1. How Crops Grow. A Treatise on the Chemical Composition, Structure, and Life of the Plant, for all Students of Agriculture. With numerous illustrations and tables of analyses; by SAMUEL W.JOHNSON, M.A., Professor of Analytical and Agricultural Chemistry, in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College. New York, [1868] Orange Judd & Co.-The appearance of Professor Johnson's volume is well timed. Every American teacher who has attempted hitherto to inform his students of the bearings of chemical or physiological science, upon the art and practice of agriculture has keenly felt the want of text-books fitted to enforce his precepts and make good his own omissions and defects. It has been plain that, in the lack of such books, few of the schools of agriculture which are now coming into operation in this country, could even attempt to teach their students in accordance with the hopes and demands of the communities in which they have been established. It is consequently a matter of no slight importance when an acknowledged master applies himself to supply the want.

The mere allusion to some of Professor Johnson's earlier essays, such as those on Soil Analyses,* and Agricultural Science, will recall to the minds of many of our readers the pleasure and satisfaction with which those admirable papers were first received and will secure a hearty welcome for the new work. Before an audience so familiar with the learning and good sense of the author and with the clearness of his style, it would be useless to dwell upon these characteristics, or to say more of them than that they are all conspicuous in the present work. But there are other features peculiar to the book just published, which should be particularly mentioned. It is in the first place, a well-considered and thorough-going attempt to impart knowledge by the inductive and experimental method; as such, it supplies a deficiency that has long existed in English literature.

"For those who have not enjoyed the advantages of the schools, the author has sought to unfold his subjects by such regular and simple steps, that any one may easily master them. It has also been attempted to adapt the work in form and contents to the wants of the class-room by a strictly systematic arrangement of topics, and by division of the matter into convenient paragraphs."—p. 5.

But besides charging the mind of the student with valuable information in a thorough and logical way, the intention is so to impress upon him the manner and methods by which questions are * This Journal, xxxii, 233. Ibid., xxviii, 71.

asked of inanimate things, that he may himself become in some sort an investigator of truth.

In these days when a belief in the power of evolving all things from the depths of consciousness is so strong among men, there is something truly refreshing in the spirit of the following paragraphs. Strange as the assertion may seem, there is many a "modern" scientist who dares not enunciate some of these simple truths.

"The art of Agriculture consists in certain practices and operations which have gradually grown out of an observation and imitation of the best efforts of nature, or have been hit upon accidentally. The science of agriculture is the rational theory and exposition of the successful art."

"Strictly considered, the art and science of agriculture are of equal age, and have grown together from the earliest times. Those who first cultivated the soil by digging, planting, manuring and irrigating, had their sufficient reason for every step. In all cases, thought goes before work, and the intelligent workman always has a theory upon which his practice is planned. No farm was ever conducted without physiology, chemistry and physics, any more than an aqueduct or a railway was ever built without mathematics and mechanics. Every successful farmer is, to some extent a scientific man. Let him throw away the knowledge of facts and the knowledge of principles which constitute his science, and he has lost the elements of his success. The farmer without his reasons, his theory, his science, can have no plan; and these wanting, agriculture would be as complete a failure with him as it would be with a man of mere science, destitute of manual, financial and executive skill" (p. 17.) * * * * "It is the boast of some who affect to glory in the sufficiency of practice and decry theory, that the former is based upon experience, which is the only safe guide. But this is a one-sided view of the matter. Theory is also based upon experience, if it be truly scientific. The vagarizing of an ignorant and undisciplined mind is not theory. Theory in the good and proper sense, is always a deduction from facts, the best deduction of which the stock of facts in our possession admits. It is the interpretation of facts. It is the expression of the ideas which facts awaken when submitted to a fertile imagination and well balanced judgment. A scientific theory is intended for the nearest possible approach to the truth. Theory is confessedly imperfect, because our knowledge of facts is imcomplete, our mental insight weak and our judgment fallible. But the scientific theory which is formed by the contributions of a multitude of earnest thinkers and workers, among whom are likely to be the most gifted intellects and most skillful hands, is, in these days, to a great extent worthy of the divine truth in nature, of which it is the completest human conception and expression."

