LITER AMY NOTICES. 



849 



Black and White: Lanb, Labor, and 

 Politics in the South. By T. Thomas 

 Fortune, Editor of " The New York 

 Globe." New York : Fords, Howard & 

 Hulbert. Pp. 310. Price, $1. 



The author is a thinking man, and a 

 molder of opinion among the colored peo- 

 ple, lie views the situation in the South, 

 as the war and reconstruction have left it, 

 and the present finds it, from the point of 

 sympathy with his race ; yet, with the men- 

 tal breadth of a man educated in public 

 affairs, he is able to discern that there are 

 other sides to the question. He urges 

 national compulsory education as a means 

 of mitigating the dangers threatened by 

 the existing situation ; but the main pur- 

 pose of his book is to show that the social 

 problems in the South are, in the main, the 

 same as those which afflict every other civil- 

 ized country; that the future conflict in 

 that section will not be racial or political, 

 but between capital and labor ; that pov- 

 erty and misfortune make no invidious dis- 

 tinctions of race, color, or previous condi- 

 tion, but that wealth unduly centralized 

 afflicts all alike; and that some unity of 

 organization and action should be secured 

 between the labor elements' of the whole 

 United States, 



Degeneration the Law of Disease. By 

 L. A. Merriam, M. D Omaha, Neb. 

 Pp.8. 



This is the substance or a paper read 

 before the Medical Society of Omaha in 

 September last, the import ov which is to 

 apply the theory of evolution to the stady 

 of disease. It regards disease as consist- 

 ing in a reversed evolution, or degenerative 

 changes ; as induced by processes of de- 

 generation of the tissues and functions, and 

 in turn inducing such processes. 



Protection and Communism. " Questions of 

 the Day," No. 15. By William Rath- 

 bone. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 Pp. 42. Price, paper, 25 cents. 



This pamphlet aims to show that the 

 protective tariff has caused the sudden al- 

 ternations between hard times and good 

 times in the United States, has caused com- 

 munism to increase in this country, while it 

 has been decreasing in England, and has 

 made our rich men richer and our poor 

 VOL. XXVI. — 54 



poorer. The writer believes that, if the 

 United States had not adopted protection 

 twenty years ago, they would lead England 

 in commercial prosperity to-day, and could 

 gain the same position with free trade in 

 another twenty years. 



Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, " Trans- 

 actions," No. 5. 1883-'84. Ottawa, Can- 

 ada: Citizen Printing and Publishing 

 Company. Pp. 152. 



The club has been active during the year 

 covered by this number of its " Transactions." 

 During the summer, it made four regular 

 excursions, and numerous minor excursions 

 were made by its branches ; in the winter, 

 seven soirees were held, at which papers 

 were read and reports presented. The mem- 

 bership has increased from 108 to 128. 

 The " Transactions " contains the inaugural 

 address of the president, H. B. Small, with 

 papers describing observations made in the 

 immediate vicinity, to which the work of the 

 club is confined, and reports of the six 

 branches into which the club is divided. 



The Sun. Vol. I, No. I, January and Feb- 

 ruary, 1885. Kansas City, Mo.: C. T. 

 Fowler. Pp. 28. Price, 20 cents, or $1 

 per annum. 



" The Sun " is a bi-monthly paper de- 

 voted to co-operation. The present number 

 has a portrait of Herbert Spencer, and dis- 

 cusses as its special subject, "Co-opera- 

 tion; its Laws and Principles," which is 

 considered under twenty-five sub-heads. The 

 next number will be devoted to " The Reor- 

 ganization of Business " on a labor instea.1 

 of a usury basis. 



Journal of the New York Microscopical 

 Society. Edited by Benjamin Bra man. 

 Vol. I, No. I, January, 1885. New York : 

 12 College Place. Pp.32. Price, $1 a 

 year (nine numbers). 



The title indicates the object, and to 

 some extent the character of the publica- 

 tion. The present number contains the 

 proceedings of the society named, for Octo- 

 ber, November, and December last ; a paper 

 on " Electrical Illumination in Microscopy," 

 by E. A. Schultze; discussions bearing on 

 pollen-tubes ; " Miscellanea " ; and an in- 

 dex to articles in various publications of in- 

 terest to microscopists. 



