lyS 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 297 



■operation, a complete description is given, with diagrams of the 



machinery and tools used. 



The transportation and uses of gas, its value as a fuel, the 



measurement of the wells, and the methods of piping, are described 



in detail. 



The remaining pages of the report are devoted to the two princi- 



•pal coal-fields of the State, the manufacture of salt and bromine, 



■cements, land-plaster, lime, etc. 



Few of the States so thickly burdened with drift as is Ohio have 



•so thorough a record of its depth over extended portions of their 

 territory. Here it has been obtained by the drilling of the numer- 

 ous oil-wells so fully, that a fair knowledge of the relief of the 

 ancient preglacial surface of the State now exists. While in the 



'northern counties the drift is of little thickness, in the western and 

 central sections it at times reaches extraordinary depths, being in 



•one case no less than five hundred and thirty feet thick. 



■Chambers' s Encyclopcedia. New ed. Vol. II. Beaugency to Cat- 

 aract. Philadelphia, Lippincott. 8°. 

 About half a year has elapsed since the issue of the first volume 

 ■of this new edition of Chambers's well-known Encyclopaedia. 

 Among the contributors we notice the names of many prominent 

 -scientists and literary men, and therefore we feel assured that the 

 -articles are in every respect a source of trustworthy information, 

 and that they are up to date. The volume is profusely illustrated, 

 •and the illustrations are well selected. The maps have been made 

 by Bartholomew and Johnston, and are up to the standard of the 

 maps of their institutes. The present volume contains many in- 

 teresting articles, among which we mention one on ' Bees,' by J. 

 Arthur Thomson ; ' Bimetallism,' by J. S. Nicholson ; 'Blindness,' 

 ■"by F. J. Campbell ; ' Bulgaria,' by A. Silva White ; ' Robert Burns,' 

 by Andrew Lang ; ' Carboniferous,' by J. Geikie ; and several mili- 

 tary articles by Major Dunlop, R.A. The encyclopedia is well 

 ■edited, the articles being carefully selected, and a judicious amount 

 of space being allotted to the various subjects, according to their 

 importance. The interests of the English and American public re- 

 ■ceive equal attention in this encyclopsedia. Numerous articles 

 might be quoted on account of the large amount of information 

 ■conveyed in a small compass, and still well written. Among these 

 we mention the article ' Bokhara,' which is principally founded on 

 Vambery's book of that country. Of special interest to the Ameri- 

 ■can public is the long article on ' Canada,' by J. G. Colmer, which 

 ■is accompanied by two elaborate maps, — one of the Dominion, and 

 the other of the eastern provinces. The article gives a brief review 

 of the geography, commerce, and history of the province. The 

 ■article 'California,' which is also accompanied by a map, has been 

 written by Charles W. Greene. This, as well as other articles on 

 subjects of special mterest to America, has been copyrighted by 

 •the publishers. Among these are an interesting sketch of the 

 Beecher family, and sketches of the cities of Boston, Brooklyn, 

 Buffalo, and Cambridge. The remarkable career of John Brown 

 'the abolitionist is sketched. Other American men whose life and 

 ■work are described in this volume are Artemus Ward (C. F. 

 Browne), W. C. Bryant, Buchanan, Benjamin Franklin Butler, and 

 John Caldwell Calhoun. 



The National Revenues : A Collect ian of Papers by Ajnerican 

 Economists. Ed. by Albert Shaw. Chicago, A. C. Mc- 

 Clufg & Co. i6°. $1. 



.Is Protectioti a Benefit? A Plea for the Negative. By Edward 

 Taylor. Chicago, A. C. IVIcClurg & Co. 16". $1. 

 The tariff question has now become the leading issue in Ameri- 

 ■can politics, and bids fair to remain so until it is definitely settled. 

