7o8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



plants described are given under their com- 

 mon names. 



It would seem that all intelligent people 

 should desire to be informed concerning the 

 history of such familiar things as the plants 

 that are used for daily food ; but the intel- 

 lectual interest of the subject is heightened 

 when we find that this common subject is 

 involved largely in the progress of human 

 civilization. 



The Nkw Philosophy. By Albert W. 

 Paine. Bangor, Mc. : 0. F. Knowles & 

 Co. Pp. 168. Price, $1. 



Mr. Paine in this book presents a new 

 theory respecting the connection of the two 

 worlds in which he believes man has his ex- 

 istence, and their intimate relations to each 

 other, based on the psychical and so-called 

 spiritual phenomena which have recently 

 attracted attention. He supposes that man 

 while an inhabitant of this world is com- 

 posed of two factors, soul and body, each of 

 which is complete in itself and separate 

 from the other as regards constituent form, 

 but corresponding with the other in all es- 

 sential particulars, the body being permeated 

 by the soul in every minutest part, and that 

 the separation from each other is death, upon 

 which the soul becomes wholly independent. 

 He also proposes a theory of electricity, the 

 essential feature of which is that that agent 

 is closely related with the great law of spir- 

 itual existence. 



Text-Book of Botany, Morphological and 

 Physiological. By Jdlius Sachs, Pro- 

 fessor of Botany in the University of 

 Wiirzburg ; edited, with an Appendix, by 

 Sydney U. Vines, M. A., D. Sc, F. L. 

 S., Fellow and Lecturer of Christ's Col- 

 lege, Cambridge. Macmillan & Co. Sec- 

 ond edition. Pp. 980. Price, $8. 



We noticed this important work upon its 

 first appearance, and recognized its position 

 as foremost among the standard treatises 

 on botanical science of the present day. 

 The work is intended to put the student in 

 full possession of the present state of knowl- 

 edge upon the subject, and, besides describ- 

 ing the phenomena of plant life which are 

 already accurately known, it indicates also 

 very fully those theories and problems in 

 which botanical research is at present es- 

 pecially engaged. Detailed discussions of 



questions of minor importance have been 

 avoided, and the historical development of 

 botanical views has also been omitted, that 

 the entire space of the work may be devoted 

 to a representation of the existing condition 

 of the science. 



No change in the plan of the work has 

 been made in this new edition, nor any modi- 

 fication of its leading features. Some minor 

 alterations and additions have been intro- 

 duced, and something has been done to im- 

 prove and perfect the translation. A few 

 notes are appended to the volume, embody- 

 ing some of the very latest results in botan- 

 ical research. The work is elegant in form 

 and complete in its treatment, and may be 

 commended as the moat adequate treatise 

 for the thoroughgoing botanical student, and 

 at the same time one of the best books we 

 have for general reference in a library. 



Rudimentary Society among Boys. By 

 John Johnson, Jr. Baltimore : N. Mur- 

 ray. Pp. 56. Price, 60 cents. 



In this paper the editor of the Johns 

 Hopkins University " Studies in Historical 

 and Pohtical Science " has consented to in- 

 clude a plot a little outside of the field which 

 it was first intended to cultivate in those 

 studies, and he has decided wisely. The 

 paper describes the spontaneous organiza- 

 tion of a community, and the growth of 

 laws and established customs among a group 

 of boys just brought together, almost from 

 the wild state, at the scliool with which he 

 was connected ; and gives a study, from act- 

 ual contemporary observation, of the man- 

 ner in which, in all likelihood, the primi- 

 tive societies grew up and became fixed. 

 The school was the McDonough School, near 

 Baltimore, to which is attached a domain of 

 eight hundred acres, giving ample privileges 

 for nutting and bird's-nesting and rabbit- 

 trapping. In the beginning everything was 

 common. The first to grasp a prize secured 

 it. All is very different now. Conflicts came, 

 and made rules necessary to avoid them. 

 The rules were made by the boys' own 

 action, as occasion arose for forming them ; 

 and now the property and the privileges 

 are all parceled out, with fixed regulations 

 for their tenure, transference, and descent. 

 Classes have grown up of landlords and ten- 

 ants, and there are monopolists and persons 



