The doctrine of laissez faire is simply a rule of conduct applicable in certain conditions, not a principle of universal application. Prof. Walker favors state interference to the extent of—1, insisting on the thorough primary education of the whole population; 2, advocating a strict system of sanitary administration; 3, insisting on the necessity of precautions for the integrity of banks of savings for the encouragement of the instincts of frugality, sobriety, and industry. "If the state," says he, "will see to it that the whole body of the people can read and write and cipher; that the common air and common water—which no individual vigilance can protect, yet on which depend, in a degree which few even of intelligent persons comprehend, the public health and the laboring power of a populations—are kept pure; and that the first feeble efforts of the poor at bettering their condition are guarded against official frauds and speculative risks, it may take its hands off at a hundred other points, and trust its citizens, in the main, to do and care for themselves. . . . It must ever be borne in mind, in such discussions, that those things are economically justified which can reasonably be shown to contribute, on the whole, and in the long-run, to a larger production, or, production remaining the same, to a more equitable distribution of wealth."
Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1875. By Spencer F. Baird. Pp. 946. New York: Harper & Brothers.
This fifth volume of Prof. Baird's "Annual Record of Science and Industry" is not only the most voluminous, but also the most complete of the series. The first part of the work, comprising a brief narration of scientific and industrial progress during the year 1875, is specially valuable. Each principal branch of science and industrial art is here considered separately, and the reader is enabled readily to note the amount of progress made in each during the past year, and to observe the directions in which the thoughts of practical and scientific men are tending. Such annual summaries will, in future times, be of invaluable service to the historian. This portion of the work occupies nearly 300 pages. The second part consists of paragraphs communicating in brief the results of special scientific investigations. These paragraphs are distributed under the heads of "Mathematics and Astronomy," "Terrestrial Physics and Meteorology," "General Physics, Chemistry, and Metallurgy," "Mineralogy and Geology," "Geography," "General Natural History and Zoölogy," "Botany and Horticulture," "Agriculture and Rural Economy," "Pisciculture and Fisheries," "Domestic and Household Economy," "Mechanics and Engineering," "Technology," "Materia Medica," "Therapeutics and Hygiene," "Miscellaneous." The work is provided with a good index.
Manual of the Apiary, pp. 59. Also, Injurious Insects of Michigan, pp. 48. By Prof. A. J. Cook, of the Michigan State Agricultural College.
In the first of these two pamphlets Prof. Cook aims to supply a want which has long been felt, that of a hand-book on bee-culture, which shall be at once simple in style, full in its discussions, low-priced, and up with the times. In all these respects he has undoubtedly attained a very fair measure of success. The injurious insects treated of in the second pamphlet are, the potato-beetle, May-beetle, pea-weevil, squash-bug, sundry enemies of the cabbage-plant, plum-curculio, grape-phylloxera, clothes-moth, etc.
Standard Facts and Figures. Compiled by A. G. Sullivan. New York: Morton & Dumont. Pp. 109.
This little manual contains a large amount of commercial and financial information of special importance to businessmen, and to those who desire to purchase Government, State, railway, and mining stocks. The volume also contains tables of interest, exchange, prices of gold, etc. The value of the work is much enhanced by a very complete index.
Proceedings of the Poughkeepsie Society of Natural Science. Vol. I., fascicule I. Pp 41.
This installment of the proceedings of the Poughkeepsie Society of Natural Science consists of only one paper, by Charles B. Warring, entitled "Studies upon the
