164 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 32. 



lie attributes the extension of the German 

 export trade to tlie Stuttgai't Geographical 

 Societjr and similar institutions. 



The University of Minnesota at its 

 commencement of the current year con- 

 ferred 294 degrees as follows : Science, 

 Literature and the Arts, B. A., 28; B. S., 

 32; B. L., 34; M. A., 3; M. S., 6; Ph. D., 

 1. Engineering, Metallurgy and the Me- 

 chanic Arts, B. C. E., 4; B. M. E., 3; B. E. 

 E., 7; B. Mn. E., 1; Min. E., 1. Agricul- 

 ture, 2. Law, LL. B., 88; LL. M., 2. 

 Medicine and Surgery, M. D., 53. Homeop. 

 Medicine and Surgerj^, M. D., 5. Dentistiy, 

 D. D. M., 12. Pharmacy, Phm. D., 12. 



studying road dust than another may in 

 studying star dust. 



L. H. Bailey. 



COBBESPONDENCE. 

 WHAT IS 'high WOKK?' 



The students of the physiology and mor- 

 phology of plants are fond of saying that 

 these features of j)lant life stand for higher 

 work than the older systematic treatment 

 of botanical objects. My attention is called 

 to this attitude of mind at this time by 

 Professor Trelease's remark (although he 

 himself does not subscribe to the sentiment) 

 in Science for July 6th, in reviewing Mr. 

 Small's excellent monograph of Polj'gonum, 

 that " it is generally believed that the classi- 

 fication and naming of plants is a less ad- 

 vanced branch of botanical investigation 

 than the study of their morphologj^, develop- 

 ment and physiology." I must strenuously 

 object to a comparison of natural objects in 

 terms whigh are subjective to the student. 

 There is no higher or lower in the foi'ms of 

 life, or in the problems which center about 

 them. Every item in the material universe 

 is worthy the attention of the best mind 

 for a lifetime, and it is bigotry for one 

 student to measure other subjects bj' the 

 standard of his own specialty. ' High work ' 

 is entirel}^ a subjective matter, and is not a 

 quality of the object studied. One man 

 may do ' higher ' or ' more advanced ' work 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 The Female Offender. C^sar Lombroso and 

 William Ferrero. With an introduc- 

 tion by W. Douglas Morrison. Illus- 

 trated. The Criminologj' Series. New 

 York, D. Appleton & Co. 1895. 8°. 

 PI. 313. 



The present work of Lombroso has an 

 introduction by Mr. Douglas Morrison, a 

 perusal of which should disarm all criticism 

 against the body of the work which follows, 

 for Mr. Morrison assures us that the essen- 

 tial aim of Lombroso's work here is to show 

 the public that there are different kinds of 

 criminals and that different kinds of pun- 

 ishments should be provided for them. In 

 other words, the book is a contribution both 

 to penology and to philanthropy. It is en- 

 couraging at this time to hear such words 

 of kindliness regarding the Italian criminol- 

 ogist. Largely, perhaps, through the instru- 

 mentality of Dr. Nordau's extravagances, 

 the literarj'^ and artistic public have come 

 to regard Lombroso with great suspicion. 

 The attitude, in fact, toward this philos- 

 opher reminds us very much of the atti- 

 tude of the religious world toward Darwin 

 some years ago. Nothing that that emi- 

 nent scientist produced was then received 

 without questioning, and the descent of 

 man was as much a matter of public inter- 

 est and secular joke as is the existence of 

 degenerative traits at the present time. 



Lombroso's present work cannot excite 

 much adverse criticism, for the reason that 

 it is largely a collection of facts and statis- 

 tics, measurements and tables ; in fact, so 

 much so that the book becomes rather too 

 technical to interest the general reader. 

 The author endeavors to determine the 

 phj'sical characteristics belonging to the 

 female criminal, including the prostitute. 



