Popular Science Monthly/Volume 42/February 1893/Literary Notices
Les Altérations de la Personalité (Disorders of the Personality (or Consciousness)). By Alfred Binet. Paris: Félix Alcan. Pp. 325. Price, six francs.
Physiologists and philosophers have been much interested during the last fifteen years in researches in pathological psychology, based upon the study of hysteria and suggestion; and a considerable quantity of observations and experiments has been collected in a very short time. Hallucinations, paralyses by suggestion, morbid affections of the personality or consciousness, disorders of the memory and of the muscular sense, suggestions in the waking state and during hypnosis, and unconscious suggestions, are some of the principal questions that have been examined and profoundly searched into. Numerous discussions have arisen among the investigators as the researches have multiplied and extended; discordant theories have been put forth, and important assertions made by some have been disputed by others, and school has been arrayed against school. Such controversies, which appear inseparable from new systems and are useful in their way, have cast some doubt on the real value of the collected material. The author's intention in writing this book is not to continue controversies or to oppose his own experiments to those of other observers, but, collecting all the results that have been reached, to inquire what ones among them are in accord and can be grouped under a common synthesis. For this he retains only the experiments which, repeated by many or all of the observers, have led to the same conclusion, whatever might have been the object of the experimenter, while he has put aside without judging concerning them, phenomena which have been observed by only a single person, and which do not logically relate themselves to an assemblage of known and acquired facts—subjecting his own observations, too, to the operation of this rule. The phenomena of double personality or consciousness include those in which the two states succeed or alternate with one another—successive personalities—and those in which they are coexistent. The modifications or transformations in the former case are spontaneous or provoked. It is mentioned as an advantage in the study of the spontaneous phenomena, and as a reason for beginning the discussion with them, that they are influenced only in the most insignificant degree, if at all, by the persons who observe them. They have not been prepared at long range and unconsciously by an author whose opinion was already formed; they consequently respond to no preconceived theory. They consist of incidents of hysteria, dreaming, intoxication by various drugs, aberrations caused by disordered circulation, and effects of epilepsy. In these cases the patient has, psychologically, two lives, quite distinct from one another—his usual normal life, and his life under the influence of his aberration—in either of which he has no consciousness or recollection of his experiences in the other; while, on the other hand, he often takes up the thread of life in either stage, when he resumes it, where it was dropped on coming out from the last preceding spell. Somnambulism affords the most familiar instances of this form of double personality. The study of provoked somnambulism, or hypnotism, is more subject to error, and the distinction between the hypnotic and the normal state is not so clearly marked as in spontaneous somnambulism. But experimentation has the great advantages over the observation of spontaneous manifestations that, under it, the conditions of the observation can be indefinitely multiplied and varied, the phenomena can be regarded under a large number of phases, and it can sometimes arouse new phenomena which passive observation could never have reached. Coexistent personalities, or the simultaneous existence of two selfs, among which the still obscure and doubtful phenomena of spiritualism are included, are of two classes: first, hysteric insensibility, where a part of the body is insensible to what is going on, while the nervous centers in relation with the same region may continue to act, as in hysteria, from which it results that certain acts, sometimes simple, but often very complicated, may be accomplished unconsciously in the body of the hysteric, which acts may, further, be psychical, and exhibit an intelligence consequently distinct from that of the patient, constituting a second self; and, second, a particular attitude of the mind, concentration of attention upon a single point, by virtue of which the mind becomes distracted and as it were insensible, opening the way to automatic actions; and these actions, in their complications, like those in the other case, may take on a psychical character and constitute parasitical intelligences, living, unknown to it, by the side of the normal personality.
A third part of the essay is devoted to the discussion of the disorders in the personality provoked in experiments in what is called hypnotic suggestion, as when a person in a condition of artificially provoked somnambulism is made to execute what is suggested to him by the operator. The attempt is made to show that the suggestion usually provokes a division of consciousness and cannot be realized without it. Suggestions are divided into two groups—those directly intended to produce a new personality, and those which, while having some other purpose, can not accomplish it except by causing a division of consciousness. In this part are considered hallucinations, the measurement of time by suggestion, systematic anaesthesia, the doubling of personality, and spiritualism.
The conclusions drawn from the whole are, that the self is composite, a grouping or resultant of several elements. The unity of our normal and mature personality exists, indeed, and no one should think of doubting its reality; but there are pathological facts to prove that that unity must be sought for in the co-ordination of the elements that compose it.
