November 21, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



285 



The Myology of the Raven {Corvus corax sinuatus). A Guide to 

 the t^tudy of the Muscular System in Birds. By R. W. Shu- 

 FELDT. London and New York, Macmillan. 8°. $4. 



This is a very unsatisfactory work, but fortunately of a unique 

 character. According to its contents, it may be divided into three 

 parts. The first consists of a badly arranged and insufficient de- 

 scription of the muscles of the raven, which constitutes the au- 

 thor's own work. In this, not the slightest notice is taken of the 

 valuable papers and monographs of Professors Fuerbringer and 

 Gadow, which form the basis for the morphology of the muscles 

 of birds. The author writes, therefore, from an absolutely anti- 

 quated standpoint. The second part is composed of about 70 

 pages in German, copied from Gadow's recent work on the mus- 

 cles of birds; and the third, of a bibliography of 144 works. The 

 author prefaces this latter with the words " Important Works 

 and Papers treating of the Muscles of Birds, compiled, abridged, 

 and re-arranged from the Bibliographical Lists of Hans Gadow, 

 and Several Other Sources, as well as Many New Titles added 

 thereto by the Present Writer." 



Of these 144 titles, 134 have been copied from Gadow in every 

 detail. A paper of Duvernoy, for instance, is mentioned by 

 Gadow, with the words ''Kuerzere Notizen" ("shorter notes"), with- 

 out giving the long French title. In the author's list this paper 

 appears also under the title "Kuerzere Notizen." The abbrevia- 

 tion of Gadow's list consists in the omission of the very valuable 

 short notes attached to the titles, giving the contents of the paper. 

 It seems to have been too much trouble for the author to translate 

 these notes, which are of such great importance to the student. 



Of the ten new titles which are {riven by the author, four are 

 those of papers which have appeared since Gadow's list was pub- 

 lished, three are the titles of little text-books, two have nothing to 

 do with the subject, and one special paper only was published be- 

 fore the appearance of Gadow's list. 



In the preface the author says, " To those of my readers who 

 are familiar with German, the best works I can recommend to be 

 consulted in the present connection are the very excellent treatises 

 of Selenka and Gadow in Bronn's 'Klassen des Thierreichs,' and 

 that superb monument to avian morphology, the ' Untersuchun- 

 gen zur Morphologie und Systematik der Voegel,' of Max Fuer- 

 bringer." 



We wish the author had studied these works himself before he 

 gave his book into the printer's hands Perhaps he would have 

 given us something better. But then, we ask, why Hid the au- 

 thor use and mention, besides his own papers, but 7 of the 144 

 works of which he gives the titles, in his descriptions? Four of 

 these works are the text books of Owen, Huxley, Mivart, and 

 Parker: the others are the collected papers of Garrod and Forbes. 

 Milne-Edwards is noted once. From Owen's "Anatomy" the 

 description of the muscles of Apteryx is copied, and from the 

 others many a page. The works of such authors as Klemm and 

 Meursinge, who have written specially on the muscles of the ra- 

 ven, are not even mentioned. The explanation is easily given: 

 the author did not take the trouble to read and study the papers 

 the titles of which he gives in the bibliography. 



The Distribution of Wealth. By Rurus Cope. Philadelphia, 

 Lippincott. 12". $2. 

 This book is another of those ambitious attempts to remedy all 

 the economic ills of society which issue from the press at frequent 

 intervals; and it is about as successful as the rest. The author 

 begins in the usual way by informing us that the distribution of 

 wealth in .our day is very unequal, and that sundry evils of more 

 or less portentous imiwrt result from this inequality. The facts 

 in the case are set forth with a long array of statistics showing 

 how great the inequality is; and the conclusion is then drawn 

 that this inequality is unjust, and must be remedied. The prin- 

 cipal remedies proposed are the abolition or sweeping reduc- 

 tion of interest, the repeal of patent laws, and some not very 

 well defined control of natural and artificial monopolies. To 

 patent laws Mr. Cope has a special antipathy, declaring that " no 

 other single agency, perhaps, except interest on money, is more 

 responsible for the present inequitable distribution of wealth." 

