# Popular Science Monthly/Volume 34/February 1889/Literary Notices

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Memory: What it is and how to improve it. By David Kay, F. R. G. S. "International Education Series," Vol. VIII. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 334. Price, $1.50.
Whatever may be the educational process by which knowledge is gained—observation, reasoning, or passive reception of text-books and lectures—it is retained by the one faculty of memory. This consideration is enough to show the great importance to the educator of a thorough acquaintance with the nature of this faculty and the best means of cultivating it. On the other hand, as Dr. W. T. Harris, the editor of this "Series," points out, the memory, when over-developed, may crowd and cramp the other faculties. It is a familiar statement that much memorizing deadens the power of thought, and it is equally true that the powers of sense-perception, imagination, and will may be paralyzed by the same means. "With an overactive memory we suppose ourselves to see in an object what we remember to have seen in it before, and any new features escape our superficial perception. This is true, too, in the case of imagination, the power which ought to be productive as well as reproductive." Hence the problem is not the simple one of how to strengthen the memory as much as possible, but how to train it so that it shall have its greatest efficiency and yet not interfere with the action of the other faculties. As to guarding against an overactive memory, Dr. Harris says: "The antidote for this baneful effect of memory is to be sought in a method of training that associates effects with causes, and individuals with species; that associates one idea with another through its essential relations, and not by its accidental properties. One must put thought into the act of memory." Beginning with an examination of the nature of memory, Mr. Kay proceeds to point out the connection between mind and matter in general, and especially the influence which bodily conditions have upon mental action; he next discusses the phenomena of sensation, and then describes the formation of mental images and the unconscious action of the mind. The author is convinced that much light is thrown upon the subject of mnemonics by the facts of physiology. "When one performs a set of movements," he says, "for the first time, he may find considerable difficulty in doing so, owing to the unadaptedness of the parts concerned. These parts, however, retain certain traces of what has taken place in them, so that when the movements come to be performed a second time the difficulty attending them is somewhat less." Frequent repetition increases the ease of performance. Similarly sensations leave their traces on our sense-organs; men observe best what they have frequently observed. Recalling to mind an act or sensation is so much like the original experience that, in the author's opinion, the same parts are concerned in the one as in the other, and the traces made by these experiences have something to do in the act of recollection. This view is supported by the recent theory that, in the words of Prof. Bain, "the organ of the mind is not the brain by itself; it is the brain, nerves, muscles, organs of sense, viscera." Our ideas are remembered in the same way, for "every idea in the mind must have entered it by some sense, and, in order to its full and complete recall, it is believed that it must be again projected or imaged in an organ of sense. Even the most abstract of our ideas are abstracts of sensations belonging to some sense which is also concerned in the ​recollection of them." In the concluding chapters Mr. Kay shows that, if the foregoing is true, "it is evident that, in order to improve the memory, special attention must be given to the training of the senses. This is to be done by first training them to observe carefully what is before them, and then making them recall or reproduce what has been presented to them, as accurately as possible. These two are distinct. The one depends on attention, the other on association and frequently recalling what is in the mind. In attention the great thing is to concentrate the mind upon one thing at a time till it is thoroughly mastered. In association we must seek to bring together and associate those ideas that most nearly resemble each other and that we wish to recall each other." The two processes of attention and association are involved in every act of remembering, and suggestions as to how they may be made more effective form the substance of the author's advice on how to improve the memory. Throughout the book the author makes prominent the bearing of his views on education, for he deems the treatment of the memory in the present system of education to be wholly wrong. "Instead of the communication of knowledge," he says, "being made the means of improving the memory, the interests of the memory are sacrificed in order that it may be crammed with as much knowledge as possible, without regard to the permanent injury that may thereby be done to it." The subject is evidently one on which the author has studied long and read widely; his presentation is simple and consistent, and various statements are supported and illustrated by many brief quotations from eminent specialists in mental science.
Works of Thomas Hill Green. Edited by R. L. Nettleship. Vol. III. Miscellanies and Memoir. London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. clxi and 479. Price, $7.