Taxation and "Work. By Edward Atkinson. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1892. Pp. 296. Price, $1.25.
This volume forms Mr. Atkinson's contribution to the recent tariff discussion, the outcome of which has been so disastrous to the advocates of high protection. Though the successive chapters appeared first as articles in the daily papers, the book lacks nothing on that account, in the way of thoroughness or the logical grouping of the subjects considered. The discussion takes a wide range, covering not only the relation of a protective tariff to industry, wages, and the revenue needs of the Government, but the relation of a depreciated currency to the same as well. Mr. Atkinson opens his discussion with a consideration of taxation in terms of work, and presents very forcibly and graphically the truth, so frequently lost sight of, that a government can have only what it takes from the people. When it is realized that this demand upon the people is at present equivalent to the labor of a million men at two dollars per day, and that the total number of people engaged in gainful occupations is but twenty-three millions, the great importance of the subject of taxation becomes manifest. In discussing the cost of a protective tariff, Mr. Atkinson shows with especial clearness how extravagant this method of taxation may be. The cost to the country, so far from being measured by the amount of the tax, may be, and generally is, many times greater. This is particularly true of taxes upon raw materials, which, by raising the cost of manufactured articles, curtail our markets and subject us to an indefinite and undeterminable loss. Mr. Atkinson estimates that the cost to the country during the past year of such taxes, which have yielded only fourteen millions of revenue, has been not far from three hundred millions of dollars.
The strength of the protective system in this, as in every other country, lies in its supposed effect in raising wages. The fallacy of this has been many times demon strated, and Mr. Atkinson adds his word to that of others who have written upon the subject.
He thinks that the effect of the tariff on wages has been greatly overestimated by both free-traders and protectionists. The number of those who can be directly benefited in their wages by a tariff is for the country as a whole not much over five per cent. Wages have steadily risen in the last twenty-live years, and the rise has been much more rapid in the non-protected than in the protected industries. The tariff cuts but a small figure as a factor in determining wages, and so far as it is an element its tendency is to lower wages. Mr. Atkinson considers that the important factor in raising wages is the steady improvement in the tools and processes of the mechanic arts, agreeing entirely with Mr. Schoenhoff that a high rate of wages is the necessary concomitant of high efficiency and low cost of production. His discussion of bimetallism, though brief, is clear and to the point. He arranges it in the form of a number of propositions, as the readiest means of exposing the essential elements of the question to the understanding of the reader. It is perhaps unnecessary to state that he shows clearly the folly of the silver advocates. Taken as a whole, this discussion is one of the strongest and clearest presentations of the tariff question in all its bearings which the current interest in the subject has brought forth, and it can be unreservedly commended to those seeking light upon this important issue.
Experimental Evolution. By Henry de Varigny. London and New York: Macmillan & Co., 1892. Pp. 271. Price, $1.50.
Prof. de Varigny has gathered together in this volume five lectures delivered by him before the Summer School of Art and Science at Edinburgh, advocating the desirability of experiments in organic evolution to prove in a direct way the birth of new species of plants and animals out of antecedent ones. In his discussion of the character of the proofs we now have of evolution, he points out that they are all inferential, and, while they are convincing to the great body of naturalists who have studied the facts, he thinks that the main contentions of the evolutionist can be demonstrated beyond question by direct experiment. Already much experimenting of this kind has been done, which has resulted in the production of a great number of varieties, but this has not been carried on systematically through a sufficient period nor simply with reference to the scientific value of the experiments. The lectures are very suggestive in an important line of scientific work, and will doubtless receive adequate attention from the naturalists.
The Farmers' Tariff Manual. By Daniel Strange. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1892. Pp. 363. Price, $1.25.
