as such, and it is only after it that she in any sense enters on the duties of female life. The family she joins is exactly like that she has left, only it is that of another; to her a vast difference, and one which she never forgets-indeed, it is not unfrequently made painfully apparent to her at every step. What may be called the regulation Indian joint-family is one composed of the paterfamilias, all his sons and brothers, and various extraneous relatives, such as nephews, cousins, and wife's kindred, for the male part; and all their wives, in addition to his own wife and daughters, together with a sprinkling of the family widows, for the female part. In this patriarchy there are grades upon grades, both male and female, dependent chiefly upon age and distance by blood from the head of the family; and as everybody is married in India as soon as the time for it comes, the chances are that the lastmade bride is, in the nature of things, in the very lowest place. In the average Indian family the strictest domestic economy is the rule of life, and the household work is done by the women of the household, not, as with us, by paid servants. Servants there are, of course, in all Indian families, but they are, as a rule, on a totally different footing from that of the European domestic, being for the most part independent persons with a clientelle, for whom they perform certain customary services for a customary wage. The distribution of the daily work, down to the most menial kind, lies with the materfamilias, who may be best described as the oldest married woman in the family proper, for widows can have no authority. The cooking, as the work of honor, she keeps to herself, but the house-cleaning, the washing, the care of the children, the drawing of the water, the making of the beds, and so on, is done by the less dignified members of the household, as she directs; and whatever is most menial, most disagreeable, and the hardest work, is thrust upon the bride. Not only is our bride thus turned into a drudge, often unmercifully overworked, but from the day she gives up her childhood to the day of her death - it may be for sixty years- she is secluded, and sees nothing of the world outside the walls of the family enclosure. She is also, by custom, isolated as far as practicable from all the male members of that little inner world to which she is confined. Free intercourse, even with her own husband, is not permitted her while yet her youthful capabilities for joyousness exist. Every person belonging to the European races well knows how much common meals tend to social sympathy; how powerful a factor they are in promoting pleasurable family existence, and in educating the young to good manners. There is nothing of this sort in Indian upper-class society. There the men and women dine strictly apart, the women greatly on the leavings of the men, and that, too, in messes of degree, very like those in a royal naval ship. Paterfamilias dines by himself; then the other men in groups, according to standing, waited on by the women under fixed rules; and lastly the women, when the men have done, our poor young bride coming last of all, obliged often to be content, it need hardly be said, with the roughest of fare. Such, then, is one of those customs which go to make an Indian woman's existence less happy than it might be. Let us notice another, this time as to family intercourse. No imported woman may have any relations with those males who are her seniors. Every bride is such an imported woman, and all the household which she enters who are the seniors of her husband are her seniors. This at first generally includes nearly the whole family, and must necessarily for a long while include the major part of it. In all her life she never speaks to her husband's father, uncles, or elder brothers, though dwelling under the same roof, or, to speak more correctly, within the same enclosure, for an Indian house is what we should call a courtyard surrounded by sets of apartments. On the other hand, paterfamilias has not only never spoken to, but technically never even seen, any of the younger women of his varied household, except those born within it, though they all dwell under his protection and at his expense. There is another custom regarding which it is useless to pretend that it does not lead to endless misery and family squabbling, - the absolute subjugation of the women to the materfamilias. The mother-in-law is indeed an awful personage in the eyes of her sons' wives, one against whose will and caprice it is hopeless to rebel. One cannot describe her power better than by noticing a daily ceremony which symbolizes it. It amounts to wishing 'good-morning,' is called in Upper India máthá tekná, and consists of bowing down to the ground and touching it with the forehead. All the women, except her own daughters, perform it daily to the materfamilias when they first see her, and a bride must do it practically to everybody. An Indian woman's happiness in life immensely depends on her becoming the mother of a son. This at once raises her in the family estimation, which is all in all to her; insures her against the greatest bitterness of widowhood, in case that befall her; and procures her domestic authority should she survive the mature years with her husband still living. Materfamilias is a veritable queen in her own little world, often coercing her husband, commanding her sons, and ruling the rest as she pleases. The remarks just made apply, as above said, to the mothers of sons only. Again, take the case of the widow from infancy : shorn of much that women value in the world, dressed in coarse clothing, deprived of her ornaments, compelled to fast till health breaks down, made to subsist on the coarsest of food, kept out of what amusements come in the way of the rest of the household, forced into being the unpaid drudge of the family, held to be the legitimate butt of the ill nature of all, considered fit only to amuse the children, openly called and taught to think herself a creature of ill omen, - this being the cause of all the rest