BOOK NOTICES. 53 



in comfort and liberty. To understand this advance from prehistoric barbarism 

 to the prodigious development of wealth which marks our own epoch, a knowl- 

 edge of economy is indispensable." Carrying out this idea he quotes freely from 

 recognized authorities, and with the enunciation of each principle of political 

 economy he has given illustrative examples or maxims to enforce attention to it. 



In speaking of the importance of a knowledge of this subject he says, "As 

 citizens of a free country we need the training of men. From our earliest years 

 the state claims our attention ; even in childhood political economy ought to 

 make us see that freedom leads nations to prosperity, while despotism leads them 

 to decay. Need more be urged to prove the necessity of spreading economic knowl- 

 edge ? " He then points out that the greater part of the evils from which socie- 

 ties suffer spring from their ignorance of this subject. National rivalries, restric- 

 tions on trade, wars of tariffs, improvidence of the working classes, antagonism 

 between workmen and employers, over speculation, ill-directed charities, exces- 

 sive and ill-assessed taxes, etc., all are indicated as so many causes of misery, 

 springing from economic errors. 



The treatise is the work of an able and experienced man, and while it may 

 not in every particular apply directly to our national conditions, it will be found 

 valuable, reliable and suggestive to all students of the general subject while the 

 introduction and supplemental chapter by Prof. Taussig, of Harvard College, 

 may be regarded as strictly applicable to our own country. 



OTHER PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



The Sewerage of Kansas City, by Robt. Moore, C. E., with Discussion and 

 Reply by O. Chanute, C. E., pp. 20. Notes on Glaciers in Alaska and Favora- 

 ble Influence of Climate on Vegetation in Alaska, by Thomas Meehan, pp. 8. 

 Notes on the Literature of Explosives, No. VI, by Prof. Chas E. Munroe, U. S. 

 N. A., pp. 29. Quarterly Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 

 March 31, 1884, Wm. Sims, Secretary, pp. 94. Speech of General Wm. H. 

 Powell at the Banquet of the Press Association of Southern Illinois, upon "Our 

 Industries." St. Louis Druggist, April 26, 1884, weekly, $2.00. Second An- 

 nual Report of the Health Department of Kansas City for the calendar year 1883, 

 by Dr. John Fee, pp. 60. Mound-Builders Works near Newark, Ohio, by Isaac 

 Smucker, pp. 20. The Builder and Manufacturer, Pittsburgh, Pa., monthly, 

 $2.00 per annum. Report of the Professor of Agriculture, Kansas State Agri- 

 cultural College. Experiments, 1883, by Prof. E. M. Shelton, pp. 48. Random 

 Notes, Volume I, No. 3, Southwick & Jencks, Providence, R. I. Fifteenth An- 

 nual Report of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, March, 

 1884, pp. 36. Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington, Vol. VI, for 

 1883, pp. 168. Methods of Historical Study, by Herbert B. Adams, Ph.D., 

 Johns Hopkins University, pp. 136. Bulletin of the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History, February, 1884, Vol. I, No. 5, pp. 40. 