Mr. Strange has given in this volume a very excellent tariff talk to the farmers. He is himself a farmer, and is therefore able to bring to the attention of the farmers in an effective way the things in our tariff medley which bear most directly upon their interests. The author's method of dealing with the subject is to take a quotation from a speech or the writings of well-known protectionists and comment upon it. As such quotations embody the points made by protectionist orators in the current discussions of the tariff issue, this method has considerable advantage over the systematic treatment of the subject by economists. The work is divided into four main parts, devoted to a Tariff for Revenue, Theories of Protection, History of Protection, and the Practical Results of Protection. The author deals with the first of these divisions very briefly. He does not believe in such a tariff on account of its extreme inefficiency, but holds that all taxation should be direct. In the division devoted to theories of protection he disposes in very short order of the ridiculous claim of the latter-day protectionists that the foreigner pays the tariff tax. He also considers Mr. Blaine's wonderful reciprocity scheme, and once more endeavors to make clear to the average man the meaning of a "balance of trade." In the historical division he gives a brief account of the successive tariffs from the foundation of the Government down, which the protectionist farmer, who is at all open to conviction, will find very instructive reading. The book closes with a review of the practical results of protection, and an earnest appeal to the farmers of the country to drop all side issues, such as have been advocated by the various farmer organizations, and concentrate their attention upon the one overmastering issue of the tariff. It has long been recognized that the ultimate disposition of the tariff question lies with the farmers. They constitute forty per cent of those engaged in gainful occupations, and in the very nature of their occupation can not be benefited by the tariff while the cost of nearly everything they buy is enhanced by it. Whenever they thoroughly realize that the tariff is a tax and is paid by the consumer, that the current appeals of protectionists are the merest sophistries, they have it in their power to make very short work of this antiquated system. There are not wanting signs that a good many farmers are coming to a sense of the real state of the case, and books like that of Mr. Strange can not but help them to reach rational conclusions.
Lightning Conductors and Lightning Guards. By Oliver J. Lodge. London: Whitaker & Co. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1892. Pp. 544. Price, $4.
This volume is a discussion of the subject of lightning protection, in view of the recent advances which have been made in our knowledge of currents of high potential and high frequency. It contains two lectures before the Society of Arts, as well as a number of miscellaneous papers upon the general subject. Prof. Lodge takes exception to the current view that conductivity is the main thing to be considered in an efficient lightning protector. Experiment has shown that, even with lightning rods of many times the conductivity necessary to carry off a current of the dimensions of a lightning stroke, the lightning refuses to follow the conductor, and makes all sorts of curious detours through paths of enormously high resistance. This phenomenon, which is inexplicable on the theory that a lightning flash is simply a high-tension current for which a conducting path must be provided to assure its safe disposition, finds ready explanation on Prof. Lodge's theory. He likens the lightning discharge to a blow on the water contained in a pipe. If the blow be quick enough, the water will not be set in motion, but the pipe will burst. The remedy is, not to make the pipe larger, but to make it elastic. A lightning flash, in this view, is a disruptive discharge between the opposite surfaces of a condenser through the intervening dielectic. The clouds form one surface of this condenser and the earth the other, the intervening air being the dielectic. It is now well known that the discharge of a condenser is alternating and of great frequency. The discharge of a condenser of such a great extent of surface as that presented by the clouds and the earth, Prof. Lodge maintains, must be not only of enormous tension and frequency, but of large current volume as well. It is commonly stated that the amount of current in a lightning discharge is very small indeed, and this is quite true. The discharge, however, occupies but an infinitesimal fraction of time. If it were prolonged so as to make it comparable with our standards of current, the current flowing would be at the rate of thousands of amperes per second. In this view of lightning discharge, lightning protection is not so simple a thing as has generally been supposed. Instead of providing simply a drain for the electric fluid, lightning protection has to devise means for escaping a tremendous blow, delivered with almost inconceivable rapidity. Happily, we are not helpless in the presence of this requirement. It has long been known that no charge resides in the interior of a closed metal chamber, no matter how strongly the surface is charged. Such a chamber is, of course, impracticable as a means of protection, but a metallic network will answer nearly as well and is practicable. Prof. Lodge's practical suggestions, therefore, take the form of multiple wires, all connected together to form a large mesh network, and terminating at the roof in points. These points may be roughly fashioned, as there is no practical difference in protection between rough and highly finished points. There is no advantage in carrying the points high up in the air, as this simply invites a discharge which might not occur. Such a network, well grounded, he conceives, will form ample protection in most cases. The wires used need not be larger than ordinary telegraph wires, and, as resistance is a matter of no moment, iron will do as well as copper. The great importance of adequate lightning protection renders such a discussion of the subject as Prof. Lodge has here given us of no little value from the practical point of view, while the scientific aspect of the subject can not fail to interest and stimulate the intelligent reader.
Physics, Advanced Course. By George F. Barker. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1892. Pp. 902. Teacher's price, $3.50.
