Physics of the Infectious Diseases. Comprehending a Discussion of Certain Physical Phenomena in Connection with the Acute Infectious Diseases. By C. A. Logan, M. D. Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co. Pp. 212. Price, $1.50.
The author of this work spent four years on the west coast of South America, a region remarkable for two things: 1. Certain peculiar physical features and aspects; and, 2. A marked exemption from infectious diseases. He assumes a connection between these two facts, and has aimed to trace it out, and to derive important medical conclusions from the results. The problem of the influence of physical conditions upon health and disease is fundamental but at present obscure, and, while its investigation is of the greatest moment, advanced conclusions built upon it must be received with caution. The volume is instructive, and opens a special inquiry, which will no doubt be followed up by medical observers.
A Science Primer; on the Nature of Things. By John G. MacVickar, D. D. Edinburgh: Blackwood & Sons. Pp. 112.
This little book may claim the position of distinguished preeminence in absurdity among the mass of absurd publications with which we have been lately deluged, under the title of "Science Primers." We by no means intimate that those little books are without merit, but as rudimentary treatises, as books for beginners, as primers, they are with hardly an exception ridiculous. He who writes a primer of science should know two things—the subject he deals with, and the state of mind to which such a book is addressed. It matters nothing how sound and careful and accurate and trustworthy the writer's statement may be in itself; if it is not adapted to the mental condition of those ignorant of the subject, it will be a senseless and stupid failure. Our science primers are nearly all of this kind. They are written by men who seem to have not the slightest notion of what is needed for the minds of the young, and are in fact addressed to adult minds, and for these they are generally instructive and valuable.
Dr. MacVickar's "Science Primer on the Nature of Things," we might almost suppose, had been written as a burlesque on this class of books. It deals throughout with the most profound and abstract subjects, with remote and contested questions of cosmical science, with knotty problems of theology, and with speculations on chemism, ethers, and the geometrical constitution of molecules. The writer seems, indeed, to be not unconscious of the absurd misappropriateness of his work, and excuses it on the plea that all science is a good deal of a humbug. He says in his preface: "It may, indeed, be alleged that these primers present to their readers merely a smattering of science. But may it not with truth be replied, in similar terms, that the actual science of the day, in all its details, when viewed in reference to a satisfactory view of Nature and its economy, is itself merely a smattering?"
Putnam's Art Hand-Books. Edited by Susan M. Carter, Superintendent of the Woman's Art School, Cooper Union. I. The Art of Sketching from Nature. By Thomas Rowbotham. 27 Illustrations. Pp. 74. Price, 50 cents. II. The Art of Landscape-Painting in Oil-Colors. By W. Williams. Pp. 74. Price, 50 cents.
These neat little hand-books, which have gone through many editions in England, are now reprinted for the use of American art students, and are to be soon followed by others on "Flower-Painting," "Figure Drawing," and "An Artistic Treatise on the Human Figure." They seem to be prepared by experienced artists, and the name of the editor is a guarantee that they will prove useful to the cultivators of practical art in this country.
The Principles of Light and Color. Including among other Things the Harmonic Laws of the Universe, the Etherio-Atomic Philosophy of Force, Chromo-Chemistry, Chromo-Therapeutics, and the General Philosophy of the Fine Forces, together with Numerous Discoveries and Practical Applications. Illustrated by 204 Exquisite Photo-Engravings, besides Four Superb Colored Plates printed on Seven Plates each. By Edwin D. Babbitt. Science Hall, New York: Babbitt & Co. Pp. 560. Price, $4.
This is an elaborate and elegantly illustrated volume which we have not yet had time to read. The writer is a bold speculator, and seems to differ very widely and
