1 8 8 2 .] Recent Literature. 1 2 5 



men who are ahead of their generation, Mr. Morgan did not re- 

 ceive the popular recognition which was his clue and which his na- 

 tive modesty forbade him to seek ; but that his work rewarded him 

 with true satisfaction cannot be doubted by those who knew him. 



Congress will soon be occupied with the question of the 



revision of the tariff. We have already referred 1 to the tax on in- 

 tellectual progress which has been imposed in the shape of duties 

 on books, apparatus and specimens necessary for private students 

 of natural history in this country. No congressman familiar 

 with the situation would countenance such a piece of medieval 

 barbarism, and if scientists will act in the premises, we have not 

 a doubt that the objectionable legislation will be repealed this 

 winter. But we must act. Let every subscriber to the Natural- 

 ist write to his representative in Congress, anil ask for his influence 

 in favor of repeal. Congressmen will naturally give the preference 

 to those objects to which their attention is most urgently directed. 



-American "Academies of Science" are frequently consti- 

 tuted like stock corporations, with a sufficient sprinkling of scientific 

 men to furnish credit to the remaining members. Sometimes the 

 president is a scientific man, but the secretary, like those of cor- 

 porations, is generally selected for his clerical ability ; so also many 

 of the other officers. The Philadelphia Academy of Natural 

 Sciences has lately done itself the honor of electing one of its most 

 distinguished scientific members to the office of president. We re- 

 fer to Professor Joseph Leidy. This is a step in the right direction, 

 and one' to be followed we hope by many others of the same kind. 

 Aa American cotemporary- accuses the Naturalist of 

 appropriating from its pages a notice of Dr. Harm's so-called or- 

 ganic remains in meteorites. The note in question was taken 

 from the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society of London, 

 and by an oversight was not credited to that source' The failure 

 to credit the article will however hardly be regretted by its author. 



" Of all the experts examined during the Guiteau trial, Dr. 



Edward Spitzka, of New York, seems to be the only one to recog- 

 nize the fact that a man may be insane by malformation, and not 

 be more diseased than a man with strabismus or with six fingers. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 

 Habit and Intelligence, by Joseph John Murphy. 2 This is 



