the obligations of American scientific men and American teachers to the life-long and invaluable services of Professor Gray in the elaborate revision of his text-books which have now taken so comprehensive and complete a form in this series. With the patience and perseverance of the true scientific enthusiast, he has confined himself to his own line of work, and taken authoritative possession of the botanical field in this country. By securing the co-operation of other men whom he has assisted to qualify for the work. Professor Gray gives to his undertaking a solid and permanent value which will make it influential upon the growth of American botany for many years to come.
Fench Dishes for American Tables. By Pierre Caron (formerly chef d'entremets at Delmonico's). Translated by Mrs. Frederic Sherman. Pp. 231. D. Appleton & Co. Price, $1.
This may not be "the cook-book of the future," but, what is more to the purpose, it is a pretty good cook-book for the present. Written by a man and translated by a woman, it ought to be full of the duplex-cellences implied by its double origin. At any rate, the man understood the business of cooking, and the woman understands the business of translation; and so the man's full and accurate knowledge of culinary operations is made as simple and clear to the reader as plain, well-chosen language can make it. The book contains six hundred receipts, and it is said the quantities are all calculated for tables of eight persons. We have heard that this book has been tried with marked success.
Railroad Transportation: Its History and Laws. By Arthur T. Hadley, Commissioner of Labor Statistics of the State of Connecticut, Instructor in Political Science in Yale College. Pp. 269. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Price, $1.50.
The laying down of an iron track on leveled ground, whereby vehicles could carry heavier loads, and the attachment of steam-machines instead of animals to draw the vehicles were mechanical novelties in their time which many could not fail to see were full of new possibilities, but nobody even suspected the tremendous implications of the steps that had been taken. He who saw the first car moved by steam upon a tramway, and hauling a load of stone, may also have lived to see an express train of palace-cars, with a meeting-house full of people, shooting along with the proverbial swiftness of the pigeon, "a mile a minute." This result shows the astonishing rapidity of the development of the art of locomotion, and always impresses the observer with wonder at the triumphs of invention, and the new conquest over space and time that may be shared by everybody.
And yet all this is but the superficial aspect of the railroad dispensation upon which we have entered. The discovery has been gradually made that the railroad system is a new social power, the destiny of which is to force to such a solution as they may be capable of receiving a large number of fundamental questions relating to industry, commerce, the laws of competition, individual rights and corporate prerogatives, the operation of natural laws in society, and the compass and limitations of legislative authority. These problems are forced upon the community by the development of railroads, as they could have been in no other way. They must be met and acted upon, if not with far-seeing intelligence, then with short-sighted ignorance; and as the results of experience disclose themselves—good or bad—we shall have a large and instructive example of that compulsory education which originates in social conditions and the nature of things.
It is somewhat from this point of view that the timely and admirable book of Professor Hadley has been prepared. It is not at all a treatise on the railroad in itself, and is not to be ranked with books of construction, improvement, and railway management that are made for the uses of railroad-men. It is rather a book on the relations of railroads to the community, and therefore deals with a class of subjects in which all citizens are interested. The writer's point of view is thus briefly indicated in his preface: "This book deals with those questions of railroad history and management which have become matters of public concern. It aims to do two things; first, to present clearly the more important facts of American railroad business, and
