undertaken a difficult task to dispose of his topic in such small compass.
The first of the two sections into which the book is divided discusses the systematic examination of the fauces, pharynx, and larynx, and describes the various manifestations of disease of these regions. The second section considers individual diseases and their necessary medical and surgical treatment.
It seems to us that the author would have enhanced the value of his work by referring, if even briefly, to the necessity of examining the nose, especially the posterior nares, which is the starting point for so many of the diseases described in the volume.
The section on diphtheria is too meager. Insufficient directions are given for staining the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus; nothing is said of the importance of determining the latter's presence as an early indication of the character of the disease, nor is the distinction between the true and pseudo bacillus defined. Nothing is said of the antitoxine treatment of diphtheria.
What the author does describe is clearly explained, but it seems that in his effort to write a concise work he has somewhat abridged the complete consideration of his subject.
The Diseases of the Will, By Th. Ribot. Authorized translation by Merwin-Marie Snell. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company. 1894. Pp. vi-l-134. Price, 75 cents.
The well-known psychological works of this author are sufficient guarantees of the treatment a subject will receive at his hands. In this volume he studies the will from the standpoint of dissolution—that is, he reviews the anomalies of the will, and from these deduces conclusions regarding its normal state.
He classes volitional impairments as defects of impulse, excess of impulse, impairments of voluntary attention, volitional instability, and extinction of will. From his survey of these pathological conditions he concludes that there are two distinct elements in every voluntary act: that state of consciousness, the "I will," that indicates a situation but that has in itself no efficacy, and a very complex psycho-physiological mechanism in which resides the power to act or to restrain. Therefore volition is defined as a final state of consciousness that results from the more or less complex co-ordination of a group of conscious, subconscious, or unconscious states that, united together, express themselves by an action or an inhibition.
He formulates this theory in the words, "The 'I will' testifies to a condition, but does not produce it." He aptly compares it to a jury's verdict that may be the result of a very long criminal examination and of fervid argument, and that will be followed by grave consequences extending over a long future, but that is an effect without being a cause.
The author sedulously avoids any discussion of the problem of free will, but a careful reading of the volume will greatly enlighten the student's mind regarding the scope of that metaphysical entity.
The volume is a readable one, and a most useful contribution to popular scientific literature.
Educational and Industrial System of Drawing. By Langdon S. Thompson. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Seven series, thirty-two books, including drawing books and manuals.
The author deduces from a general analysis of the subject that drawing is related to every other department of intellectual education, but has no departmental existence of its own, and should not be treated as an independent subject. In every school or system of schools, therefore, the actual practice in drawing or other art work that is required should depend on the regular course of study. The seven series of which the present system consists are the manual-training, primary and advanced free-hand, model and object, aesthetic, mechanical, and institute series. The order in which these several series should be used is not laid down, but is left to be determined by circumstances. The two books of the manual-training series are not drawing books proper, but are intended to develop the analytical phase of form study. They also treat of form expression in three dimensions. The more advanced manual. No. 2, treats of elementary mechanical drawing, clay modeling in relief, lessons on color, wood-carving, cutting and pasting in design, and working drawings, and is
