90 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 313 



philosophy," she has at least made a considerable contribution to 

 humorous literature. 



Healing Question. By SIR Henry Vane. (Old South Leaflets. 



No. 6.) Boston, D. C. Heath & Co. 

 The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. (Old South Leaflets, 



No. 8.) Boston, D. C. Heath & Co. 

 These little pamphlets relate to the beginnings of written consti- 

 tutions. Vane's paper appeared at that time in the history of the 

 English commonwealth when serious dissensions had arisen in what 

 he calls " the honest party," and was written with the hope of set- 

 tling the difficulty. It proposed the expedient, now so familiar but 

 then first suggested, of a national convention to prepare a constitu- 

 tion of government by which both people and rulers should be 

 bound. The proposal was not acted on by the people of England, 

 but its appearance is an event of some importance in political his- 

 tory. The rest of the ideas in Vane's pamphlet are those commonly 

 held by the leading patriots of his time ; and the clumsy and intri- 

 cate style in which they are expressed makes the work any thing 

 but agreeable reading. The earliest written constitution, according 

 to Mr. Mead, the editor of these " leaflets," is that adopted by the 

 people of Connecticut in 1638 ; and this constitution, with the one 

 adopted the next year by the colony of New Haven, is here re- 

 printed. The New Haven document is largely ecclesiastical; the 

 ■Church is dealt with as well as the State, all public officers are to 

 be church members, and in the popular convention itself all ques- 

 tions are settled " by sundry arguments from scripture." The Con- 

 necticut constitution is more strictly political, and its historical dis- 

 tinction renders it well worthy of a place in this series of popular 

 studies. 



The Seventh Annual Report of the State Board of Health of 

 New Hampshire. Manchester, State. 8°. 



This report of the State Board of Health to the governor and coun- 

 cil is evidence that the year ending April 30, 1888, was an unusually 

 active one in the State of New Hampshire so far as concerns the 

 details of sanitary administration. A greater demand was made for 

 the services of the board by town authorities, local boards of health, 

 and those in charge of public institutions. In addition to this, the 

 advice of the board was sought in hundreds of individual cases and 

 in all sections of the State. These facts are certainly very en- 

 couraging, and demonstrate that there is a growing interest, in this 

 State at least, in the subject of sanitation. During the year the 

 legislature enacted a number of important sanitary measures. One 

 of the most important of these placed scarlet-fever and diphtheria 

 among the dangerous pestilential diseases, and gave the board 

 authority for their suppression. Greater powers were extended to 

 health authorities throughout the State in respect to unsanitary 

 dwellings and polluted water-supplies. 



One of the most valuable results of the board's labors is that 

 which has come from a sanitary supervision of the summer resorts 

 of the State. The money left by summer visitors at the various re- 

 sorts aggregates several hundred thousand dollars annually ; it 

 builds homes, schoolhouses, churches, and hotels ; it increases the 

 valuation of real estate, and in many ways adds to the material 

 prosperity of the towns, villages, and cities. The board recognizes 

 that this great interest should be carefully guarded against the only 

 thing that can ruin it, — disease from neglected sanitation. In the 

 furtherance of this policy, a sewer was constructed at Rye Beach. 

 It conveys the sewage of ten or more of the largest hotels and 

 boarding-houses to the ocean ; it is two thousand feet in length, and 

 ten inches in diameter. Its cost was three thousand dollars. 



The public water-supply throughout the State has received care- 

 ful attention. Several towns have constructed water-works, and 

 in every such instance the health of the community has been notably 

 improved. The improvement has been especially marked in the 

 reduction of typhoid-fever. 



In the report of 1887 the board gave, in a general way, a state- 

 ment of the sanitary condition of nearly thirteen hundred school- 

 houses in the State. The surveys of these schools revealed the 

 fact that there was no system used in their construction, and that 

 in a great majority the plans on which they were built were such 

 .as might be devised by a carpenter ignorant of architecture and 



the requirements of scholars and teachers. These buildings are 

 not ventilated, they are inadequately heated, badly lighted, furnished 

 with a questionable water-supply, and surrounded by foul privies. 

