eries and their consequent social changes brought about one development after another in the forms and methods of the architect. Both of these books are liberally illustrated with engravings of the world's best works in the departments considered, or—when mistakes are presented as warnings—of some that are not so good.
Personal Recollections of Werner von Siemens. Translated by W. C. Coupland. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 406. Price, $5.
We have already given the readers of the Monthly a foretaste of this delightful book in the sketch of Dr. Siemens, published in the October number, the data for which were derived from it. The book affords abundant instances of racy incident and adventure, keen character sketches, and historical reminiscences. The author came to the task of composing his recollections with a hesitation he need not have felt, for all the care they called for to give them the living interest they possess was the simple telling of them just as they presented themselves. But he was desirous of being his own chronicler, in order to preclude the possibility of future misunderstanding and misrepresentation of his endeavors and actions, "and I have an idea also," he adds, "that it will be instructive and stimulating to the coming generation to be shown precisely how a young man, without inherited resources and influential supporters—nay, even without proper preliminary culture—may, solely through his own industry, rise and do something useful in the world. . . . I shall, however, at the same time try to indicate those inner and outer forces which have borne me through weal and woe to the desired goals, and which have made the evening of my life an easy and sunny one." All this we find in the book duly presented, with the result, probably, of making the work a more interesting one than if the author had been bound by restraints and conventionalities. As we read, we are shown the surroundings and conditions of his childhood and youth, the salient traits of his various instructors, his joys and mishaps at school, his first experiments, and the adventures to which they led him; his military and political experiences, his introduction to commercial and public life, the gradual development of his inventions and enterprises, and the impression they made upon the arts and industries of the world. The last is, of course, the important feature of the work, around which the other and minor incidents entwine themselves as the vine around the tree trunk. The more we regard his inventions the more we are struck with the importance of the part they fill, and the extent to which they cover the industrial development of the world during the last half century. They include experiments with electricity when that force was still new as a worker; electroplating, in which Siemens was a pioneer; some of the earliest efforts at electric-telegraph signaling; the building of the first telegraph lines in Germany; the carrying of the telegraph through the countries of northern Europe and into Asia; in connection with these, trials of the relative advantages of underground and overhead wires and experiments in insulation, all of which were then new; journeys, full of adventure, full of amusing and exciting if not often thrilling incident, in connection with his enterprises; the laying and working of the first electrical submarine batteries; tentative experiments in cable laying under water; the laying of the first submarine cables, and the laying of cables thousands of miles in length under all the oceans—in all of which Siemens had a great part; the beginnings of electric railroading; and numerous other inventions of greater or less importance. Then the men with whom Siemens had to do during his busy life are introduced to us; persons in royal station, statesmen, ambassadors, financiers, philosophers, and men of science—the latter classes including, at least in Germany, some of the brightest lights of the half century. Besides the references to them as they come up in the course of the narrative, a separate chapter or appendix is given to the account of the author's scientific writings, in which the particular points he wished to bring out in them are more fully indicated. This enables us to mention one which, though only a theory that no one has yet ventured to accept—while no one has successfully contradicted i—t must ever be associated with Siemens's deepest scientific studies: his theory of the maintenance of the sun's heat and light.
As may be readily perceived, the Recol-