of her sorrows, -superstition has indeed nowhere else shown more clearly its power to pervert the reason of man. How much the women dread widowhood is exhibited to the full in the fact that to call a woman a widow is to offer her a dire insult, and from her earliest childhood a girl is taught to pray that she may die while yet the red spot, which is the sign of the married state, remains on her forehead. It must not be thought, however, that an Indian woman's life is necessarily all unhappiness. Human nature in her case is as capable of adapting itself to circumstances as elsewhere; and since the ultimate gauge of permanent individual happiness is suitability of temperament to immediate surroundings, many a woman in India must be so constituted as to be quite content with the life she is called upon to lead, and in fact to enjoy it. When a girl is naturally sedate, yielding, and good-natured, of blunt susceptibilities, limited aspirations, and strong religious emotions, she will give in to her mother-in-law, avoid quarrelling without effort, follow the course of life laid down for her without demur, thoroughly believe it to be the only desirable life to lead, find the innumerable restrictions imposed upon her not unwelcome, and become contented with her contracted sphere, and, if those about her happen to be kind, be quite as happy as any girl in the world. But the potentialities for misery involved in her surroundings are enormous, and, where such is the case, to argue that misery is not the frequent result would be to argue against human nature. Such is the life of Indian women as described by Captain Temple; and there seems to be little to deprive it of its gloom, except the frequent holidays and the feasts that attend them. He tells us, however, that the women themselves are the strongest supporters of the social system which dooms them to such a life; and this he attributes in part to religious sentiment, and in part to the well-known fact, that women, all the world over, are the strongest advocates of social rules and ceremonies. As to the best methods of improving the women's lot, the author of the paper spoke somewhat hesitatingly. He thinks that something may be accomplished by the native monotheistic church known as the Brahmo Somaj; and he alluded favorably to the efforts of certain missions of European origin, and to the society organized under the auspices of Lady Dufferin for furnishing medical aid to women. He took occasion to reprobate the practice of child-marriage, and expressed the hope that it may be disallowed by law. There is now pending in the Indian courts a case in which the question of the legality of such marriage has been raised; and if the decision should be against its legality, an important reform would thus be wrought. It is evident, however,, that the main cause of the evils that Captain Temple has pointed out, is the system of caste; and so long as this system prevails, there can be no satisfactory improvement in the life of Indian women. MINCHIN'S STATICS. IN the third edition of his valuable treatise on statics, of which the second volume has recently appeared, Professor Minchin has enlarged the work by about two-thirds of its previous amount. The new matter is almost all contained in the second volume, and consists largely in an exposition of the theory of screws, a chapter on astatic equilibrium, and very large additions to the chapters on the theory of attraction, electrostatics, and the theory of strains and stresses. There are also other important additions, notably in the chapter on virtual work. The theory of attraction is far more extensively treated than in the second edition, the space devoted to it being 122 pages as against 37. Spherical harmonics are introduced in the present edition, and it may be mentioned that the author proposes and employs the term 'Laplacian' to denote a Laplace's coefficient. In the preface to the second volume the author lays stress on the fact that he has, in the chapter on attractions, explicitly adopted the C. G. S. system, in order to constantly fix the mind of the student on the concrete realities for which his symbols stand. This is undoubtedly most desirable; but we cannot help suspecting that the importance of this and similar points of discipline, as objects of a scientific treatise, are overestimated by Professor Minchin and other English writers. It is A treatise on statics. By GEORGE M. MINCHIN. Vol. ii. Oxford, Clarendon pr., 1886. 8°. certainly going to great extremes to say, that, "without this definiteness of idea, no knowledge of the slightest value can exist." However, no harm would probably be done by this excess of what is certainly in itself a merit, were it not that the constant endeavor to insure the student's good grip of his tools throws into the background all considerations of elegance, and often interferes with unity of treatment and a harmonious development of the subject. In these features, Professor Minchin's work leaves much to be desired; but its comprehensiveness, the fulness and clearness of its explanations, and its richness in examples, make it extremely valuable both as a text-book and as a work of reference. Its usefulness in the latter capacity has been increased by the addition of an alphabetical index. ROYCE'S CALIFORNIA. THIS work is the seventh in the series of · American commonwealths,' now in course of publication under the editorship of Mr. Horace E. Scudder. The author, who is already known to the readers of Science, is a native of California; and his work, as he himself tells us, has been a labor of love. It deals but slightly with the early history of the country, when it was under Mexican rule, but takes up the subject at the time when our government was seeking to gain possession. This was in 1846; and the work closes with the final establishment of order in the state in 1856, thus covering a period of ten years. The The work is properly divisible into two parts, the first treating of the conquest of the country by the United States, and the second of the politics of the state itself