Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/726

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

impulse of a spirit of concession to paganism and worldliness; that the seventh-day Sabbath was preserved much longer in the Eastern churches; and that the present decay of Sunday is a logical outcome of the disregard of the sanctity of the original, divinely instituted, but never divinely changed Sabbath. Dr. Lewis believes that the general results of civil legislation respecting the Sabbath—like those of legislation on all religious questions—have been evil. "Take the question," he says, "out of politics, out of the realm of caucussing and plotting, and let the Church settle it as it would any other religious issue. For. . . if the day ought to be kept by divine authority, the civil law can not strengthen that authority, and by a false application it may weaken and destroy it; and if he who does not rest out of regard to the Lord, does not truly Sabbatize, his resting is only an empty form or a blasphemous pretense. Under the working of the civil law as the prominent element of authority, Sunday has tended and must tend to holidayism; and, with the masses, toward debauchery."

Medicine of the Future. By Austin Flint (Senior), M. D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 37, with Portrait. Price, $1.

The manuscript of this paper, which was the address the author had intended to read, by special appointment, before the British Medical Association at its meeting in 1886, was found after Dr. Flint's death among his papers. Considering the progress which has been made in medicine during the past fifty years, the author anticipates as great, or greater, in store for the next half-century, and indicates the lines along which, in his view, it may be expected to be realized.

Life, its Nature, Origin, Development, and the Psychical related to the Physical. By Salem Wilder. Boston: Rockwell & Churchill. Pp. 350. Price, $1.50.

The author, whose business is an agency for the sale of goods, has been interested in questions indicated by the title of his book, and is not satisfied with the manner in which the physical philosophers of the day try to answer them. He has, therefore, inquired what science and scientific men teach respecting them, and presents the results of his investigation in the first part of the book. The second part is devoted mainly to ethical questions.

The Olden Time Series. No. 1, Curiosities of the Lottery, pp. 73; No. 2, Days of the Spinning-Wheel, pp. 99; No. 3, New England Sunday, pp. 65. Boston: Ticknor & Co. Price, 50 cents each.

A series of collections of advertisements, items, and articles illustrating, by contemporary representations, the usages and the ways of thought, as well as the economical condition, of the people of the "olden time" in New England, culled chiefly from old newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, and arranged, with brief comments, by Henry M. Brooks. The volumes are adapted to gratify a growing taste, and are of a size convenient for the pocket. The matter of numbers one and three is all closely related to the subjects expressed in the titles; that of number two takes a range beyond the spinning wheel, and is varied.

Lessons in Qualitative Chemical Analysis. By Dr. F. Beilstein. Arranged, on the Basis of the fifth German edition, by Charles O. Curtman, M. D. St. Louis, Mo.: Druggist Publishing Co. Pp. 200.

This is the second edition of a translation of Dr. Beilstein's "Anleitung," a popular German text-book on chemical analysis. Dr. Curtman has, however, considerably enlarged on the original, and made numerous additions. The opening chapter is given to chemical manipulations: it contains suggestions on the management of the blow-pipe, the handling of glass-tubing, the working with corks, etc. These directions are supplemented by a series of examples for practice in the qualitative analysis of inorganic substances. Directions for the systematic examination of substances containing one base and one acid come next in order, and these again are followed by instructions for a systematic course of qualitative analysis.

The remaining chapters are devoted to examples for practice on the analysis of organic substances, to volumetric analysis, to the examination of drinking-water, the analysis of urine, urinary sediments, and