Co. This grandfather was active in railroad, iron, coal, telegraph and fiduciary companies. A born business man, he was interested in and gave generously to temperance, Indians, foreign missions and education in Turkey and Syria. His tall stature, found also in his grandfather, was a trait passed on to Grace and Cleveland Dodge. Beginning with his father, David Law Dodge, the family name has been for four generations synonymous with philanthropy.

Abbie Graham, 1926. Grace H. Dodge; Merchant of Dreams. N. Y.: The Woman's Press. 329 pp.

Her

AMPHIBIOUS AMERICANS. The daughter of the fearless naval fighter, George Hamilton Perkins, writes in graphic style about her family. father was noted for extraordinary absence of fear. Said Farragut of him: "No braver man ever trod a ship's deck." He piloted the first ship past New Orleans during the Civil War and his monitor captured the Confederate ram "Tennessee" at Mobile. He was naval cruises until 1891. He was a hyperkinetic, full of fun and beloved by all who knew him. His mother's brother, Col. John H. George, was full of enthusiasm and zeal and must have been much like him. His grandfather, who was an extensive owner of lumberlands in New Hampshire, was known as "Lord Roger."

on

George Hamilton Perkins married Anna Minot Weld, daughter of William Fletcher Weld, descendant of a line of fighters and mariners. His father, William Gordon Weld, was a sea captain and became a leading ship owner, a developer of railroads, and a man of great wealth. Of his children, George spent most of his time on board his yacht, even though he was an invalid; he cruised along the Atlantic coast and almost every winter to the West Indies. Another son, William, had a son, William, who was commodore of the Eastern Yacht Club and owner of

the "Gitana.'' His brother Charles owned two yachts and a fishing schooner. Their first cousin, the authoress, has spent much of her lifetime in yachts, on houseboats and otherwise on the sea. As she says: "The sea seems to be in the blood.'' And all flew on their vessels the flag of their grandfather-a Black Horse.

In this history, other branches of the family are alluded to and there is an account of the Andersons of "Goldmines" on the Virginia tidewater, one of whose descendants was Richard Clough Anderwho son, served under Washington throughout the Revolutionary War, becoming Brigadier General of the Virginia militia. Of his children, Richard became minister to Columbia; Charles, governor of Ohio; Robert, defender of Fort Sumter at the outbreak of the Civil War, and Larz had a son Nicholas who was a General in the Civil War and had a son, Larz, who married Isabel Perkins, the author of the book, and was himself appointed first minister to Belgium and later Ambassador to Japan.

Isabel Anderson, 1926. Under the Black Horse Flag: Annals of the Weld Family and Some of its Branches. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin. 291 pp. $4.00.

THE SCIENCE OF EUGENICS.

This volume is two books bound under one cover. The first 107 pages are devoted to a popular exposition of eugenics. The second part, which comprises nearly 600 pages, is devoted to sex life. The whole is a compilation of genetics, physiology, sex-hygiene, psychology, medicine and morals. For parents, it plays the part of physician, first friend and priest. Strictly speaking, eugenics is concerned with the factors which control the inborn quality of future generations. This book extends the word "eugenics" to include "all forces and factors, whether hygienic, biologic, social, or economic, which are, or may be, influential in the uplifting and improvement of mankind." The section

on eugenics describes the influence of heredity and environment, and stresses the biological aspect of the proper selection of parents. It explains that many of the ails of mankind are due to hereditary instability, and therefore urges prospective marriage mates to consider each other's natural or inborn qualities, if they would avoid defective offspring. Other sections are devoted to details of anatomy, hygiene and medicine, and to moral advice. There is always room for such general compilations which interpret, in an easily understandable and untechnical manner, the essential practical findings of reproduction and medicine. It is especially useful as a parenthood guide for persons who lack more direct contact with competent physicians, and who do not enjoy immediate access to the best technical works on hygiene and biology.

Charles H. Robinson and Mary Ries Melendy, editors, 1925. The Science of Eugenics and Sex Life. N. Y. Martin & Murray. 703 pp. $4.85.

BIOLOGICAL TEXTBOOK.

Years ago we used to import our biological textbooks from England; now the best of them are published in this country. No doubt the reactionary phase that some religious sects are passing through has stimulated the printing of books on evolution. The book under review is a useful textbook. It deals in protoplasm, the cell, tissues, protista and their relation to disease, the green plant, and the higher animals, development, reproduction, social life, symbiosis and parasitism, heredity and variation, and eugenics. The last is considered in a brief chapter.

The author and publisher have both done their parts well. There are 227 illustrations, some new to a textbook of this character.

