January 9, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



35 



One impression gathered from the pages of 

 this work is the aimost religious fervor with 

 which communists are devoted to their peculiar 

 social creeds. Ridicule is unable to turn them 

 aside from their purposes, and repeated fail- 

 ure does not shake their faith. Speaking of 

 the charms which the community at Brook 

 Farm found in their life, and their unwillingness 

 to change it for the ' luxuries of Egypt,' Dr. 

 Shaw remarks : — 



"Some such feeling as that seems to be perma- 

 nently retained by almost all who have ever engaged 

 in community life. It is a notable fact that many of 

 these people who have enlisted in the work of human 

 amelioration have their wits wonderfully quickened 

 thereby, while the one-sidedness of their develop- 

 ment tends to deepen and confirm opinions once re- 

 ceived. The ill-fated colonies of Kobert Owen had 

 passed into the history of 'extinct socialisms' a 

 generation ago; and yet the writer himself might 

 designate one and another and another of the now 

 venerable associates of Owen, still fresh with enthusi- 

 asm, and warm with sympathy, for every proposed 

 social reform. The last of the Fourierist phalanste- 

 ries disappeared before the war; but many of the men 

 who were engaged in them may still be found wres- 

 tling with the problems of co-operation, or pounding 

 away at something more radical. Icaria once num- 

 bered its hundreds of disciples. Most of them have 

 disappeared, seemingly swallowed up in the mass of. 

 American society; but, if the truth could be ascer- 

 tained, they would, in all probability, still be found to 

 be communists at heart" (pp. 176, 177). 



A second lesson which Icaria teaches, is that 

 the difficulties in the way of a realization of 

 communism have existed largely in the imper- 

 fections of human nature. Attempts to erect a 

 social fabric of a new design have shattered, 

 because the building-material was not strong 

 enough to resist the strain to which it was sub- 

 jected. It is a sweet thing for brethren to 

 dwell together in unity, but truly a most diffi- 

 cult thing. While in Najrvoo, 111., their first 

 settlement, Cabet earl}' leads one part} T of Ica- 

 rians in violent attacks on an opposite party : 

 and the controvers} 7 waxes warm and bitter, 

 until a disastrous split separates the two sec- 

 tions permanentl}*. Cabet dies poor and 

 broken-hearted in St. Louis, his adherents are 

 soon scattered, while his opponents found a 

 new settlement in Iowa. But these latter, 

 united in povert} T and trial, are unable to en- 

 dure prosperity ; and a 3 T oung and progressive 

 party, unwilling to accede to the polic}- of their 

 more conservative elders, effect a separation. 

 Peace and prosperity have never remained 

 long with the Icarians, but they have never 

 ceased to persevere in hope of better things. 



One of the most interesting and at the same 

 time touching passages in Dr. Shaw's book is 

 that which describes the beginning of a sj'stem 



of private property, and the relentlessness with 

 which it was suppressed as soon as discovered. 

 It appears that the privilege had been granted 

 each family of cultivating a small plot of 

 ground surrounding the house, in such manner 

 as the members thereof thought good : this was 

 the origin of the question of the ' little gar- 

 dens ' ( k les petit s jar dins ' ) . 



"Everywhere else in the community the Icarian 

 motto (all for each, each for all) was the invariable 

 rule. If, in the one matter of these tiny plots environ- 

 ing their humble domiciles, the Icarians allowed the 

 idea of ' meum et tuum , insidiously to enter, and if 

 they found a keener enjoyment in the flowers or the 

 grapes because of the forbidden but delicious sense 

 of ownership, we must not condemn them too harsh- 

 ly, nor impeach their communism. There was some- 

 thing noble and pathetic in the manner with which 

 these 'citoyens' and 'citoyennes' put away the ac- 

 cursed thing when they awoke to a realization of the 

 fact that the gardens were introducing a dangerous 

 element of individualism and inequality" (p. 101). 



This unpretentious little book on Icaria 

 may be commended as a contribution to social 

 science well worthy of careful perusal. It 

 may be proper to state, in conclusion, that the 

 book was presented by its author to the au- 

 thorities of the Johns Hopkins university as a 

 thesis for the degree of Ph.D. 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ANATOMY OF 

 PLANTS. 



This is the best sketch of plant-life that 

 we have seen. The author criticises Sachs's 

 view that the cell is merely passive, and shows 

 that we must recognize both the separate indi- 

 vidual^ of the cell and the corporate unity 

 of the complex plant, though in the higher 

 plants the independence of the cell is largely 

 subordinated to the general weal. He also 

 rejects Sachs's ' Fundamental system ' of 

 tissues as being a heterogeneous assemblage, 

 and as in no sense a physiological unity. 

 The right classification of tissues is shown to 

 depend neither on embryology (for mature 

 tissues show no embryological unity) nor on 

 collocation (whether outside or inside the 

 thickening ring) , but on their actual structure 

 as related to their functions. Thus the tissues 

 are arranged as protective and nutritive, — the 

 protective including dermal and skeletal (or 

 mechanical) systems ; and the nutritive includ- 

 ing absorbing, assimilating, conducting, stor- 

 ing, respiratory, and secreting organs. The 

 bulk of the book is occupied with the anatomy 

 of the plant as dependent on its functions. 



Physiologifsche pflanzenanatomie, irtx grundriss dargestellf. 

 Von Dr. G. Haberlandt. Leipzig, Eng'elmann, 1SS4. 12+3PS 

 p., illustr. 8°. 



