sented in extended tables which enable one to gain a general view of all crimes for each country; and the notes in the appendix carefully explain the Italian technical phrases in the language of the codes of the countries from which the reports come. Altogether this work is a decidedly helpful arrangement and explanation of the principal data concerning the phenomena of crime. One of the merits of the footnotes is that they bring up the bibliography of the subject to date with great fulness and discrimination. CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON. Das öffentliche Armenwesen in Hamburg während der Jahre 18931902. Darstellung seiner Reorganisation und weiteren Entwickelung. Hamburg: Herausgegeben vom ArmenKollegium, 1903. HAMBURG presents all the problems of poor relief in a seaport town with a cosmopolitan population and a complex system of public and private agencies of benevolence. Its methods were radically revised in the eighteenth century and improved when the "Elberfeld" system was adopted in the nineteenth century. With changed conditions it was found in 1892 that new adjustments were required, and Dr. E. Münsterberg, then a mayor of another city, was called to be director and guide of the new arrangements. After he went to Berlin, Dr. Buehl succeeded him and carried out the plan. The pamphlet issued to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the reorganization is before us, and it gives a full and satisfactory account and explanation of the history of poor relief in Hamburg since 1892. The methods and results of outdoor, institutional, and medical relief, and the care of dependent children, are minutely presented with a wealth of statistical material beautifully printed. One seems to see into the very heart of the German municipal methods of charity. CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON. Politische Geographie, oder die Geographie der Staaten, des Verkehres und des Krieges. Von FRIEDRICH RATZEL. Zweite umgearbeitete Auflage. Mit vierzig Kartenskizzen. München und Berlin: R. Oldenbourg, 1903. Pp. 838. THE first edition of this important work by one of the first masters of the subject appeared in 1897. This second edition not only gives additional material on points already treated, but also furnishes new discussions of the geography of commerce and of war. The work is already too well known among students to require a characterization here. CHARLES RICHMOND HENDerson. Les grèves. Par LÉON DE SEILHAC. ("Bibliothèque d'économie sociale.") Paris Librairie Victor Lecoffre, 1903. Pp. vii+256. Fr. 2. THIS little book on "Strikes," by a "permanent member of the Musée social," deals principally with conditions in France, although it makes reference to the experiences of England, the United States, and New Zealand. After some discussion of current opinion in regard to strikes, their general nature, and their cost, M. de Seilhac reviews at some length the history of the strike movement in France from 1791 to the present time, French legislation bearing on the right to strike, and the socialist support of the strike as an instrument of social reconstruction. A chapter on the details of a particular strike, and a classification of strikes into different types, with concrete instances of each, throws some light on the way these things are managed in France. The book ends with a description of the feeble efforts toward arbitration hitherto made in France, and with an exceedingly brief statement of the further possibilities of the policy of conciliation. M. de Seilhac appears to have a needlessly unsympathetic attitude toward his subject; and it is difficult to determine to what readers the book is addressed. It is too sketchy to be of value to students and too technical to appeal to the general reader. Like many French books of its type, it is unprovided with an index, and has scanty references to authorities. La démocratie socialiste allemande. Par EDGARD MILHAUD, pro fesseur à l'Université de Genève. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1903. Pp. iv + 591. IN no other country has socialism achieved so definite and important a political organization as it has in Germany; and an adequate study of the German Social-Democrat party is bound to be of the utmost value to students of modern (social, industrial, and political) conditions. Such a study M. Milhaud appears to have supplied. Of socialist sympathies, he had, according to his preface, exceptional opportunities for personal contact with both the leaders and the rank and file of the He party besides access to a mass of documents bearing on its history and aims. His method of treatment is that of the practiced investigator, and his sources of information are fully and carefully indicated. gives due prominence to the economic aspects of his subject, which are so inextricably involved in the political. L'idée d'évolution dans la nature et l'histoire. Par GASTON RICHARD, agrégé de philosophie, docteur ès lettres, chargé du cours de sociologie à l'Université de Bordeaux. Ouvrage couronné par l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1903. Pp. iv +403. THIS weighty volume, which has met with high commendation from M. Th. Ribot, represents a method that becomes increasingly popular -the application of philosophic generalization to biologic, sociologic, and historic material. It is divided into three parts: "The Biologic Problem," "The Psychologic and Sociologic Problem," and "Conscience and the Genetic Explanation ;" and makes use of recent philosophic standpoints; in fact, is perhaps somewhat overweighted with the latest floating terminology. The treatment is throughout