January io, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



27 



■"citizen," but neither State nor nation can legally do any thing to 

 give effective support to that proud title. 



Such is the state of the law, the details of which are presented 

 and condemned, with great variety of illustration, in the present 

 volume. But the remedy does not seem to be presented with equal 

 clearness. The future of the colored race in America is indeed a 

 dark cloud. To us the only solution is the scientific one, and that 

 is only another name for the highest morality, justice, and human- 

 ity. We have said the only appeal from the Supreme Court is to 

 the people. To encourage such an appeal seems to be the main 

 object and effect of this book. It is sustained by the extraordinary 

 fact that every successful political party has had for its main pur- 

 pose the reversal of the decisions of that court. The old Republi- 

 can party of Jefferson came into power to reverse the decisions of 

 the United States courts sustaining the " Alien and Sedition laws." 

 The Democracy of Jackson came to, and did, reverse the Supreme 

 Court decisions in favor of the United States Bank. The Repub- 

 lican party of Lincoln came to reverse, and did reverse, the Dred 

 Scott and Fugitive Slave law decisions ; and the Republicans with 

 Grant, in imitation of Cromwell, actually took judges off and put 

 others on the supreme bench, until the court reversed its own 

 " legal tender " decisions. These are surprising instances, and 

 they may well encourage the colored people, by such appeals as the 

 present, to remind the people that the objects they sought to at- 

 tain by the war amendments to the Constitution, as Judge Harlan 

 declared, have been defeated by two unfortunate accidents in the 

 Supreme Court, which it is their bounden duty to remedy. It may just 

 now seem impossible to get a sufficient number of States to amend 

 the amendments. But it will soon become clear that there must 

 be some law on these subjects. The late slave States will do 

 nothing in their present mood. Both races are thus more and 

 more appealing to violence. The result will be that the law-abid- 

 ing elements, which placed those amendments in the Constitution, 

 must take up the work again and make them effective. Anarchy 

 and violence cannot be tolerated in any part of our country, and 

 the legal remedy can come only from the general government. 



Then, again, we are often reminded that the problem of the 

 happy and beneficent adjustment and co-operation of the two races 

 cannot be solved by statutes only. Most true, but without some 

 solid law to fall back upon, the weaker race are practically re- 

 manded to slavery, and such is their present condition. The appeal 

 for justice should be heard, but to insure a favorable hearing, the 

 wise, prudent, virtuous, and industrious conduct of the colored 

 people themselves is also practically a necessary concomitant. 

 Without that, they will not find their old friends at the North 

 again, and of those friends they were never in greater need than now. 

 They are certainly right in their prayer for legal protection, for 

 some law, so plain that the Supreme Court cannot set it aside. 

 Unless this prayer is granted, the next appeals will be more and 

 more to violence ; and with a result that recalls perhaps the 

 darkest blot in Grecian history, which is told as follows : When 

 the Spartans were hard pushed in war, they called out the best of 

 their Helots to help them. The Helots responded, and were 

 promised their liberty for their services, which, it seems, turned 

 defeat to victory. They were ordered to repair to the temples [of 

 justice ? ] to receive their emancipation. They went, with banners 

 and garlands, but they never returned, " and," says the careful 

 historian, " no one ever knew by what means they were severally 

 dispatched" {^Thucydides 4, 80). The thought that some such 

 passage may be written about the loyal people of America, and 

 that it may be substantially true, is not a pleasant, but a probable 

 outlook from our present situation. 



, That this publication should appear anonymously is a matter to 

 be regretted. The plain avowal of a public purpose by every 

 American citizen is his prerogative and duty. If he is a member of 

 the bar, it is still more a duty to relieve the country from an error 

 of the courts affecting grave public interests, by honestly and 

 frankly explaining the error, and indicating the remedy, as has been 

 attempted in this article. We have entirely too much unhealthy 

 private grumbling, and too many secret societies seeking to do 

 covertly what no American need to be ashamed of. We believe 

 that the colored people back of this movement would do better to 

 give their names, and apply to Congress, by proper petition, to 



have the needful amendment to the Constitution submitted to the 

 States. That would clear the atmosphere, and bring the issue to 

 the front. 



