methylene series, the furfurane, pyrrol, and thiophene derivatives, have been greatly enlarged, while subsequent chapters, devoted to the discussion of the aromatic compounds, are quite exhaustive in their treatment of special and important groups. The translator has had the hearty co-operation of the author in preparing this edition.
Topics of the Times. By Rev. Howard MacQueary, Author of The Evolution of Man and Christianity. New York: United States Book Co. Pp. 238 + 51.
In this book the Rev. Howard MacQueary shows that he is interested in and capable of discussing other than theological questions, for here he addresses himself to the vital questions of the times, in which a larger public will be interested than even the large one which has read his former book. This work is divided into two parts, the former consisting of Lectures on the Conflict between Labor and Capital; An Exposition of Nationalism; Truths and Errors of Henry George's Views; The Savages of Civilization; Popular Ideas of Poverty; Reduction of Hours of Labor; The Negro in America; The Bible in the Public Schools. The second part contains ten sermons, many of them on most important and interesting topics: Our Country: its Character and Destiny; The Sabbath Question; Criticism of the Bible; Did the Fish swallow Jonah? What's the Use of Praying? What is the Evidence of Life after Death? The God-filled Man; Unshaken Beliefs; Should we have Creeds? The Real Rights of Woman.
In his preface Mr. MacQueary defends the pulpit for undertaking the discussion of Topics of the Times. There are, he says, two radically different ideas of the Church and the pulpit. Some regard the clergyman as a sort of religious policeman whose duty it is to hold up before sinners pictures of hell to scare them into doing their duty. Others, however, hold that the Church and the pulpit have to do with the moral aspect of every question, political, social, or scientific, and that Religion and Morality are twin sisters. This latter point of view is justified by the example of the prophets of Israel, who denounced the social and political evils of their time. With regard to the papers in the book, the author says that they "are intended to be popular discussions of the great problems considered," but not to be "exhaustive or original." He has evidently succeeded in "casting the material in his own mold," as he claims to have done.
The reader of these papers will find them very interesting, stimulating to thought, and helpful to all to whom the burning questions of the day are serious problems. The author has brought to his task wide reading, an earnest consideration of the subjects treated, and an easy and agreeable style. The views of Henry George receive a pretty thorough treatment, and the paper on the Savages of Civilization is of thrilling interest.
There has been added to the lectures and sermons a paper on ecclesiastical liberty, which is the able defense of Mr. MacQueary before the ecclesiastical court of the Episcopal Church of the Northern District of Ohio against the charges of heresy. This paper is of permanent interest, although the case has now at length been definitely settled by Mr. MacQueary's withdrawal from the Episcopal Church.
The Right Hand; Left-Handedness. By Sir Daniel Wilson. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 215. Price, $1.25.
This treatise includes data originally accumulated in a series of papers communicated to scientific institutions in Canada, in which the author sought to determine the cause of left-handedness by a review of its history in its archæological, philological, and physiological aspects. To these, results of later investigation have been added; and besides the effort to trace left-handedness to its true source, the folly of persistently trying to repress an innate faculty of exceptional attitude, and the advantages to be derived from the systematic cultivation of dexterity in both hands, are insisted upon. In the former chapters of the book—on "the educated hand," "the willing hand," "palæolithic dexterity," etc.—the prevalence of right-handedness is shown to have been marked from the earliest and even the prehistoric ages of mankind. Its manifestation in children appears by the weight of evidence to be often spontaneous. The structure of primitive implements, ancient weapons, etc., shows it to have been the rule through the historical period. Philological arguments, references in ancient literature to right-handed-
