by Haeckel in his works, "The Riddle of the Universe" and "The Wonders of Life."-In the Biblical World (University of Chicago), Dr. Theodore G. Soares writes on the ethical value of the Old Testament in modern life, and Dr. Richard Morse Hodge on "Worship in the Sunday School.”—At least two of the articles appearing in the current issues of Methodist magazines have special pertinence in relation to recent developments in the Methodist Church. Prof. George E. Vincent contributes to the Methodist Review (New York) a paper entitled "Conformity and Heresy: A Study in Social Psychology." In the Methodist Quarterly Review (published at Nashville for the M. E. Church, South), the editor, Dr. John J. Tigert, writes at some length on "The Methodist Doctrine of the Atonement."

Personal Sketches.-In the February Scribner's, Francis Wilson, the comedian, gives some entertaining reminiscences of Joseph Jefferson. Mr. Wilson seems to have made it a practice to record with much care his conversations with the famous actor, and if the current installment is to be taken as merely a sample of his store, he seems to have the materials of a most interesting book. Mr. Wilson takes some pains to set forth Mr. Wilson's own conception of Rip Van Winkle, and to give his frank amusing comments on the play and its unparalleled success.-Another actor, Mr. John Drew, who has never been the victim of a theatrical pressagent, is sketched in Munsey's by Acton Davies.— Mexico's new President, Ramon Corral, is the subject of a brief article in Appleton's Booklovers by Edward M. Conley, who declares that Corral is more like an American in appearance, action, and views than any other man in an important official position in Mexico. Moreover, he has always been exceedingly friendly to Americans.-Lincoln Steffens writes in McClure's of Everett Colby, the rich young man of New Jersey, who has developed into a political leader in the revolution against bossism.-The achievements of "The Last of the Great Forty-Niners," D. O: Mills, are related by Ian Clifford in the February Munsey's. Comparatively little has been printed concerning the business life of

Mr. Mills, one of the important phases of which has been a type of business-like philanthropy issuing in model dwellings and lodging-houses.

Travel Notes.-An illustrated article in Scribner's by George Porter Fernald describes the villas of the Venetians.-The February Metropolitan is largely given over to travel sketches: Frank Alvord Perret describes "Vesuvius as It Is To-day," M. H. Squire, "Life in a French Village," and Beatrice Grimshaw, "The Samoans at Close Range."-In Harper's, by means of drawings and letter-press, Thornton Oakley succeeds in conveying a vivid impression of scenes on the Ohio River at Pittsburg.

Sugar Obtained by a New Process.-In an article which he contributes to the Technical World Magazine (Chicago) for February concerning a new German process for the manufacture of alcohol, Mr. John C. Jenkins explains the conversion of the cellulose of sawdust into sugar or glucose. For this purpose gaseous sulphurous acid is utilized, instead of sulphuric acid, which it is difficult and costly to remove. A long ton of sawdust produces a solution containing about 500 pounds of sugar, of which about 75 or 80 per cent. is fermentable, when treated with yeast, the remaining. portion being non-fermentable. The sawdust, after leaving the exhaustion vats, can be used for fuel. About 25 gallons of absolute alcohol is now obtained from a long ton of sawdust, or about double that quantity of crude alcohol. It ought to be said in the interest of historical verity, that the discovery of saccharin (attributed to a German chemist, Mr. C. Fahlberg, in the article quoted in January from the Dutch monthly Vragens des Tijds) was really made by an eminent American chemist, Dr. Ira Remsen. Saccharin was first produced in Baltimore, in the laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, in the course of an investigation carried on jointly by Professor Remsen (now president of the Johns Hopkins) and Mr. Fahlberg, who was at that time a student working under Professor Remsen's direction, and it is only fair that they should receive due credit.