"Science employs, in effecting its progress, essentially the same methods that are used by merely practical men. Its success is commonly more rapid and brilliant, because its instruments of observation are finer and more skillfully handled; because it experiments more industriously and variedly, thus commanding a wider and more fruitful experience, because it usually brings a more cultivated imagination and a more disciplined judgment to bear upon its work."-(p. 22).

"It has been sought to present the subject inductively, to collate and compare, as far as possible, all the facts, and so to describe and discuss the methods of investigation that the conclusions given shall not rest on any individual authority, but that the student may be able to judge himself of their validity and importance. In many cases fulness of detail has been employed, from a conviction that an acquaintance with the sources of information and with the processes by which a problem is attacked and truth arrived at, is a necessary part of the education of those who are hereafter to be of service in the advancement of agriculture. * * * The subject should be taught so thoroughly that the learner may comprehend at once the deficiencies and the possibilities of our knowledge. Thus we may hope that a company of capable investigators may be raised up, from whose efforts the science and the art may receive new and continual impulses." (p. iv).

Whether the hope expressed in the last sentence is likely to be realized in the near future is a debatable question which can only be answered by experience. In any event Professor Johnson is to be congratulated in having thus distinctly set forth a noble conception. He may take comfort also in the reflection that he has striven faithfully in behalf of the idea. It will be no fault of his if the times prove inauspicious. The aim is manifestly a high and legitimate aim. When the present rage for burdening the Colleges and Schools of Agriculture with experimental farms, conservatories of plants and collections of costly implements shall have gone by, as it has gone by in Europe, and the principles upon which agricultural art depends come to be taught in a rational and methodical then the student will have time and temper for the mental discipline and sober reflection so essential for the acquirement of habits of thought and investigation. Then the seed now sown will doubtless bring forth good fruit. It will be strange indeed if the general acceptance of correct notions of teaching agriculture be not greatly hastened by the work before us.

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The present volume, though complete in itself and printed as an independent work, is in reality but one of a series of volumes by the same author to be published hereafter. In the second volume now in press, entitled "How Crops Feed," the food of plants and the relations of the atmosphere and the soil to the plant, will be discussed in detail. A third volume, upon Cultivation; or the Improvement of the Soil and of Crops by Tillage and Manures, is promised at an early day; while a fourth work on Stock Feeding and Dairy Produce, considered from the point of view of chemical and physiological science, may finish the series.

It is a bright omen for the future of our country when in aid of a great educational revival such as now animates the land there are produced within its limits books so sensible, so judicious and so learned as this first volume of the promised series unquestionably is. It is a safe prediction that the reputation of the book will not be confined to American soil.

F. H. S.

2. Outlines of Comparative Anatomy and Medical Zoology; by HARRISON ALLEN, M.D. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & Co. 8vo. 1869. In the first part of this work the author has given a very concise compendium of the Comparative Anatomy of all classes of Animals. The definitions and explanations are usually clear and accurate, although brief, and the arrangement of subjects very convenient.

The second part is devoted to Medical Zoology, and contains detailed descriptions of all animals immediately connected with medical science, whether on account of their medicinal products, venomous powers, or parasitism. The portion relating to parasitic worms will be found particularly useful.

It is scarcely to be expected that a work like this and covering so wide a field would be entirely free from errors or imperfect statements, yet in this there are fewer instances of these than in most works upon the same subject. Most of those noted are of

minor importance: such as the statement on page 16 that Alcyonium has six tentacles (correctly stated on page 14, however); on page 25 the distinction between the "skeletons" of Pennatula and Renilla, and the statement that the valves of Brachiopoda are anterior and posterior; on page 106 where, apparently, the winterbuds (statoblasts) of Polyzoa are regarded as eggs. The division of Radiata into Echinodermata and Colenterata (p. 15), although sustained by good authorities, is objectionable, since the latter can be regarded only as an artificial group, at times convenient, perhaps, like the term Invertebrata.

As a whole the book is a very useful one, and will supply a want long felt in this country by teachers and students, as well as by physicians and others interested in Comparative Anatomy. In no other work upon the subject can so many important facts and clear explanations of structure be found in so small a compass.

V.

