LITERARY NOTICES. 



125 



vote of thanks to the people, said that 

 the meeting would stand prominent in 

 regard to comfort as well as to its scien- 

 tific qualities. In the latter feature it 

 stood very high. The programme in 

 every section was full to excess, so that, 

 while usually all the sections have fin- 

 ished their work on the Tuesday, and 

 some of them on the Monday, five 

 sections had this year to meet on the 

 Wednesday. In all, three hundred and 

 eighty-eight papers and reports were 

 brought forward, the larger numbers 

 of which were, in mathematics eighty- 

 four, and geology seventy-seven. A new 

 feature, and one the introduction of 

 which was crowned with unexpected 

 success, was that of provision for the 

 discussion in some of the sections of 

 subjects of unusual and pressing im- 

 portance. The discussions on this plan 

 in the joint meetings of the Phys- 

 ical and Biological Sections on color- 

 vision, and in the Geographical Section 

 on geographical education, were par- 

 ticularly edifying. Another discus- 

 sion which followed the reading of a 

 paper by Mr. Seebohn, on the theory 

 of physiological selection, recently an- 

 nounced by Dr. Romanes, in which 

 Professors Michael Foster and Newton 

 and Francis Darwin took part, showed 

 that the prevailing sentiment of the 

 section was still in favor of Mr. Dar- 

 win's view and against Dr. Romanes's 

 proposed modification of it. Another 

 instructive discussion was on the exist- 

 ence of a pre-glacial man. About the 

 usual proportion of the papers read 

 were of a technical or special character, 

 and a few were perhaps hardly at home 

 in such a body as this ; but the very 

 full reports of the meetings in the Lon- 

 don " Times," occupying about twenty- 

 five columns, show how much was said 

 and done that was of such living inter- 

 est and value as to appeal to the gen- 

 eral public. The addresses of the sec- 

 tional presidents, of the essential feat- 

 ures of which we give abstracts in an- 

 other place, were for the most part at- 



tractive and intelligible presentations of 

 the particular fields of research in which 

 their authors are engaged. Public in- 

 terest in the meetings may be gauged 

 by the fact of the sale of twenty-five 

 hundred membership tickets. Appro- 

 priations of thirteen hundred pounds 

 sterling were made in encouragement 

 of research in numerous fields. The 

 meeting of the French Association was 

 held at Nancy, under the presidency of 

 M. Friedel, the chemist, and was marked 

 by a numerous attendance and the pre- 

 sentation of a good list of papers, indi- 

 cating a healthy growth. The secretary 

 reported that three hundred and forty- 

 two contributions had been presented 

 at the Grenoble meeting of last year — 

 being within forty-six of the number 

 offered at the British Association this 

 year. The treasurer presented reports 

 showing that the financial strength of 

 the Association and its consequent 

 power for usefulness were steadily in- 

 creasing. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Aristocracy in England. By Adam Ba- 

 deau. New York : Harper & Brothers. 

 1886. Pp. 306. Price, $1.25. 



There was need of such a volume (espe- 

 cially in this country) as that which General 

 Badeau has here prepared. The truth is, 

 that our national independence and the 

 birth of the Great Republic consisted in little 

 else than a formal repudiation of the Brit- 

 ish aristocratical system — monarchy and no- 

 bility; so that it can hardly be expected 

 that the American people would be very 

 impartial judges of the merits of a system 

 we have got rid of under such circum- 

 stances. Our general idea is, that the Eng- 

 lish aristocracy is a worn-out, worthless, 

 useless, ridiculous, and tyrannical system 

 that is destined to disappear in a very few 

 years. But American contempt for English 

 aristocracy hardly equals American igno- 

 rance of it. 



General Badeau recognized that there 

 was wanting a book that should jrive an in- 