philosophic as opposed to sociologic, if one may use a rough (and rather misleading) popular distinction. The first part follows the custom of continental works of this class in pointing out the shortcomings of Mr. Herbert Spencer and the contradictions and deficiences of the Darwinian view of evolution. M. Richard finds the law of evolution through natural selection merely one expression of the law of the conservation of energy; and holds that a more adequate dynamic statement of the universe as a whole is to be made through tracing the development of specific phenomena by means of the genetic method, and working toward a system in which these various series may be shown to be reversible and mutually convertible. La condition de la femme dans les diverses races et civilisations. Par CH. LETOURNEAU. Avec une notice biographique par G. PAPILLAUT. ("Bibliothèque sociologique et internationale.") Paris Girard & Brière, 1903. Pp. xvi +508. Fr. II. THIS posthumous work of the indefatigable Ch. Letourneau is the last volume in his well-known series of comparative studies of social institutions. It has the merits and the grave defects of its predeces. sors. Principes de morale sociale. Par LOUIS DESCHAMPS. Paris: Félix THE theme of this book is the social necessity of Christianity, and particularly of Catholicism. It makes much of the outworn philosophic antithesis between materialism and spiritualism, and is, although fortified with a brief bibliography of recent French works, conspicuously valueless as a contribution to the scientific study of social ethics. NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. Formation of a Sociological Society. There was held last week, in the rooms of the Royal Statistical Society, a conference to consider the question of the formation of a society for the promotion of scientific and philosophical studies in sociology. In the unavoidable absence of Mr. Bryce, who had agreed to take the chair, the meeting was presided over by Mr. E. W. Brarook, president-elect of the Economic Section of the British Association. Among those present were: Professors Adamson, Bosanquet, Haddon, Hewins, Geddes, and Carveth Read, Dr. C. M. Douglas, M.P., Mr. H. Samuel, M.P., Dr. J. H. Bridges, Mr. Oscar Browning, Miss Collett, Mr. T. C. Horsfall, Mr. Leonard Hobhouse, Mr. Benjamin Kidd, Mr. C. S. Loch, Dr. R. D. Roberts, Mrs. Sidney Webb, and Mr. J. Martin White. Approvals of the project to form a sociological society were read from the following, among others: Professor Alexander, Professor Bain, Professor Bastable, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Mr. F. H. Bradley, Rev. Professor Caldecott, Professor Chapman, Sir John A. Cockburn, Mr. E. Clodd, Rev. Professor E. W. Collins, Mr. A. Emmott, M.P., Rev. Principal Fairbairn, Rev. Professor Flint, Sir W. Foster, Professor Graham, Professor Ingram, Rev. F. B. Jevons, Dr. Scott, Keltie, Professor Ray Lankester, Professor Latta, Master Macdonell, Professor J. S. Mackenzie, Dr. Henry Maudsley, Dr. Leslie Mackenzie, Mr. R. Nevill, K.C., Mr. B. S. Rowntree, Mr. Bertrand Russell, the bishop of Stepney, Mr. M. E. Sadler, Mr. A. Sherwell, Professor James Seth, Professor Sorley, Professor Sully, Professor J. Arthur Thomson, Mr. H. G. Wells, and Dr. Wynn Westcott. The following letter was read from the prime minister: "10 Downing street, Whitehall, S. W., June 26, 1903. "DEAR SIR: I am obliged to you for your letter of June 24 and its inclosures. I welcome any attempt to organize sociological investigations on a strictly scientific basis. I understand this to be the object of the proposed society, and, if so, I heartily wish it success. "I remain yours faithfully, "ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR." Professor White wrote: "I regard the formation of such a society as very desirable, and the want of one with an appropriate literary organ as a very serious defect." On the motion of the chairman, seconded by Dr. C. M. Douglas, M.P., the following resolution was submitted to the meeting and unanimously adopted: "This meeting resolves that a society be formed for the promotion and organization of those studies which are increasingly pursued under the title of sociology." In support of the resolution the chairman said that any sociological society formed at the present moment would start with the great advantage over the old Social Science Association, in that a body of sociological doctrine had since then been built up by the labor of Spencer and others. But, even apart from that, it was not altogether a disadvantage for societies which had existed for a generation to be dissolved and reconstituted. The present society would be a revival of the best interests of the old Social Science Association, strengthened by the scientific work which had been done in the interval. He asked those present to very carefully consider the question whether the work that was proposed for the new society was being, or could be, done by any of the existing learned societies. For his part he thought the proposed society had work of its own to do which was not being done at present, and he asked the meeting to support this conclusion. Dr. Douglas, M.P., stated his conviction of the desirability of the formation of the society, both for the encouragement of scientific studies in sociology and also for the diffusion of the scientific spirit in popular thought about political, and social phe nomena. He referred to his connection with a sociological society which formerly existed in Edinburgh—a city which Professor Geddes had made a home of sociology. The resolution was supported by Dr. Bridges, Professor Haddon, Professor |