 The present report deals more in detail with these defects, partic- 

 ular attention being given to the schools of Portsmouth and Con- 

 cord. 



The health laws of the State being scattered through the session 

 laws and passed by the various legislatures, great difficulty is ex- 

 perienced by local sanitary officials in determining just what the 

 law is, in reference to any given subject. To obviate this, the 

 board has made a compilation of all such laws, and has published 

 them as an appendix to the present report. The index to the re- 

 port is very complete. Taken as a whole, this report is a valuable 

 contribution to sanitary literature, and furnishes additional argu- 

 ment for those who maintain that State boards of health should 

 exist throug'hout the Union, so constituted as to be as permanent as 

 possible, and independent of politics. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



The Open Court Publishing Company of Chicago announces 

 the appearance within the present month of an important contribu- 

 tion to experimental psychology by the eminent French scientist, 

 Alfred Binet. The work is entitled " The Psychic Life of Micro- 

 organisms," and IS published with the sanction of the author, who 

 has written a preface especially for the American edition. The 

 essays forming the work appeared originally in the Revue Philoso- 

 phiqiie of Paris, and were afterwards published in part in The Open 

 Court. The original cuts have been procured, and new plates and 

 subsequent additions to the text have been incorporated in the 

 work. The monograph of M. Binet is a presentation of the most 

 important results of recent investigations into the world of proto- 

 organisms. M. Binet has added much to the psychology of the 

 microscopic world by these researches. He has opposed many 

 theories, confirmed others, and advanced many conclusions founded 

 upon his personal investigation. The subject is a branch of com- 

 parative psychology little known, and, as a rule, imperfectly under- 

 stood. Psychologists, and all who are interested in questions of 

 biology, will accordingly look forward to the work of M. Binet as a 

 welcome light on the problem of life. 



, — Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. will publish, about March i,an impor- 

 tant economic work, " Profit-Sharing between Employer and Em- 

 ployee : A Study in the Evolution of the Wages System," by Nicho- 

 las P. Gilman (editor of the Literary World). It is the first 

 comprehensive work on industrial partnerships in our language. 

 Written in a popular style, Mr. Gilman's work is commended as 

 " valuable from both the scientific and the practical points of view '' 

 by President F. A. Walker, Carroll D. Wright, R. T. Ely, and other 

 high authorities. It will undoubtedly awaken wide interest as an 

 instructive and candid discussion of one promising method for the 

 solution of " labor difficulties." 



— The February Magazine of American History again antici- 

 pates the popular desire, and comes, in honor of Washington's 

 birthday, as a " Washington number," Those who are searching 

 for data concerning Washington's presidential career in New York 

 City will welcome Mrs. Lamb's leading article, " Washington as 

 President, 1789-90," a companion piece to her " Inauguration of 

 Washington in 1789," published in December. The frontispiece 

 represents in a group, Washington, his wife and her two grandchil- 

 ren, at the age and as they appeared in 1789. The copy of Hun- 

 tington's great painting of " Lady Washington's Reception " fills 

 two full pages, and the key another page. The house New York 

 was building for President Washington also occupies a full page. 

 The sensational feature of the issue, however, is the De Vries per- • 

 trait of Washington, discovered in Holland the past summer by the 

 Holland Society of New York, while on its pilgrimage there. Rev. 

 Dr. J. Howard Suydam describes the find, and gives also a picture 

 of De Vries, the owner of the portrait. The third article, by Gen. 

 John Cochrane, presents an unpubUshed letter of Washington in 

 facsimile, written to Hon. James Duane in 1780. The four articles 

 that follow relate to other themes, — " A Canadian- American Liai- 

 son," by Watson Griffin of Montreal ; " An Oriental Account of the 