One of the most obvious and radical changes wrought by modern investigation in the science of physics is the greater importance which the phenomena of energy have assumed. Until comparatively recent times matter was considered the far more essential factor, and received a considerably larger share of attention. The reverse is now the case, and, as Prof. Barker well says, "The physics of to-day is distinctively the science of energy. Henceforth every physical change must be regarded as conditioned upon the transference or the transformation of energy. Hence, the classification which has been adopted in the present work is based on the most recent views of energy, considered as being ultimately a phenomenon of the ether."
The introductory portion of this book deals with the general physical relations and the laws of motion. Energy is next treated of as a mass condition, and work as the transference or transformation of energy. Potential is considered as a consequence of mass attraction. Matter is then treated of with reference to the modern views of its structure. Heat comes next, under the head of molecular physics. The remainder of the work is devoted to the phenomena of the ether, which are classified as follows: ether vibration or radiation; ether stress or electrostatics; ether vortices or magnetism; and ether flow or electrokinetics. The metric system is used throughout. What illustrations there are are well placed, but they are not as numerous as might be wished. There is a detailed table of contents, and a useful index.
The book is not, like many scientific works, an encyclopædia, nor is it, as some of the others are, a purely theoretical treatise. It combines very happily the important experimental facts of the science with the more probable theory or theories based upon their consideration. It fully justifies Prof. Barker's reputation as a thorough scientist. It is written in a plain and lucid style, and is very readable. The author's treatment of the subject varies somewhat from that of the old standards, but it is a treatment which recent work has been increasingly leading up to, and, in fact, making necessary.
The old text-books, notwithstanding frequent revisions, are unsatisfactory, and a new book, not only embodying the results of the most recent investigations, but also applying these results in the treatment of the subject as a whole, has been a growing necessity. Prof. Barker has given us just such a book, and it is fortunate that so careful and thoroughly equipped an author was at hand.
Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples. By the Marquis de Nadaillac. Translated by N. D'Anvers. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 412. Price, $3.
Any one who wishes to have a handsome volume, fully illustrated, and giving a remarkably interesting account of the discoveries that have been made in regard to the peoples that lived before any mode of writing was invented, should get this work of De Nadaillac. The author begins with a general sketch of the stone age, in which he shows that its duration and its place in time can not be set off by any hard-and-fast bounds. He then proceeds to tell what has been learned as to the food of early man, which involves the subjects of prehistoric hunting, fishing, and cannibalism. The author names the horse, the aurochs, the stag, the reindeer, and other animals as furnishing food for the ancient men of Europe, and he names place after place where human bones, charred, and all those containing marrow broken, just as the bones of the lower animals were treated, give evidence of cannibalism. In rapid succession he touches upon the numerousness of animals in the stone age, the weapons used by man in killing them, the implements used in fishing, and various early efforts at navigation. Taking up weapons, pottery, and other articles of use or ornament more in detail, he describes implements from the caves of France, the river valleys of America, and from England, Italy, Spain, Algeria, and Hindostan. He speaks of pottery from Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, and other countries. This leads to a few words on the ancient use of fire, after which come descriptions of ornaments in various materials, and of the carvings on horn, bone, and wood, which testify to the artistic ability of the man of the stone age. The next chapter is devoted mostly to dwellings, and in it we find described the earth holes of France and South America, the natural caves used as abodes, especially in France, the lake stations of Switzerland, the crannoges of Ireland, the burgs of Scotland, the nurhags of Sardinia, the talayoti of the Balearic Isles, and the castelheri of Istria. Megalithic monuments are treated with no less fullness than are the dwellings, and the same may be said in regard to fortifications. There is also a brief summary of Dr. Schliemann's discoveries on the site of Troy. A somewhat miscellaneous chapter deals with industry, commerce, social organizations, fights, wounds, and trepanation; and the volume ends quite appropriately with tombs. One hundred and thirteen figures illustrate the text.
Longmans' Object-lessons. By David Salmon. Revised and adapted to American Schools by John F. Woodhull. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 238. Price, $1.
These lessons are intended for children in infant or primary schools, and full notes are given for a course which may extend through four or five years. Plants, animals, and the common properties of substances are studied at first; later on, the general principles of chemistry, physics, and botany are considered. The first part of the work is devoted to hints for teachers, and a strong plea is made for early training. Many children enter upon life ill equipped, since their school education ends before the definite study of science begins.
The method of the author is excellent, but a false idea is conveyed by illustrating modes of manufacture which have been superseded, as that in the making of pins.
The book is fully illustrated, and provides blank notes for teachers and an index.