Mr. Green led a quiet life as a tutor and Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Oxford, seldom appearing before the public or engaging in movements that brought him into prominence, but he did much work that the world should not let be forgotten while the improvement of mankind and of government is sought. He is characterized by his biographer as a man in whom "philosophy was reconciled with religion on the one side and politics on the other; . . . to whom reason was faith made articulate, and for whom both faith and reason found their highest expression in good citizenship." His thoughts were directed toward practical measures for lifting the English masses into a higher physical and mental condition; and the reading of his essays shows him to have been a man of providential foresight, looking not to the present aspect, but to the remote, not yet seen, result. He was born in a small village in Yorkshire, in 1830, of Puritan descent; was schooled at Rugby, where he showed a tendency toward philosophizing; became a student at Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a degree and afterward a fellowship; and then worked as tutor and later (1878 to 1882) as professor. He was one of the "recognized politicians" of the Rugby school, and was considered, in spite of his protestations to the contrary, a "dreadful radical." In college, he made himself felt by his fellow-students, and showed his independence by following his own line of reading rather than pursuing honors and prizes. He regarded Louis Napoleon as a "successful brigand"; had an enthusiastic admiration for John Bright, whom he described as "a great 'brick,' simple as a boy, full of fun, with a very pleasant flow of conversation and lots of good stories"; read Wordsworth, Carlyle, Maurice, and Fichte; failed in the candidacy for a professorship at St. Andrews, Scotland, because he was charged with Comtism and materialism—to which he was really opposed; rejoiced in 1860 over the repeal of the paper-duty, because it would secure the position of the penny papers and destroy the despotism of the "Times"; was comforted with the sure prospect of Gladstone's becoming a radical, for he. Bright, and Cobden would "form a fine triumvirate to lead the people's cause"; and he sympathized ardently with the United States in the war of the rebellion, and saw clearly what was the real issue in the contest. In 1864 he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission on Education, and spent about a year, all told, in industrious personal inspections of the schools of five counties. The remarks in his reports, upon the condition of the schools and the ​points in which the middle-class schools in particular failed to respond to the needs of those who should attend them, are very pungent, go down to the root of the matter, and look to the final and permanent result; and they show that his strongest sympathies were with the education of the middle classes, whom the universities were only just beginning to touch. This sympathy was intimately bound up with a sympathy with the non-conformists, which was expressed in a lecture before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution on "Cromwell and the English Commonwealth." He supported electoral reform as a means of redeeming the government from the grasp of capitalists and snobs, and rejoiced over the passage of the conservative bill in 1868, as a victory in which no party was the winner, but the whole nation won "by a measure which makes us for the first time one people." What result was looked for from the enfranchisement of the people was not the present question. "Untie the man's legs, and then it will be time to speculate how he will walk." In one of his speeches he defined as the idea of a true liberal programme "the removal of all obstructions which the law can remove to the free development of English citizens." In a lecture respecting the position of the political reformers, he described them as proceeding "upon the principle that true political freedom means the power on the part of the citizens as a body to make the most and best of themselves, or (which is equivalent) to contribute equally to a common good, and that freedom of contract, freedom in all the forms of doing what one will with one's own, is only valuable as a means to freedom in its positive sense. No contract, then, is valid, which defeats the end for which alone society enforces contracts at all—i.e., that equal development of the faculties of all which is the highest good for all." On this principle ho justified interference in matters of labor, health, education, the letting of land, and the sale of alcohol. The strongest elements in his nature "seem to have been the sense of public duty and the sense of religious dependence, and in the creeds of modern liberalism and modern evangelicalism he found a congenial language, which he had no difficulty in translating when he wished into that of German metaphysics. ... The idea of a free personality, exercising its freedom under conditions which it has itself created, formed the meeting-point for his political and religious aspirations. In the light of this idea he interpreted to himself the problems of history, of morality, of theology." As he grew older, he found that with many of his natural allies, liberal politicians, religious enthusiasts, scientific investigators, he could only go half-way. But, with all modifications in his attitude, "the ideal of Christian citizenship remained his ideal to the end; and, in spite of frequent antagonism to the accredited representatives of physical science, ho never relinquished the claim to be at one with the true scientific spirit." The subjects of Mr. Green's lectures, both as tutor and as Professor in Moral Philosophy, turned largely round certain works of Aristotle, to which parts of Plato were added. The manner of treating these works was gradually modified, in accordance with the methods of German commentators and writers like Jowett and Pattison, and became "less literary and more philosophical." The lectures which he delivered during the four years of his professorship were embodied in bis "Prolegomena to Ethics," which was published after his death. A course on "Political Obligation" and parts of other courses have been published in the second volume of this edition; and that and the first volume contain the collection of his philosophical works. The present volume of "Miscellanies" contains twenty-one papers, which have been published as public addresses, as articles in the "North British Review" and the "Academy," or through other channels. Among the subjects are "The Force of Circumstances," "The Influence of Civilization on Genius," "The Value and Influence of Works of Fiction in Modern Times," "The Philosophy of Aristotle," "Popular Philosophy in its Relation to Life," "Caird's Philosophy of Religion," "Immortality," "Christian Dogma," "The English Commonwealth," "Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract," "The Grading of Secondary Schools," "The Elementary School System of England," "The Work to be done by the Oxford High School for Boys," and theological subjects.
