Large Pages Research Articles

Divided We Fought: A Pictorial History of the War, 1861-1865 (review)

Book Reviews115 The publication of Last Full Measure completes a notable milestone in Lincoln biography. Here for the first time, in a multi-volumned work, is the sixteenth President as seen by two most capable historical scholars. Objective and measured throughout, the four volumes of Lincoln the President complement the four volumes of Carl Sandburg's Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, wherein the Chief Executive is interpreted biographically yet lyrically by America's great poet. Each of these treatments adds to our understanding of Lincoln and of his stature among the great men of the ages. Leroy H. Fischer Stillwater, Oklahoma Divided We Fought: A Pictorial History of the War, 1861-1865. Author of the text and General Editor: David Donald. Picture Editors: Hirst D. Milhollen and Milton Kaplan. Caption Editors: Milton Kaplan and Helen Stuart. (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1953. Pp. 452. $10.00.) the "standard" collection of civil war photographs is the ten-volume Photographic History of the Civil War, published in 1912. Although for comprehensiveness this great collection will probably never be surpassed, it has long been out of print, it suffers from a topical arrangement and a rambling text, and its visual qualities are diminished by methods of reproduction which are, by modern standards, very inadequate. What has been needed is a selection of the best photographs, reproduced by the best modern processes, and arranged in a continuous series so as to give the reader a visual impression of the progress of the war and of the men who fought it. Divided We Fought is intended to fill that need, and it does so magnificendy. The picture editors have chosen some four hundred photographs illustrating the war in most of its phases, giving special emphasis to soldiers and officers, battlefield terrain, encampments, ordnance and trains, and naval vessels (the supply services and the whole civilian side of the war have had to be left out) . They have drawn chiefly on negatives in the Mathew Brady Collection in the Library of Congress and the collections in the National Archives, the L. C Handy Studios, and the Cook Collection in Richmond. A few pictures are included from private sources. Readers familiar with some of these negatives — even as reproduced in recent books — will be astonished at the superior clarity, detail, and tonal quality of the plates in this volume, and will find their admiration for Mathew Brady and his anonymous assistants proportionately increased. The reproductions have been handsomely mounted on large pages and excellent paper; usually there is but a single illustration on a page, and the reader's attention to the illustration is not distracted by elaborate captions, borders, or heavy typography in the accompanying text. It is hard to imagine a more skillful and tasteful job of reproduction and design. Although the Civil War probably remains the best photographed war in history, the pictures have the inescapable defect of all time-exposures—they are static. The best pictures are portraits of soldiers, shots of serene battlefields empty of men, and pictures of these battlefields with men in the motionless attitudes of death. Too much of the war seems posed, and although we know the technical reasons for this, we miss the motion and commotion of battle. 116CIVIL WAR HISTORY In a commendable effort to recapture some of the movement and confusion of war, the editors have added nearly a hundred reproductions of battlefield sketches by Alfred Waud, William Waud, Edwin Forbes, and others. These sketches were badly reproduced in contemporary magazines, their lightness and detail destroyed by the heavy hand of the engraver, but as presented here they provide a striking addition to the photographic record. They range from battlefield panoramas, showing the terrain and disposition of troops, to detailed renderings of small action scenes. Some of them are meticulously literal; others are brilliantly impressionistic. Invariably they have a vigor and an immediacy which the photographs often lack. The illustrations are arranged in fourteen chapters, which follow the progress of the fighting from Sumter to Appomattox. Continuity, and context and commentary for the pictures, are provided by Mr. Donald's accompanying text. The problems in preparing such a work are formidable. The illustrations are the...

Constitutional Law in 1952–1953

There was no change in the personnel of the Supreme Court during the 1952 Term. But following the close of the Term, on September 8, 1953, Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, who had been appointed to the Court by President Truman in 1946, died unexpectedly at the age of 63. To replace him President Eisenhower gave a recess appointment to Governor Earl Warren of California on October 2. The new Chief Justice was sworn in on October 5.Two important developments in the constitutional law field during the period under review occurred outside the Court. One was the publication by the Government Printing Office, in 1953, of a newly revised annotatedConstitution of the United States, prepared by the Legislative Reference Service under the editorship of Edward S. Corwin. The annotations come down to June 30, 1952. The last annotated Constitution was published in 1938 under the editorship of W. C. Gilbert. The new work, an ample book of about 1400 large pages, is indispensable for students of American government.Noteworthy also was the appearance of the first two volumes of William Winslow Crosskey's monumental study of the American Constitution, under the title ofPolitics and the Constitution in the History of the United States.