The Food Tax in France.-Of the articles in the Nineteenth Century (London) for January, one of the most generally interesting is Mr. W. B. Robertson's paper on "Les Octrois," and the exceeding vexatiousness of the operations of these duties in France, especially in Paris, where, as is shown, they add enormously to the cost of food, and bear very heavily indeed on the poorer classes. A law passed in 1897 gave municipal authorities the power to suppress octroi duties, advantage of which power was speedily taken by many towns, which, however, seem never to have abolished duties on alcohol. In other towns, again, all octroi was abolished except on alcohol and butcher's meat. Lyons, with 500,000 inhabitants, can proudly congratulate itself on having been the first French city to abolish the octroi. It has a municipal tax on alcohol, and various replacement duties, however, on automobiles, buildings, land, clubs, etc., but not on food. Only now are the full benefits of the suppression beginning to be realized. "Food is both cheaper and better. Since the octroi was abolished, the inhabitant of Lyons drinks fifty-one more liters of wine per annum, and eats twelve pounds of

meat more than he did under the old order. So it will be in time through the length and breadth of France. The lessons of experience have only to be made convincing, and the fifteen hundred octrois of France will be relegated to the shades of the has-beens."

Innumerable Taxes in Spain. - The outcry against increased living expenses comes also from Spain, where government and city taxes and imports seem to be the chief cause. Gabriel M. Vergara, in the Revista Contemporánea (Madrid), discusses these in an article entitled "Is It Possible to Live in Spain?" He takes a little over a page to list the government taxes and a page and a half to enumerate the special taxes and licenses required by the city of Madrid, besides mentioning a few others that are being considered. Adding to these the expenses of clubs, societies, fraternities, the tribute levied by servants on purchases, the shortage of weight by merchants, the adulteration of food products, the writer asks, “If one cannot live in Spain in peace, and can live in Madrid only by a miracle, where must one go to enjoy life agreeably?"

The Extended Monroe Doctrine.-"Investor," writing in the Monthly Review (London) for January on "Latin America and the United States," remarks on President Roosevelt's great extension of the original Monroe Doctrine. At first it was a "Thou shall not," addressed to all whom it may concern; it is now modified to assert that the United States must be the sole arbiter between the Latin-American republics, from Mexico to Central America, and Peru to Uruguay, and any outside European power; they alone must judge when intervention is desirable, and they alone must intervene. Certain of these republics,-Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, the most firmly established,-would probably resent as unjustifiable interference anything like United States "protection." The writer then summarizes the position and financial prospects of the various LatinAmerican states in order to show that if the United States really mean to act up to the principles enunciated recently by President Roosevelt, their path must be beset with difficulties; and if the present improvement in the general condition of the Latin-American states be not permanent-quite a likely event-their position will become yet more difficult. He then sums up the results of American dealings with Santo Domingo, Colombia, Venezuela, etc., to prove his case, which is that, so far, United States "protection," or whatever else the new version of the Monroe Doctrine may mean, has been prejudicial rather than favorable to European bondholders and European interests generally. What has been done has exclusively benefited American citizens; and he plainly says that bondholders in any LatinAmerican state need not look to Uncle Sam for any improvement in the value of their securities. Moreover, many of them oppose the new Monroe Doctrine.

Anomalies in the British Parliamentary System. In his paper on "The Making of Parliament" in the Nineteenth Century (London) for January, Mr. Michael MacDonagh comments on various curious anomalies in the English parliamentary and voting system. Members of Parliament, he says, no longer represent constituencies, but political principles. A. nominally sits for Hodgeshire, but in reality he sits for the Tariff Reform League, the National Liberal Federation, or the Conservative Central Office. As illustrating the absurdities in which the law sometimes lands us, Mr. Chamberlain in 1895 remarked that his son, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, who lived at the parental house, was therefore neither a householder nor a lodger, and had no vote. Yet he might become not only a Member of Parliament, but a member of the government. The late Chancellor of the Exchequer, therefore, was not on the rolls as a voter:

The Navies of Germany and Britain.-According to "Excubitor," writing in the Fortnightly Review (London) for January, the Germans have utterly failed in their attempt to rival Great Britain as a sea power. All their ships are too small and carry too light guns to hold their own against the British Navy. He says: "Step by step in the past five years the admiralty has met the challenge of Germany on the seas, and step by step Germany has been defeated, although the expenditure on the German fleet has already risen from less than five millions to nearly twelve millions sterling, and will continue to increase year by year until it exceeds sixteen and one-half millions in 1917. The new act writes the word failure over almost every clause of

the Act of 1900. In short, the new navy bill confesses the failure of the small battleship, the comparative uselessness of the small armored cruiser, and the wasteful expenditure on little protected cruisers and flimsy torpedo craft. The German Navy is no stronger to-day in comparison with the British fleet than it was in 1897, the year of the Diamond Jubilee review."

