276 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
the mark proposed by those sociologists who find analytic and genetic interpretation abortive unless it leads to a teleological section of sociology. Even M. Worms, in describing the classes of laws which it is the province of sociology to seek, does not find room for laws to apply in conscious and reflective progress. Mr. Novicow's paper fills 153 pages, and is the most elaborate defense of the "organic concept " that has yet appeared. I cannot escape the feeling that it is very largely love's labor lost. As has been said so often, all that is worth con- tending for in the case is virtually accepted by everybody, even those who scoff at the idea. The rest will either take care of itself in due time, or it is accident and exaggeration that cannot be dropped too soon. This paper should, however, be compared with a recent monograph by Dr. H. Kistiakowski, Gesellschaft uiid Einzehvesen, eine methodologische Studie {&<tx\\x\, 1899), especially pp. ig-31. This author, too, has made a distinct contribution to the analysis of our material, although he numbers himself with those who find it necessary to oppose the organic theory in terms, while positing all its essentials, and making them more evident in the body of his discussion. The organic concept controversy seems to me to have done more than all the other phases of sociological discussion put together to impeach the sociologists' sense of humor.
Professor Puglia's brief paper appears to have been suggested by Professor Vaccaro's book, Lcs bases sociologiques du droit et de i'etat {vide this Journal, Vol. IV, p. 103). His thesis is: The law of " adaptation" is doubtless a general law of the life of beings, and men among them are consequently subject to it, but for man, for human nature, it is a specific law. There is a law superior to that of adapta- tion, a law which should be considered as the supreme law of our existence, viz.: the law of progress or of perfection {perfectionnemeni). On the whole this volume is a valuable addition to our literature.
A. W. S.
Mr. Lex, or The Legal Status of Mother and Child. By Catharine Waugh McCulloch. Chicago : Fleming H. Revell Co., 1899. Pp. 81.
This little book shows that married women still have their griev- ances against the law. In England as well as in this country the old common law of husband and wife, the law of coverture, which has been aptly summarized by saying that husband and wife were one.