Man in his Time

In a recent excellent review of Barth's Dogmatik III/2 (Scottish Journal of Theology, March 1949) the Rev. W. A. Whitehouse found himself unable through the exigencies of space to deal, save in the briefest way, with that great section of the book which treats of man in his time. Very rightly he appealed for a speedy translation, for only thus could the scope and richness of the treatment of this theme become apparent to those who do not read German. It is indeed the case that any summary of this section which extends to over two hundred and fifty large pages, and in which the thought moves forward with the most careful precision while continually opening out new perspectives, must appear somewhat jejune and lifeless. In responding therefore to the request of the editors to provide such a summary I find myself confronted with a most difficult task. I can only request readers to read what I have written in conjunction with Mr Whitehouse's article and with that of Professor Souček which follows it. In that way a summary, unsatisfactory as it must be, may not be entirely useless.

American Men of Science

THERE is no published record in Great Britain from which one can obtain the scientific record of a particular individual, apart from those included in “Who's Who”. Attempts have been made to meet the need, but they have not persisted. North America is more fortunate. Since 1906 it has had “American Men of Science”, now in its seventh edition. It is a bulky volume, in spite of the large page used, but the type is admirably clear, as should be the case in any reference book.

Scientific Societies of North America

THE U. S. National Research Council has produced a fourth edition of its “Handbook of Scientific and Technical Societies and Institutions of the United States and Canada”(Bull. 106, Jan. 1942. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences). This well-bound volume of 389 large pages contains information relating to 1,269 bodies in the United States and its dependencies, and 143 in Canada, which “contribute to the advancement of knowledge through their meetings, publications or other resources”, and are included in the wide field of natural sciences, technology and more general organizations supporting scientific research. Agencies of the Federal Government, organizations directly controlled by universities, bodies which act through grants rather than direct by conducting research, and industrial research laboratories are excluded. In each case there are given the name and address of the organization, the chief officers, a brief history, its objects, particulars of membership, meetings, research funds and medals, and serial publications. The data have been compiled from information received from the bodies concerned. The entries are arranged alphabetically in two sections, one for the United States and one for Canada. There are subject and personnel indexes for each section. The only comparable publication in Great Britain is the “Official Year-Book of the Scientific Societies of Great Britain and Ireland”, published by Messrs. Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., for many years, but discontinued since the beginning of the War. Such reference books are of much value in the library and elsewhere.

Publications of the Hartley Botanical Laboratories

THESE publications of the Hartley Botanical Laboratories of the University of Liverpool are beautifully printed and illustrated on large pages of good paper. In them Prof. McLean Thompson records his observations of floral development in a few selected families, and supports his viewthat only through such developmental studies is it possible to interpret floral form and structure satisfactorily. In selecting the families for study, Prof. Thompson has shown himself ready to face difficulties. His choice has fallen first on the Leguminosae, one of the largest families of Dicotyledons, the very variable subfamilies Csesalpinioideae and Mimosoidese having been investigated in considerable detail, but the more uniform Papilionatse much less extensively. Next he has chosen the Lecythidacese and the Scitaminese, two groups in which the flowers exhibit a wide range of freakish forms with marked variation in the number of functional stamens. Publications of the Hartley Botanical Laboratories. Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7: Studies in Advancing Sterility, Parts I to V. By John McLean Thompson. No. 11: The Theory of Scitaminean Flowering. By John McLean Thompson. No. 3: The Life History and Cytology of Sphacelaria Bipinnata. By Hilda B. Glint. No. 5: The Cytology of Callithamnion Brachiatum. By William T. Matthias. No. 9: A Contribution to Knowledge of the Mesogloiaceae, etc. By Mary Parke. Nos. 8, 10: Studies of Flowering in Heterostyled and Allied Species, Parts I and II. By James Stirling. (Liverpool: University Press of Liverpool, 1924–1933.)