New Zealand Football.-Mr. E. B. Osborn, writing on this subject in the Nineteenth Century (London) for January, says that the New Zealand team have revolutionized the theory and practice of Rugby Union football. Even at its best the Welsh system is not so scientific as that of the New Zealanders. No British fifteen, except possibly one or two public-school teams, have mastered the New Zealand style, yet "we are gradually learning our lesson," as he proceeds to show. On the one occasion on which the New Zealanders were beaten (at Cardiff) they were palpably stale and listless. However, he says that "it is the height of folly to prate about the degeneracy of physique of Rugby Union of the four nations at home." In this there is nothing to choose, aecording to Mr. Osborn, between the home and the colonial teams, and the individual home players are as good as the best colonials. He remarks, however, that the strongest fifteen of the New Zealanders were beaten by a provincial team in New Zealand just before leaving, -he should have said were beaten by two colonial teams, in Wellington and in Christchurch,—so that they do not really represent the full strength of the colony.

The French Elections.-Mr. R. Dell, writing in the January Fortnightly (London) on the approaching general elections in France,-part of the Senate was renewed in January, and the Chamber will be reëlected next May, says: "The only change that seems to be at all possible is an increase in the strength of the 'Progressists,' led by M. Méline. The chief hope of the Center is that the 'unification' of the Socialist party, and the consequent retirement of M. Jaurès and his followers from the organization of the Bloc, may force the rest of the Left to combine with the Center after the elections in order to secure a working majority. This would mean a coalition ministry, probably including M. Ribot and M. Méline, with a much moderated M. Rouvier as Premier. Among all the trends of political opinion there are two characteristics of modern France that stand out clearly. She is overwhelmingly republican and overwhelmingly anti-Clerical; but antiClerical does not mean anti-religious."

The British Government and the Unemployed.-In Mr. C. F. G. Masterman's article on the "Unemployed" in the Contemporary Review (London) for January, it is suggested that the incoming government must either (1) deal directly with them by new distress committees, especially in connection with land colonies; (2) deal indirectly with them by small holdings, encouragement of coöperation, etc., or by the development of English sylviculture, or establishing schemes of reclamation; or (3) deal directly with the problem of poverty by lifting taxes from necessaries, child-labor legislation, greater economy in government expenditure, concern for physical efficiency of poor children, and similar methods.

Bernard Shaw Compared with Tolstoy.-Mr. G. K. Chesterton's note on Mr. Bernard Shaw in the

Independent Review (London) for January concludes with the following interesting comparison with Tolstoy: "Perhaps the best way of noting the fundamental fallacy in Mr. Shaw's intellectual Puritanism may be found if we compare him with Tolstoy. The difference, of course, is obvious. Tolstoy says that certain things should not exist; Shaw merely that they should not be idealized. A story like 'Peace and War' says in effect, Have no armies. A play like 'Arms and the Man' says in effect, 'Have armies, but do not admire them.' A story like 'The Kreutzer Sonata' says in effect, 'Have no sexual love.' A play like 'The Philanderer' says in effect, 'Have love, but not romantic love. Have love, but do not love it.' Tolstoy takes war and love and openly demands that they should be destroyed. Shaw is more modest, and is quite content if they are desecrated. But the profound practical weakness which runs through the whole of his practical philosophy is simply this,-that if these things are to be real at all, they must be romantic. An unromantic lover would simply cease to be a lover; a perfectly reasonable soldier would simply run away. If we are really going to abolish the poetry of these things with Mr. Shaw, we should be infinitely more practical if we went the full length of Tolstoy, and abolished the things themselves. But all this is only a part of the weird austerity and perfection of Mr. Shaw's mind, of which I spoke at the beginning. In his diet, he is too healthy for this world. In his politics, he is too practical for this world."

Opposition to the Higher Criticism.-Dr. Emil Reich's third article on "The Bankruptcy of Higher Criticism" in the Contemporary Review (London) says that considering the importance of biblical criticism, would it not be better to try to settle the problem of it and of the Pentateuch by excavations in Palestine, the cost of which, he suggests, could easily be met by voluntary subscription. It may easily be imagined what would be the effect of the discovery of a copy of Genesis or Exodus in cuneiform. He does not say that such a copy will unfailingly be found, but only suggests that it is very likely to be found somewhere in Palestine. Several rich British amateurs are spending large sums on publishing Oriental manuscripts, none of which can compare in importance with the Pentateuch.