As to style and execution of this rather pretentious work, the 

 florid and eloquent language, with pages of interesting but re- 

 motely relevant quotations, are indications of the African exuber- 

 ance of rhetoric, about which, as a matter of taste, there is no 

 disputing. That should not conceal from any one the intense 

 earnestness, and the real ability, it often almost hides with the 

 flowers which were meant to adorn and attract. In the next 

 edition we suggest that the amendments, and the two decisions 

 mainly involved, be printed verbaihn, so that the reader can see 

 the issues without reference to other books, which few but lawyers 

 have at hand. T. B. Wakeman. 



Thermodynamics, Heat-Motors, and Refrigerating Machines. 

 By De Volson Wood. New York, Wiley. 8". $4. 



The fact that a third edition of this work has been called for 

 within a year of its first publication proves that Professor Wood 

 possesses the two essential qualifications of a successful text-book 

 maker, namely, a thorough knowledge (5f his subject, and the 

 happy faculty of imparting that knowledge to others without caus- 

 ing a waste of energy on their part in acquiring it. As Professor 

 Wood aptly remarks in the preface to the first edition of this work, 

 the " giant-like processes " of Rankine and the other founders of 

 the science " are not adapted to the wants of the average student." 

 Of course there is no royal road to learning for the student of any 

 branch of science, but many unnecessary obstructions have been 

 removed from the path of learners, in recent years, by the applica- 

 tion of scientific principles to the art of teaching ; and the applica- 

 tion of those principles to that art are well exemplified in the work 

 under consideration. It does not attempt to bring the subject 

 down to the comprehension of the average reader, but we think 

 the author has met with a fair share of success in endeavoring to 

 lead the student up, " by a more easy and uniformly graded path," 

 to a thorough comprehension of the subject, while at the same 

 time familiarizing him with the way by a free use of illustrations, 

 exercises, historic references, and numerical examples. 



In this revised and enlarged edition the treatment of the theo- 

 retical part of thermodynamics, including its application to the 

 steam engine, is mainly the same as in previous ones. Additions 

 have been made, since the first edition, on the following subjects : 

 the vapor engine, Sterling's engine, Ericsson's hot-air engine ; gas, 

 naphtha, and ammonia engines ; the steam injector and pulsom- 

 eter, compressed air engines, the compressor, the steam turbine, 

 refrigerating machines, and the combustion of fuel. There has 

 also been added some miscellaneous matter in an addendum, be- 

 sides steam, ammonia, and other tables. The ammonia tables are 

 new, having been computed from formulas of the author. 



Fuel and its Applications. E. J. Mills and F. J. RowAN (Vol. i 

 of Chemical Technology, ed. by C. E. Groves and W. Thorp). 

 Philadelphia, Blakiston, 8°. S7.50. 



The fact that any great work must usually be the product of a 

 growth, rather than a single effort of however great a mind, is well 

 illustrated by the process of evolution which has produced this cy- 

 clopedia of chemical technology. Those who remember the earlier 

 editions of " Knapp's Technology," and who can compare its bulk 

 and its extent, to say nothing of the perfection and accuracy of the 

 editor's work, with its latest representative, just coming out under 

 the editorship of Messrs. Groves and Thorp, will be amazed at the 

 enormous extent to which the development of the chemical and re- 

 lated industries here treated of have expanded during the genera- 

 tion just past. The edition of Richardson and Ronalds illus- 

 trated the progress of a few years ; that of Richardson and Watts 

 presented another step in the path of improvement and growth, 

 and we now have a substantially new work in which the editors 

 have endeavored to give a fair synopsis of the facts and principles 

 of science, as applied in the chemical industries, that shall satisfy, 

 at least to a reasonable extent, the needs of the working chemist 

 and of the chemical engineer, — a new but most important func- 

 tionary in all great works, — and to give them a reference cyclo- 

 pedia of their respective arts. 