Astronomy with an Opera-Glass By Garrett P. Serviss. Illustrated. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 154. Price, $1.50.
Under the above title a series of five articles recently appeared in "The Popular Science Monthly," describing the aspect of the starry heavens as seen through that most available variety of the telescope—the opera-glass. These descriptions included directions for recognizing the constellations and the principal stars, and were illustrated with numerous star-maps and views of the sun and moon, while many allusions to the history and mythology of the subject added to the interest of the text. The articles called forth many lively expressions of pleasure, both from the newspaper press and from individual correspondents, which is not surprising, for the "Monthly" has seldom if ever published a series of papers whose scientific accuracy and fascinating style made them more deserving of the name of popular science than these. The series, rearranged and enlarged, is now published in book form. The volume contains an introduction, composed of matter recast from the articles in the "Monthly," devoted to telling what a good opera-glass is. This is followed by four chapters, devoted respectively to the stars of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and a chapter on "The Moon, the Planets, and the Sun," the accounts of the planets being new. Throughout the work, and in some parts on almost every page, new matter has been introduced, intended to make the subject clearer and more interesting to the reader, and to render the book enjoyable and useful reading to those who may not care to follow out, opera-glass in hand, the directions and descriptions contained in it. Accounts of additional stars, star-groups, and other objects have been inserted, also fresh references to star-lore, as well as to advances in our knowledge of the heavens made since the series appeared in the magazine. The radiant points of some of the principal meteor-showers have been indicated; also the places in the heavens of the points known as the solstices and equinoxes. Additional descriptions have also been introduced of the revolution of the heavens and its effect upon the places of the constellations at different seasons and different hours. New matter has been added on the history of the Pleiades; about Sirius and Procyon, and their strange companion-stars; and about star-clusters. All the illustrations of the article on "The Stars of Spring" were redrawn and re-engraved for the book, and several new ones have been added in this chapter and in that on "The Moon, the Planets, and the Sun." The volume is printed in large, clear type, on fine paper, and is bound in a notably tasteful and appropriate style.
Microscopical Physiography of the Rock-making Minerals. By H. Rosenbusch. Translated and abridged by Joseph P. Iddings. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 333, Price, $5.
This work is described by the translator as containing all that is necessary for an accurate and complete determination of the rock-making minerals. In the first part of the volume the optical properties of minerals are described, with some account of their morphological characters, their phenomena of cohesion and chemical properties. In the second or descriptive part the minerals treated are arranged according to their system of crystallization, being divided into two groups, isotropic and anisotropic minerals. The former group comprises amorphous substances and those belonging to the isometric system; the latter group is subdivided into minerals with one optic axis (tetragonal and hexagonal systems), and those with two optic axes (orthorhombic, monoclinic, and triclinic systems). There are, besides these, a few crypto-crystalline substances, which are placed under the head of aggregates. Each section in the first part, and each species in the second, is preceded by a list of the literature of the subject. Twenty-six plates of photo-micrographs and one hundred and twenty-one woodcuts illustrate the text.
Town and Country School Buildings. By E. C. Gardner. New York and Chicago: E. L. Kellogg & Co. Pp. 129. Price, $2.50.
The aim of this work is to aid improvement in a department where improvement has been sadly needed. School-houses have been like barns in the country, and like warehouses in the city, rather than fit places for children to exist and study in. The book ​comprises a series of twenty-three designs for school-buildings, ranging from a loghouse of one room to a brick building of two stories and basement, and containing eight rooms. Each design is accompanied by a general description, in which the lighting, heating, ventilating, and toilet arrangements receive due attention. The text is abundantly illustrated with front and side elevations, floor-plans, and details for doors, fireplaces, transoms, screens, porches, windows, belfries, gates, fences, etc. In all the designs the principle that school-houses should be attractive is insisted on, and their porches with balustrades, the low overhanging roofs, and exterior chimneys of many of them, make the smaller ones look like dwellings, while the large ones have the appearance of libraries or club-houses rather than the severe aspect usually associated with a school-house. Attention is paid to economy withal, especially in the designs for the smaller buildings. The book is very handsomely printed and attractively bound, and deserves a place in the library of every school officer.
