BOOK REVIEWS.

CHILDREN OF THE TENEMENTS. BY JACOB A. RIIS, author of "The Making of an American," "The Battle with the Slums," "How the Other Half Lives," etc. 12mo. Pp. 387. Price $1.50. New York: The Macmillan Co.

A little about Mr. Riis will doubtless add to the reader's interest in "Children of the Tenements" and other books which he has written. He was born in 1849 in the town of Ribe, on the northeast coast of Denmark. His boyhood and youth, of which he

writes with the most genuine charm in the early portion of "The Making of an American," were spent in his native town, except for four years when he was in Copenhagen learning his trade as a builder's apprentice. But all this time he loved his boyhood's sweetheart; and when her parents decided that a common carpenter. would not do for their beautiful daughter, he went out into the world to seek his fortune. It was on Whit-Sunday, 1870, that the Glasgow steamer landed Mr. Riis in New York, "with a pair of strong hands and stubbornness enough to do for two." Thereafter he plunged into any kind of work which he could get to do, at one time toiling among a settlement of honest Welshmen in the

back hills, later in a coal mine, again for a truck-farmer, still later in a brick yard, always hunting for some steady employment that would give him a living and a future. It was a long road indeed before he learned to make his way against the current and really began life as a newspaper man. He made a success of his newspaper, and returned to Denmark for his sweetheart; but it was not for some months after his marriage that he really began the work of his life as a reporter at police headquarters on Mulberry street, New York.

He plunged waist deep into everything that was worth while, every movement for law and order and decency and right and freedom and better civilization. But through it all he had a great deal of fun, besides doing an immense amount of good; and that is one reason why his book, "The Making of an American," published two years ago, is still one of the most popular books in the United States. Much of it, though happy and gay, is more deeply and genuinely affecting than the saddest fiction ever written; and from beginning to end it tells the story of one of the bravest fights against all kinds of obstacles that has ever been waged. The book abounds, too, in good stories, such as the famous one about the fireman who, wishing to honor the memory of the dead reporter, but being obliged through press of time to leave it to the florist, found themselves on the solemn occasion face to face with a huge wreath bearing the legend, "Admit Within Fire Lines Only." "We will strive together for all that is noble and good" has been the text of Mr. Riis' whole life; and he sums up his career in the two simple sentences: "I have been very happy. No man ever had so good a time." And the book is all written with the vigor and the almost riotous zest in living and doing which has been Mr. Riis's driving power throughout his notable career.

"I never could fake anything; I have sometimes wished I could," he remarked in reply to some inquiries about "Children of the Tenements." And he went on to say that every incident related in the book as fiction actually happened within his own knowledge. Incidents have been grouped together which did not happen consecutively; but every incident and scene has actually happened in the way set forth. Some things can be told a great deal better in fiction than through any other medium; and this volume presents the most complete and the truest and the most varied picture of the New York slums which has ever been created. The fact that the pooper people are the more kind and charitable and generous they are to each other has never been more strongly brought out.

The people of the tenements as they are in their everyday lives, and in their holiday seasons, too, become living, breathing human beings to the reader of this book, who finds himself entering into their joys and sufferings, their hard work and their play and their deprivatiohs, and learning to know them as human beings with all the traits and wishes and qualities and hopes that the rest of us have. For a quarter of a century Mr. Riis has been better acquainted with the New York tenement house region than anyone else who could write, and his new volume portrays with wonderful skill and unfailing sympathy and love the significant and interesting people who live in that quarter of the Metropolis. Three or four of these are Christmas stories, and all have to do with the children, young or old, of the tenements. The book is brought fittingly to a close by an article entitled "Making a Way Out of the Slum." Some of these stories are merry and lighthearted as the children themselves; others are powerful or tragic, two or three are gloomy, and still others are whimsical.

The volume is illustrated with a number of excellent pictures by Mr. C. M. Relyea and others who have made a special study of tenement house life, and the publishers have given it an attractive dress. It rounds out and completes the story of what Mr. Riis has seen and contended with in the long "Battle with the Slum."

INFECTION AND IMMUNITY; OR, THE CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES. By GEORGE M. STERNBERG, M.D., LL.D., Surgeon-General U. S. Army (retired); ex-President of the American Medical Association, and of the American Public Health Association; Honorary Member of the Epidemiological Society of London, of the Societé Français d'Hygiene, of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Rome, etc. 8vo. Pp. 293. Illustrated. Price (by mail, $1.90), net, $1.75. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.