3. A List of the Birds of New England; by ELLIOTT COUES, M.D. From Proceedings of the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. Vol. v. 1868. During several years past much attention has been given to the distribution of American birds by many ornithologists, and a number of local catalogues have been published. In the present work the author has given a complete and very useful summary of all the important information of this kind that we at present possess with reference to New England Birds.

4. Synopsis of the Birds of South Carolina; by ELLIOTT COUES, M.D. From the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. 1868. An interesting contribution to our knowledge of the distribution of birds in the Southern States. The season of occurrence and relative abundance is given for each of the 294 species.

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5. The Butterflies of North America. Part 2. By WM. H. EDWARDS. Philadelphia, August, 1868. 4to, with five colored plates. In this number there are descriptions and beautiful illustrations of Argynnis Callipe, A. Hesperis, Colias Alexandra, C. Helena, C. Christina, C. Behrii and Apatura Alicia, the latter a new species from New Orleans.

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6. Extra Digits; by BURT G. WILDER, M.D. From Publications of the Mass. Medical Society. Vol. ii, no. 3. Boston, 1868. -Many curious statistics concerning the occurrence of supernumerary fingers and toes, obtained from 152 cases, are given in this memoir, and their significance and interest well discussed. The author solicits additional information and appends a list of questions to be answered in recording new cases of Extra Digits. v.

7. The Natural Wealth of California, &c.; by TITUS TEY CRONISE. pp. 696. 1868. San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft & Co.This volume, which has been some time on our table, is a digest of interesting facts relating to the early history, geography, topog raphy and scenery; climate; agriculture and commercial products; geology, zoology and botany; mineralogy, mines and mining processes, internal communications, immigration, population, and educational institutions. Each County is separately treated. Less

statistical and dry than Hittell's work, Mr. Cronise has made his volume more interesting to the general reader. He has had the advantage of the coöperation of several persons well versed in dif ferent departments, as well as a long and intimate familiarity with the commercial and mining resources of the State. Now that the Pacific Railroad promises to place California within reach of a summer excursion, it is important that its resources and wonders should be more familiarly known than hitherto by people on the Atlantic border, and to this end the present volume is timely and well adapted.

8. Outlines of Physiology, Human and Comparative; by JOHN MARSHALL, F.R.S., Professor of Surgery in University College, London; Surgeon to the University College Hospital. With additions, by FRANCIS G. SMITH, M.D., Prof. of Institutes of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania. 8vo, pp. 1026. 1868. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea. This is an elaborate and carefully prepared digest of human and comparative physiology, designed for the use of general readers, but more especially serviceable to the student of medicine. Its style is concise, clear and scholarly, its order perspicuous and exact, and its range of topics extended. The author and his American Editor have been careful to bring to the illustration of the subject, the important discoveries of modern science in the various cognate departments of investigation. This is especially visible in the variety of interesting information derived from the departments of chemistry and physics. The great amount and variety of matter contained in the work, is strikingly illustrated by turning over the copious Index, covering twenty-four closely printed pages in double columns.

9. Reliquiæ Aquitanica.- (H. Baillière, London; Baillière Brothers, New York).-Part v, of this handsomely illustrated work, in quarto, on the relics of man and of associated animals in the caves of Southern France, continues the account of the geology of the Vezère, and contains also a chapter "on the similarity of some implements found in the caves of Dordogne, to some used by the North American Indians," together with observations on the "Germani" of the Roman period, and on the range of the Reindeer. Beside plates of stone arrow-heads and chippings, there are views of the region of the Vezère in Dordogne.

10. Geological Survey of Illinois; A. H. WORTHEN, Director. Vol. III, Geology and Palæontology, v, and 574 pp. large 8vo, with map and sketches, and 20 plates of fossils. 1868. Published by the authority of the Legislature of Illinois.-This volume of the Geological Survey of Illinois has just been issued by the Director, Prof. Worthen, and deserves a much more extended notice than our present space will permit. Part I. (pp. 1 to 287) is devoted to Geology, and in the opening chapter Prof. Worthen gives an able exposition of the Coal measures and Carboniferous system of Illinois, and their relations to the same formation in some of the neighboring States. The subsequent chapters, by Prof. Worthen and his field-assistants, Messrs. Engelmann, Free