Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/724

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Mr. Chadwick originated, is explained in Part II. This combination of mental and manual training we are beginning to recognize as a better educational method than mere cultivation of intellectual faculty. Mr. Chadwick states as a result of trial, "where there have been good approximations to the proper physiological as well as psychological conditions, as in the half-time industrial district schools, epidemic diseases have been banished and the rate of mortality reduced to one third of that which prevails among the general community." Among the more important subjects discussed in Part III are: practical remedies for intemperance, health versus war, and the "connection of bankruptcy with ill health. In the closing chapters the financial outcome of better sanitation is figured; the lowering of the death-rate results in curtailment of funeral expenses, saving of labor and reduction of outlay in police and penal administration.

The dominant idea of the book is that prevention of disease, poverty, and crime is more economical than cure. It is singularly free from dogmatic assertion, and every practical suggestion is founded upon close observation or supported by careful study of statistics. Dr. Richardson has performed no slight labor in rendering this work accessible; it occupies less than half the space of Health of Nations, presents the biographical sketch in a shorter form, and contains an autotype portrait of the eminent sanitarian.

Advanced Physiography. By John Thornton, M. A. London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 342. Price, $1.40.

The scope of this volume has been made to conform to the syllabus for the advanced stage of physiography of the Science and Art Department of the Museum at South Kensington, London. The matter that it includes falls largely in the field to which the name New Astronomy has been given. In the words of the preface:" It is concerned more with the physical and chemical constitution of the heavenly bodies than with their exact positions and movements, as discussed in the older department of astronomy. This older branch, however, has not been entirely neglected. "Nearly all the contents of the book could be included under the heading astronomy, though there are chapters dealing with atmospheric and oceanic movements, terrestrial magnetism, measurement of the surface, size, and shape of the earth, secular cooling of the earth, and secular changes of climate. An appendix contains several tables, a number of paragraphs relating to the formation and the analysis of rocks, and a list of examination questions. Physiography in the title of this book is not equivalent to physical geography as it is often intended to be elsewhere. All the chapters are fully illustrated, especially those relating to spectrum analysis and to the constitution of the sun. A colored plate of spectra is also inserted.

Monographs of the United States Geological Survey. Volume XVI. The Palæozoic Fishes of North America. By John Strong Newberry. Washington. Pp. 340. Plates, 53.

The matter of this monograph is arranged with the design of representing the progress of fish-life in North America during the golden age of the fish tribe, as illustrated by the large amount of material that has come into the author's hands. He has undertaken to give references to all notices of our older fossil fishes hitherto published, and has added to them descriptions and figures of all the new forms that he has met with. The new material described has an important bearing upon some general questions as to the origin and development of fish-life on the earth which are referred to as they come up in the chronological arrangement of the descriptions. The fishes are described in the order of their geological systems, beginning with the oldest. The review stops at the top of the Coal Measures, as no Permian fishes from this country have ever come under the author's observation.

The subject taken by the president, Lester F. Ward, for his address at the tenth anniversary meeting of the Biological Society, of Washington, was The Course of Biologic Evolution. In opening, Mr. Ward spoke of the common error in regard to evolution, which puts every form of creature that lives or ever has lived among the direct ancestors of the human species. The course of biologic evolution has been rather like the branching growth of a tree, and Mr. Ward sets forth some of the laws in accordance with which