after the war was over. reviewer is obliged to say that the book has grave faults of style and treatment, particularly in the earlier part. The style is verbose, and the chapters that treat of the conquest are carried to such a length that few persons will have the patience to read them through. Mr. Royce, like most other people, regards the Mexican war and its accessories as little creditable to the American nation; though, of course, he recognizes the good results that have actually flowed from it. He thinks, too, that we might have got California by peaceful means, or at least with the consent of its inhabitants, if we had pursued the right course; and that we failed in this, he thinks is due to the misconduct of some of our military and naval officers. He is specially severe on Captain Frémont, whom he regards as mainly responsible for the fighting that occurred in Cali American commonwealths. California. By JOSIAH ROYCE, Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1886. 16°. fornia, and consequently for the animosities and race-hatreds that it engendered. In the fourth and fifth chapters, the author treats of the struggle for order' between the lawabiding citizens on the one hand, and the criminal elements on the other. Congress having neglected to provide a permanent territorial government for California, the people met of their own motion in the autumn of 1849, and organized as a state, which was soon after admitted into the union. When this had been done, however, the struggle with the lawless elements of society was only just begun; and it took seven years longer to reduce the whole state to an orderly condition. The causes of the long continuance of social disorder were, in Mr. Royce's opinion, two, the general sense of irresponsibility due to the irruption of a crowd of fortune-hunters; and the animosity of the American settlers toward the Mexican inhabitants on the one hand, and foreigners on the other; to which we would add the political incapacity of the Mexican inhabitants themselves. In his last chapter the author treats briefly of the land question in California. When our government took possession of the country, there were many tracts of land the ownership of which was doubtful, and this would have caused much difficulty in any case. But our people saw fit to treat the ownership of all tracts as doubtful, and compelled the landholders to prove their titles in the courts as a prerequisite to having them recognized. The courts, however, sustained the vested rights of the proprietors; and Mr. Royce thinks that the whole history of California "has illustrated the enormous vitality of formally lawful ownership in land.” SCIENCE. FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1886. COMMENT AND CRITICISM. BY THE LAST STEAMER from Honolulu we received a letter from our correspondent giving an account of the present condition of the islands (p. 73). The great volcano Kilauea has just passed through a period of inaction. For seven years lakes of fire had been constantly visible. On the 6th of March last the amount of liquid lava flowing in various directions from the familiar lakes or craters called Halemaumau, New Lake, and the Little Beggar, was uncommonly abundant. The following day and night sharp earthquake shocks disturbed the residents at the Volcano house; and immediately afterwards the liquid entirely disappeared, leaving an irregular cavity 3,360 feet in length, and wide enough to embrace the areas of the three great openings. The greatest depth of the liquid removed was 580 feet. Quietness and darkness reigned till the 4th of June, when a new opening showed molten lava about forty feet in diameter. Three weeks later, June 25, the fire came back in earnest, filling up the old Halemaumau and some other portions of the caldera. For a long time to come, therefore, visitors may expect the old-time grand volcanic displays. THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION was organized in 1876 at Philadelphia, and the movement was followed at once in England by the founding of the Library association of the United Kingdom in the following year. Subsequent meetings of our own association have been held in New York, Boston, Washington, Cincinnati, and Buffalo, and the annual meeting of a year ago at Lake George. During all this period, Mr. Justin Winsor of the Harvard college library has been the president of the association. A great variety of circumstances has contributed to the interest and importance of the general meeting which was held in July at Milwaukee, under the presidency of Dr. W. F. Poole. To found libraries is the fashion to-day; and the librarians of our country have wisely organized to secure the best results from such splendid bequests as those of Pratt and of PeaNo. 181.-1886. body to the city of Baltimore, of the Seymour fund to Auburn, of the Forbes bequest to Northampton, and of the Newberry legacy to Chicago. Efficient management of such funds cannot fail to inspire a like generosity elsewhere. Also the movement toward a correlation of the public library and the public school is one whose success thus far appears to justify the confident expectation of future results of the highest moment. The continued success of The library journal, the inception of a new periodical entitled Library notes, and the assured inauguration of the Columbia college school of library economy under the direction of Professor Dewey in January next, are among the noteworthy progressive features of library interests. We find the librarians insuring the success of their ventures in bibliography and indexing, through the co-operative method, now so thoroughly successful as a principle in matters commercial. The reforms of the last few years in library management are most encouraging, and the librarians are now suggesting the propriety of dignifying their work with the title learned profession.' We find them venturing, a little early, perhaps, the expression library science: ' in short, their position has become largely aggressive. While, however, there is much in the new movement that