LITERARY NOTICES. 



753 



when the hook and line only were used, 

 they fared much better, in the long-run, 

 than they have done since the pursuit has 

 enlisted capital, and brought into requisi- 

 tion, like other departments of industry, 

 the most effective methods. It was cer- 

 tainly true that, of some species, the dimi- 

 nution had become so serious, that what 

 was once a cheap food had become an ex- 

 pensive luxury ; and, in respect to others, 

 the supply was so precarious, that the 

 prices were always good, and sometimes 

 oppressively high. In this state of things 

 the fishermen made their appeal to legis- 

 lation, and the legislators in turn referred 

 the whole matter to the men of science. 

 We remember an old Professor of Herme- 

 neutics, who said in his manual that Sci- 

 ence had its apostles as well as the Gospel. 

 The sentiment gave offense to many of his 

 co-religionists, and his publishers asked to 

 be allowed to take out the objectionable 

 sentence. The professor firmly refused : 

 " For," as he said to us afterward, " my 

 regard for truth would . not permit it." 

 The United States ordered a commission to 

 attend to this matter. No salary is pro- 

 vided, and no perquisites are possible. 

 Can the men be found who will speak with 

 the force of authority, and without the in- 

 ducement of hire ? With Spencer F. Baird 

 to lead, a noble band of workers take up 

 the cause — Baird and Gill, the ichthyolo- 

 gists ; Dr. Farlow, the algologist ; Profs. 

 Verrill and Smith, of Yale College, the one 

 so famous on the polyps, and the other on 

 the Crustacea ; Mr, Emerton and Prof. Morse, 

 noted speciaUsts in the iuvertebrata — and 

 there were chemists and meteorologists 

 also. And all without fee or hope of re- 

 ward, beyond the consciousness of the 

 great good that must ensue from the ac- 

 cumulation and distribution of trustworthy 

 knowledge on the great question of con- 

 serving the food-fishes. It became neces- 

 sary to search old, musty records of the 

 Puritan days, in order to know what its sup- 

 ply was in times gone — the migrations of 

 fish, their food, the actual climate of the 

 waters they frequent, and where they are 

 scarce, and their food. Hence came deep- 

 sea dredgings, and thermometric soundings, 

 and explorations of sea-bottoms, and the 

 chemical condition of the waters in differ- 



VOL. v. — 18 



ent places and at different depths, etc., etc. 

 The results appear in part in this thick 

 volume. Besides a large amount of work in 

 their best vein, Profs. Baird and Gill have 

 given catalogues of the fishes, and Yerrill 

 and Smith of the invertebrates. The work 

 of the former gentlemen is yet incomplete, 

 and another year must continue the publica- 

 tion. That of Verrill and Smith has a sort 

 of completeness, and it is well that this 

 part is republished ; and, as it is accom- 

 panied by many illustrations, it is to the 

 student of these forms invaluable. 



Essays and Addresses, by Professors and 

 Lecturers of Owens College, Man- 

 chester. London : Macraillan & Co. 

 560 pages. 8vo. Price, $5.00. 



This volume is intended to commem- 

 orate the opening of the new buildings of 

 the Owens College, which occurred on Oc- 

 tober T, ISVS. This college was founded 

 in 1851, by a bequest of John Owens, a 

 merchant of Manchester. In 18Y1 it was 

 reconstituted and incorporated by act of 

 Parliament, A sketch of its origin and 

 progress is given in the "Opening Ad- 

 dress" by the Duke of Devonshire, its 

 president. 



In the address " On Some Relations 

 of Culture to Practical Life," Prof J, G. 

 Greenwood, the principal of the college, 

 enters the controversy between the classi- 

 cal and scientific methods of education, and 

 endeavors to stand upon middle ground. 

 Instead of a principally classical curricu- 

 lum, or the reverse, he would have one 

 which embraces letters to cultivate the 

 taste, mathematics to discipline the reason, 

 " and some branch oi physical sticdy " to de- 

 velop the powers of observation and induc- 

 tive reasoning. 



The lecture on "Solar Physics "is an 

 interesting summary of our knowledge re- 

 garding the appearance of the sun, his at- 

 mospheric changes, his meteorological con- 

 nection with the planets, and the connec- 

 tion between his magnetic changes and. 

 auroral displays. 



"Primeval Vegetation in Relation to 

 Natural Selection and Evolution " is a criti- 

 cism, by Prof W. C. Williamson, of those 

 doctrines in the light of apparently conr 

 tradictory facts furnished by the vegeta^- 



