SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



561 



of the life histories of plants. It seeks a 

 new presentation of the subject, making use 

 of the best modern method of study, and 

 giving prominence to laboratory processes. 

 The course of study outlined in it is intended 

 to give the student a general view of the 

 subject, and at the same time to lay a foim- 

 dation on which more advanced studies may 

 be built. As the length of time given to the 

 study of botany differs widely in different 

 schools, the author has endeavored to fur- 

 nish a course that may be made very elastic ; 

 and room is therefore provided in it for 

 selections, in aid of which a few hints are 

 given. A considerable amount of previous 

 study is supposed to have been given to the 

 gross morphology of the parts of flowering 

 plants, with some attention to the division into 

 groups and classes, and knowledge enough 

 of analysis to find the names of plants. 

 " With this preparation it seems . . . that 

 the pupil can enter with profit upon a course 

 which will give him a general view of the 

 whole plant world, beginning with plants of 

 the simplest organization." Such is the 

 present course. The explanations to the 

 experiments are clear and direct. 



Mr. Mallock, in his Aristocracy and Evo- 

 lution, has submitted the preachings of the 

 sociahstic and labor agitators with argu- 

 ments drawn from philosophy. Mr. Free- 

 man Otis Willcij attacks them and disposes 

 of most of them in The Laborer and the Cap- 

 italist* by subjecting them to the test of 

 plain common sense. He takes them up as 

 they are declared on the street, in the press, 

 from the pulpit, in the legislative halls, and 

 on the stump, and, one after another, ex- 

 poses the practical fallacies that are in them. 

 Thus he does with the questions of monop- 

 oly, the accumulation and concentration of 

 wealth, the relations of capital and labor, 

 railroads, rented homes, wages, taxes, etc. ; 

 as to all of which points the practical method 

 of looking at the subject and treating it gives 

 his observations great force. 



In the series of Physical and Electrical 

 Engineering Manuals of J. Henderson and 

 S. Joyce, it is the object of the authors to 

 provide a course of instruction for carrying 



* The Laborer and the Capitalist. By Freeman 

 Otis Willey. New York : Equitable Publishing 

 Company. Price, $1.2.5. 



VOL. LIII. — 39 



out a progressive series of experiments in 

 the subjects, arranged so that the usual 

 apparatus at the disposal of a laboratory, 

 though not especially designed for any par- 

 ticular experiment, may, nevertheless, be 

 used with advantage in a variety of ways. 

 They have also sought to arrange experi- 

 ments of such character that a student 

 working alone may be able to obtain satis- 

 factory results. The second volume of the 

 series * is devoted entirely to practical work 

 in electricity and magnetism, the depart- 

 ment of physical work being reserved for a 

 volume by itself. The introductory chapter 

 contains a most excellent series of instruc- 

 tions as to the methods of observation and 

 the manner of making them. The student 

 " must never be in a hurry. A week spent 

 in discovering and overcoming some source 

 of error will be well-spent time, and may be 

 of more educational value than the perform- 

 ance of the original experiment itself. 

 Above all things, however, the experimenter 

 must be methodical," and more of similar 

 tenor. Exact directions are given, likewise, 

 concerning the management of the instru- 

 ments. The measurement of resistance is 

 dealt with first in the order of experiments, 

 with a brief account of the methods of 

 measuring in absolute units. In choosing 

 methods for the various measurements it 

 has been the aim to take only those best 

 suited for the purpose. Lists are given, at 

 the end of each chapter, of references to the 

 more important original papers bearing on 

 the subject of the chapter to be fonnd in 

 the scientific periodicals. 



Mr. R. Floyd Clarke assumes that the 

 law seems to laymen and to some who at- 

 tempt the study of it a crabbed, difficult, and 

 dry pursuit, and attempts in his Science of 

 Law and Law-making -j- to make clear to 

 average readers some of its truths and intro- 

 duce them to a correct conception of the 

 system under which they live. While admit- 

 ting it as true that the detail and doctrines 



* Practical Electricity and Magnetism. By 

 John Henderson. Vol. II. New York: Long- 

 mans, Green & Co. Pp 488. 



t The Science of Law and Law-making. Be- 

 ing an Introduction to Law, a General View of its 

 Forms and Substance, and a Discussion of the 

 Question of Codification. By R. Floyd Clarke, of 

 the New York Bar. New York : The Macmillan 

 Company. Pp. 473. Price, $4. 



