Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/286

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274
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

setting forth "the exact truth as embodied in historical and statistical facts of undeniable authenticity."

Is Consumption contagious, and can it be transmitted by Means of Food? By Herbert C. Clapp, A. M., M. D. Boston and Providence: Otis Clapp & Son. 1881. Pp. 178. Price, $1.25.

Considerable evidence is offered in this work tending to show that, "to a certain extent, at least, and under certain conditions, consumption is contagious." This evidence is derived from incidents in the history of the disease, the statements of physicians, and special reports of twenty-five cases. The subjects of contagion in cattle, the possibility of the transmission of tuberculosis by means of food, and the inoculability of tubercle, are also considered.

The Spirit of Education. By M. L'Abbé Amable Béesau. Translated by Mrs. E, M. McCarthy. Syracuse: C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 325. Price, $1.25.

This little work, by a pious French ecclesiastic, is said to have been very popular in his country. Its author is a Catholic priest, and the work is written from the point of view of the system he represents. It is endorsed by high authorities of the Church as a volume to which Catholics may look with confidence. An interesting feature of the book is its numerous extracts from the writings of eminent Catholics in past times on the subject of education. As might be expected, there is very little recognition of science in the work, and no reference to the more urgent of the modern questions that are agitating the public on the subject of education. It might have been written a thousand years ago.

Lectures on Electricity in its Relations to Medicine and Surgery. By A. D. Rockwell, A. M., M. D. New York: William Wood & Co. Pp. 99. Price, $1.

These lectures deal chiefly with the practical points of the subject, and give special consideration to the methods of general faradization and central galvanization—methods already familiar by name to the profession, but which the author thinks might be better understood and appreciated.

The Logic of Christian Evidences. By G. Frederick Wright. Andover: Warren F. Draper. 1880. Pp. 306. Price, $1.50.

In consequence of the constant changes in the condition of the world and the lines of thought, each generation approaches the subject of the evidences of Christianity from a slightly different point of view. Hence a re-presentation of the subject, corresponding with the new conditions, is always in place. The author regards the power of Christianity to adjust itself in form to different degrees of civilization, while its substance remains unchangeable, as in fact one of the evidences; for the power is a consequence of its spiritual nature, and of its independence of transitory phases of intellectual and social development. The aim of this treatise is to bring into view the external and the internal evidences of Christianity as they now stand, and as they appear when compared with the evidences on which the beliefs of science are based.

First German Book, after the Natural or Pestalozzian Method, for Schools and Home Instruction. By James H. Worman, A. M. New York and Chicago: A. S. Barnes & Co. Pp. 63. Price, 35 cents.

This book is intended for beginners wishing to learn the spoken language of Germany, which is taught in it by direct appeal to illustrations of the objects mentioned, and without the use of English. The author has designed in it to present in a few pages all the essentials of German grammar so as to make their mastery easy, and prepare the student, after going through it, to enter upon the study of the more recondite, complicated, and irregular principles of the language.


PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Tom Paine on Trial, and the Infidels in Court. Brooklyn: D. S. Holmes. Pp. 87. Price, 25 cents.

On Statical Electro-Therapeutics, or Treatment of Disease by Franklinism. By W. J. Morton, M. D. New York. 1881. Pp. 28.

Trances and Trancoidal States in the Lower Animals. By George M. Beard, A.M., M. D. 1881. Pp. 17.

Observations on Jupiter. By L. Trouvelot. Pp. 23.

On the Geographical Distribution of the Indigenous Plants of Europe and the Northeast United States. By Joseph F. James. 1881. Pp. 18.