of knowledge and the establishment of new truth. But this state of things can not last. Science is destined to make its way, and the science which furnishes a new method and new aids in the study of human affairs is bound to force the recognition that has not yet been accorded. There are many gropers in the field of so-called "Social Science," and, although their results are of but little value, they attest a vague belief in the social order as something capable of rational elucidation. What we want is better methods of conducting the investigation and a truer spirit of science in their pursuit. The work here noticed, in proportion as it becomes known, is certain to be tributary in an eminent degree to this desirable end.
Report on the Thermal Springs of the Yellowstone National Park. By A. C. Peale. Author's edition. Washington. Pp. 454, with Plates and Charts.
The report is a Part extracted from the report of Dr. Hayden's "Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories for 1878," and well deserves the distinction of a separate publication. It gives full accounts of all the geysers and hot springs of the park, arranged in the order of the river systems to which they belong, with the history of our knowledge of them, and of the region as a whole, accompanied by illustrations tinted in the natural colors, and maps, in which each spring and phenomenon described is indicated by a corresponding number. The reader of the historical introduction will be surprised to learn how short a time these wonders, now familiar and world-renowned, have been known. John Coulter, of Lewis and Clark's expedition, was the first man who ever saw them, and his accounts of them, first given in 1810, were not believed at all. James Bridger next told of them, in 1 844, and was likewise discredited. Even the newspapers were afraid to publish any of his stories. Captain John Mullan, in 1853, heard something about the hot springs and geysers from the Indians; and Captain Reynolds, in a report to the Fortieth Congress, admitted that Bridger might possibly have seen such springs as he described. The first authentic description of the springs was published by David E. Folsom in the "Lakeside Monthly," Chicago, in 1870. Other explorations were made at about this time, and other magazine articles, some of them illustrated, were published concerning the phenomena; and the first scientific accounts of the region were given by the geological surveys of 1871 and 1872.
The Diseases of the Liver, with and without Jaundice. By George Harlet, M. D., F. R. S. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 751. Price, $5.
The author published in 1863 a monograph on "Jaundice," with observations on the special application of pathological chemistry to the detection and treatment of diseases of the liver and pancreas. With the fruit of twenty years of additional experience, he has again gone over the subject and produced the present treatise, which, although it embodies the whole substance of the original monograph, "bears no more resemblance to it than a mature adult does to the suckling from which he sprung." While the scientific principles on which both works are founded are identical, the present one is much larger than the former, and contains in a condensed form a considerable amount of clinical and scientific data that have never before been collected into one volume. As in other branches of science, many old theories have been abandoned. The work being intended for the use of the "qualified brethren" of the author, he does not undertake to discuss them, but, in order that the reader may see how many of them have been given up and how many new ones espoused, he has put his own views, in accordance with the facts and arguments expressed throughout the volume, into a concise and diagrammatic tabular form.
"Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History." Vol. I, No. 4. New York: Printed for the Museum. Pp. 40, with Plates.
The present number of the "Bulletin" is wholly occupied with a contribution by Joseph B. Holder on "The Atlantic Right Whales," in which he maintains that the black whale so called of the temperate Atlantic, which was lately introduced to science as a recent discovery, and is now after a long period of nearly total extinction rapidly increasing in numbers, "is the one