The Story of Kaspar Hauser. By Elizabeth E. Evans. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. Pp. 188. Price, $1.75.
The pathetic tale in this volume will appear entirely credible to those who read it here for the first time. Even in these days of quick intelligence and watchful societies children are abducted, secreted, and finally lost to their friends, so that at the outset it is not improbable that such a scheme should have been effectual in past times with the heir to a royal house. The preponderance of proof is that Kaspar Hauser was indeed the Prince of Baden. Supposing that a group of such diverse characteristics as the city officials, a scholarly professor, and noted criminal lawyer could be easily deceived, the autopsy performed in another city showed their observations to be well founded. The abnormal flatness of knee-line, the enlarged liver, and undeveloped brain were unimpeachable witnesses. The portrait given ought also to furnish some evidence if it bears a marked family resemblance. The literature that has grown up on this subject is quite extensive. A list of forty-five books and pamphlets is appended for those who wish to consult the original testimony.
Nature Study. By Wilbur S. Jackman. Second edition, revised. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 448.
The teacher of elementary science in the common school has not only his class to instruct in the study of Nature, but probably himself; and this volume is designed to guide him in this task of manifold difficulty. An acquaintance with scientific fact and principle can be gleaned from books, but the method, which is generally an untrodden way for him, must be learned by individual effort, and it is advised that he should begin and work with his pupils. The plan of the book is altogether novel. An outline of subject matter for a year's course of lessons is given; this is divided into twelve sections corresponding to the months. In each of these an effort is made to study the special phenomena of the season, chiefly by practical work. Although no illustrations are furnished, explicit directions are given for performing experiments, collecting specimens, and keeping mineralogical and meteorological records, charts for which are also published separately. Topics are indicated by questions, but it is not intended that the teacher shall use these except as suggestions. Class work can be varied by drawing, painting, modeling, and the making of apparatus.
The list of sciences entered upon is long. A weekly lesson is prescribed in zoology and botany; physics, meteorology, astronomy, geography, and geology receive attention once in two weeks; chemistry and mineralogy once a month. The author, however, considers the exaltation of one science above another and the artificial sequence found in various curricula very misleading. The life of the individual is the natural center of interest, and each science has its value in revealing the forces that modify it. This idea should be emphasized as the motive for acquiring knowledge. From another standpoint, the author does not believe in specialization for beginners. The child-mind is drawn toward Nature at first from all sides. To accord with this, study should be primarily broad rather than deep. It will be useful to note if this method results in preserving the youthful zest for knowledge. The book contains an index and suggestions for reading in connection with each subject.
In a paper on Comparative Architecture, Mr. Barre Ferree defines his subject as taking the facts of historical and descriptive architecture and describing the comparative progress made by all nations under all conditions. It does not concern itself with the history and descriptions of styles, but with the reasons for their existence. There is no greater evil in architectural study than isolation. No just estimate of all the works of men can be possible which does not take into account their buildings; yet architectural historians do not hesitate to prepare essays on these subjects in which the historical events that rendered possible the great structures they are describing are ignored or scarcely referred to. "As complete a record is needed for understanding the life of a building as for understanding the life of a man." Such are some of the features which the author regards as essential to an adequate treatment of the subject.
The Report for 1891 of the Chief of the Weather Bureau refers more particularly to the scientific and practical work of the office, and enlarges upon some of the features of especial interest to the public. The chief of the bureau has endeavored to extend the benefits of the meteorological service to agricultural interests, as they had already been applied to commercial requirements. The attempt to enlist in the work scientific men of established reputation not regularly connected with the bureau has been fairly successful. In their reports especial attention will be paid to the applications of meteorology to agriculture.
A very useful number of the Experiment Station Bulletins of the Department of Agriculture is that which consists of a paper on The Fermentations of Milk, by H. W. Conn, of Wesleyan University. The paper contains a summary of our present knowledge regarding the decomposition changes in milk under the influence of ferment changes and bacteria, with particular reference to the needs of the dairy industry. Among the special topics discussed are fermentation by rennet, souring, the number of bacteria in milk, relation of electricity to souring, alkaline fermentation, butyric acid, bitter milk, alkaline curdling and the peptonizing process, blue milk, alcoholic fermentation, slimy fermentation, miscellaneous fermentations, and the practical bearing of the subject upon dairying in its several branches.
