"Eat an apple going to bed,
Make the doctor beg his bread,"
which is only a striking way of saying—
That apple eaten upon retiring
Is better than the doctor hiring—
a statement that may not be in accord with the teaching of the theory and practice of modern medicine.
The book before us is full of weird things that cast a peculiar light upon the past, and add new luster to the present. The human mind in the early centuries was saturated with unaccountable notions of the wildest sort. Prof. Dyer has shown a master's hand in dealing with the occult theme. He has been happy in his selections, conscientious in treatment, and clever in the grouping of the otherwise almost isolated and independent fables, superstitions, and legends.
International Law. By Henry Sumner Maine, K. C. S. I. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 234. Price, $2.75.
The series of twelve lectures here published was delivered before the University of Cambridge in 1887, by the late Sir H. Maine, then Professor of International Law on the foundation of Dr. Whewell. In speaking of the sources of international law the author says that a great part of it is Roman law spread over Europe by a late stage of the process by which the general body of Roman law had obtained authority over the same territory. It was the part of Roman law which had been called "Law of Nations," or "Law of Nature," and which was originally a collection of rules and principles common to the institutions of the various Italian races. The author next considers the history of the conception of sovereignty, and how a state acquires unappropriated territory, also what degree of occupancy constitutes a valid claim over a given area. A consideration of the law in regard to jurisdiction in territorial waters, and on board merchant ships on the high seas, leads up to the subject of naval or maritime belligerency. The Declaration of Paris occupies part of the chapter on this subject and also a separate chapter. The author thinks that the condition on which the United States offered to assent to the prohibition of privateers in this document, namely, that all private property be exempt from capture, would be a very favorable arrangement for Great Britain, whose food supplies and the goods sent to pay for them have to travel such long distances by sea. The mitigation of war is next taken up, and the means of injuring an enemy commonly prohibited are named, the subject of spies and stratagems is discussed, and the disposal of the wounded and other prisoners is treated. Certain relations of belligerents on land, comprising military occupation, capitulation, and flags of truce, together with the subjects of captures and requisitions, occupy the next two chapters. In the statute regulating his professorship, Dr. Whewell enjoined upon the occupant of the chair that he should make it his aim, in all parts of his treatment of the subject, to lay down such rules and suggest such measures as might tend to diminish the evils of war, and finally to extinguish war among nations. Accordingly, the professor devotes his closing lecture to the measures for the abatement of war proposed within recent years. In this chapter are considered the opposition to war on religious grounds, the substitution of arbitration for war, touching upon the defects of international courts, with a mention of De Molinari's proposal that it should be one of the duties of neutrals to combine to thwart the spirit of belligerency. These lectures were not prepared for publication by the author, but have passed through the press under the direction of Mr. Frederic Harrison and Mr. Frederick Pollock.
The Economic Interpretation of History. By James E. Thorold Rogers. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 547. Price, $3.
Prof. Rogers develops English history from the standpoint of an economist, and brings to his task a rich mine of records hitherto neglected. As readers of his "Six Centuries of Work and Wages" are aware, he has been a diligent delver into the elaborate accounts kept in England since the thirteenth century by farmers, builders, and landlords. These and the court rolls of manors have enabled him to ascertain the variations for six hundred years in prices, wages, rents, and taxes. We are told what people ate and drank, how they were housed and clothed, and what some of them were able to save. This new light shed upon the hearth, wardrobe, and dinner-table evidences in a very
