2 7 8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



at the home acre, that he may the better end 

 by inculcating an intelligent patriotism which 

 regards the whole country. In his conclud- 

 ing chapters he passes from exposition to 

 appeal. He shows how much government 

 means in modern life, and insists, none too 

 strongly, on the necessity that government 

 be purified. He declares that millions of 

 citizens stand ready to die for their country 

 who refuse to make the daily sacrifice of 

 time and comfort demanded for the honest 

 and competent discharge of public trusts. 



Civic virtue, indeed, is no mere plaint of 

 the moralist, it is the sole condition upon 

 which scientific advance can come to its 

 fruitage upon which public health and 

 safety can be enjoyed. America, for exam- 

 ple, lags far behind Europe in civic engineer- 

 ing, simply because to extend the scope of 

 municipal administration would but widen 

 the field for official incapacity and corrup- 

 tion. 



THE WILDER QUARTER-CENTURY BOOK : ORIGI- 

 NAL SCIENTIFIC PAPERS, DEDICATED TO 

 PROF. BURT GREEN WILDER. By some 

 of his Former Students of Cornell Uni- 

 versity. Ithaca, N. Y. : Comstock Pub- 

 lishing Company. Pp. 493. Price, $5. 



No more graceful tribute could well be 

 conceived nor ample volume designed for the 

 purpose intended than The Wilder Quarter- 

 Century Book 1868-1893. In fact, seven- 

 teen of Prof. Wilder's former Cornell pu- 

 pils, who have since become more or less 

 famous in sundry scientific departments, have 

 joined hands and pens in dedicating to their 

 worthy professor anything but a perfunctory 

 work. This assumes the form of a collec- 

 tion of papers on physiological subjects, in- 

 cluding vertebrate zoology and neurology. 

 Their dedication to Prof. Wilder, B. S., M. D., 

 is declared as " a testimonial of their appre- 

 ciation of his unselfish devotion to the univer- 

 sity and in grateful remembrance of the in- 

 spiration of his teaching and example." The 

 book itself is well printed and profusely 

 illustrated, several excellent plates being 

 noticeable throughout. A finely executed 

 portrait of Prof. Wilder by John P. Davis, 

 Secretary of the Society of American Wood 

 Engravers, constitutes the frontispiece. The 

 President of the Leland Stanford Junior Uni- 

 versity, David Starr Jordan, LL. D., contrib- 

 utes the first article Temperature and Ver- 



tebrae : a Study in Evolution which dis- 

 cusses with clearness the relations of the 

 numbers of vertebrae among fishes to the 

 temperature of water and the character of 

 the struggle for existence. An essay by 

 John Henry Comstock, B. S., Professor of 

 Entomology and General Invertebrate Zoology 

 in Cornell University, on the application of 

 the theory of natural selection in the classi- 

 fication of animals and plants, illustrated by 

 a study of the evolution of insects' wings, 

 completes another important paper. The 

 Vital Equation of the Colored Race and its 

 Future in the United States is contributed by 

 Dr. Rollin Corson, B. S., and Theobald Smith, 

 Ph. B., M. D., Professor of Bacteriology and 

 Hygiene in Columbian University, Washing- 

 ton, D. C., treats of the Fermentation Tube, 

 with special reference to anaerobiosis and 

 gas production among bacteria. Muscular 

 Atrophy is considered as a symptom by Dr. 

 William Krauss, B. S. ; and Prof. Biggs, 

 M. A., M. D., of Bellevue Hospital Medical 

 College, invites the reader to a bacterial 

 study of acute cerebral and cerebro-spinal 

 lepto-meningitis. An interesting and im- 

 portant essay is that by Veranus A. Moore, 

 B.S., M. D., of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, on the character of the 

 Flagella on the Bacillus Cholerae Suis ; while 

 Grant Sherman Hopkins, D. Sc., of Cornell 

 University, unfolds the nature of the lym- 

 phatics and enteric epithelium of Amia calva 

 The instructor of vertebrate zoology in Cor- 

 nell University, Pierre Augustine Fish, B. S., 

 adds a highly thoughtful paper on Brain 

 Preservation, giving a resumb of some old 

 and new methods. 



While other essays of import go to make 

 up the work, the engravings of moths and 

 some fine plates by Anna Botsford Comstock, 

 B. S., natural-history artist, may, from an 

 art point of view, be regarded as possessing 

 a high order of merit. Preceding a table 

 showing the courses given by Prof. Wilder, 

 we obtain also an intimate acquaintance 

 with Dr. Wilder's numerous and miscellane- 

 ous writings from 1861 to 1893. These in- 

 clude published works, essays, papers read, 

 and many important reviews. The volume 

 before us lacks nothing in completeness and 

 the style throughout is clear, very often fas- 

 cinating, and always of varying importance. 

 Within certain limitation, the work will 