The Seventh Annual Report of the Board of Health of the State of Maine is largely devoted to school hygiene, and embodies what might be called considerable treatises on the healthfulness of schoolhouses, school diseases and infectious diseases, the personal hygiene of the pupil, the hygiene of instruction, physical culture, the schoolroom, desks and seats, ventilation, heating, water-closets, etc., and schoolhouse plans. An act to provide for the registration of vital statistics went into effect in the beginning of 1892, some of the fruits of which may be looked for in future reports. A. G. Young, M. D., secretary, Augusta.
A feature in the movement to secure the systematic construction of better roads, which is now pushed with vigor all over the land, is A Memorial to Congress on the Subject of a Comprehensive Exhibit of Roads, their Construction and Maintenance, at the World's Columbian Exposition, with an open letter to the President of the United States, in which Albert A. Pope is the chief promoter. The memorial is re-enforced by a large volume of expressions of personal and newspaper opinions.
Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania, Vol. I, No. 1, contains papers on Rudbeckia kirta (a monstrous specimen), by J. T. Rothrock; Dionæa muscipula (Ellis), by J. M. MacFarlane; An Abnormal Development of Inflorescence of Dionæa, by John W. Harshberger; Mangrove Tannin, by H. Trimble; Epigæa repens, by W. P. Wilson; A Nascent Variety of Brunella vulgaris, by J. T. Rothrock; and Movements of the Leaves of Melilotus alba and other Plants, by W. P. Wilson.
The History of the Higher Education in Ohio is published by the United States Bureau of Education as a number of Herbert B. Adams's series of contributions to American educational history. The preparation of the work was undertaken by Prof. George W. Knight, and, he falling ill, has been continued and completed by Mr. John R. Commons. The history of college education in Ohio is of peculiar interest, on account of the relatively large number of colleges that have been organized within the State, and the variety of the experiments that have been tried in connection with them. The success and failure alike of these institutions afford lessons valuable to men interested in education.
The Lake Magazine is a new monthly periodical, devoted to politics, science, and general literature, published at Toronto, Ont., and intended to represent Canadian thought, discuss Canadian questions, and promote Canadian interests. The first number contains articles on Canada and Imperial Federation, The Franchise, A Canadian Literature, Art in Canada, etc. For succeeding numbers, articles are promised from leading politicians, divines, and literary men, on topics of current interest.
The report of the Public Industrial and Art School, Philadelphia, gives an account of the objects of the school, its methods, rules, regulations, and course of instruction. The directors claim that this school was the first practical and successful attempt ever made in Philadelphia or elsewhere to incorporate manual training as an integral branch of common-school education. It was started in 1880, largely through the efforts of Mr. Charles G. Leland. It has grown rapidly, and its facilities have been enlarged till now nearly seventeen hundred pupils, from every grade of the public schools and the teachers' classes, are taught in it weekly.
A Sketch of the Life of Joseph Leidy, prepared by Dr. W. S. W. Ruschenberger for the American Philosophical Society, is published by MacAlla & Co., Philadelphia. It contains in an appendix a list of Dr. Leidy's publications, society papers, and verbal reports to scientific societies, occupying twenty closely printed pages, together with a list of learned societies at home and abroad of which he was a member.
The National Popular Review' is a new illustrated journal of preventive medicine and applied sociology, edited by P. C. Remondino, M. D., and published by J. Harrison White, at San Diego, California. It proposes in all matters to occupy a middle ground whereon the profession and the laity may meet to discuss matters of common interest.
Department M of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, includes the branches of Ethnology, Archæology, History, Cartography, Latin-American Bureau, Collective and Isolated Exhibits. It will have forty acres of floor space in the building, and a strip of land nearly a thousand feet long in addition. The plan and classification of the exhibit are published in detail by Prof. F. W. Putnam, chief of department, and provide for a very full showing, particularly in the North American and Latin-American departments.
Of the fifth volume of the Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University, Japan, Part I contains Studies on Reproductive Elements; on the Formation of the Germinal Layers in Chelonia; on the Development of Limulus longispius; on the Lateral Eyes of the Spider; on a Collection of Birds from Tsushima; and on the Formation of Germinal Layers in Petromyzon—all by Japanese authors. Part II is mainly devoted to a Study of the Disturbance of Isomagnetics attending the Mino-Owari Earthquake of 1891, by Profs. A. Tanakadate and H. Nagaoka, with an Optical Note by K. Takizawa.
