240 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the accountant, the dentist, and the farrier, 

 each has his college, but wliere is the col- 

 lege for the " home-maker ? " Its necessity 

 is not even perceived. The women are try- 

 ing with might and main to get into nearly 

 all the colleges that have grown up as prep- 

 arations for the business of men, and, when 

 they attempt to make one of their own, they 

 are content to imitate as far as possible those 

 of the opposite sex, and never think of de- 

 manding institutions in which they may be 

 educated for that line of activity which the 

 great majority of them are destined to pur- 

 sue. 



Mrs, Bcecher sees clearly enough that 

 the modern tendency of feminine culture is 

 not in the direction of home improvement, 

 and that whatever is done in the way of 

 help to this end must come in the shape of 

 such occasional contributions as ladies in- 

 terested in the subject are prompted to 

 offer. She has a chapter on " Home Col- 

 leges," which is an excellent idea, as nothing 

 better is yet to be had, while her volume 

 will serve as an admirable text-book for it. 

 The work is well suited where the class-drill 

 is not very severe, being lively and interest- 

 ing in its manner, as well as useful and in- 

 structive in the information it gives. We 

 have read it through with profit, and cor- 

 dially recommend it to everybody who lives 

 in a house — especially if it has a plurality 

 of occupants. If the hundred pages of re- 

 ceipts at the close (which are no doubt in 

 themselves excellent) were omitted, the vol- 

 ume would make a first-rate reading-book 

 for girls' schools. 



United States Commission of Fish and 

 Fisheries. Report for 1875-'76. Wash- 

 ington : Government Printing-Ofiice. Pp. 

 1079. 1S76. 



In the popular mind, the sole aim and 

 object of the United States Commission of 

 Fish and Fisheries is to devise and apply 

 measures for the increase of the fish-supply 

 in our lakes, rivers, and smaller streams; 

 but in fact the commission is also charged 

 with the duty of promoting by its researches 

 the interest of the sea-fisheries, and hence 

 it is that much of the present volume — in- 

 deed, by far the greater part of it — is taken 

 up with an historical and statistical account 

 of the American whale-fishery. We are in- 

 clined to think that it would be best to re- 



strict the labors of the commission to the 

 one department of propagation of food- 

 fishes. The " History of American Whal- 

 ing " is no doubt very interesting and valu- 

 able, but it has no organic relation to the 

 work of the Fish Commission. The com- 

 missioner, Prof. Baird, in the report proper, 

 first briefly rehearses the history of the com- 

 mission ; then details the results of the in- 

 quiries that have been made into the de- 

 crease of the food-fishes ; next he reviews the 

 work that has been done in the propaga- 

 tion of food-fishes ; and, finally, gives tables 

 showing the number of fish distributed by 

 the commission since the beginning of its 

 work. Then follows Appendix A (780 

 pages), on the " American Whale-Fishery." 

 Appendix B, " The Inland Fisheries," com- 

 prises reports on " The Fisheries of Chicago 

 and Vicinity," on " The Salmon-Fisheries 

 of the Columbia," and "Notes on some 

 Fishes of the Delaware." There are five 

 papers in Appendix C, treating of the carp, 

 the shad, the Schoodic salmon, salmon-breed- 

 ing in the McCloud River, and the exporta- 

 tion of fishes and hatching apparatus to 

 various foreign countries. 



The Life of George Combe. By Charles 

 Gibbon. London : Macmillan & Co. 

 2 vols. Pp. 739. Price, $8. 



It may be thought that an elaborate 

 two-volume biography, issued twenty years 

 after the death of its subject, whose chief 

 claim to be remembered is the close asso- 

 ciation of his name with a science which is 

 now generally considered as belonging to 

 the past, must rank as a not very judicious 

 literary venture. No doubt a smaller and 

 more inexpensive work would have had a 

 wider sale, yet it is better that the work 

 should have been done just as it has been 

 done. While merely because he was an 

 eminent phrenologist it would not have been 

 worth while to write Combe's life at all, yet 

 as the author of the " Constitution of Man," 

 and as the representative of a transition pe- 

 riod in knowledge and education, and as giv- 

 ing us an account of a very interesting char- 

 acter, the biography deserved to be fully 

 written out. That Combe regarded phre- 

 nology as the key to all knowledge, that 

 he devoted himself to it with great assidu- 

 ity, and applied it everywhere as a sufiScient 



