when the hook and line only were used, they fared much better, in the long-run, than they have done since the pursuit has enlisted capital, and brought into requisition, like other departments of industry, the most effective methods. It was certainly true that, of some species, the diminution had become so serious, that what was once a cheap food had become an expensive luxury; and, in respect to others, the supply was so precarious, that the prices were always good, and sometimes oppressively high. In this state of things the fishermen made their appeal to legislation, and the legislators in turn referred the whole matter to the men of science. We remember an old Professor of Hermeneutics, who said in his manual that Science had its apostles as well as the Gospel. The sentiment gave offense to many of his co-religionists, and his publishers asked to be allowed to take out the objectionable sentence. The professor firmly refused: "For," as he said to us afterward, "my regard for truth would not permit it." The United States ordered a commission to attend to this matter. No salary is provided, and no perquisites are possible. Can the men be found who will speak with the force of authority, and without the inducement of hire? With Spencer F. Baird to lead, a noble band of workers take up the cause—Baird and Gill, the ichthyologists; Dr. Farlow, the algologist; Profs. Verrill and Smith, of Yale College, the one so famous on the polyps, and the other on the crustacea; Mr. Emerton and Prof. Morse, noted specialists in the invertebrata—and there were chemists and meteorologists also. And all without fee or hope of reward, beyond the consciousness of the great good that must ensue from the accumulation and distribution of trustworthy knowledge on the great question of conserving the food-fishes. It became necessary to search old, musty records of the Puritan days, in order to know what its supply was in times gone—the migrations of fish, their food, the actual climate of the waters they frequent, and where they are scarce, and their food. Hence came deep-sea dredgings, and thermometric soundings, and explorations of sea-bottoms, and the chemical condition of the waters in different places and at different depths, etc., etc. The results appear in part in this thick volume. Besides a large amount of work in their best vein, Profs. Baird and Gill have given catalogues of the fishes, and Verrill and Smith of the invertebrates. The work of the former gentlemen is yet incomplete, and another year must continue the publication. That of Verrill and Smith has a sort of completeness, and it is well that this part is republished; and, as it is accompanied by many illustrations, it is to the student of these forms invaluable.
Essays and Addresses, by Professors and Lecturers of Owens College. Manchester. London: Macmillan & Co. 560 pages. 8vo. Price, $5.00.
This volume is intended to commemorate the opening of the new buildings of the Owens College, which occurred on October 7, 1873. This college was founded in 1851, by a bequest of John Owens, a merchant of Manchester. In 1871 it was reconstituted and incorporated by act of Parliament. A sketch of its origin and progress is given in the "Opening Address" by the Duke of Devonshire, its president.
In the address "On Some Relations of Culture to Practical Life," Prof. J. G. Greenwood, the principal of the college, enters the controversy between the classical and scientific methods of education, and endeavors to stand upon middle ground. Instead of a principally classical curriculum, or the reverse, he would have one which embraces letters to cultivate the taste, mathematics to discipline the reason, "and some branch of physical study" to develop the powers of observation and inductive reasoning.
The lecture on "Solar Physics" is an interesting summary of our knowledge regarding the appearance of the sun, his atmospheric changes, his meteorological connection with the planets, and the connection between his magnetic changes and auroral displays.
"Primeval Vegetation in Relation to Natural Selection and Evolution" is a criticism, by Prof. W. C. Williamson, of those doctrines in the light of apparently contradictory facts furnished by the vegeta-