This volume is intended for non-medical readers, hence it is for the most part devoid of technicalities and the discussion of the more or less theoretical investigations of the nature of the "antitoxins," "agglutins," "precipitins," "bacteriolysins," etc. Nevertheless, the relation of this line of investigations is so clearly implied as to render it comprehensible to the lay reader. Moreover, while the book is intended for non-medical readers, it is none the less commendable to the medical, and particularly to sanitary officers, for its lucid and commendable practicability. All infectious diseases are considered preventable diseases, and the purpose

of the book is to indicate the necessary measures and means for preventing them. It is divided into chapters, as follows: General Remarks upon Infection; Disease Germs; Channels of Infection; Susceptibility to Infection; Methods of Disinfection; Tests of Disinfection; Disinfection by Heat; Sunlight as a Disinfectant; Disinfection by Gases; Various Chemical Disinfectants; Natural and Acquired Immunity; Antitoxins; Plague; Cholera; Forms of Fever; Tuberculosis; Diphtheria; Influenza; Pneumonia; Smallpox; Measles; Wound Infections; Tetanus; Hydrophobia.

BACTERIA, YEASTS AND MOLDS IN THE HOME. By H. W. CONN, Ph.D., Professor of Biology in Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.; author of "Agricultural Bacteriology," "Bacteria in Milk and Its Products," "The Story of Germ Life," "The Method of Evolution," etc. 12mo. Pp. 300. Illustrated. Price $1.00. Boston, U. S. A., and London: Ginn & Company.

Molds, which are the cause of mildew, the spoiling of many foods, and the decay of fruits; yeasts, which are the foundation of fermentation in the raising of bread; and bacteria, which cause food to spoil, meat to decay, and contagious diseases to spreadall these phenomena which are of the most vital importance, are presented in an interesting and helpful manner. The subjects are discussed in a popular manner, devoid of technical terms and admirably adapted to the needs of the housewife, the student of domestic science, and all others interested in home economics.

The author explains the various actions of bacteria, and points out the sources of trouble and the principles which underlie the methods to be adopted for avoiding their effects. Special attention is paid to the problems of food preservation and to the practical methods which can be used in the home for preventing the distribution of contagious diseases.

To render the work more useful for classes in domestic science there is added an appendix containing directions for a series of simple experiments which will give to the student a practical knowledge of the most important properties of micro-organisms.

THE PRACTICAL CARE OF THE BABY. BY THERON WENDELL KILMER, M.D., Associate Professor of Diseases of Children in the New York School of Clinical Medicine; Assistant Physician to the Out-Patient Department of the Babies' Hospital, New York; Attending Physician to the Children's Department of the West Side German Dispensary, New York. 12mo. Pages xiv-158, with 68

illustrations. Extra cloth, $1.00, net, delivered. Philadelphia : F. A. Davis Company, 1914-16 Cherry street, Publishers.

A concise presentation of such knowledge as every mother and nurse should possess. It begins with the bath, its temperature, when and how to use it, and proceeds to describe the needful clothing, material and seasonableness indoors and out. Food and feeding, weaning, and incidental conditions requiring attention for the promotion of healthy development. Gives a lucid description of the early symptoms of the diseases to which infants and children are particularly liable; tells how to meet emergencies, and concludes with a number of practical food recipes. The illustrations throughout are excellent and instructive.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION FOR THE YEAR 1902. Vol. I. Pp. cxii, 1176. Washington: Government Printing Office.

The enrollment in schools and colleges, public and private, in the United States, during the year was 17,460,000-an increase of 160,770 over the previous year. Of this number there were enrolled in public institutions supported by taxation and funds belonging to the States and municipalities, 16,041,016, as against 15,710,394 for the previous year. Moreover, there were pupils enrolled in special institutions more or less educational in their character and more or less of a practical and business character: city evening schools, business schools, Indian schools, reform schools, orphan asylums, private kindergartens, etc., 620,840. All these are tabulated and a comparative summary presented, showing the increase from decade to decade for more than thirty years in common schools—including under this designation schools of the elementary and secondary grades supported from public funds; by which it appears that in the last six years of the period the per cent. of the total population enrolled in the common schools has not materially changed, being between 20 and 21 per cent. of the entire population, and about 72 per cent. of the entire number of persons from 5 to 18 years. The number in daily attendance during the sessions of the schools has risen from about 4,000,000 in the year 1869-70 to nearly 11,000,000 in the past year. Meanwhile, the number of women teachers has risen to 317,204 out of a total number of 439,596. Twenty-two years ago the percentage of male teachers was nearly 43, while the past year it had fallen below 28. The average salary of teachers shows a slight increase, that of men being nearly $50 a month, and of women nearly $40. The