LITERARY NOTICES. 



415 



is as ready as any one to recognize 

 purpose where purpose can, without 

 undue presumption, be traced, but he 

 does not see how this can be done 

 outside the sphere of human action. 

 The very conception of purpose he finds 

 too small, and, so to speak, too provis- 

 ional, too relative to our evanescent 

 thought, to apply to the interpretation 

 of Nature as a whole. The Duke of 

 Argyll, by the extremely harsh and over- 

 weening tone of his several recent 

 articles, has judged himself. If he could 

 only be made aware of it, " a great con- 

 fession " is due from him — a confession 

 of the injustice done by him to the men 

 of science in connection with their re- 

 ception of Mr. Murray's theory of coral 

 reefs, and the further and special in- 

 justice done to Mr. Spencer in repre- 

 senting his latest contribution to the 

 theory of evolution in an altogether 

 false light. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



International Law. By Leonk Levi. New 

 York : D. Appleton & Co. (" Internation- 

 al Scientific Series," No. LX.) Pp. 346. 

 Price, $1.60. 



Thk author's purpose in undertaking this 

 work was to reduce to a code the leading 

 principles of the law of nations, in order, 

 by the diffusion of knowledge and by fur- 

 nishing a collection of well-established rules 

 on the subject, to prevent disputes and fa- 

 cilitate a resort to international arbitration. 

 Attempts at codification had been made by 

 David Dudley Field and Bluntschli, but their 

 works did not include the positive portion of 

 the law — that resulting from treaties and 

 conventions. Copious summaries of these 

 documents, so far as they bear on the sub- 

 ject of the work, are given in the book. 

 Prof. Levi, who died on the 'Zth of May last, 

 was eminently fitted for this work. A stu- 

 dent of commercial law and of economical 

 statistics all his life, and professor of the 

 former subject in King's College, London, he 

 was regarded as the foremost authority in 

 the world in the statistics of commerce, so 

 that in preparing this manual he was work- 

 ing in a field which he had long cultivated 



assiduously and with eminent success. The 

 work consists of two parts. The first part 

 concerns the general subject of international 

 law, and includes a chapter on its nature and 

 authority , a review of the progress of inter- 

 national relations from ancient times to the 

 present, with epoch-marks at the Peace of 

 Westphalia, 1648, and the Congress of 

 Vienna, 1815 ; and a survey of the political 

 condition and present international relations 

 of the chief states of the world, each in its 

 order. The second part contains " Materials 

 for a Code of International Law," with chap- 

 ters on the " Constitution and Sovereignty of 

 the State"; "Frontiers"; "The State and 

 its Subjects " ; " Rights and Duties of the 

 State"; "Equality of States"; "The Sea 

 and Ships"; "International Intercourse"; 

 and " Treaties." The last title is followed 

 by summaries of the treaty-clauses concern- 

 ing the various subjects of public and private 

 interest coming within the purview of inter- 

 national law, each under its separate head- 

 ing. These summaries are followed by dis- 

 cussions of " Private International Law," 

 " Means for the Prevention of War," " War 

 and its Effects," and " Neutrality." In the 

 appendix are given the declarations of the 

 powers and regulations on the abolition of 

 the slave-trade, the free navigation of riv- 

 ers, rank between diplomatic agents, mari- 

 time law, and the Treaty of Washington. 



Modern Theories of Chemistry. By Dr. 

 Lothar Meter. Translated from the 

 fifth German edition, by P. PmLUPS 

 Bedson, D. Sc, and W. Carleton Will- 

 iams, B. Sc. London and New York : 

 Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 587. Price, 

 $5.50. 



Messrs. Bedson and Williams have done 

 a good service for English-speaking chemists 

 in making this valuable work more accessi- 

 ble than it was in the German edition. Mey- 

 er's "Modern Theories of Chemistry" has 

 undergone considerable modifications, due to 

 the changing aspect of the science since the 

 first edition was published in 1864. As the 

 book now stands, it is an account of the 

 latest developments of the hypotheses upon 

 which chemical work is being carried on. In 

 the last two editions the author has, " by 

 the introduction of the more important em- 

 pirical data, sought to make the theoretical 

 conclusions arrived at by their aid easier to 



