618 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1008 



diminished by the action of social barriers and 

 the natural preference of individuals, which 

 induce marriages among like grades of men- 

 tality, in a foreign as well as a native locality. 



" 3. The amount of town aid which this one 

 group of defective families requires decen- 

 nially has increased 400 per cent, in the last 

 thirty years. In the same length of time its 

 criminal bill has been $10,763.43 for sixteen 

 persons; and the bill for its thirty children 

 who were supported by the state during the 

 last twenty-three years is $45,888.57. During 

 the past sixty years this community has, it is 

 estimated, cost the state and the people half a 

 million dollars. 



" 4. Half of the present number of school 

 children from these families who are living at 

 home show evidence of mental deficiency. 



" 5. One half of the state wards from the 

 community in question have reacted favorably 

 in an improved environment and give promise 

 of becoming more or less useful citizens; the 

 other half consist of institutional cases and 

 those which have not reacted to the better 

 environment, but are likely to become trouble- 

 some and dangerous citizens. 



" 6. The comparative cost of segregating 

 one feeble-minded couple and that of main- 

 taining their offspring shows, in the instance 

 at hand, that the latter policy has been three 

 times more expensive." 



Valuable as are the deductions from such 

 a piece of work as this, its greatest value lies 

 in the number of facts collected and recorded, 

 which will always be available for later com- 

 parisons in two ways, viz., with any subse- 

 quent information concerning the same people, 

 and with collected facts concerning other 

 families and settlement groups as they are 

 being secured in diilerent parts of the country. 



A. C. EOGERS 



The Microtomist's Vade-mecum. A Handbook 



of the Methods of Microscopic Anatomy. 



By Arthur Bolles Lee. Seventh edition. 



Philadelphia : P. Blakiston's Son & Co. 



Pp. X4-526. 1913. 



The appearance of a new edition of this 

 well-known handbook will be welcomed by 



biologists, many of whom, like the reviewer, 

 have doubtless awaited its appearance with 

 some impatient anticipation. Although en- 

 titled a '■' Handbook of the Methods of Micro- 

 scopic Anatomy," the field covered is broad, 

 as there are included methods employed by 

 embryologist. histologist, zoologist and bot- 

 anist. The need the book aims to meet is thus 

 not a simple one. The extensiveness of the 

 field calls for a careful selection from a large 

 mass of material, of standard methods of real 

 value which need to be worked over and per- 

 sonally tested. This the author has in most 

 instances done and hence the greater practical 

 value of the book. 



The present edition conforms to the previ- 

 ous one in arrangement, form of presentation 

 and size — this last despite the addition of con- 

 siderable new matter (" more than 700 new 

 entries in the index"). Indeed, of the thirty- 

 six chapters that make up the book the only 

 ones which are increased in length are those 

 on Embryological Methods (Ch. XXV.) and 

 Nervous System; Cytologieal Methods (Ch, 

 XXXIII.). The condensation has been se- 

 cured by '' cutting out superfluous matter, 

 condensation of the text and typographical 

 compression." The sections relating to neuro- 

 fibrils and to blood and blood parasites the 

 author states in the preface have been almost 

 entirely rewritten. Of important additions 

 to histological technique introduced since the 

 previous edition, the author specifically men- 

 tions Gilson's mounting media, eamsal balsam 

 and euparal, which permit mounting direct 

 from 95 per cent, alcohol, and also improve- 

 ments in the Bielschowsky and Cajal silver 

 methods. 



As in the previous editions, the methods 

 considered by the author more important are 

 presented in larger type, those less important 

 in small type. The references to the original 

 articles are in all instances given and are, as 

 far as the reviewer has tested them, exact. 



It would not be difficult in a book of this 

 kind whose excellence depends upon a rigor- 

 ous selection and personal emphasis, for a 

 worker to cite methods which might well have- 

 been included or which seem to merit more 



