by E. W. Hilgard; "An Investigation of the Origin of the Dandelion," by E. L. Sturtevant; and an account of some experiments on "Variation in Cultivated Plants," by W. W. Tracy. In his observations on the last subject, Mr. Tracy finds many illustrations of variations of type which cultivators had been trying to produce for years, appearing in different localities and from different stocks at about the same time, so as to seem to indicate that variation is not an accident, but a progression of the species.
The Journal of Physiology. Edited by Michal Foster and others. Vol. VII, No. 1. Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company's Works, Cambridge, England. Pp. 80. Price, $5 a volume, of four numbers.
We notice this "Journal" at the beginning of its new volume, because it is one of the principal recognized mediums through which original investigators in physiology make known the results of their work. Research in this branch of science is now very active, and is distinguished by minute attention to details. It is the custom of the "Journal" to publish the particular accounts of the experiments and conclusions of investigators, with a fullness and excellence of pictorial illustration that leave nothing to be desired. Professor Foster, as editor of this publication, is assisted in England by Professor W. Rutherford, of Edinburgh, and Professor J. Burdon-Sanderson, of Oxford; and in America by Professor H. P. Bowditch, of Boston; Professor H. Newell Martin, of Baltimore, and Professor H. C. Wood, of Philadelphia. The present number is occupied with a paper by W. H. Gaskell, "On the Structure, Distribution, and Function of the Nerves which innervate the Visceral and Vascular Systems."
Science and the State. By R. W. Shufeldt. Pp. 10.
Dr. Shufeldt advocates patronage of science by the Government, and argues that it must be a good thing because the Government already fosters some dozen or more scientific bureaus at its seat, and they are all thriving. He would extend the scope of these bureaus, and the patronage of the Government, and would have organized at Washington a Department of Science, with buildings and a dozen sections, and a Cabinet officer the Secretary of Science—to preside over the whole. The "Monthly's" opinion of schemes of this kind and its reasons for holding it have been often enough and plainly enough expressed, and need not be repeated. Happily the author—although his reference is to officers of the army and navy already in Government employ having a taste for science overruling that for their real business—has made a very terse statement of the real attitude which the Government should occupy toward scientific students. It is that it "should offer the constant opportunity to such men to do the work for which they were born, molded, and designed, but allow them to do it in their own way, at their own times, and absolutely unhampered by any but the most necessary regulations." This maxim may apply to officers in time of peace, when the corps are kept up merely for the sake of having them on hand. Broadened, and with the addition of "at their own expense or that of their friends," it would make a most excellent rule of universal application, and would convey the true doctrine.
The Country Banker: his Clients, Cares, and Work. By George Rae, with an American Preface by Brayton Ives. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 320. Price, $1.50.
This work, eminently practical in its teachings, presents the results of forty years' experience in banking. Its purpose "is not to formulate afresh the fundamental principles of banking, but rather to show those principles in operation; to exhibit, so to speak, the machinery of banking in motion; . . . less to advance special views of my own, than to exemplify, from fresh points of observation, the accustomed lines and recognized limits of prudent banking." The epistolary form is used—the author taking the position of a person writing instructions to the manager of the bank—because it gives scope to a more familiar treatment of the subject, with such success that Mr. Ives is able to say, in his preface to the American edition, that the book is a notable exception to the admitted rule that the average writer on financial subjects lacks the ability to treat them in an attractive manner. "Without being pedantic, or too
