Jump to content

Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/727

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.
LITERARY NOTICES.
709

the most difficult sections, for high-school and academy classes. Its point of view is historical, though it maintains the existence of general economic laws, absolutely and universally valid. Its sundering of economics from ethics, jurisprudence, and sociology in general is less arbitrary than in most treatises. It makes wealth, not exchange, the central conception of the science, and recognizes immaterial wealth as well as material. On the difficult topic of value, the fresh analyses of Böhm-Bawerk and Menger are heeded and in part followed. The leading ideas are distinguished by heavy type, and each section is accompanied by a list of references bearing upon its subjectmatter, and by copious notes. The volume lacks an index.

Eclectic Physical Geography. By Russell Hinman. Cincinnati: Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. Pp. 382. 12mo.

Since physical geography includes parts of nearly all branches of science, and its study precedes that of the sciences in many schools, an introductory chapter has been prefixed to this book, in which the chief properties of matter and of heat, light, magnetism, and electricity are set forth. The topics forming the body of the book are arranged in a logical order, putting first the relations of the earth to the other members of the solar system. After this difficult subject has been disposed of, the atmosphere is considered, for the reasons that it forms the outer envelope of the earth, and that its action is the proximate cause of all details in the relief of the land and of the more conspicuous phenomena of the sea. Next come descriptions of, first, the sea, and then the land. The subject of climate follows these, and the concluding chapters deal with life, from yeast up to man. The details concerning the various topics are put in small type. The text is illustrated by one hundred and fifty cuts and many maps.

A Lenâpé-English Dictionary. Edited by Daniel G. Brinton, M. D., and Rev. Albert Seqaqkind Anthony. Philadelphia: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Pp. 236. Price, $3.

This vocabulary is based upon an anonymous manuscript in the archives of the Moravian church at Bethlehem, Pa., supposed to have been compiled by the Rev. C. F. Dencke, and containing about three thousand seven hundred words. The manuscript was carefully examined by the Rev. A. S. Anthony, who is a born Lenâpé, after which he and Mr. Brinton together passed in review every word in the dictionary. No attempt has been made to increase the lexicography by the insertion of words or forms obtained from the Delaware language of to-day. The editors have confined their efforts to presenting this work as exclusively concerned with the dialect as employed by the Moravian missionaries; and hence all additions to the vocabulary have been from their writings. A full index enables the equivalent of any English word to be found in the dictionary, if it is therein. The volume is printed on rough, heavy paper, with untrimmed edges. It is the first of "The Penn'a Students' Series," a series of volumes to contain material of interest to the students of Pennsylvanian history. Copies may be procured from the Librarian of the Historical Society, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia.

The Industrial Progress of the Nation. By Edward Atkinson, LL. D., Ph. D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 395. Price, $2.50.

Under the above title Mr. Atkinson has combined two series of magazine articles dealing with economic subjects, together with two or three addresses not before published. The statements and inferences presented in this volume are based on the author's extended study of the national accounts and the statistics of international commerce. In the paper which stands first, the idea is presented that "while the power of mankind to consume the products of the earth is limited, the source from which man may draw satisfaction for his material wants is practically unlimited." A special part of the subject of production and consumption, namely, the food question in America and Europe, is treated in the next essay, and a host of facts and figures are given bearing on the existence of waste and want side by side. In the two articles on "The Relative Strength and Weakness of Nations," the strength of democracy, as shown in America, and the weakness of nations which are governed by monarchs, are analyzed. Following these is a series of papers dealing with the distribution of the products of industry, and