"Wages"; "The Argument against Protective Taxes"; "Sociology"; "Theory and Practice of Elections," Parts I and II; "Presidential Elections and Civil-Service Reform"; and "Our Colleges before the Country." These are all "topics of the time," dealing with questions not only of great public moment, but which are being much agitated in many quarters. The volume is therefore timely in its appearance, and, more than this, it is the kind of book that is greatly needed. In reading it, we have been much reimpressed with the author's rare ability in handling economical and social questions. A clear, logical, independent thinker; a sound theorist, because he always defers to facts; a practical man, because he trusts in established principles; and withal a vigorous, pointed, and attractive writer, Professor Sumner is the man to do eminently valuable work in educating the public mind on subjects of economical and social science. And sound teachers upon these subjects are none too numerous. The propagators of error, in numberless forms, have the field. Some are misled by half-knowledge, some prejudiced by party feeling, some perverted and blinded by self interest, some fascinated by specious hobbies, so that the press teems with magazine articles, pamphlets, and books, not calculated, to say the> least, to strengthen scientific conceptions, or to bring men into the agreement of reason on the various topics of public and social concern. Perhaps the worst of it is that the effect of all this chaos of opinion is to undermine confidence in principles and all belief in the possibility of anything like valid and trustworthy social and political science. In the present state of things, where great pecuniary interests are involved, the temptation to favor this view is strong. No service, therefore, is more important to the community than to strip away the multitudinous fallacies in which these subjects are involved, and to show that there are clear, comprehensive, and solid principles governing social and political phenomena which must be recognized and trusted before society can realize anything like permanent prosperity. This is the kind of work which Professor Sumner is eminently fitted to accomplish, and we cordially welcome his present work, as we have welcomed all his previous books, because it brings out and popularizes views which it is of the utmost moment that our citizens should understand and maintain. We can here give no indication of the doctrines expounded in the varied discussions of the work, and must be content to urge, especially upon our young men, that this is the kind of book to be thoroughly studied, until its contents are assimilated and reduced to an established political and social creed.
The Microscope in Botany: A Guide to the Microscopical Investigation of Vegetable Substances. From the German of Dr. Julius Wilhelm Behrens. Translated and edited by Rev. A. B. Henry, assisted by R. H. Ward, M. D. Boston: S. E. Cassino & Co. Pp. 466, with Thirteen Plates. Price, $5.
According to the translator, this treatise occupies a field almost entirely to itself in the botanical literature both of Germany and now of the English-speaking world, and it is published with the hope that its influence will be to stimulate in this country investigations into the deeper problems of plant-life. The study of the literature of the subject shows that there is an open field for American botanists, for existing works almost exclusively involve the results of German research, while a few are of French origin, fewer still of English, and none whatever of American. The first purpose of the work is to guide students in all those inquiries relating to the physical products of cell-life in plants which may be conducted under the microscope, by means of chemical and other reactions. While it deals with the anatomical constitution of the cell, and of plant-tissue, its inquiries relate much more to physiological and biological processes than to matters purely anatomical and histological. The part of Dr. R. H. Ward in the preparation of the work consists in the revision of the two chapters which deal with the microscope and its accessories; and in these considerable changes have been made, as is proper in a work of the kind intended for American study, in the omission of illustrations and descriptions in the Continental style, which is comparatively unused and unavailable here, and the substitution of American forms. All