A Study of Nicknames. - Julio Cejador, in España Moderna (Madrid), gives a curious scientific study of the nicknames commonly used among Spanish people which is very suggestive of the origin of family names everywhere. Some are from physical defects or characteristics, some from moral or immoral qualities, some fantastically metaphorical, others more graphic than polite, but all express a great deal of meaning concisely. Besides the personal nicknames, there are others applied wholesale to residents of certain cities or districts, based on all sorts of ideas, or on legends or popular jokes. Personal nicknames the writer classifies under inanimate objects, plants, animals, offices, regions, defects or bodily qualities, and moral qualities. A story is told of a parson who, at a church fraternity meeting, called off the names of members and received no responses though the room was full. The schoolmaster took the book and called off a list of nicknames, every one-of which brought a "Present." The peasants had actually forgotten their official names through always bearing nicknames.

Is Mexico Being Americanized ?-In spite of the oft-repeated assertion that the "Americanization" of Mexico is proceeding apace (in our December number, Mr. Edward M. Conley was perhaps overconfident in his assertion of the fact), there is evident in periodicals, both American and Mexican, an endeavor on the part of the Americans who know Mexico thoroughly to show that the American influence south of the Rio Grande has been much overestimated. Modern Mexico (published in English in New York and Mexico City) warns against exaggerations of American influence in Mexico. The overestimate is to be deprecated, says this journal editorially, because, in the first place, they are overestimates. In the second place, they are to be deprecated because they are "misleading and are liable to attract young Americans hither by what is a gross misrepresentation of the actual situation. Americans coming to Mexico under the impression, likely to be encouraged by articles such as those on which we are animadverting, that this country is a sort of projection or prolongation of the United States, and who on arriving here find themselves in a decidedly foreign atmosphere, and amid exotic conditions to which they will have to adapt themselves, with no little patience and trouble, if they decide to stay, will not feel exactly inclined to thank the authors of the articles by which they have been deceived. In the third place, legitimate American enterprise and influence in Mexico are not likely to be aided, but rather to be harmed, by being described in the rhetoric of the ballyhoo-man." Modern Mexico, further, referring to the "preposterous" statement that " Americanization is influencing the social and family life of the country," remarks: "We are, of course, not in the smallest degree deprecating such an evolution, but are stating a simple fact in saying that up to the present there are no signs of it." A reader of the REVIEW OF REVIEWS, who has resided in Mexico for twenty years, writes criticising Mr. Conley's article (already alluded to) on point of both statement and opinion. There are fully two hundred thousand Americans in Mexico, says this writer, not ten thousand. The figures, as we printed them in December, are manifestly too small. We are frank to admit also that the article in question probably did overstate the social and moral influence exerted by American residents in our neighbor to the south. Mexican family and social life is charming and conservative. Americans who go to Mexico will, undoubtedly, find that they are fully as likely to have their manners and ideas modified by their Mexican surroundings, as the native people are to be influenced by American ways.

German Parliamentarism.-In the Correspondant, Herr E. Wetterlé, a Deputy in the Reichstag, has an article on the parliamentary institutions of the German Empire. He says the German Empire is not a state, but a federation of independent states. Each state has its own constitution and laws, so that in Germany it is possible to study almost every variety of government, every electoral system, and every form of taxation, the republican constitution of Hamburg, the absolutism of the two Mecklenburgs, universal suffrage in the Grand Duchy of Baden, progressive taxation in Württemberg, etc. There is no Emperor of Germany, but a German Emperor. The federal character of Germany makes parliamentarism very difficult, and causes confusion in the finances of the empire and those of the individual states. Yet this federalism is

Germany's strength. The writer explains which legislation is reserved for the empire; he tells how the Reichstag is elected; gives particulars of the different parties and groups and their places in the Reichstag; tells how the new laws are discussed and passed; describes the functions of the Bundesrath, or Federal Council, etc.

