of officers associated with 

 their development. The brooding, in so- 

 ciety, of the spirit of democracy has tended 

 tf> develop the institution, to multiply its 

 organs, to strengthen its members, and fos- 

 ter its general growth, but at the same time 



Five stations were added during the 

 year, and the number of stations at its close 

 was 201. Of these, 56 were on the Atlan- 

 tic, 37 on the lakes, seven on the Pacific, 

 and one at the Falls of the Ohio. The whole 

 number of disasters reported was 430, en- 

 dangering $10,607,940 of property, and the 

 lives of 4,432 persons. Of the persons, all 

 but twenty were saved, and only $1,446,- 

 586 of the property was lost. The number 

 of vessels totally lost was 64. The Service 

 has co-operated in scientific movements by 

 assisting investigations in marine zoology, 

 and by collecting " singing-sands " for ex- 

 amination by Professor II. C. Bolton. The 

 concluding statement in the summarized re- 

 port, regarding the character of the Serv- 

 ice's men, is very suggestive. It is : " It is 

 felt that seldom in the history of organi- 

 zations has a body of men been assembled 



* Not only did the " sole power of constituting 

 and appoynting the Emperor of Pascattoway 

 reside with a subject of the English kins, the pro- 

 prietary of Maryland, but the " King of Ohoptico" 

 was presented for pig-stealing at a court-leet of a 

 Maryland manor. 