S. J. Holmes, 1926. Life and Evolution: An Introduction to General Biology. N. Y.: Harcourt, Brace & Co. 449 pp.

JUDGE HARRY OLSON ON THE LESSON OF LINCOLN'S LIFE.

On its way to the dedication of the John Ericsson monument in Washington, May 29, 1926, the Illinois delegation of the John Ericsson Republican League stopped to lay a wreath upon the Lincoln Memorial. The address delivered by Judge Harry Olson, Chief Justice of the Chicago Municipal Court, on this occasion will be of interest to all readers of a eugenics magazine.

Judge Olson spoke first of the history of the Swedish people, who came from Central Europe, following the receding glaciers into the territory which they have held ever since. Their freedom from conquest and their hostile climate, which has discouraged immigration, are of eugenic importance, for owing to these facts the race has remained pure, and as emigrants to other countries the Swedes have carried with them the traditions of stability and ordered personal liberty which made the Scandinavian Thing the forerunner of the English Parliament and the American Congress; and the high standard of ethics indicated by our word "sterling'' which is a condensation of "the pound of the Easterlings," a phrase which denoted

the standard of honest measure when London was still a frontier town, and Wisby on the Island of Gothland was the world's commercial capital. It is not surprising to find that people with such an inheritance were among the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the supporters of the Union at the time of the Civil War and the developers of the western wilderness. The status of the American citizen of Swedish origin was summed up as follows: "By the title of discovery, by the charter of early' settlement, by the warrant of high service at the Nation's birth, by the covenant of loyalty and devotion in the crisis of the Civil War, by proof of patriotism in the service of country in the World

War, by deeds of patient industry in times of peace, by the record of sacrifice for education and religion, by the bond of love of liberty regulated by law, people of Nordic blood base their claim to be true Americans.''

Citizens of other origins have likewise made great contributions to America, in which her citizens of Swedish descent rejoice, but the day in which John Ericsson's great service to America was commemorated was peculiarly the day of the descendants of the Vikings. On that day they paused to pay tribute to the greatest citizen of Illinois, a man whose descent was from the Nordic blood and whose superlative honesty is a quality particularly prized by the Scandinavians.

Two errors have crept into the popular ideas of Abraham Lincoln which should be challenged. One is that he came from the backwoods to the presidency without study or experience, and in a few months developed into the foremost man of his time. This is not true. While Lincoln's educational opportunities were limited, his hours of study were not few, and before he came to the White House he had had experience as a farm boy, storekeeper, surveyor, postmaster, river boatman, soldier, member of the legislature, congressman and lawyer. He had tried both civil and criminal cases and appeared in the Supreme Court one hundred and seventy-three times. He was ranked with the foremost lawyers of the country. His legal experience was invaluable to him in the presidency. From it he had learned to know human nature and to handle men. He had gained the facility of accurate statement, the courage to do the right undeterred by fear of consequences, and the willingness to assume responsibility which is best illustrated by the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation against the vote of his whole cabinet.

The other error about Lincoln, which is more serious, is that he came of worthless stock. Far from it! His ancestry

has been traced back through Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts to Norwich, England, where the village church contains an elaborate bronze tablet commemorating "Abraham Lincoln, Chief Yeoman" who died in 1798, and was one of the great men of the district. If the good traits of this ancestry were not prominent in Thomas Lincoln, still they were his to transmit to his son, Abraham. We cannot judge the hereditary value of a family from the characteristics of one member. The log cabin and the rail-splitting were due to the unavoidable conditions of pioneer life. In a wilderness, primitive life, is no evidence of lack of mental ability. Lincoln's heredity gave him the qualities which enabled him to overcome his lack of opportunities, and fit himself into better and better environments, until he reached the White House. "It is time that our school children were disabused of the idea that because he was born and lived in a log cabin, Lincoln was of scrub human stock or that such stock can produce a Lincoln. ""

Abraham Lincoln is an outstanding example of a man in whom the two functions of the brain, intellect and emotion, are both highly developed. Sometimes we have men of great intellectual ability who are emotionally incapable of distinguishing right from wrong. Such men corrupt our public life, when they are placed in positions of leadership, and should be driven from such positions, when their crass conduct, as tested by ethical standards, reveals them. In more people the reverse is true their intellectual ability is only ordinary, but their ethics are sound, and their moral judgment can be trusted if they know the facts. And there is a fourth class of people, defective both intellectually and emotionally, for whose control and care in institutions for the criminal and insane the nation is forced to spend fabulous sums of money.

"This is the supreme lesson of Lin