Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 42.djvu/586

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Kirkwood, Prof. Daniel. Groups of Asteroids. Pp.4.

Lea, Dr. A. Sheridan. The Chemical Basis of the Animal Body. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp.288. $1.75,

McBean, Archibald. A Petition in Behalf of the Lower Animals. Winnipeg. Pp. 59.

Maycock, W. Perren. Electric Lighting and Power Distribution. Part I. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 185, with Blanks. 75 cents.

Minchin, George M. Hydrostatics and Elementary Hydrokinetics. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 424. $2.60.

Monier-Williams, M. S., Pidgeon, W. R., and Dryden, Arthur. Figure-skating, Simple and Combined. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 322. $2.25.

New England Meteorological Society. Investigations for 1890. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Observatory. Pp. 156, with Plates.

Newth, G. S. Chemical Lecture Experiments: Non-metallic Elements. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 323. $3.

Nuttall, G. H. F. Hygienic Measures in relation to Infectious Diseases. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 101. 75 cents.

Oliver, Charles A., M. D., Philadelphia. Ocular Symptoms in the So-called Mongolian Type of Idiocy. Pp. 6.

Ordway, General Albert. Cycle-Infantry: Drill Regulations. Boston: Pope Manufacturing Co. Pp. 70.

Pearce, Alfred J. Longman's School Mensuration. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 150. 80 cents.

Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station. The Potato: Relation of the Number of Eyes on the Seed Tuber to the Product. Lafayette, Ind. Pp. 16.

Riley, C. V. Directions for Collecting and Preserving Insects. United States National Museum. Pp. 147.

Road-making as a Branch of Instruction in Colleges. Boston: Albert A. Pope. Pp.82.

Rotch, A. Lawrence. Observations made at Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, Mass., in 1891. Cambridge, Mass. Pp. 62.

Scott, Frank J. Honest Bimetallism. Pp. 13.

Scott, Sir Walter. Ivanhoe. Pp. 484. 50 cents.—Shakespeare, William. Julius Cæsar. Pp. 114. 20 cents.; Twelfth Night. Pp. 99. 20 cents. (English Classics for Schools Series.) American Book Company.

Smith, Edwin, and Schott, Charles A. Observations at Rockville, Md., for Variations in Latitude. United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington. Pp. 24.

Smithsonian Publications, from Report for 1890. The Primitive Home of the Aryans. By Prof. A. H. Sayce. Pp. 16.—The Prehistoric Races of Italy. By Canon Isaac Taylor. Pp. 10.—A Primitive Urn Burial. By Dr. J. F. Snyder. Pp. 6.—Manners and Customs of the Mohaves. By George A. Allen. Pp. 2.—Technology and Civilization. By F. Reuleaux. Pp. 16.—A Memoir of Elias Loomis. By Prof. H. A. Newton. Pp. 32.—A Memoir of William Kitchen Parker, F. R. S. Pp.4.

Stowell, Charles H., M. D. The National Medical Review. Monthly. Pp. 16. $1 a year.

Swank, James M. Twenty Years of Progress in the Manufacture of Iron and Steel in the United States. United States Geological Survey. Pp. 32.

United States Relief Map. United States Geological Survey. Chart.

Wahl, William H. Observations on Ferro-tungsten. Pp. 3.

Weeks, Joseph D. The Manufacture of Coke. United States Geological Survey. Pp. 48.

Wilson, Sir Daniel. The Lost Atlantis and other Ethnographic Studies. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 411. $4.

Winslow, Arthur, State Geologist. The Higginsville Sheet in Lafayette County. Geological Survey of Missouri, Jefferson City. Pp. 17. Map and sections.

Zahm, Rev. J. A. Sound and Music. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. Pp. 452. $3.50.


POPULAR MISCELLANY.

The Indo-European Conception of the Soul.—In a paper in the British Association on The Indo-Europeans' Conception of a Future Life and its Bearing upon their Religions, Prof. G. Hartwell Jones said that three heads naturally suggested themselves: 1. The connection of body and soul. 2. The condition of the deceased. 3. The relations between the departed and those left behind. With regard to the nature of the soul, he pointed out that in primitive times souls were ascribed to the universe—the anima mundi—to nymphs of various kinds, to the lower animals, to fountains, or trees. Heaven was the source from which the soul of man was derived, and to which it returned after purification. As to its creation, it had no corporeal element; it was created before the body; sometimes it was identified with fire. The etymology of the expressions for soul were instructive—e. g., Sanskrit atïndriya, or "transcending the senses"; Greek θύμος, from a root meaning to shake, or fan; so, too, the notion of "air," "vapor," "shade." Still more common was the idea of "breath." Its seat was the heart or blood. At the moment of dissolution the soul escaped through the mouth or nostrils; it left with a groan, it passed to the ethereal regions. Death was often looked upon as a kind of sleep. Their stoicism in the face of death was attested by the frequency of suicide, or of substitution, or the prohibition of mourning. The theory of a future life prevalent in the animistic stage was that of continuance, the tastes and occupations being the same as in this world; even Homer had not overgrown this. But this existence was incomplete and dreary; the ghosts gibbered and were doomed to silence. The severance was not complete, for the welfare of the spirit depended upon the proper treatment of the body, else it wandered disconsolate. Hence the observance of rites. At first the body was disposed of by inhumation, probably to preserve the iden-