SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



707 



and the nature of their authority, Nursery 

 Ethics shows very clearly what few parents 

 evidently realize that the only foundation 

 for parental authority is the furtherance of 

 childish welfare. This is the strict limit. 

 Any further usurpation of authority is sim- 

 ple tyranny. Obedience to persons is also 

 shown to be without moral sanction. But 

 obedience to conditions imposed by events 

 is a large part of the discipline of life. This 

 is the sort of obedience we should teach our 

 children, and with what graciousness we can 

 teach it if we ourselves yield the same obe- 

 dience ! Above all, there should be no con- 

 flict of authority. No one detects this sooner 

 than a child, or sooner takes advantage of 

 it. The deepest moral lesson of the nursery 

 comes, as elsewhere, from a recognition of 

 the law of cause and effect. By associating 

 natural results with action, and by adjusting 

 punishments on the same ground, parents 

 may early begin that judicious abdication 

 of authority which is finally to lead to self- 

 government and the evolution of truly moral 

 beings. It is a point of profound wisdom to 

 let this abdication keep always a step in 

 advance of the child's demand for freedom. 

 The chapters on special problems in nursery 

 management deserve no less careful reading. 

 Mrs. Winterburn's book contains much 

 to commend. We believe that every word 

 of it is true. In style and outward dress it 

 is also attractive. If the ethical principles 

 which it so clearly develops could but find 

 an application in the nurseries of America, 

 the chief work of education would be accom- 

 plished at home, and the subsequent prob- 

 lems of school and college would be infinitely 

 easier than they are at present. We wish 

 the little book a most successful mission. 



Since the general adoption of embryology 

 and histology as a part of the regular medi- 

 cal curriculum, there has been a large acces- 

 sion of works on this subject to our litera- 

 ture more, it almost seems, than the demand 

 justifies. Many of them are translations, 

 and a very large proportion are not at all 

 suited to the elementary student. A certain 

 amount of confusion is inevitable, because 

 of the unsettled state of the subject, but the 

 chief difficulty has been the lack of an im- 

 partial treatment -each author being inter- 

 ested in upholding one of the many theories, 



and subordinating everything else to this 

 end. Dr. Hertwig's book* is fairly free 

 from this fault, and seems to have been 

 carefully arranged with reference to the 

 student's needs. As the title indicates, it 

 deals with cell physiology as well as anat- 

 omy. The book consists of nine chapters, 

 with numerous subdivisions under each. 

 Chapter I gives a general historical review 

 of the cell theory, the protoplasmic theory, 

 and the literature of the subject. The 

 Chemico-physical and Morphological Prop- 

 erties of the Cell is the title of Chapter II. 

 In the third, fourth, and fifth chapters the 

 vital properties of the cell are discussed. 

 These are followed by two chapters on The 

 Vital Phenomena of the Cell. The title of 

 Chapter VIII is Metabolic Changes occurring 

 between Protoplasm, Nucleus, and Cell Prod- 

 ucts, and Chapter IX closes the book with 

 a discussion of the cell as the elementary 

 germ of an organism, embracing theories of 

 heredity. The translation is well done de- 

 spite the difficulties, which must have been 

 considerable, as the editor says, in finding 

 English equivalents for many of the German 

 words. A good feature is the bibliography 

 which is given after each chapter, thus 

 enabling the student to readily follow out 

 more in detail any special point which he 

 may be curious about. The book is fairly 

 well illustrated. 



The last ten years have been marked, in 

 botanical study, by numerous investigations 

 upon the Archegoniates, as the ferns and 

 mosses are collectively called from the pe- 

 culiar character and resemblance of the or- 

 gan in them corresponding with the pistil, 

 and by the extension of our knowledge to 

 many forms which were hitherto but very 

 imperfectly known. But while the collected 

 results of the earlier investigations prompted 

 by Hofmeister's work have appeared for the 

 most part only in text-books, where limita- 

 tions of space prevented full justice being 

 done to them, those of the later researches 

 have only begun to find their way into the 

 text-books. The author, who is Professor 



* The Cell : Outlines of General Anatomy and 

 Physiology. By Dr. Oscar Hertuig. Pp. 368, 

 12mo. London : Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. 

 Price, 21*. New York: Macmillan & Co. 

 Price, $3. 



