THE GAME BREEDER 



(55 



Book Reviews. 



Microbes and Men. By Robert T. 



Morris, M.D. Doubleday, Page & Co. 



Net $2.00. 



It is difficult in a few paragraphs to 

 review such a good book as Dr. Morris 

 has written. He tells us in his preface, 

 "the structure of this book is of the 'Oh, 

 that reminds me' sort and adapted to 

 fragmentary reading. One may open the 

 pages at almost any point and find some- 

 thing to which he will object." The 

 reader who opens the book at any page 

 will surely find something well worth 

 knowing. The author evidently is an 

 authority on many subjects besides those 

 connected with his profession. Those 

 who begin anywhere surely will read 'on 

 and be instructed and entertained. They 

 will no doubt often return to the book 

 for "fragmentary reading," and this is 

 one of the tests of a work that is worth 

 while. 



Dr. Morris believes in outdoor recrea- 

 tions. He is a good sportsman and 

 angler, but recently he has given more 

 time to growing nuts and flowers and to 

 other rural pursuits than he has given to 

 sport. At the top of his profession in 

 New York and a very busy and success- 

 ful man, one wonders how he has found 

 time to acquire the varied knowledge he 

 displays. He says it has been necessary 

 to throw ideas together into a sort of 

 loose general grouping because the only 

 time for writing has been during summer 

 vacation on the farm. The book should 

 induce people to spend more time in the 

 country. "Every family," he says, "can 

 run just so far upon its stock of proto- 

 plasm, as an engine runs a certain dis- 

 tance with its stored energy in the form 

 of coal. Those who load up energy for 

 the family in the open air of the country 

 carry the family much farther than the 

 ones who load up in the city." 



The author discusses the origin of life 

 in its various forms, genius, fact and 

 fancy, culture, character, eugenics, litera- 

 ture, mysticism, futurism, patriotism, 

 scientific prophecy, marriage, and many 

 other subjects besides microbes and men. 



One is tempted, after reading the book, 

 to quote it extensively as the publishers 

 have done. Opening it at random, we 



read: "When we have progressed in 

 civilization to the point where we can 

 take the next step, it will be an easy one, 

 for we shall pray to Apollo for health 

 more often than we shall pray to Dives 

 for riches. When men set out upon an 

 expedition for a chosen place in which 

 the love psychosis is to begin, a highly 

 cultivated man who knows that his fam- 

 ily is runing out will then look for Maud 

 Muller. Preserving her from care and 

 sorrow, two people will be benefitted. 

 The same old method in love, on the 

 whole, but with a nobler purpose, under 

 the banner of eugenics. A deeper love 

 may be grounded in cosmic urge." "Car- 

 lisle, criticizing Luther, said he had set 

 at thinking people who. had no right to 

 think. We shall have very much the 

 same experience with propaganda of the 

 idea that a man is only what his microbes 

 allow him to be. Every physiologist in 

 the world knows at this moment that it 

 is true. He knows that he could not 

 be alive excepting for the microbe and 

 that the microbe will presumably cause 

 his death." 



The book has been said to be a work 

 for everyone who asks, "Where are we 

 going?" The reader cannot but think 

 often when he lays it aside that if "a 

 man is only what his microbes make 

 him," what a pity it is that there are not 

 in the world more of the kind of mi- 

 crobes of which the author is made. 



The Butterfly Guide, by Dr. W. J. 

 Holland, Director of the Carnegie Mu- 

 seum, and the author of "The Butter- 

 fly Book," "The Moth Book," etc. 

 Doubleday, Page & Co., $1.00. 

 This little book is a manual for the 

 identification of a commoner species of 

 butterflies found in the United States 

 and Canada and is issued in size and gen- 

 eral makeup uniform with the very popu- 

 lar Bird and Flower Guides by Chester 

 A. Reed and the Tree Guide by Julia 

 Ellen Rogers. 



Dr. Holland is one of the foremost 

 authorities on butterflies in this country 

 and in the present manual, 250 species 

 and varieties are depicted in their nat- 

 ural colors with complete descriptions 

 of butterflies, eggs and caterpillars 



