LITERARY NOTES 



75 



Turner's Our Common Friends and Foes. By 



Edwin A. Turner, Director of the Prac- 

 tice School, Illinois State Normal Uni- 

 versity. New York: American Book 

 Company. 

 This is a collection of original stories, re- 

 lating to the toad, the quail, the bumblebee, 

 the chickadee, the ant, the cabbage butter- 

 fly, the mosquito, and the fly. The stories 

 are pleasantly told in an easy, straightfor- 

 ward manner, which will attract and ho'd 

 the interest of voung readers. 



Plant Physiology and Ecology. By Frederic 

 Edward Clements, Ph. D., New York: 

 Henry Holt and Company. 

 This book is for classes in second-year 

 botany in college and university and is based 

 upon the author's "Research Methods in 

 Ecology." It combines ecology and phy- 

 siology and gives a general treatment of both 

 subjects somewhat different from that of a 

 specialist in either line. It is a very stimu- 

 lating book to any student among plants 

 especially out of doors. 



The Life and Love of the Insect. By J. Henri 

 Fabre. Translated by Alexander Teix- 

 eira de Mattos. London: Adams and 

 Charles Black. 

 Here is an attractive and lovely book on 

 a subject most unlovely to those who are 

 not enthusiastic entomologists. The vener- 

 able Fabre, known as the insect Homer, has 

 shown us the attractiveness of the dung 

 beetles. For very many people he could 

 not have taken a more unattractive sub- 

 ject, but he has successfully shown us that 

 everything in nature has loveliness and in- 

 terest and beauty. What a transformed 

 world this would be if we all could, Fabre- 

 like, look beyond the disagreeable that may 

 exist in everything to the beauty that always 

 does exist. The points on which we focus 

 our eyes and heart are the important points. 

 Fabre does not argue that such beetles are 

 attractive because they are merdivorous. He 

 makes us focus attention beyond that to the 

 interest that in these beetles is marvelous 

 and enticing. 



Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich, County 

 of Fairfield and State of Connecticut. 

 By Spencer P. Mead, LL. B. New York: 

 The Knickerbocker Press. 

 The author has conferred a favor upon 

 every one residing in or interested in this 

 town. The book shows evidence of great 

 care and skill. The publishers have also 

 done their part in producing good mechani- 

 cal workmanship. A copy should be in the 

 home of every resident of Greenwich and of 

 every one interested personally in this grand, 

 old, historic town. It is an inspiration to 

 read this book. It gives one a firm resolve 

 to use to better advantage the everyday 

 blessing's of life. A security of our roads 

 and fields and forests for homes or for a 

 persoi-.al interest in nature was brought 

 about by tremendous sacrifices on the part 

 of our ancestors. They struggled with na- 

 ture and with the Indians to provide a peace- 

 ful land for our enjoyment and our work. 

 This story of the development of the town 

 as told by Mr. Mead is extremely interesting. 



The Religion of Nature. By E. Kay Robin- 

 son. New York: McClure, Phillips & 

 Company. 



Here is a strange method by which to get 

 at the subject. The author asserts: 



"The greatest modern obstacle to belief 

 in a personal God, has been the spectacle of 

 the apparent wholesale cruelty involved in 

 the struggle for existence in brute creation." 



Then with a variety of somewhat ques- 

 tionable arguments he concludes that, "The 

 cruelty which we seem to discern in Nature, 

 is an illusion, and that man alone, among 

 animals, is conscious of pain and suffering." 



It is probable that pain in the lower forms 

 of life is not so intense as it is with us, nor 

 remembered so long. But, while most of us 

 will admit this, we are sure that few are 

 ready to believe that the lower animals ex- 

 perience no pain, and no one, except the 

 author of this book, will have the audacity 

 to say that they are not the victims of 

 cruelty, nor that the apparent cruelty is an 

 illusion. Such assertions are directly con- 

 trary to the evidence of our senses, and 

 while in some cases we may not believe our 

 own eyes, in this case we may. The title of 

 the book is good, but the method of reaching 

 a decision is bad, and, in the opinion of 

 the reviewer, that decision is in many re- 

 spects erroneous. 



The House Fly Disease Carrier. By L. 0. 



Howard, Ph. D. New York: Frederick 

 A. Stokes Company. 



The house fly must go, because it should 

 go. It is undoubtedly an interesting speci- 

 men for study, but it is a detriment to the 

 welfare of mankind and should be regarded 

 as a pernicious pest. This book is a timely 

 and successful attack upon what Dr. Howard 

 calls the typhoid fly, otherwise known as 

 the house fly. The battle against the house 

 fly has been waged for only about two 

 years, yet remarkable progress has been 

 made. There are many people who would be 

 nauseated at the sight of a naturalist in the 

 act of studying the larvae of the house fly 

 in a pile of horse manure, and would turn 

 away in disgust from such explorations. And 

 they are right. Even the naturalist does not 

 wish to obtund his sensitiveness to the dis- 

 agreeable features of a lot of maggots 

 squirming in semi-liquid manure. But is it 

 not strange that it is chiefly the naturalist 

 who arises in disgust, and who positively 

 refuses to eat food to which flies have come 

 directly from that manure heap? One of 

 the perversities in human nature that it is 

 difficult to understand is that those who 

 shudder at the disagreeable things which a 

 naturalist studies are the very ones who 

 complacently brush away the flies, and open 

 the window above the garbage box, or the 

 cesspool, to "get fresh air." 



The naturalist believes that the baby's 

 nursing bottle over which innumerable flies 

 have been travelling is as odious as the 

 manure pile, but many mothers apparently 

 do not realize the danger in the fly infested 

 bottle. There are none so blind as those 

 who will not see, and none so ignorant as 

 those who will not learn. 



