LITERARY NOTICES. 



705 



the obligations of American scientific men 

 and American teachers to the life-long and 

 invaluable services of Professor Gray in the 

 elaborate revision of his text-books which 

 have now taken so comprehensive and com- 

 plete a form in this series. With the pa- 

 tience and perseverance of the true scien- 

 tific enthusiast, he has confined himself to 

 his own line of work, and taken authorita- 

 tive possession of the botanical field in this 

 country. By securing the co-operation of 

 other men whom he has assisted to qualify 

 for the work, Professor Gray gives to his 

 undertaking a solid and permanent value 

 which will make it influential upon the 

 growth of American botany for many years 

 to come. 



French Dishes for American Tables. 

 By Pierre Caron (formerly chef d'en- 

 freniefs at Delmonico's). Translated by 

 Mrs. Frederic Sherman. Pp. 231. D. 

 Appleton & Co. Price, 81. 

 This may not be " the cook-book of the 

 future," but, what is more to the purpose, 

 it is a pretty good cook-book for the pres- 

 ent. Written by a man and translated by 

 a woman, it ought to be full of the duplex- 

 cellences implied by its double origin. At 

 any rate, the man understood the business 

 of cooking, and the woman understands the 

 business of translation ; and so the man's 

 full and accurate knowledge of culinary 

 operations is made as simple and clear to 

 the reader as plain, well-chosen language 

 can make it. The book contains six hun- 

 dred receipts, and it is said the quantities 

 are all calculated for tables of ei^jht per- 

 sons. We have heard that this book has 

 been tried with marked success. 



Railroad Transportation : Its History 

 and Laws. By Arthur T. Hadlet, 

 Commissioner of Labor Statistics of the 

 State of Connecticut, Instructor in Po- 

 litical Science in Yale College. Pp. 269. 

 Xew York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Price, 

 8L50. 



The laying down of an iron track on 

 leveled ground, whereby vehicles could car- 

 ry heavier loads, and the attachment of 

 steam-machines instead of animals to draw 

 the vehicles were mechanical novelties in 

 their time which many could not fail to see 

 were full of new possibilities, but nobody 

 even suspected the tremendous implications i 



VOL. XXTIII. — 45 



of the steps that had been taken. He who 

 saw the first car moved by steam upon a 

 tramway, and hauling a load of stone, may 

 also have lived to see an express train of 

 palace - cars, with a meeting-house full of 

 people, shooting along with the proverbial 

 swiftness of the pigeon, " a mile a minute." 

 This result shows the astonishing rapidity 

 of the development of the art of locomo- 

 tion, and always impresses the observer 

 with wonder at the triumphs of invention, 

 and the new conquest over space and time 

 that may be shared by everybody. 



And yet all this is but the superficial 

 aspect of the railroad dispensation upon 

 which we have entered. The discovery has 

 been gradually made that the railroad sys- 

 tem is a new social power, the destiny of 

 which is to force to such a solution as they 

 may be capable of receiving a large num- 

 ber of fundamental questions relating to 

 industry, commerce, the laws of competi- 

 tion, individual rights and corporate pre- 

 rogatives, the operation of natural laws in 

 society, and the compass and limitations of 

 legislative authority. These problems are 

 forced upon the community by the devel- 

 opment of railroads, as they could have 

 been in no other way. They must be met 

 and acted upon, if not with far-seeing intel- 

 ligence, then with short-sighted ignorance ; 

 and as the results of experience disclose 

 themselves — good or bad — we shall have a 

 large and instructive example of that com- 

 pulsory education which originates in social 

 conditions and the nature of things. 



It is somewhat from this point of view 

 that the timely and admirable book of Pro- 

 fessor Hadley has been prepared. It is not 

 at all a treatise on the railroad in itself, 

 and is not to be ranked with books of con- 

 struction, improvement, and railway man- 

 agement that are made for the uses of rail- 

 road-men. It is rather a book on the rela- 

 tions of railroads to the community, and 

 therefore deals with a class of subjects in 

 which all citizens are interested. The writ- 

 er's point of view is thus briefly indicated 

 in his preface : " This book deals with 

 those questions of railroad history and man- 

 agement which have become matters of 

 public concern. It aims to do two things r 

 first, to present clearly the more important 

 facts of American raihoad business, and 