The stability of rotating masses of liquid; note to a former paper

In these Proceedings, Vol. xx (1920), pp. 198–204, the writer ventured (l.c. p. 203) on some remarks as to the reason why Sir G. Darwin and Mr Jeans had obtained discordant results for the stability of the pear-shaped figure of equilibrium, suggesting that this was due to a different mode of expansion of the functions involved. Sir G. Darwin used an infinite series of Lamé functions; Mr Jeans' method was equivalent to using the early parts from an expansion, of which every term, when expressed as an integral series of Lamé functions, would be an infinite series. At that time there was difficulty in obtaining Liapounoff's papers; since then, by the kindness of M. Belopolsky, of Pulkova, the whole of the four parts of Liapounoff's publication “Sur les figures d'équilibre peu différentes des ellipsoïdes d'une masse liquide homogène douèe d'un mouvement de rotation,” in all over 750 large folio pages, have become available; and these are now in the market. It is particularly interesting to see that the fourth part (1914) is devoted precisely to that change in the method of development which would arise in passing from Sir G. Darwin's expansion to the other expansion referred to above. And it is only by this change that Liapounoff is able to give the general proof of a form of expression of his results—in terms of polynomials and not infinite series—upon which his theorem of instability is made to depend. The careful consideration of the convergence of his expansions, which adds so greatly to the length of Liapounoff's papers, supplies materials for the proof that the expansion used in Mr Jeans' paper can be placed on a sure foundation, while Sir G. Darwin's expansion requires an estimation of the remainder.

Forensit Medicine and Toxicology

THE sixth edition of Dixon Mann's “Forensic Medicine and Toxicology,” which ranks among the foremost English text-books on the subject, is the second to be edited by Dr. William Brend. It has undergone a revision which brings it completely up-to-date; a larger page is used than in previous editions; and the number of pages is reduced. The section on insanity has been rewritten on the basis of modern psychiatrical views; and that on toxicology gives additional information on poisoning by salvarsan, tetrachlorethane, T.N.T., and the gases of warfare, and on the infections formerly ascribed to ptomaine poisoning.

Allgemeine Physiologie. Ein Grundriss der Lehre vom Leben

THIS handsome and well-illustrated volume of some six hundred large octavo pages, by a young German physiologist already favourably known by his special researches, is ambitious in design but praiseworthy in purpose. The aut hor complains of the too narrow character of most of the physiological inquiries and writings of the present time; and not without some justice. A cursory reader of a modern text-book of physiology (of my own, for instance), might easily come to the conclusion that most of our current physiological doctrines had been arrived at by the exclusive study of the frog, the rabbit, and the dog, with occasional help from that of the horse, of a fish, of a bird, arid of man. All the wealth of opportunity for observation and experiment offered by the innumerable other forms of life, seems to be neglected. And there follows naturally the inference that physiology would gain a healthier tone and broader grasp, by widening the field of its study. Years ago the great Johannes Muller, in his immortal work, took such a broad survey; later on, Carpenter followed the same course in his “Comparative Physiology,” a work to which I, at least, owe much; and now Dr. Verworn attempts to present, in a general view, the light which the multitudinous special researches of more recent days have shed on the fundamental phenomena of life. Allgemeine Physiologie. Ein Grundriss der Lehre vom Leben. Von Max Verworn. (Jena: Fischer, 1895.)

The Dispensatory of the United States of America.

A centennial edition of any book is noteworthy. Surely a book has proved its value when its age mounts to the hundred year mark and it has passed through twenty-one editions. For this, the twenty-second edition, congratulations are extended to the editors and contributing editors who have amassed the informative material in more than 1,800 large pages. The book is divided into three parts. The first part contains the discussion of drugs in the new U. S. Pharmacopeia, the National Formulary and the British Pharmacopeia. The second part records a large number of chemicals and unofficial drugs, many of the latter being taken from New and Nonofficial Remedies. Included in this part is a summary of a number of diagnostic tests and an excellent article on hydrogen ion concentration. The third part contains the general tests and standards of the U. S. Pharmacopeia, as well as a collection of reagents

Scientific Serials

American Journal of Mathematics, vol. x. No. 2 (Baltimore, January 1888).—In the opening paper (pp. 99-130), entitled “Soluble Quintic Equations with Commensurable Coefficients,” G. P. Young develops at some length the application of his general method, described in vol. vi., to the solution of twenty quintic equations, such as x5 - 10x3 - 20x2 - 1505x - 7412 = 0.—Mr. D. Barcroft discusses (pp. 131-40) forms of nonsingular quintic curves. The subject is profusely illustrated by drawings of 47 curves on twelve large pages (interpolated between pp. 140 and 141).—F. Morley (pp. 141-48) writes on critic centres in cubics.—The expression of syzygies among perpetuants by means of partitions, by Captain P. A. MacMahon, R.A. (pp. 149-68), is a very interesting addition to the author's previous papers on the subject.—The number concludes with three short papers: “Démonstration directe de la formule Jacobienne de la transformation cubique,” by the Abbé Faà de Bruno; note on geometric inferences from algebraic symmetry, by F. Morley; and “Surfaces telles que l'origine se projette sur chaque normale au milieu des centres de courbure principaux” (pp. 175-86), by P. Appell.