 The dispute between free-traders and protectionists has been in 

 abeyance for some years past, owing to the greater prominence of 

 the slavery question and the difficulties that grew out of it ; but it 

 has now arisen again, and in a more decisive form than ever. It 

 presents itself, too, in a different form from that which it bore in 

 the early part of the century. Then the protectionists advocated a 

 ■high tariff only as a means of establishing manufactures, with the 

 avowed intention of reducing it to a revenue basis at a later time ; 

 but now they desire to retain it as a permanent policy. What will 

 6e the ultimate outcome of the dispute that has now begun is a 



question with which we have here no concern, but there can be no 

 doubt as to the importance of a correct understanding of the prob- 

 lem itself. Nor is it sufficient that the leaders of the people alone 

 should understand it ; for the appeal of both the parties in con- 

 troversy is to the mass of voters, and by them it must be decided. 



Under these circumstances, every book or essay that really 

 teaches any thing on the subject is to be welcomed, and such works 

 are already beginning to appear in considerable numbers. The 

 titles of two of them stand at the head of this article ; and both 

 works have considerable merit, while at the same time neither can 

 be called quite satisfactory. The first is a collection of twenty brief 

 essays — some of them very brief — dealing with all aspects of the 

 revenue question, and not with the tariff alone. The editor is a 

 young student and writer on economic subjects, and the authors of 

 the essays are mostly recognized authorities on the subjects of 

 which they treat. The principal fault of the book is the extreme 

 shortness of some of the articles, which hardly allows room for an 

 intelligent expression of opinion, and wholly precludes reasoning. 

 It would have been far better, in our opinion, to have had a much 

 smaller number of longer and more argumentative papers. How- 

 ever, there is a good deal that is suggestive in the book, and it 

 may stimulate the reader to further investigation. The majority of 

 the writers favor a reduction of the tariff, and all of them oppose 

 the repeal of the liquor and tobacco taxes ; Professor Thompson 

 of Pennsylvania, though an ardent protectionist, agreeing on this 

 point with the free-traders. Another noticeable feature of some of 

 these essays is the favor with which the writers regard schemes for 

 spending the surplus revenue for internal improvements, and even 

 for distributing it among the States, this last being a measure of 

 very doubtful constitutionality, and of equally doubtful expediency. 

 We have no space to speak of particular articles ; but the names 

 of Professors Walker, Ely, Adams, Laughlin, and others, Carroll 

 D. Wright of the National Labor Bureau, and many competent 

 writers besides, are a sufficient guaranty that the book is of real 

 value in spite of its scrappy character. 



The second book on our table is an argument for free trade by 

 an ardent and well-informed writer. The reasoning is not so close 

 and thorough as we find in the best English writers on the subject, 

 — a remark that applies to most American works on economic 

 themes, — but it presents the arguments for free trade quite fully, 

 and in a plain and simple style. The author opens his work with 

 a brief history of the protective system both in Europe and in 

 America, but the greater part of the volume is devoted to a discus- 

 sion of the question as it presents itself to-day. 



In a few cases Mr. Taylor presses his conclusions, perhaps, a lit- 

 tle farther than the premises warrant ; but, as a rule, his reasoning 

 is sound, and his answers to the protectionist arguments are in the 

 main apt and conclusive. With regard to the contention that our 

 national prosperity is due to the tariff, he shows that we were never 

 more prosperous than under the low tariff prevailmg from 1846 to 

 i860, and that our great prosperity is really due to other causes, 

 with which neither protection nor free trade has any thing to do. 

 Again, the protectionists have long maintained that protection 

 raises wages, and that the high wages prevailing in this country 

 are due to it. In reply to this, Mr. Taylor shows, that, although 

 wages are lower in free-trade England than in the United States, 

 they are much lower still in the protected nations of the European 

 continent ; and that Russia, which has the highest tariff of all, has 

 also the lowest rate of wages ; and his inference is that high wages 

 are due to great natural resources and high efficiency of labor. 

 The author gives chapters to the effect of the tariff on our foreign 

 trade and shipping, to its bearing on the agricultural interest, and, 

 indeed, to nearly all the aspects which the question presents. Such 

 works as these two, notwithstanding some defects, can hardly fail 

 to stimulate thought and discussion among the people, which alone 

 can lead to the prevalence of right views, and to a final and satis- 

 factory settlement of the controversy. 



The Building of the British Isles. By A. J. Jukes-Browne. 



New York, Scribner & Welford. \2°. 



The restoration of the geography of past periods is a problem 



of peculiar interest ; and one of the great aims of the science of 



geology is to reconstruct the history of development of the conti- 