We have received Part III of Vol. I of Iconographia Floræ Japonicæ—descriptions, with figures, of plants indigenous to Japan, which has been prepared by Mr. Ryōkichi Yatabe, and is published in Tokio. Plants belonging to seventeen orders are described and illustrated, with Japanese and English text and full-page engravings.
A lecture on The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, which was delivered before the Young Men's Hebrew Association, in Wilkesbarre, Pa., in December, 1891, by Mr. Harry Hakes, has been published in a convenient pamphlet for the reading of that large class who, "in this hurrying age, will neither purchase, peruse, nor possess the extensive literature pertaining to the discovery of America." It presents a clear and fully adequate statement in brief of the work of Columbus, and of his right to be regarded as the real discoverer of America, of which the author is a strenuous upholder.
A paper on Michigan Flora, prepared for the Thirtieth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Michigan State Board of Agriculture, by W. J. Beal and C. F. Wheeler, has in it an element of surprise. Expecting to find it a formal botanical catalogue, we find instead a series of brief sketches, appealing at once to readers who are of the people, on various aspects of the vegetation of the State. First is an account of the topography of the State and the botanical regions, with lists of the characteristic plants; then a comparison of the trees and shrubs of Michigan with those of the rest of the world, the reason explained why Michigan has so many trees and Great Britain so few, Planting the Roadside and about the Home, Planting a Wild Garden, plants of various habits suitable for cultivation, The Procession of Flowers, timber plants, forage plants, weeds, and so on, till finally, after all the plants have been told about, the formal catalogue is given.
Mr. John Luchsinger contributed to the eighth volume of the Wisconsin Historical Collections a sketch of the Swiss colony of New Glarus, Wis., which attracted much attention, it being the first monograph on the planting of an organized foreign colony in the State. Since that time, thirteen years ago, a healthy popular interest has been awakened in the history of the several foreign groups of the State, and a renewed call has been made for the Luchsinger paper. The account has accordingly been rewritten by the author, who came over a child with the first settlers, and has been prominent in the life of the colony. The present paper, The Planting of the Swiss Colony at New Glarus, Wis., greatly enriched by additional documentary material and brought down to date, is practically a new monograph, drawn from original sources, and of great interest to all students of our composite nationality.
In a paper on The Relation of Philosophy to Psychology and to Physiology, Prof. Joseph Le Conte uses the term philosophy as meaning the science which treats of the activities of free, self-conscious spirit. The various forces, physical or psychical, are regarded as operating on separate planes without gradations, changeable from one form to another, and always related by mutual dependence. As the physical underlies and conditions chemical phenomena; the chemical, life phenomena; and the vital forces, psychical phenomena; and as the accomplished chemist must understand physics, the physiologist chemistry, and the psychologist physiology, so also psychical forces underlie and condition the phenomena of free spirit, and therefore the philosopher must understand psychology.
In another paper, on Plato's Doctrine of the Soul, and Argument for Immortality, in Comparison with the Doctrine and Argument derived from the Study of Nature, Prof. Le Conte presents the evolution doctrine of spirit—that the only significance of the whole history of the evolution of the cosmos through infinite time is, that it is a gestative process for the birth of spirit; and, with this, a corresponding theory of knowledge and method of extending its domain, and a philosophy of right conduct of life, or a theory of spirit culture—a philosophy equally removed from the ascetic on the one hand and from the hedonistic on the other.
The third part of Volume IX of the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia contains a Memoir on the Genus Palœosyops Leidy and its Allies, by Charles Earle, and a paper on the Fossil Avifauna of the Equus Beds of the Oregon Desert, by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. Palæosyops is a fossil of the Bridger Eocene, of an animal that was more like the tapir than any other living animal, of which a considerable collection of material exists in the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy and a larger collection at Princeton, the two collections being ample enough to permit a satisfactory conjectural restoration. Dr. Shufeldt's studies of fossil birds are based upon the collections of Prof. Thomas Caydon, of Eugene City, Ore., and Prof. Cope, of specimens from Fossil and Silver Lakes. In the view of the author, they establish the fact that the birds of the later Tertiary time were simply the direct ancestors of existing genera and species of birds, from which, in the majority of instances, they hardly departed; and they suggest questions why certain types should have perished without leaving any apparent descendants, while others, seeming to enjoy no more favorable conditions, have been preserved.
