LITERARY NOTICES. 



423 



growth of the Tennessee commonwealth. 

 The title of the first volume is justified in 

 the fact that, but for the enterprise and 

 courage of the hardy pioneers who broke 

 their way into the woods of the Southwest 

 and formed settlements there, the rear of 

 the American colonies during the Revolution 

 would have been exposed to Indian attacks 

 in the interest of Great Britain, while such 

 attacks were relied upon as a part of the 

 scheme of subjugation. The present volume 

 relates to the emigration of James Robert- 

 son as leader of a party of three hundred 

 and eighty men, women, and children from 

 the Watauga foundation to the Cumber- 

 land River, the settlement of Nashville, 

 " the first civilized settlement in the valley 

 of the Mississippi," and the subsequent 

 fortunes of that post and the neighboring 

 stations, down to the conclusion of peace, 

 through Robertson's efforts, between the 

 Creeks and Chickasaws, in ]'795. Robert- 

 son lived till 1814, and had the privilege of 

 giving eminent services to the Government, 

 by holding the Choctaws and Chickasaws to 

 their allegiance against Tecumseh's efforts to 

 engage them in his conspiracy ; and of him 

 the author claims that, judging by the stand- 

 ard of fidelity to duty and devotion to the 

 good of men, there have been few greater 

 characters in American history. 



Hand-Book of Historical and Geographi- 

 cal PniHisiOGRAPHY, with Special Refer- 

 ence to the Distribution of Consump- 

 tion in the United States. Compiled and 

 arranged by George A. Evans, M. D., 

 New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 295. 

 Price, $2. 



In this volume the author has attempted 

 to present a sketch of the development of 

 our knowledge of pulmonary consumption 

 from the time of Hippocrates to the present 

 day, together with the ascertained facts re- 

 specting the geographical distribution of the 

 affection. The historical portion, which is 

 mostly a translation from Waldenburg's 

 work, gives the results of the several studies 

 that have been made of the subject, from 

 the days of the " father of medicine " down, 

 with summaries of observations and theories 

 in the order and under the names of their 

 authors ; closing with the present aspect of 

 the question as represented by Koch, and the 

 views of other contemporary authors. In 



the chapters on geographical distribution, 

 the data for countries other than the United 

 States are compiled from Ilirscli ; and those 

 for the United States from the reports of the 

 census. In discussing the question of " local- 

 ity in relation to deaths " in the United States, 

 the country is oivided into twenty-one " re- 

 gions," each of which has its peculiar features 

 of climate, soil, topography, prevailing dis- 

 eases, and death-rate. The general statistics 

 of the United States and the principal cities, 

 in respect to mortality by consumption and 

 other diseases, and the topography and cli- 

 mate, and death-rate, by counties, from con- 

 sumption, are given separately. The etiol- 

 ogy of consumption is next taken up ; and 

 the conclusion is expressed, in the last chap- 

 ter that the antiseptic treatment — natural, 

 by living at high altitude, which is only neg- 

 atively antiseptic ; or artificial, by breathing 

 medicated air — is the best. 



Botany for Academies and Colleges. By 

 Annie Chambers Ketchcm, A. M. Phil- 

 adelphia : J. B. Lippincott Company. 

 Pp. 324, with 250 Illustrations. 



This is not a very large book, but it epit- 

 omizes the whole science of botany, with a 

 copious inventory of botanical material. 

 While the statements arc extremely concise, 

 they are intelligible, and well exhibit the 

 connections and relations of facts. Fol- 

 lowing the inductive method of Jussieu, 

 the author unfolds the development and 

 describes the structure of plants, from 

 the cryptogamia — "the green stain on our 

 door-stone" — to the highest orders, the 

 magnolia and the clematis, taking each 

 stage in the order of its evolution. " Thus, 

 at the outset, we see the principles upon 

 which differentiation is based." The proof 

 of the theory and the authority for the or- 

 der followed are indicated in a special les- 

 son on fossils, and this is accompanied by a 

 geological table showing the successive pe- 

 riods of organic and inorganic development 

 in which the predominances of the orders of 

 animals and plants are exhibited side by side. 

 Then, with the plant world thus outlined, the 

 physiology of the subject is taken up, and 

 the separate parts are studied — root, stem, 

 leaf, flower, fruit, tissues, and the forces 

 that govern them. A single deviation from 

 the method of Jussieu — the one usually 



