SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



419 



found no occasion to proceed farther. 

 Being thus left out, he undertook, with 

 dogs and sledges and two companions 

 who proved congenial, the "untried jour- 

 ney " of six hundred miles over the ice 

 fields of the Lewes Lakes and the ice 

 packs of the Yukon Kiver, which had 

 been the contemplated route of the ex- 

 pedition. The start was made about the 

 18th of March, with little time to spare, 

 because the Yukon was expected to be- 

 come impassable by the 20th of April. 

 The Chilkoot Pass was achieved in a 

 day, and the rest of the journey was 

 made " downhill with the current of the 

 river at the rate of eight inches to the 

 mile," in weather that became very vari- 

 able, with now hard freezing and now 

 slush in the middle of the day. The dif- 

 ficulties of the journey must have been 

 formidable, with considerable suffering, 

 besides a week in a hut with the measles, 

 but no complaint further than the men- 

 tion of the incidents appears in the au- 

 thor's story. On some of the days the 

 thermometer ranged from 10° to 20° be- 

 low zero at two o'clock in the morning, 

 to 80° above at night, and the author 

 " had one ear blistered by the frost and 

 the other by the sun in the same day." 

 The party arrived at Dawson just four 

 days before the final break-up of the ice 

 in the river. Accounts corresponding in 

 temper and vividness with that of the 

 journey are given of Dawson, the miners 

 and mining, the history of the Klondyke 

 mining enterprise, Klondyke types of 

 character and adventure, the toils and 

 trials and profit and losses of the " Pil- 

 grims," the workings of the Government, 

 and the return home to civilization — 

 which does not appea;r, after all, to have 

 oflFered transcendentally superior attrac- 

 tions to those who had experienced the 

 pleasure of adventure. 



The History of Physics in its Ele- 

 mentary Branches * has been prepared 

 by Professor Cajori in the belief that 

 some attention to the history of a science 

 helps to make it attractive, and that the 

 general view of the development of the 

 human intellect gained in reading a his- 

 tory on the subject is in itself stimulat- 

 ing and liberalizing. The author has had 



* A History of Physica in its Elementary 

 Branches, including the Evolntion of Physical 

 Laboratories. By Florian Cajori. New York: 

 The Macmillan Company. Pp. 322. Price, $1.60- 



in mind Professor Ostwald's characteriza- 

 tion of the absence of the historical sense 

 and the want of knowledge of the great 

 researches upon which the edifice of sci- 

 ence rests as a defect in the present 

 method of teaching. The subject is 

 treated by periods. In ancient times 

 the Greeks, while displaying wonderful 

 creative genius in metaphysics, litera- 

 ture, and art, being ignorant of the 

 method of experimentation, achieved 

 relatively little in natural science. The 

 Roman scientific writers were contented 

 to collect the researches of Greek pro- 

 fessors. Except in a few instances the 

 Arabs did not distinguish themselves 

 in original research. Writers in the mid- 

 dle ages were only commentators, and 

 knew nothing of personal investigation. 

 The physicist of the renascence aban- 

 doned scholastic speculation and began 

 to study Nature in the language of ex- 

 periment. The seventeenth century was 

 a period of great experimental as well 

 as theoretical activity. In the eight- 

 eenth century speculation was less effect- 

 ively restrained and guided by experi- 

 ments. The nineteenth century " has 

 overthrown the leading theories of the 

 previous one hundred years, and haa 

 largely built anew on the older founda- 

 tions laid during the seventeenth cen- 

 tury." The evolution of physical labora- 

 tories, first for teachers and then for stu- 

 dents, is the subject of the last chapter. 



" The Great Commanders Series " of D. 

 Applcton and Company is enriched by a 

 biography of General Sherman* whom 

 the author, General Manning F. Force, 

 styles " the most picturesque figure in 

 our civil war." He was more than this ; 

 he was its scholar and statesman — a man 

 distinguished by the possession of high 

 military combined with the best c\\\\ 

 qualities. Further, as General Force 

 well says, " his character was absolutely 

 pure and spotless." In his dealings with 

 the Vigilance Committee in San Fran- 

 cisco he assumed a position which it re- 

 quired courage of a much higher order 

 than a soldier's to maintain. While com- 

 fortably situated as an honored pro- 

 fessor in the State Military Academy of 

 Louisiana when the Legislature passed 

 the Ordinance of Secession, he had no 



* General Sherman. By General Manning F. 

 Force. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 

 Pp. 35.3. 