The elaborate memoir of Profs. W. K. Brooks and F. H. Herrick on The Embryology and Life History of the Macroura is based upon the studies by Prof. Brooks of the larval stages of the order continued at every opportunity during ten years, in connection with the Marine Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, and upon studies of the life histories of additional species made by himself at Beaufort, N. C, and Green Turtle Key and New Providence in the Bahamas, and (chiefly) by Prof. Herrick under his general supervision. Marine crustaceans are regarded by the author as of exceptional value for the study of the laws of larval development and for the analysis of secondary adaptations as distinguished from the influence of ancestry by reason of the greater stability of their inorganic environment as compared with that of land animals, permitting greater persistency of type; and of the more definite character of the changes that make up their life history. The memoir, of about forty quarto pages, is illustrated by fifty-seven large colored plates.
Stone and Milling are two monthly magazines the fields of which are indicated by their titles, published by the D. H. Ranck Publishing Company, Indianapolis, Ind. The tables of contents embrace a variety of information, technical, practical, and popular, on stone-quarrying and working the kinds of stone available in the arts, road-making, contracting, and building, in the former magazine; and the operations, industries, economies, financial interests, etc., connected with the art of preparing grain for food, in the latter.
A convenient epitome Sketch of the Geology of Alabama is published by Eugene Allen Smith, State Geologist, in which a general comprehensive survey of the formations is given in a small space. As appears from the table appended, the formations represented are the Archæan (crystalline schists), Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Cretaceous, the three Tertiaries, the Pleistocene, and the Recent.
The Royal Road to Beauty, Health, and a Higher Development is described in a pamphlet of 85 pages, by Carrica Le Favre, as lying through a vegetarian life. The author has complete faith in her doctrine, writes forcibly, and, together with some assertion that is only opinion, presents some strong arguments. Published by the Fowler & Wells Company. Price, 25 cents.
The Government Printing Office has published, in 1892, the Report of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for the year ending June 30, 1889, a pamphlet of 128 pages. The year was the first one of operations as a branch of the public service distinct from the Smithsonian Institution. The inquiry respecting food fishes and the fishing grounds was continued, with more attention to details than in preceding years, the first surveys being necessarily general in their character. The most important seacoast inquiries were those conducted by the steamer Albatross in the North Pacific Ocean. On the Atlantic coast the steamer Fish Hawk was assigned to special investigations having reference to the oyster grounds of Long Island Sound and Rhode Island. Other sea work was done in the Gulf of Mexico. An essentially novel feature of the scientific work was the systematic investigation of interior waters with respect to their physical and natural-history characteristics.
Physical Education is a monthly magazine devoted to physical culture, published by the Triangle Publishing Company, Springfield, Mass., Luther Gulick, M. D., and James Naismith, editors, of which specimen numbers have been sent us. It has among its contributors some of the best-known physical culturists in the country. Some of the articles in the numbers before us are on Ventilation in the Gymnasium, by R. A. Clark, M. D.; Physical Education in its Relation to the Mental and Spiritual Life of Women; Bicycling for Women; Form in Gymnastics, by Dr. W. G. Anderson; Gymnastic Classification, and others of like bearing.
The Report of Robert T. Hill, Assistant Geologist, On the Occurrence of Artesian and other Underground Waters in Texas, Eastern New Mexico, and Indian Territory, West of the Ninety-seventh Meridian, relates to a region vast in extent—including more than three hundred thousand square miles, and embracing many diverse conditions that influence the water supply—and one that has been little studied by geographers and geologists. The regions discussed—for there are more than one of them—are radically different in most natural aspects from the older inhabited portion of the United States. "It is far more different from New England than is Japan. It has more points in common with Europe than with the great Mississippi Valley. The chalk lands and downs of Texas are more related to France than to the rocks of the adjacent Arkansas and Missouri States." The author has endeavored to give only the laws of the occurrence and distribution of water. First, he corrects some prevailing mistakes on the subject, and shows how water really gets under the ground and is found there; then he describes the several regions topographically and geologically, and with reference to the conditions as to underground waters. This part of the work is well illustrated by maps and sections.
The Industrial Magazine is a new periodical devoted to the Promotion of Legitimate Industrial Enterprises, Railroad and Manufacturing Interests, and General Topics; Mrs. Kittie F. Miller, editor; published by the Industrial Magazine Company, Chicago. In the first two numbers railroad matters are given prominence and occupy by far the largest proportion of the space. Other enterprises are noticed in special articles; and information of what is going on in the railroad and industrial world is given in brief items.