 " Ricardo's law of rent,'" he says, "appears to be a formula de- 



vised as a justification of the rapacity of landlords," yet he is not 

 a disciple of Mr. George. The internal revenue taxes on malt 

 liquors and tobacco he declares to be a great injury to the work- 

 ingmen; but he is very much in love with the protective tariff, 

 and devotes a large space to a defence of it, — a defence very much 

 needed in view of the recent elections. Such are some of Mi-. 

 I ope's ideas, but their merits as a solution of the problem in ques- 

 tion are not apparent to us. 



Sociology : Popular Lectures and Discussions before the Brook- 

 lyn Ethical Association. By various authors. Boston, James 



H. West. 12". $2. 



The papers in this volume, though containing many points of 

 interest, are not equal in merit to those that came from the same 

 source a year ago. The editor says in his preface that sociology 

 is the name of a new science, — the science of social evolution. 

 Now, whether such a science, as something distinct from history, 

 is possible or not, we shall not here inquire; but it certainly cannot 

 be found in the pages of this book. Tiie various essays it contains 

 are often interesting and sometimes instructive; but they present 

 nothing that can he called a science of social development. Sev- 

 eral of them have no relation to socialaffairs, the remainder being 

 divided between historical topics and methods of social reform. 

 Some of the historical papers are very good ; but they are far from 

 presenting a comprehensive view of social evolution, some of the 

 main elements of which are wholly neglected. We read here 

 about the evolution of law and politics, of the mechanic arts, the 

 science of medicine, and some other branches of human activity; 

 but there is nothing about the general intellectual progress of the 

 race, nothing about the evolution of rtligion and morals or of 

 ideal art, and, strangest of all, nothing about the evolution of 

 language, the instrument that makes society possible. The lec- 

 tures on social reform present successively the theological method, 

 the socialistic method, the anarchistic method, and the scientific 

 method. That on the socialistic method, by a man who was at 

 first attracted by the socialistic dream, but in the end strongly 

 repelled by it, has been to us the most interesting. The two clos- 

 ing papers are tributes to the memory of Professors Asa Gray and 

 Edward L. Youmans, written with the warmth of friendship as 

 well as of scientific enthusiasm, and describing the services they 

 rendered to science and to education. The discussions that fol- 

 lowed the original delivery of the lectures are not reported in this 

 volume, except in two cases; and we regret the omission, as we 

 found those in the former volume on ' ' Evolution " as interesting 

 and suggestive as the lectures themselves. 



Life of Arthur Schopenhauer. By W. Wallace. London, 

 Walter Scott; New York, A. Lovell & Co. 16". 40 cents. 



This volume is one of the series of Great Writers, of which 

 many numbers have already been issued. It gives a clear and 

 very readable account of Schopenhauer's life, with some notice of 

 his philosophy. The materials for a bioaraphy are indeed few; 

 for a philosopher's life is usually uneventful, and Schopenhauer's 

 is no exception to this rule. There were, however, certain pecul- 

 iarities in his life and character, which lend a somewhat peculiar 

 interest to his biography, and make it read like a mixture of 

 tragedy and comedy. His pessimism is often ludicrous, especially 

 in a man who, after his eighteenth year, had nothmg to do but 

 what he chose to do; yet his natural tendency to melancholy, com- 

 bined with his inordinate passion for fame, made him not only 

 pessimistic in theory, but often really unhappy, in fact. His phi- 

 losophy was late in winning recognition, and has never attained to 

 much prominence in the world of thought; and it was this failure to 

 win disciples which, more than any thing else, caused his melan- 

 choly. He believed that Hegel and other professional philosophers 

 had conspired against him, and he vents on them all the vials of 

 his wrath. Yet his works have undoubfedl}' received all the 

 favor to which they are entitled, if not more, the exaggerated 

 estimate which he formed of their originality and importance 

 being wholly unjustified. Meanwhile, students of modern phi- 

 losophy wiU be glad of this brief biography of the strange author 

 of a strange metaphysical system. His leading work has for some 

 time been accessible in English, while more recently a translation 