is the subject of adverse criticism, no disinterested person can overlook the vast deal of good that has already been secured. There is, withal, need of continual care, lest, in the drudgery of endless details, the meaning of the proper integration of all these differentials be lost sight of; and there seems to be ground for the apprehension lest, with the rapidly increasing conveniences for library-work, the too great convenience of mere appliances may hamper individual freedom in the use of libraries. Also there is need of perpetual distinction between the mere reader and the thorough student; and in the equipment and management of a library, only the keenly discriminating intellect detects the proper relationship of the two. It very often happens that much of what the tools of the library will accomplish for the reader, the student whose aim is culture will prefer to do for himself. There is entire safety in predicting the ultimate outcome of all such issues: while the reader may himself be willing to work as a mere cog in the library wheel, the cultured student prefers to make the library merely an auxiliary in his own development. NEW ZEALAND AND THE RECENT ERUPTION. NEW ZEALAND forms one link of the great volcanic chain that girdles the Pacific Ocean, from South Shetland and Cape Horn up through the Andes, Mexico, British Columbia, and Alaska, crossing into Asia through the Aleutian Islands, and stretching south through the Kurile Islands, Japan, Ladrone Islands, Philippines, and West Indies, to Mounts Erebus and Terror, in the antarctic zone. The greatest volcanic energy is found where this great girdle crosses the torrid zone, — in the northern Andes, Central America, and Mexico, to the east; and in the Philippines and West Indies, to the west. Here the great stresses and pressures caused by the slow cooling and contraction of the crust of the earth are perhaps increased by others due to the centrifugal force of its rapid rotation on its axis. New Zealand lies a thousand miles south-east of Australia, in latitude 40° south, longitude 175° east, the antipodes of Spain, and comprises two large islands (North Island and South Island), with numberless smaller ones around their shores, an area, in all, of about 100,000 square miles, or nearly that of Great Britain and Ireland. The accompanying physical map of the islands will indicate at a glance the general topographic features. The centre of North Island is occupied by lofty mountains, which send off spurs in various directions to the coast, and are covered with forests from their bases nearly to their summits. The north-western peninsula abounds in fertile and well-watered valleys, and the main body of the island is characterized by gently sloping hilly ranges and low-lying tablelands, varied here and there by volcanic peaks, and covered with a luxuriant growth of timber. In the south centre is a wild highland region, seldom visited by travellers. South Island is very different. The snowy peaks of the great southern Alps stretch along its western side, from ten to thirteen thousand feet in height, densely wooded to the snow-line. To the west are vast snow-fields and glaciers; and the coast is deeply and sharply indented by bays and fiords, which, with the numerous lakes of glacial origin, remind one strongly of the coast of Norway, although 30° nearer the equator. A low range lies along the centre of the island, with spurs at right angles, and numerous ravines through which the rivers break their way to the south-east. Farther east are terraces and plains. North Island, the scene of the recent eruption, is somewhat smaller than South Island, and is about the size of Cuba, though stretching north and south, instead of east and west. The lake district, or region in the north-east centre of the island, has been well called the wonderland of the world, and for magnificent scenery and wonderful development of geysers, fumaroles, and hot springs, comes second only to our own Yellowstone park, if indeed it be not its peer. In the volcanic district, stretching from Mount Egmont, the western promontory, north-eastward through the centre of the island to White Island in the Bay of Plenty, there have been hitherto but two active volcanoes, -Tongariro (6,500 feet), a peak 30 miles south of Lake Taupo; and Wakari (860 feet), on White Island. The great snow-capped dome of Ruapehu, just south of Tongariro, and the highest point in the island (9,190 feet); Mount Egmont (8,200 feet), and the great volcanic promontory on which it stands; and hundreds of other extinct craters and vast fields of lava, tufa, and scoriae, these all bear witness to the energy of volcanic action in comparatively recent time. And yet there has been no serious eruption till now, within the memory of European settlers, and even the Maori traditions give no account of Earthquakes, however, are not uncommon, though seldom sufficiently severe to cause great destruction, Cook Strait being regarded as the centre of the region generally disturbed: 342 were recorded from 1869 to 1879, and 28 in 1882, only one of which was at all severe, while ten were described as smart,' and the other seventeen only slight tremors. The most severe shock of which there is any record occurred the evening of Jan. 23, 1855, and caused great destruction in Wellington. Many fissures in the earth, landslides, and a great sea-wave were caused, and minor shocks followed it at decreasing intervals for about three months. There are many evidences that a gradual elevation of the whole country is going on; as, for instance, rocks are now visible in Cook Strait where there were none when the country was first discovered. This indicates that earthquakes or other disturbances are likely to occur, and helps us to understand the late eruption. one. Lake Taupo, the great lake in the centre of the island, 1,250 feet above sea-level, 30 miles long, and 20 broad, covering an area of 250 square miles, occupies a depression caused by some great eruption, and is surrounded by cliffs of lava a thousand feet in height, with a little extinct crater |