1883.] Analyses of Boohs . 745 
of the gold standard, just after our immense debt of £850,000,000 
had been borrowed under the legal existence of the double 
standard, then a future Parliament, returned by the debtors, who 
number 10 or 20 to 1 as compared with the creditors, will have 
an equal right to decree the legal establishment of a silver, a 
copper, or a paper standard, and thus to make our debt of little 
value to the holders. For if Parliament has a right to change 
the standard in such a manner as to increase the value of the 
debt 20 per cent, then it has also a right to change the standard 
in such a manner as to decrease the value 20 per cent. 
Having thus briefly stated the author’s views we must decline 
their discussion as scarcely possible without straying into ques- 
tions which lie outside our cognizance. 
Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 
Institution. Showing the Operations, Expenditures, and 
Condition of the Institution for the year 1881. Washing- 
ton : Government Printing-Office. 1883. 
This volume comprises, in addition to the routine proceedings 
of the Smithsonian Institution, which is in a flourishing condi- 
tion, a summary of scientific progress for the year 1881. 
This survey, appearing so long after its date, will of course 
have lost some part of its interest, as most of the fadts herein 
recorded have become known to the public through other 
channels. 
The relative amounts of space given to the different sciences 
is worth notice. To Physics are allotted 46 pages; to Che- 
mistry, g ; whilst Meteorology receives 100 pages, and Anthrop- 
ology 197. 
The predominant space thus allotted to a subjedt incapable — 
in the ordinary sense of the term — of “ practical application,” 
shows that there must exist in the United States an increasing 
appreciation for scientific truth, as such, and independent of its 
possible market value. 
Zoology receives 91 pages, and of the 17 pages devoted to 
Botany a portion treats of the researches of Pasteur and others 
on diseases due to badteria. 
The new National Museum approaches completion, and before 
this time must have received the collections to be lodged in it, 
and have undergone the test of actual experience as to the suit- 
ability for the purpose intended. The great practical point — at 
least as far as zoological and botanical collections, and many 
geological specimens, are concerned — is freedom from damp. 
We are therefore somewhat startled at reading, in the Report of 
VOL. V. (THIRD SERIES). 3 c 