X-Rays and Digestion.-A new application of the X-rays for medical purposes was demonstrated at the International Röntgen Congress at Berlin, last summer. Dr. Rieder, of Munich, writes in the illustrated Umschau (Frankfort-on-Main) on this recent discovery, showing that X-rays not only penetrates solid bodies, but also under certain circumstances expose more intimate proceedings of the living organism. The passage of food through the intestines, so imperfectly known hitherto, is no longer a secret, because it can be put on the photographic plate by the aid of X-rays. Physicians are thus enabled to make a close study of the sick stomach. In order to examine the intestines of his patients, Dr. Rieder uses the basic spirit of niter, which makes the parts saturated by this drug penetrable for X-rays. The drug is simply mixed with the food, not causing any disagreeable or dangerous consequences for the patient. While still exutaining, a number of pictures are taken, enabling the physicians to examine both form and movement of the intestines during the time of digestion. Dr. Rieder has thus proved, that the location of the stomach in filled condition is perpendicular and not horizontal, as generally believed. The gas accumulations occurring regularly under the progress of digestion have also been analyzed. Regarding the form of the stomach there are certain differences. The one of woman is by reason of the corset pressure, as a rule, drawn at length and pressed downward, wherefore physicians also use the term lace-stomach. The position of the human bowels, particularly the appendix, is located in the same way. The wismuth solution is here applied to the food, form and position being exactly visible on the photographic plate. The X-rays teach us, furthermore, that the emptying of the stomach proceeds by starts, and not in a continuous stream. The important question, how long different kinds of food charge the stomach, can also exactly be stated. In order to facilitate the examination of the body, the navel region is on all the pictures indicated by a coin of lead, which on the photograph leaves a black impression.

An Italian View of the Policy of Pope Pius X. -Writing in the Hilfe (Berlin), Marchese Barbara di San Giorgio discusses the policy of Pope Pius X., emphasizing particularly his attitude at the recent elections for parliament in Italy. The idea that the Pope was striving for a great Catholic party the writer vigorously denies. To quote : Pius X. follows, as the head of the Catholic Church, the same policy which he pursued when he still bore the name Giuseppe Sarto and was the Patriarch of Venice. As such he was accustomed to look at the King as the supreme head of the state. Indeed, Cardinal Sarto never missed the opportunity to visit and pay his homage to Humbert I. or Victor Emmanuel III. on their frequent so

journs in beautiful Venice. At the same time, he showed the greatest politeness, yea, hearty friendliness, to the prefect and all the high dignitaries of the government. Taking his seat at the Holy See, the patriarchal attitude of Pius X. became soon manifest. Pius X. saw his course plainly. The monarchy is the authority, and the authority upholds religion. The enemies of the monarchy are therefore the enemies of the Church. Considering his success as Archbishop of Venice, where he had gained the esteem of everybody without injuring the Vatican, there was no reason for giving up the former tactics of being at the same time a good priest and a good Italian. After this brief survey of the personal attitude of Pius X., the writer goes on to analyze the recent circulars issued from the Vatican. Much has been said and written about these publications. The new Pope, as we have seen, was anxious that the Italian Catholics should be good citizens, and in this very thought we can trace the reason for the failure of socialism in Italy, which has gathered all its strength for the overthrow of the Church as well as of existing conditions. At the recent elections, the priests gave their votes en masse at the ballot-boxes, something that never had happened since the political conquest of Italy. The result was startling. Milan, the stronghold of the extreme parties, sent Monarchists,-yea, one Clerical member,-to parliament. Such a policy on the part of Pius X. excited, of course, much comment. Some said that he had dropped the ireconcilable policy of his predecessors in regard to the Quirinal. In foreign countries the excitement was also great. It was even said that the Pope would go over to Protestantism. This was the reason for the second epistle, which was a complement of the first one. Pius X. emphasizes the statement that he has not given up the rights of the Catholic Church, and that he never would approve the violent destruction of Papal ascendency. The support of the monarchy in the economic and moral rise of the nation in order to aid the Church in the attack of the freethinkers is the chief object of the policy of Pius X. The Pope will not hurt the King, and both must keep down the elements of socialism. Too open friendship between the head of the State and the head of the Church would only awaken suspicion in the camps of the Liberals and the Clericals, yet nobody could prevent them from exchanging congratulations by telephone.

