424 



SCIEJVCM 



[Vol. IX., No. 221 



row field exhaustively. He believes that in some 

 cases this method is of more practical value than 

 its contrary. Sociology he defines as " a discus- 

 sion of the conditions and laws of combination 

 and gi-owth in society." In the following sen- 

 tence he adds that this definition includes change 

 which is retrogressive as well as that which is 

 progressive. It is plain that any good definition 

 of sociology must include retrogressive change, 

 inasmuch as a considerable school of thinkers 

 assert that the world and society are becoming 

 worse all the time. Perhaps the substitution of 

 the word ' development ' or ' evolution ' for 

 ' growth ' in the above definition would have ob- 

 viated the necessity for this explanation, because 

 it is well understood nowadays that evolution in- 

 cludes progress from good to bad as well as from 

 bad to good. 



The author's various chapters on custom, gov- 

 ernment, economics, religion, ethics, and so on, 

 are of much interest, although very sketchy in 

 character. His style is good, and enlivened with 

 numerous illustrations of the argument. One of 

 the first questions to be asked about a book of this 

 sort is, What position does the author take in re- 

 spect to the pressing questions of socialism and the 

 limit of governmental functions ? We can best 

 answer this in President Bascom's own words. 

 " The office of the state," he says (p. 45), " is not 

 simply to recognize a primitive equality of rights, 

 and to grant these rights the protection we terra 

 justice. Such a course will soon issue in extreme 

 equalities. It has the far more difficult duty of 

 encouraging and aiding unimpeded activity in 

 every class, and at the same time renewing its 

 conditions in each class. Each citizen is, under 

 general principles, to be put back as speedily as 

 possible on his feet when he has lost them. The 

 race is to be renewed, morning, noon, and night, 

 on equal terms. The state must then be benevo- 

 lent as well as just. While it takes from no man 

 what he has. it must not allow any man such an 

 exercise of his powers as will ultimately swallow 

 up the powers of other men. . . . The state 

 must put positive limits on powers, when, by 

 natural force and the conferred energy of society, 

 they are ready to break the bounds of prosperous 

 and beneficent competition." 



There is much in President Bascom's chapters 

 on ethics and religion that is suggestive, especially 

 his comprehensive use of the word ' morality,' 

 and his illustrations of the degenerating process 

 as to particular parts of a religion which usu- 

 ally accompany its development. The publishers 

 would have greatly increased the value of the 

 book had they provided it with an index. Unin- 

 dexed books are a relic of barbarism. 



JUKES-BROWNE'S HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. 



This volume completes the ' Student's handbook 

 of geology ; ' the first part, on physical geology, 

 having appeared in 1884. The author states his 

 intention as being " to give as full an account of 

 the rocks of Great Britain and Ireland as space 

 would permit, supplementing this with only so 

 much of continental geology as is necessary to fill 

 up the gaps in the British records and to complete 

 the outline of geological history." A f ter a brief but 

 excellent introduction on the laws and applications 

 of paleontology, the book proceeds to a review of 

 the formations, giving a chapter to each system. 

 An account of every separate area in the British 

 islands is given under each formation, with nu- 

 merous sections and illustrations of characteristic 

 fossils, and each chapter closes with a statement 

 of what is known or inferred of the physical 

 geography of the period. Some departures from 

 the divisions of geological time usually employed 

 in America and on the continent of Europe will 

 be noticed. Thus the Cambrian is regarded as a 

 distinct ' system,' as is the lower Silurian, for 

 which Lapworth's term ' Ordovician' is taken. It 

 is interesting to notice that Mr. Walcott's studies 

 lately published lead him to a similar result for 

 this country. More novel is the division of the 

 tertiary rocks into two systems, for which Mr. 

 Jukes-Browne proposes the terms ' Hantonian ' (in- 

 cluding the eocene and oligocene) and ' Icenian ' 

 (including the miocene, pliocene, and pleistocene). 

 The quaternary is thus given an entirely subordi- 

 nate position. 



The science of geology includes such a great 

 number of distinct subjects that no one man can 

 master them all, and for this reason the text-book 

 of the science that shall be equally satisfactory in 

 all departments has yet to be written. Probably 

 it can only be written by the co-operation of many 

 specialists. The first part of Mr. Jukes-Browne's 

 handbook, that on physical geology, is excellent, 

 and will be found most useful to American stu- 

 dents ; but the volume before us cannot be of nearly 

 such general value, as, from its plan, it is adapted 

 only to Great Britain. But even there we think 

 the comparatively minute study of British forma- 

 tions, to the exclusion of the rest of the world, 

 is a mistake. It is true, that, in whatever dis- 

 trict the English student may be, he will find a 

 clew to its geological structure in this book ; 

 but this advantage is more than counterbalanced 

 by the loss of a general view of the earth's de- 

 velopmental history. Such a method must give 

 the beginner very disproportionate views, and 

 result in the loss of all 'perspective.' American 



2'he student's handbook of historical geology. By A. J. 

 Jukes-Bkowne. New York, Scribner & Welford. 8°. 



