Makch 6, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



383 



is to be commended almost as much for what 

 it omits as for what it includes. It shows 

 evidence of accurate knowledge and careful 

 preparation, as might be expected from the 

 pen of the associate editor of the Engineering 

 News. Several chapters were written by the 

 author's wife, Mrs. Ella Babbitt Baker, and 

 these are among the most interesting in the 

 book. The book gives comparatively few 

 references, a fault for which the author atones 

 by referring to Robert C Brook's ' Bibli- 

 ography of Municipal Problems and City 

 Conditions' (New York, 1901). 



A comparison of the title of the book with 

 its table of contents shows to what wide limits 

 the scope of the ' engineer ' has extended. 

 ' Municipal housekeeping ' is a term which 

 has been applied not inappropriately to certain 

 groups of activities, but ' municipal engineer- 

 ing ' is much nearer the truth. Whenever 

 forces are to be controlled and materials 

 handled on a large scale, there the engineer 

 is to the fore. So in our growing cities 

 activities that once were domestic or indi- 

 vidual have become engineering in their nature 

 and must be entrusted to technical men. The 

 author well says : ' Happily the day is coming 

 when permanent and well-paid technical men 

 will be put in charge of all technical work, 

 and the most experienced specialists of the 

 country will be called in to aid in the construc- 

 tion and testing of all public works and to 

 advise from time to time regarding the best 

 mode of operation.' 



American Municipal Progress — Chapters in 

 Municipal Sociology. By Charles Zueb- 

 LIN. New York, The Macmillan Company. 

 1902. 12mo. Pp. 380. $1.25. In the 

 Citizen's Library. 



The author begins his introductory chapter 

 in the good old German way by defining his 

 terms. He draws a distinction between the 

 ' urban district,' ' city ' and ' municipality ' ; 

 the first having ' a psychological and indus- 

 trial unity,' the second, ' a legal and topo- 

 graphical unity,' and the third ' a functional 

 unitj'.' He considers the municipality as the 

 organization for supplying communal needs, 

 and defines ' municipal sociology ' as the sci- 



ence which ' investigates the means of satisfy- 

 ing communal wants through public activity.' 

 Illustrations of these definitions then follow. 

 The work is divided into chapters which 

 treat respectively of ' Municipal Sociology ' ; 

 ' Transportation ' ; ' Public Works ' ; ' Sanita- 

 tion ' ; ' Schools ' ; ' Libraries ' ; ' Public Build- 

 ings ' ; ' Parks ' ; ' Public Recreation ' ; ' Public 

 Control, Ownership and Operation.' It is 

 written in a discursive style, and the prin- 

 ciples set forth are sometimes obscured by 

 an overabundance of illustration. It is in 

 these illustrations, however, that the work is 

 chiefly valuable. The author, who is profes- 

 sor of sociology in the University of Chicago, 

 evidently has at hand an extensive collection 

 of data from the chief cities of A m erica 

 upon all phases of municipal work, and the 

 comparisons which he makes between the dif- 

 ferent cities are most instructive. It is inter- 

 esting to observe the different directions in 

 which engineering effort has been bent in dif- 

 ferent cities. One city, for example, excels 

 in its parks, another in its streets, another 

 in its schools, another in its water supply, etc. 

 The book gives the impression of being written 

 by one who has studied the work of others 

 rather than by one who has taken part in it 

 himself. It is somewhat inclined to be theo- 

 retical rather than practical. For instance, 

 the author still clings to the idea that the 

 cost of sewage disposal may be met by sepa- 

 rating the solid matter ' through familiar 

 processes ' and selling it as a fertilizing ma- 

 terial, while sanitary engineers agree that 

 this is, at present at least, impractical. The 

 last chapter, on ' Political Control, Owner- 

 ship and Operation,' is perhaps the most val- 

 uable one in the book. It shows the modern 

 tendency towards public absorption of mu- 

 nicipal functions, an evolution towards social- 

 ism which the author manifestly approves. 

 The work concludes with numerous append- 

 ices giving interesting statistics for various 

 American cities, and digests of laws affecting 

 schools, child labor, etc. G. C. Whipple. 

 A Text-iooh of Quantitative Chemical Analy- 

 sis. By Frank Jullvn. St. Paul, Minn., 

 The Ramsey Publishing Company. 1902. 

 8vo. Pp. 604. Illustrated. $6.00. 



