he makes a spring: in order that he may not be killed, he kills. No one is more to be dreaded, for his delirium sustains him; his strength is prodigious. . . . So France, exhausted by fasting under the monarchy, made drunk by the drug of the 'Social Contract,' and other fiery beverages, is struck by paralysis of the brain. She is about to enter upon the period of somber delirium. Behold her capable of daring, suffering, and doing all, capable of incredible exploits and of abominable barbarities." It remains only to add that Mr. Durand's translation aims primarily at accuracy, but that he has preserved much of the effectiveness, also, of M. Taine's vivid style.
The Harrowgate Waters: Data, Chemical and Therapeutical, with Notes on the Climate of Harrowgate. By George Oliver, M. D. London: E. Lewis. Philadelphia: Presley Blakiston. Pp. 224.
Harrowgate is a kind of British Saratoga, having within a district of two miles eighty medicinal springs, no two of which are alike, and some of which are asserted to be, both from a chemical and from a therapeutical stand-point, unrivaled elsewhere. For these, and for certain climatal advantages ascribed to the place, it is claimed to be far superior to all other English health resorts. The volume, which is addressed particularly to medical readers, aims to give a scientifically correct account of the qualities of the waters, the diseases they are good for, and the most efficient methods of application.
Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1879. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 757.
The commissioner is able to report a continually increasing demand upon his office for information, the present demand being greater than ever before. The multitude of details embraced in the report do not admit of collation into a paragraph, and we can only refer to a few isolated facts. The colored schools numbered 14,472, and their pupils 700,360, of whom 1,933 were college and 903 were professional students. Normal schools were established in all the States except Delaware, Florida, and Nevada; and they sent out during 1879 3,347 graduates. The Kindergartens were increasing, but under private enterprise, while the attempt to introduce them into the public-school system was attended with embarrassment. The condition of scientific and technical schools was promising; and the institutions, having excited the people to an appreciation of scientific methods and processes in their application to agriculture and the mechanic arts, were rising in favor. Regarding original investigations and publications by professors in American schools, the commissioner remarks that "it is a matter of just pride that our institutions are extending their activities in this direction, and that their publications and their positive contributions to the progress of science receive honorable recognition from the scholars of other nations."
Mechanics' Liens, how Acquired and Enforced. A Treatise referring to and citing the latest Statutes and Decisions, and designed for General Circulation among Lawyers, Builders, Mechanics, and Owners. To which is added an Appendix of Forms. By James T. Hoyt, of the New York Bar. New York: P. F. McBreen. Pp. 310. Price, $2.25.
The subject of this book is of immediate interest to every property-owner and every workman, for every owner's property may become the object of a lien, and the workman of nearly every class may be in a position to hold a claim of that nature. It is therefore important to both classes to be able to know what a lien is, under what conditions it may exist, and what is the law relative to it. This the book aims to tell, as briefly as is possible consistently with giving a satisfactory statement. The author has examined more than a thousand legal authorities on the subject, and has arranged the whole mass of information which he has collected covering the whole case, so far as has been decided, in chapters, each of which covers a particular department. The points are presented briefly and clearly, and each one is enforced by a reference to the particular law or decision by which it is made effective. The work has been prepared with especial reference to the city and the State of New York, but the principles it embodies are of general application.
