26.—The Interpreta­tion of Radium. By Frederick Soddy, Lecturer in Physical Chemistry in the University of Glasgow. Third Edi­tion, rewritten, with data brought down to 1912. 8o With 33 Diagrams and Illustra­tions.

As the applica­tion of the present-day interpreta­tion of Radium (that it is an element undergoing spontaneous disintegra­tion) is not confined to the physical sciences, but has a wide and general bearing upon our whole outlook on Nature, Mr. Soddy has presented the subject in non-technical language, so that the ideas involved are within reach of the lay reader. No effort has been spared to get to the root of the matter and to secure accuracy, so that the book should prove serviceable to other fields of science and investiga­tion, as well as to the general public.

27.—The Social Evil. With Special Reference to Condi­tions Existing in the City of New York. A Report Prepared in 1902 under the Direc­tion of the Committee of Fifteen. Second Edi­tion, Revised, with New Material Covering the Years 1902–1911. Edited by Edwin R. A. Seligman, LL.D., McVickar Professor of Political Economy in Columbia University. 8vo.

A study that is far from being of merely local interest and applica­tion. The problem is considered in all its aspects and, for this purpose, reference has been made to condi­tions prevailing in other communities and to the different attempts foreign cities have made to regulate vice.

28.—Microbes and Toxins. By Etienne Burnet, of the Pasteur Institute, Paris. With an Introduc­tion by Élie Metchnikoff, Sub-Director of the Pasteur Institute, Paris. With about 71 Illustra­tions.

A well-known English authority said in recommending the volume: “Incomparably the best book there is on this tremendously important subject. In fact, I am assured that nothing exists which gives anything like so full a study of microbiology.” In the volume are considered the general func­tions of microbes, the microbes of the human system, the form and structure of microbes, the physi­ology of microbes, the pathogenic protozoa, toxins, tuberculin and mallein, immunity, applica­tions of bacteriology, vaccines and serums, chemical remedies, etc.

29.—Problems of Life and Reproduc­tion. By Marcus Hartog, D. Sc., Professor of Zoology in University College, Cork. 8vo.

The author uses all the legitimate arms of scientific controversy in assailing certain views that have been widely pressed on the general public with an assurance that must have given many the impression that they were protected by the universal consensus of biologists. Among the subjects considered are: “The Cellular Pedigree and the Problem of Heredity”; “The Rela­tion of Brood-Forma­tion to Ordinary Cell-Division”; “The New Force, Mitokinetism”; “Nuclear Reduc­tion and the Func­tion of Chroism”; “Fertiliza­tion”; “The Transmission of Acquired Characters”; “Mechanism and Life”; “The Biological Writings of Samuel Butler”; “Interpola­tion in Memory”; “The Teaching of Nature Study.”

30.—Problems of the Sexes. By Jean Finot, Author of “The Science of Happiness,” etc. Translated under authority by Mary J. Safford. 8vo.

A masterly presenta­tion of the attitude of the ages toward women and an eloquent plea for her further enfranchisement from imposed and unnatural limita­tions. The range of scholarship that has been enlisted in the writing may well excite one’s wonder, but the tone of the book is popular and its appeal is not to any small sec­tion of the reading public but to all the classes and degrees of an age that, from present indica­tions, will go down in history as the century of Woman.