down to date by the inclusion of some choice productions inspired by the World War. It it attractively bound in a durable binding and handsomely illustrated.

THE PRINCIPLES OF AGRICULTURE FOR HIGH SCHOOLS. By John H. Gehrs, B. S., M. S., Professor of Agriculture, Cape Girardeau State Normal School, Mo. The Macmillan Company. Price $2.25.

The author of this excellent manual has ever before him in making the book, the thought that production has not kept pace with the increase in population, in America. He feels that agriculture can and should be so taught and carried on as to insure a much greater production at a lower cost, thus making a far better showing for the agriculturist and for all the allied industries. These results he would secure by improvement of plants of various kinds, improvement of farm animals, treatment of soils, control of insects, economic marketing, better methods in farm labor, careful and scientific farm bookkeeping, etc. All these fundamental matters are carefully treated in the successive chapters of this admirable text book. There are diagrams, tables, drawings and attractive cuts as needed to enable the eye to follow the mind in the development of the argument. Each chapter closes with a series of questions, problems and references.

THE SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE. By J. Arthur Thompson, M. A., LL. D., Regius Professor of Natural History, University of Aberdeen. Henry Holt and Company. Price $2.50.

Human interest in the secrets of nature is as old as the race, and the objective field for its exercise is limitless. Professor Thompson has been a gifted and tireless investigator and specialist. He has also the power of descriptive analysis, and is able to reveal to others what he has seen and the natural conclusions to which the facts seem to lead. Here are a few of his alluring chapter headings: "Homing of Sea Swallows"; "Social Life of Wasps"; "The Educability of Snails"; "The Internal Economy of the Sea"; "The Survival of the Otter"; "The Biology of Twins"; "The Storing Instinct"; "The Roving Instinct." Do not these titles make the reader of this brief review notice want to own and read this fascinating book?

A HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS. By Florian Cajori, Ph. D., Professor of History of Mathematics in the University of California. The Macmillan Company.

This is a second edition of this notable contribution to human knowledge of a science which underlies, more than any other, the whole history of modern progress. Mathematics is the basis of the wonderful

discoveries which have made our world a new world, as different from that of our progenitors as is our dream of heaven from the reality of our material realm. To mathematics we owe the progress which we have made in the mastery of nature's forces which has given us command of the water, the air, and of the electrical currents. Mathematics "won the war," more truly than this can be said of any nation or human sentiment or instrumentality. More than in any other subject, however, the ancient world was interested in and informed about the fundamental principles of mathematics, or, at least, many of them. The practical deductions and applications have been made more generally in modern times; but away back in Egyptian and Babylonian history we find men thinking deeply and formulating terms and deducing conclusions that were logical and profound. The results of such thinking were utilized, too, by various nations, the Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Hindus, the Arabs, and the European nations, and all human thought, industry and life was profundly affected thereby. To trace man's discoveries upon the subject and his applications to his conception of things upon, above and under the earth, to follow his thinking upon the eternal principles upon which the world and all things therein have been founded and made, this surely is a stupendous task. It has been patiently undertaken by this author, whose work has, of course, a thousand dependencies upon the work of others. But patiently and with profound insight and marvelous erudition he has traced, tabulated, interpreted and set forth in language comprehensible by the student of average capacity, these multitudinous, portentous, and consequential facts and principals. Those students who are to take up advanced studies along scientific lines, all who are to specialize in any of the industries, and all persons who are fond of deep, mathematical reasoning and the results achieved thereby, will find an inexhaustible reservoir of knowledge and information in this volume.

Periodical Notes.

In The Historical Outlook for February Edith M. Clark gives an elaborate account of "The History Curriculum Since 1850." The opening article in the Century Magazine for February is by Frank B. Elser, whose subject is "General Pershing's Mexican Campaign.'' Another timely and interesting article in this number is Stacy Aumonier's "London Discovers Uncle Abe." It shows how immortal is the spirit of our beloved Abraham Lincoln. An article in Good Health for February, on "Children an International Asset," by Reynold A. Spaeth, Ph. D., of Johns Hopkins University, is of value to parents and teachers. "Shall we Cut Out the Discipline" is the title of an interesting discussion opened in The Outlook for February 11. The opening article in the Feb. 7th number of The Scientific American answers the question "Why Does Your Clock Keep Time?" The Journal of the Franklin Institute for February announces "Brannerite, a new Uranium Mineral." A suggestive article for educators appears in The Scientific American for Feb. 21, under the title "The Scientific Reason for Failure." It is written by D. H. Colcord.

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Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature

VOL. XL.

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¤‡○ declare that execution of Cecil Rhodes' conception in a perfected form would infallibly end war forever, would suggest the enthusiast, blind to the formidable difficulties of assuring peace. Confidently to hold, however, that full realization of Rhodes' idea would be a preventive of war eminently more reliable than expensive armaments, is safe. That, re-enforced by an international court and police force, cosmopolitan education for world leaders would probably prove the precurser of permanent peace-this is a reasonable contention. It is supportable not only by the experience of Rhodes' Scholars and the soundest psychological reasoning, but also by the experience of the race with the analogous institutions of famliy and friendly communion long successfully applied to develop af fection and co-operation between individuals.

Cecil Rhodes' plan rests on the sound principle that friendship, which may induce individual self-sacrifice to the extent of life itself, is the surest guarantee of generous compromise between peoples. Its failure has been due to fundamental defects, not in theory, but in actual working. In practical operation the Rhodes