Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 34.djvu/436

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ently places of defense. The mounds have been classified as sacrificial mounds, mounds of sepulture, temple-mounds, and anomalous mounds. To these may be added the effigy-mounds, of which there are only three or four in Ohio, the most remarkable of them being the "Great Serpent" mound. In his descriptions of these works and the objects found in them the author quotes frequently from Squier and Davis, and from later explorers recognized as authorities on this subject. Plans, diagrams, and views illustrate the text.

Hygiene of the Nursery. By Louis Starr, M. D. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 212. Price, $1.50.

The object and spirit of this book can not be better expressed than in the following extract from its preface:

Having a firm belief in the proverb that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," the author has endeavored, in the succeeding pages, to point out a series of hygienic rules which, if applied to the nursling, can hardly fail to maintain good health, give vigor to the frame, and so lessen susceptibility to disease. He feels, too, that intelligent parents are ever ready to be instructed and willing to co-operate in the great work of preventing disease—the highest aim of scientific medicine. While every woman of ordinary brain-power can do much to keep her baby well, she should recognize that years of training and experience are necessary to acquire the ability to put the full value upon symptoms, and to handle the tools of medicine. Therefore, little or no reference has been made to drugs or methods of medical treatment.

The first chapter, describing the normal appearances of the infant in health, is written with the object of hinting to the mother when by deviations from such conditions she may be apprised of the onset of disease, and call in professional counsel. The last chapter, on emergencies, is offered as a guide in cases where immediate action will save much pain and danger. Besides ordinary accidents and disorders, those which occur only at birth or soon after are treated of, and directions for making various poultices and plasters are given. The other chapters tell how to manage everything that affects the every-day life of the infant. The choice and furnishing of a room for the nursery, the selection of a nurse-maid, the infant's clothing, exercise, and amusements, sleep, bathing, and feeding, are all treated with full details. The subject of food occupies the most space, and recipes for preparing quite a variety of foods are given. Throughout the volume the directions are clear, simple, and complete, and the expectant mother who possesses this book, with a fair share of common sense, is well equipped for the care of her baby.

The Virtues and their Reasons. By Austin Bierbower. Chicago: George Sherwood & Co. Pp. 294. Price, $1.35.

This book is designed both as a treatise for the general reader and as a text-book of ethics for schools. In arrangement, it follows a classification of duties which divides them first into duties regarding others chiefly, and those regarding self chiefly. The five subdivisions of the former class are: kindness, truth, honesty, family duties, and public duties. Duties to self comprise self-development, industry, self-support, self-control, temperance, self-respect, purity, and conscientiousness. "Moral instruction is often excluded from the public schools," says the author, "on account of the different religions represented, and the want of textbooks acceptable to them all." Hence he has purposely adopted such a method of treatment that "Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and unbelievers may use this book with equal approval." He does not go into the question what constitutes right; "it is enough now to observe," he says, "that, whatever men's opinions touching the ground of right, they all deem those things right which are thought best for men, and consider that course morality which will bring them most happiness." Accordingly, the matter under each head throughout the book may be described as a statement of those things which are thought best for men. The volume is without an index.

The Advance-Guard of Western Civilization. By James R. Gilmore (Edmund Kirke). New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 343. Price, $1.50.

This volume has a close relation with the two previous historical works by the same author—"The Rear-Guard of the Revolution" and "John Sevier as a Commonwealth-Builder," the three together presenting, as is remarked, a phase of American history to which sufficient prominence has not been given—the story of the foundation and