Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 23.djvu/579

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LITERARY NOTICES.
563

subjects of inquiry. The book is most interesting throughout, full of novel and acute suggestions and practical conclusions of varied applicability. The chapters upon "Variety of Human Nature," "Anthropomorphic Registers," "Mental Imagery," "Enthusiasm," "Influence of Man upon Race," "Early and Late Marriages," and "The History of Twins," may be mentioned as of especial interest, although the whole work richly deserves the critical attention of all the scientific students of human nature.

Wealth-Creation. By Augustus Mongredien. With an Introduction, by Simon Sterne. New York: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. Pp. 308. Price, 81.25.

The author is well known as a writer of unusual clearness on questions of political economy; as a practical business man possessing the happy faculty, which does not always exist in men engaged in trade, of considering these questions by reference to their fundamental principles, and in the light of a strictly correct reasoning. The predominant ideas of his work are that the abolition of war and the establishment of unrestricted freedom of trade are the essential conditions to the creation and even diffusion of the largest wealth and prosperity among nations. In Mr. Sterne's introduction is given a review of the history of tariff legislation in the United States, with facts showing that our manufacturing industries and other interests have enjoyed the greatest degree of relative prosperity during the life of tariffs laid for revenue only; that while from 1850 to 1860, with such a tariff, the capital invested in manufactures and the product of the manufactories doubled, from 1860 to 1870, under the war tariff, they did no more; and from 1870 to 1880, under the same tariff, they increased only twenty-five per cent.

Alcoholic Inebriety, from a Medical Stand-point, with Cases from Clinical Records. By Joseph Parrish, M. D. Philadelphia: Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 185. Price, 1.25.

Dr. Parrish has performed an excellent and much-needed service in the preparation of this volume. That both the moral and political agencies have failed to do what was expected from them, in putting an end to the evils of intemperance, is now but too well known. Henceforth less sanguine expectations must be entertained as to what can be really accomplished, and different means resorted to for the purpose chief among which will be the diffusion of sound scientific information in regard to the subject of which this volume on alcoholic inebriety is an example.

The point of view from which the work is written is thus stated by the author: "From the ordinary and popular outlook, inebriety corrupts a wide range of both public and private morals, and is so interwoven with the affairs of life, both domestic and civil, that it is looked upon as the chief factor of crime, of insanity and many other diseases, and as a general disturber of all that should be cherished as valuable in the life of individuals and of the community. Efforts have been put forth to arrest its progress, if not to apply a radical remedy for its evils, to which the pulpit, the press, the platform, and the ballot, have all contributed a share of influence, till the land is covered with organizations having for their standard the doctrine of abstinence and prohibition. Taking half a century ago as a starting-point, the growth of the temperance sentiment of the country has been marvelous, and to-day, simply as a sentiment, it holds a prominent and commanding position; and yet we are confronted with the discouraging statement that dram-drinking and drunkenness are on the increase."

"From another outlook, not so popular, because not so familiar, another view may be had, which, though more limited in its scope, is none the less important, because it reveals the causal beginnings from which flow the results that are recognized as intoxication. As yet this new field has not been explored as it might have been, and as the gravity of the subject demand.-, notwithstanding it discloses the remote causes of inebriety, and indicates the remedial course to be followed in dealing with it. This is doubtless partly due to the fact that the new line of research is, in a degree, technical and scientific, and the people are not disposed to go behind what they see in the inebriate and his surroundings, to attempt to penetrate tissues, and search