PUBLICATIONS

THE EARLY EMBRYOLOGY OF THE CHICK. Bradley M. Patten '11. P. Blakiston's Son & Co., Philadelphia, 1920.

Students of medicine and biology especially will be interested in this compact little volume by Bradley Patten, Assistant Professor of Histology and Embryology at the School of Medicine, Western Reserve University. It describes the development of the hen's egg through the first four days of incubation, with great clarity and real appreciation of the difficulties such a subject presents to beginner.

Since the earliest days of biological science, the hen's egg, because of the ease with which material can be secured and the sequence of changes observed, has been the most common object with which to demonstrate the phenomena and laws of embryology, that science which is concerned with the development of the individual from the egg. And even today the difficulties of securing mammalian material for the study of the earliest stages compel the use of the hen's egg, as the fundamental laws of development are everywhere the same. With the accumulation of observations mads by many successive generations of embryologists the mass of data acquired has grown beyond the limits of the introductory course, so that Professor Patten's skill in selecting the fundamental points for emphasis and passing over the phenomena peculiar to the chick makes his text-book a valuable aid to teacher and student.

The workmanship is deserving of high praise. While the author follows the usual succession of stages which mark important changes in the structure of the embryo, he continually, emphasizes the necessity of understanding the manner in which these changes take place—the dynamics of development Each chapter opens with a brief outline of its subject matter and the separate subdivisions are clearly indicated by marginal headings. The illustrations many of which are original, are definite to the point of diagrams and labelled in great detail. The general format and typography are highly creditable to the publishers. Few typographical errors and none of fact have been observed by the reviewer.

Professor Patten as many Dartmouth men will recall, is the son of our own Professor Patten. It is unusual, to say the least to find published in the same year, books in the same field of science, by father and by son, both of which are so sure to find places in the bookshelves of teachers of that science.

W. S.

SKETCHES OF SOVIET RUSSIA, by John Varney '09, New York; Nicholas L. Brown, 1920.

In this volume Mr. Varney has collected various writings based upon his experiences in Russia in the service of the Y. M. C. A. from April, 1918, to March, 1919. His stay in Soviet Russia was limited to about three months in the summer of 1918, and most of this time he spent in Kazan. He saw little to impress him with the terrors of Bolshevik rule. The war and the revolution seemed to have affected the majority of the population but slightly at the time. The subsequent troubles of Russia he attributes to civil war instigated and supported by the allies, rather than to defects in the Soviet system.

The beginning of the Allied campaign against the Bolsheviki and especially the announcement that the Americans and Japanese had agreed on joint intervention in Siberia made it no longer safe for the Y. M. C. A. men to stay in Soviet Russia. They hastily departed for Stockholm, from there were sent to North Russia, and at Kola, nine miles from Murmansk, Mr. Varney spent the winter. The sketches of life in the far north, of winter sports and trips by reindeer teams, social gaieties of soldiers and civilians, and the Russian Christmas, make this chapter the most interesting in the book.

In the chapter, "Russian New-Mindedness," the author gives his personal estimate of Russian character. He believes the Russians to be neither cruel nor bloodthirsty, despite the tales of Red and White executions. Simplicity (by some termed childishness), eagerness and tolerance he considers their predominant qualities. Other observers do not usually rate tolerance as one of the striking virtues of the Bolsheviki.

Mr. Varney's liking for the Russian people and his sympathy with the experiment in government which they have attempted, are unmistakable. However, he does not try to convince us that the Bolsheviki have actually established anything that is at present superior to the old order, but rather limits himself to suggesting that the horrors of Bolshevism may have been overdrawn and that good may come of it in spite of the hardships and injustice that have accompanied the revolution.

The author's account of his personal experiences are well written and entertaining, hut the three stories, "Wood Flame," "Smashing the Lines" and "Honey Lou" are fiction of a very mediocre quality.

The dialogue, "Whole Cloth," in which Russians of various creeds, an American, and an Austrian war-prisoner discuss Bolshevism from their different points of view, is possibly Bolshevik propaganda, but hardly dangerous propaganda, for few will have the patience to read it through.

R. W. J.

"The Whirlpool of the Balkans" by Senator George H. Moses '90 appears in the February issue of the National Geographic Magazine.

"Our Dearest Antipathies" by Dr. Francis E. Clark '73 appears in the Atlantic Monthly for February.

Henry N. Sanborn '02 is the author of "The Field and Functions of National Professional Organization" in the January 15th number of The Library Journal.

"A New Movement in Education" by Stanwood Cobb '03 is published in the February number of the Atlantic Monthly.

Button & Co., New York City, are the publishers of "Political Summary of the United States 1789-1920," by E. F. Clymer '96 medical.

"Sailing South,"by Philip S. Marden '94, has been published by the Houghton Mifflin Co. This book will be reviewed in a later issue of this magazine.

"Old World Traits Transplanted," by Herbert A. Miller '99, and Robert E. Park, has been published by the Harper and Brothers, New York City.

The Ronald Press have recently issued "Trade Association: Their Organization and Management," by Emmett Hay Naylor '09. This will be reviewed in a later issue.

Fred H. Harris '11 is the author of "Up a Mountain on Skis" in the February issue of Country Life in America. This is an account of a trip up Mt. Whiteface in the Adirondacks.