regulate the rights of aliens and citizens in the acquisition, holding and disposition of realty. In the same way the notes on pages 161-163 and 263-278 admirably digest the statutory provisions of the States and Terri tories dealing with the difficult and perplex ing subjects of curtesy and dower. In these instances author and editor have cooperated in text and notes; the chapter on "Home stead Rights" is due solely to the editor who placed before the practitioner and student, within the narrow compass of thirty-five pages (pp. 306-341), a satisfactory survey of the subject as it exists in the States and Ter ritories of the Union. Passing to the second volume, the chapters on mortgages offer an instance of the happy combination of author and editor, while the detailed note on foreclosure on pages 237245 is the editor's. Attention should be called to the editor's notes to contingent re mainders (pp. 554-557); the "Rule in Shel ley's Case" (p. 567); and the statute rules against perpetuities and accumulations (pp. 703-706) with which the second volume closes. The subject-matter of the third volume is simpler in its nature, but it has received the same elaborate care at the hands of the edi tor. Especial attention should be directed to the notes on "Statute Rules of Descent" (pp. 16-60); the interpolation in the text on pages 140-144; the notes on title by posses sion and limitation (pp. 148-163); void and voidable deeds (pp. 312-326); and the sum mary of the principal statutory provisions in the several States and Territories respecting wills of real property (pp. 506-522) which con cludes the body of the book. Enough has been said to show how and wherein Washburn's Treatise has been reju venated and sent forth on its career of use fulness. A fundamental defect of the original work and of the present edition should not be passed over. The treatise is practical, and is as dry as it is practical. It was meant for the practitioner, and the successive editions show that it has reached the class for which it was composed. It is not a student's book, and the underlying principles are not treated
historically in the way to point out the origin, development and probable modifications to which they may be subjected. The treatise has the faults and the virtues of a digest, and it could not be revised into a theoretical ex position of the subject for the student's guidance without an omission of much that follows the title-page. It would have to be rewritten upon wholly different lines. And even as a practitioner's hand-book it fails wholly to answer its purpose, for as Mr. Wetmore excellently said in an address before the American Bar Association (1894): "He best argues his cases who considers not how he can match his facts with precedents, as he might match from his hand in a game of dominoes, but how he can best rest the judg ment that he seeks upon the right and reason of the law." B.ut whatever the limitations of the work may be in its original plan and execution, it was, and is in its review form, the best Amer ican treatise on the law of real property. A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF INSURANCE, IN CLUDING FIRE, LIFE, ACCIDENT, CASUALTY, TITLE, CREDIT AND GUARANTY INSURANCE IN EVERY FORM. By Charles B. Elliott. Indi anapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Company. 1902. (Ivi + 531 pp.) In section 41 this book says: "It was thought at first that human life was too sa cred to be made the subject of a contract, but this idea passed, leaving the rule that it could be insured under conditions which were sup posed to neutralize the temptation of the ben eficiary to destroy the life. This safeguard is found in the rule which requires that the beneficiary of the policy must, at least when the insurance is effected, have such an inter est in the continuation of the life as to re move the temptation to hasten the event from which he would receive a financial benefit." In section 61, however, the book says: "We therefore find the rule that one who takes an insurance upon his own life and pays the premiums may make the insurance payable to any person he may name in the policy, and that such person need have no interest in the life of the insured. As said in South Caro