The Zodiacal Light Photographed.-The astronomer Quenisset, of the observatory at Nanterre, France, has succeeded in getting rarely successful photographs of the zodiacal light, one of which is reproduced in the Hojas Selectas (Barcelona). The best objective found for the purpose was that formed by the two plano-convex lenses of a condenser for a stereopticon, and it must be stopped down 50 per cent. Extra rapid plates and an exposure not long enough to allow diffusion to take place are other requisites. The experiment must be made in the shade of mountains, and preferably in equatorial regions, where the zodiacal light is seen most intense. The photograph shows an almost globular form, with the intensity of light diminishing toward the upper portion.

A FEW OF THE LATEST BIOGRAPHIES.

MR

R. MODESTE TCHAIKOVSKI has found seven hundred and fifty pages insufficient for his great work on the life and letters of his famous brother, Peter Ilich Tchaikovski. This biographical and memorial volume, originally issued in twenty-five parts by a Moscow publisher, has been translated and abridged into an English version (John Lane), with an introduction by Rosa New

work is so full of the sincerely emotional and human elements of his character that the story of his life and selections from his letters make reading almost as attractive as that of a novel.

"The Life Story of Henry Clay Trumbull" is entertainingly told by Philip E. Howard (Philadelphia: The Sunday-School Times Company). The late Dr. Trumbull, for so many years editor of the Sunday-School Times, was in his lifetime one of the best known of religious journalists, but before he was a journalist he had been a missionary and an army chaplain. His personality was one that indelibly impressed itself on those with whom he came in contact. This authorized biography preserves those traits that were familiar to the public, and reveals at the same time many things that were known in Dr. Trumbull's lifetime only to his intimates. It is a bright, compelling book from beginning to end, a worthy treatment of a unique subject.

The late John Fletcher Hurst, one of the most scholarly bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is the subject of an authorized biography by Albert Osborn, who was for many years the bishop's secretary (New York: Eaton & Mains). Bishop Hurst was a traveler as well as a student. His European experiences began when he was a very young man, and continued almost to the last year of his life. He was a book-lover and an antiquarian. His marked literary bent gave him a distinguished place among his brethren of the Methodist clergy..

In the series of "American Crisis Biographies" (Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co.), the life of William T. Sherman is written by Edwin Robins. General Sherman's career in its main outlines is per

haps as well known as that of any other of the Civil War commanders after Grant and Lee. The generation to which Sherman stood in the relation of a popular hero is rapidly passing from the stage, and it is well that a popular biography like this sketch by Mr. Robins should be prepared for the express purpose of meeting the needs of the younger generation of readers. The book is written attractively and with due regard to the official and standard authorities.

66

HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION.

An absorbingly interesting work, including both description and history, is Mr. B. L. Putnam Weale's Reshaping of the Far East" (Macmillan). Mr. Weale, who is the author of "Manchu and Muscovite" (already noticed in these pages), has given in this two-volume work, aggregating more than eleven hundred pages, an exhaustive and stimulatingly-written history of the relations between the Occident and the Far East, a summary of Chinese and Japanese history, a description of some exceedingly interesting personal experiences during a number of tours throughout China, Korea, and Japan ending in the late spring of 1905, just after the

battle of Mukden, and supplementing his text with numerous illustrations from photographs. Mr. Weale's grasp of the significance and forces now reshaping the Far East is remarkable. He has a keen insight into the political and psychological reasons for Russian, German, and French dealings with China, influences he sums up in the expression, "the Contineptal Block." Belgium he calls the lackey of these continental powers. British influence he fears is on the wane, and it is to arouse British attention to this alleged waning influence that he devotes much of his best writing. American power and prestige, he believes, is on the increase. Japan he counts as the future drillmaster of the East. There are several appendices, comprising the texts of treaties, a number of other official documents, and an analysis of the purely military history of the Russo-Japanese War up to May 1, last.

DR. HENRY CLAY TRUMBULL.

(Late editor of the Sunday-School Times.)

Another book on Tibet. This time it is by Oscar Terry Crosby, and is entitled "Tibet and Turkestan" (Putnams). Mr. Crosby, it will be remembered, was the Englishman who took that memorable journey of exploration in 1903 through central Asia, with Capt. Ferdinand Anginieur, of the French Army. This volume is the collected experiences of Mr. Crosby during