Intended primarily as a guide for the use of diplomats, it is at the same time a work of great value to students of international law and diplomatic history. It is packed with documentary and other illustrative material: specimen copies of letters of credence, full powers, instructions, extracts from notes, quotations from diplomatic manuals, etc., most of which are printed in the original language in which they were written, this on the principle that the attempt to translate them into English would in many cases impair their value. Besides, the author assumes, very properly, that those who are likely to use a work of this kind will be able to read French, the language in which most of them are written. The illustrative material is supplemented by comment and explanation and elucidated by incidents drawn from diplomatic history and practice, with both of which the learned author possesses the widest familiarity. Altogether the treatise is a storehouse of useful information based on extensive observation and research and it will prove indispensable to diplomats as well as to international lawyers and students of diplomacy and diplomatic history. In an epilogue written since the outbreak of the present war, adverting to the oft repeated charge that the war was due to the failure of diplomacy and referring to the attempt to discredit what is described as "secret diplomacy," Sir Ernest Satow remarks that those who have made such charges have drawn wrong inferences and have erroneously assumed that successful diplomacy can be carried on upon the house tops. The character of diplomacy, he adds, has steadily risen since the thirty years' war to an ever higher moral level; policy is no longer employed exclusively to serve dynastic ends; the principle of nationalities has finally predominated over the interest of rulers; the methods of diplomacy have improved; it is occupied much less with trivial questions of precedence, etiquette and intrigue, and for the most part, it bears the impress of honesty, frankness, and loyalty. The value of what is otherwise an interesting and valuable contribution to the literature of diplomatic practice and history is further enhanced by three bibliographies; one containing a list of the source material upon which the author has himself drawn, a list of the more valuable works in various languages on international law, primarily for the use of diplomats, and a list of biographies and memoirs for the use of "junior members" of the diplomatic service. University of Illinois. SHAMBAUGH, BENJAMIN F. (Ed. by). JAMES W. GARNER. Statute Law-Making in Iowa (Volume III of Iowa Applied History Series). This volume is most timely, and sets a standard by which other states may be able to judge their legislative procedure. Historical origins are used to trace the development of present practices, and even though the various papers are limited to Iowa procedure, they are useful to legislators of other states. The study is exhaustive including all legislation and practice from the organization of the Legislative Assembly under the provisions of the Organic Act of the Territory in 1838. In addition to presenting an analysis of statute drafting in Iowa, the writers point out some general tendencies in legislative procedure. That statute-making is becoming a science requiring specialization in training and practice is clearly shown. Increasing attention to legislation is reducing the number of acts passed each session. The growing tendency toward general legislation rather than special is pointed out. Two most interesting and valuable sections are those on the drafting of statutes and the form and language of statutes. Immediate causes for defective statutes, according to the author, are the imperfection of human speech in general and the language and style of statutes in particular. Over legislation, coupled with poor drafting, he says, is the great cause of loose laws; and further, that legislatures rely altogether too much upon the courts for the correction of mistakes and relief from abuses or omissions in the bills passed. The content of the volume is made up from the following sections: History and Organization of the Legislature in Iowa, by John E. Briggs; Law-making Powers of the Legislature, by Benjamin F. Shambaugh; Methods of Statute Law-making, by O. K. Patton; Form and Language of Statutes, by Jacob Van Der Zee; Codification of Statute Law, by Dan E. Clark; Interpretation and Construction of Statutes, by O. K. Patton; The Drafting of Statutes, by Jacob Van Der Zee; The Committee System, by Frank E. Horack; and Some Abuses Connected with Statute Law-making, by Ivan L. Pollock. University of Pennsylvania. F. W. BREIMEIER. STOWELL, ELLERY C. and MUNRO, HENRY F. International Cases. Vol. II, War and Neutrality. Pp. xvii, 662. Price, $3.50. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1916. EVANS, LAWRENCE B. Leading Cases on International Law. Pp. xix, 477. Price, $3.50. Chicago: Callaghan and Company, 1917. For many years it was taken for granted that international law could not be studied by the case method. The result was that the teaching of this subject took the form of a branch of ethics rather than of law. Since the appearance of Snow's cases on international law, and particularly the valuable collection edited by James Brown Scott, there has been a marked change of opinion with reference to the method of teaching the subject. With the admirable collection now placed at the disposal of students by Professors Stowell and Munro, there is no longer any reason why international law should not take as definite a place in the curriculum of our law schools as any other branch of jurisprudence. The two volumes of Professors Stowell and Munro contain the most comprehensive collection available to students of the subject. The volume before us deals with the law of war and the law of neutrality. The cases have been selected with great care, but what is of equal value to students is that the classification of cases and the sub-division of subjects is far more elaborate than in any previous work on the subject. These volumes will serve to clarify many of the vague and in some cases erroneous ideas prevailing with reference to the nature and content of international law. Mr. Evans's book, although not as exhaustive as the work of Scott and Stowell, possesses the great advantage of placing a collection of convenient size in the hands of students for use in connection with special courses on the subject. In the arrangement of cases Mr. Evans has wisely followed the usual subdivisions of the treatises on International Law, so that his book can readily be used with any of the standard commentaries. His cases have been selected with the greatest care and adequately illustrate every phase of the subject. One cannot help but feel that at the close of the war it will be necessary to publish new editions of many of these case books, owing to the fact that there will be available a large number of decisions modifying accepted jurisprudence with reference to questions of international law. University of Pennsylvania. L. S. ROWE. WILLOUGHBY, WILLIAM F.; WILLOUGHBY, WESTEL W.; and LINDSAY, Samuel MCCUNE. The Financial Administration of Great Britain. Pp. xv, 361. Price, $2.75. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1917. This report is the result of an investigation made in Great Britain in the summer of 1914 by the authors acting as an unofficial commission, and is now published by the recently established Institute for Government Research. It presents a detailed and somewhat technical account of the administrative procedure in the United Kingdom in connection with the preparation of estimates, the action thereon in Parliament, the disbursement of public funds, the Treasury control over expenditures, the audit of public accounts and the system of financial reports. This is based on a close study of official documents and reports, especially the report of the Select Committee on National Expenditure (1902), and the Report of the Select Committee on Estimates (1912). This study should be of great value in working out improved budget and finance methods in this country. And in the conclusions, the report calls attention to some fundamental factors which have been hitherto almost ignored in most of the writings on these subjects, the distinction between formulating a budgetary program and the action by the legislative body on such a program and the importance of organs and a procedure for an effective supervision over the acts of administrative officers. Serviceable as is this report, it is in some respects open to criticism. In view of the use made of the report of the Select Committee on Estimates in 1912, it is surprising that there is nothing from the reports of this committee in 1913 and 1914. The latter reports deal with the Navy and Army Estimates; and an examination of them shows (as is pointed out by E. H. Young in The System of National Finance, 1915) that the Treasury control over the estimates for military expenditures is much less intensive and effective than it is over the civil service estimates, and that the decision on these important parts of the budget not infrequently is made in the Cabinet. One of the principles of the British system is stated (p. 275) to be that the Treasury, in exercising control over the preparation of estimates and expenditure of funds, acts in effect as an agent of Parliament. But it is not made clear how the Treasury is now any more an agent of Parliament than are the other executive departments. It appears that the only effective parliamentary action on finance in Great Britain is the criticism of the Committee on Public Accounts on the audited financial reports. Not even the House of Commons either controls or effectively criticises the financial proposals of the ministry. The recent Committee on Estimates was an indication that the need for a more direct supervision by the House of Commons has been felt in Great Britain. In view of this situation, it would be a serious mistake to introduce in this country a budget system which would reduce our legislative bodies to the function of ratifying executive proposals, as is now the case in the British system. JOHN A. FAIRLIE. University of Illinois. SOCIOLOGY CASTLE, W. E. Genetics and Eugenics. Pp. vi, 353. Price, $1.50. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1916. This is a welcome addition to the rapidly growing list of books which set forth the newer results and problems of biology and show their application to human life. Moreover, it is well illustrated. Beginning with Darwin, we are taken through the period of Weismann and the controversy over the question of the inheritance of acquired characters. Then we are told of the Mutation theory and the work of Mendel and his successors. Several chapters deal with the unit characters of rodents, cattle and horses, sheep, swine, dogs, cats, poultry and insects. Attention is then directed to the questions of sex determination, size inheritance, and some of the other disputed points. Beginning with page 233 human heredity is discussed. The author questions (on social rather than physical grounds) the wisdom of crosses between widely separated human races and holds that there is not enough evidence to justify the popular objection on physical grounds alone. Much information has been gathered with reference to human heredity, but Dr. Castle feels that a large part of this is unreliable "because of the careless or biased way in which it has been gathered, or the uncritical treatment which it has received in publication." He feels that in America there is a danger that the biologically unfit may increase more rapidly than the biologically fit. Yet there is great danger in the assumption that we now know enough to start a program of positive eugenics. "Practically, therefore, we are limited to such eugenic measures as the individual will voluntarily take in the light of present knowledge of heredity." In the appendix is given a translation of Mendel's original paper on Experiments in Plant-Hybridization. The volume will be of great interest and value to laymen as well as biologists; indeed, we may assume that the latter know the facts now. University of Pennsylvania. CARL KELSEY. DAVIES, GEORGE R. Social Environment. Pp. 149. Price, 50 cents. Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1917. Since Professor L. F. Ward wrote his Dynamic Sociology and Psychic Factors of Civilization, increasing emphasis has been laid upon the psychological rather than the biological interpretation of society. Professor Davies is a protagonist of this development. Pointing out that the biological point of view, with its concept of struggle and natural selection, has led to extreme individualism, conflict and war, he champions the new sociology which will give dominance tothe spiritual forces that make for coöperation and world peace. Somewhat forcibly injected into the body of his argument is a statistical study along the lines of Ward's Applied Sociology. Using the method of correlation with Who's Who as a basis, he attempts to establish a causal relation between the environment and success. Professor Davies has hardly been fair to biology, while his emphasis on the "spiritual" forces of society contributes nothing essentially new. R. T. B. ESTABROOK, ARTHUR H. The Jukes in 1915. Pp. vii, 85. Price, $5.00. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1916. One of the best known and most used books in the last generation was the little volume by Richard L. Dugdale, telling of a physically and socially degenerate family whom he discovered in New York, and described under the title of The Jukes. The chance discovery of Dugdale's original notes a few years ago in the files of the Prison Association of New York has made it possible for Mr. Arthur H. Estabrook of the Eugenics Record Office to make a survey of the family at the present time. Mr. Estabrook has been able to include 2,820 people. As a matter of fact, no particular change is shown in the family stock. Some of the families moving into new parts of the country have improved. Others have maintained the low level of the home background. The volume is illustrated by detailed and comprehensive charts, the various members of the Juke family are numerically listed, and the fortunes of their descendants follow. The record is not bright, but it is an extremely important contribution to our knowledge of the power of social and physical heredity of human beings. C. K. HEALY, WILLIAM. Mental Conflicts and Misconduct. Pp. xi, 330. Price, $2.50. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1917. No writer in the field of criminological literature has done so much as has the author of this volume to analyze the causation underlying criminality. He has established psychological research as one of the most valuable approaches to the real understanding of the problem. In his volume on Pathological Lying, Accusation and Swindling, he studied the peculiar type of mental aberration resulting in chronic criminality so baffling to the police and the judiciary. In this work he has treated another aspect of mental causation, which finds its explanation in "mental conflicts," which he defines as "a conflict between elements |