19th, and 20th, of November, 1884, and was attended by two hundred and forty-two fellows. The titles of fifty papers to be read were entered on the official programme of the meeting, by members representing fifteen counties of the State, besides papers the titles of which were received after the programme was published. Of these papers, seventeen were on topics of surgery, fifteen on medicine, eleven on obstetrics and gynæaecology, three on ophthalmology, two on materia medica, one on physiology, and one on insanity. The present volume contains three papers, with the president's (Henry D. Didama, M. D., of Onondaga County) annual address, lists of officers and council, fellows, etc.; the "Articles of Incorporation and Constitution and By-laws"; the "Code of Medical Ethics"; the "Proceedings of the Annual Meeting"; and the "Report and Minutes of the Council."
Representative American Orators. To illustrate American Political History. Edited, with Introductions, by Alexander Johnston. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 3 vols. Pp. 282, 314, 405. Price, $3.75.
The present generation of Americans is far behind the one that preceded it in a realizing knowledge of the political history of our country and of the principles on which our government is founded. The civil war and its sequences seem to have obscured the living knowledge of our earlier history, and left it nearly as colorless as some matter of a remote age; while the anomalous measures that have had to be devised to meet the unprecedented exigencies of the last twenty-five years have tended to consign the safe traditions of our old statesmen to oblivion, and contributed to the spread of novel and dangerous heresies. Hence we regard anything that will help to make living again among us the fundamental principles of American politics and the debates of the past, and the ultimate objects which our statesmen sought to reach, as of public benefit. We can conceive nothing better adapted to set these matters vividly before American youth than the orderly presentment of the best and most pertinent words of the best orators who took part in the shaping of them, such as Mr. Johnston has aimed to make in these three volumes. His compilation is divided into seven parts, illustrating seven epochs in our history: "Colonialism, to 1789"; "Constitutional Government, to 1801"; "The Rise of Democracy, to 1815"; "The Rise of Nationality, to 1840"; "The Slavery Struggle, to 1860"; "Secession and Reconstruction, to 1876"; and "Free Trade and Protection"; in all of which, except the last, a kind of chronological order is maintained. In each of these epochs the orators are presented, so far as is found practicable, on either side, whose voices were most potent in putting the issues into shape and molding opinion upon them. The earlier periods are represented, among other oraters, by Patrick Henry, Hamilton, Washington, Fisher Ames, Jefferson, Randolph, Quincy, Clay, Hayne, and Webster; the issues of the antislavery struggle by Phillips, Clay, Sumner, Douglas, Preston Brooks, Burlingame, Lincoln, Breckinridge, and Seward; and the periods of secession and reconstruction by other names equally prominent and representative; while the question of "Free Trade and Protection" is illustrated by Henry Clay's "The American System," and Frank Hurd'a "Tariff for Revenue only." Each of the groups of orations is preceded by an introduction giving the historical thread by which the speeches were connected, and describing the condition of the questions to which they related.
Afghanistan and the Anglo-Russian Dispute. By Theodore F. Rodendough. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 139, with Maps and Illustrations. Price, 50 cents.
This is a convenient hand-book for persons wishing to follow the Afghanistan question, which is yet, despite the seemingly smiling aspect of the negotiations, far from settled. It gives a plain view of the situation as it was at the moment when the recent passages between England and Russia began to be lively. It first relates the successive steps by which Russia has advanced during the last century and a half from the Ural into Central Asia, and to its present position near the Afghan frontier. This history is followed by accounts of "the British forces and routes," and "the Russian forces and approaches," and by a review of the military situation.