Rocks and Soils: Their Origin, Composition, and Characteristics. By Horace E. Stockbridge. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 239. Price, $2.50.
The object of this book is to present what aid the science of geology can furnish to the important art of agriculture. Some sixty pages are devoted to a sketch of the geological history of the earth, and an equal space to rock composition and decomposition. In this second division, the constituents of the most important crystalline and non-crystalline rocks are given, the disintegration of rocks by internal and by external forces is described, and the products of such disintegration are enumerated. The internal agencies mentioned are volcanoes, thermal waters, rock metamorphism, and contraction of the earth's surface manifested in gradual changes of surface-level, in mountain formation, and in earthquakes. The external forces of disintegration are change of temperature, mechanical and chemical action of water, action of the air, and of organic life. The remaining division of the volume deals with the further transformation of the disintegrated rock into soils by the incorporation of organic matter through the agency of plants and animals, with the constituents and characteristics of soils, and with the soil as related to the production of plants. Methods of experimenting with and analyzing soils are described here. An appendix contains tables of percentages of the constituents found in soils, agricultural products and mineral fertilizers, and these are followed by a list of authorities.
A Manual of the Vertebrate Animals of the Northern United States. By David Starr Jordan. Fifth edition. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. Pp. 375. Price, $2.50.
The object of this manual is to give to students and collectors a ready means of identifying the vertebrate fauna, including marine species, of the region which it covers, and of recognizing the characters on which the families, genera, and species of these animals are founded. A system of analytical keys has been employed by which differential characters are brought into contrast. The present edition is wholly rewritten, and the order of arrangement is reversed, the lowest forms being placed first. The artificial characters largely used in the first four editions of this work for the analyses of the genera have been for the most part replaced by the less obvious characters on which classification is actually based. The region covered by the manual has been extended, so that it now includes the district north and east of the Ozark Mountains, south of the Laurentian Hills in Canada, north of the southern boundary of Virginia, and east of the Missouri River. In order to keep the boot of moderate size, all descriptions have been made very concise, while synonymy and generally references to authority have been omitted. Prof. Jordan's name is a sufficient guarantee of the reliability of the work.
The Tariff and its Evils. By John II. Allen. ("Questions of the Day." No. LIII.) New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 122. Price, $1.
In this essay a ship-owner and merchant of long experience combats the theories of the protectionists as formulated by Senator John Sherman in his speech to the Home Market Club of Boston. The author ​naturally devotes his attention chiefly to the effects of our tariff on our foreign commerce and our carrying-trade, the aspects of the subject with which his experience has made him most familiar. The author maintains that what prosperity we have in this country is obtained from our natural resources and in spite of the protective tariff rather than because of it; that the country is not so prosperous but that we have among us constantly a vast army of workers without work; and that the tariff closes to our products the foreign market, in which we might make large sales. The restrictive system has almost destroyed American shipping, and ship-owners are now looking for contributions from their fellow-citizens in the form of subsidies to enable them to carry on this unprofitable industry. The mill-owners get such contributions, and the ship-owners ask, Why should not we? The farmers, who number about half our working population, and are more than four times as many as the manufacturing workers, suffer severely from a system which protects their products about twenty per cent and taxes them on their purchases nearly seventy per cent. The author's positions are fortified by numerous pertinent facts and figures.
Eating for Strength. By M. L. Holbrook, M. D. New York: M. L. Holbrook & Co. Pp. 236. Price, $1,25.
This book is a popular general guide on the subject of diet, not limited to the case of the athlete, as might be inferred from its title. Its language is simple, and, though scientific reasons are given for its directions, the volume contains nothing that the general reader can not understand. The first hundred pages are devoted mainly to telling the nature and value of the various classes of food-substances which we use, much of the information being arranged in the form of instructive tables. A plea for simplicity in living follows, enforced by the experience of persons who have lived for years wholly or mainly on fruit and vegetables. In the next chapter, the composition and value of each of the chief foods of the vegetable kingdom is set forth, the section on grapes including an account of the grape-cure. Some suggestions follow concerning diet for different ages, circumstances, and a number of specified diseases. The volume contains also several hundred recipes for wholesome foods and drinks, comprising soups, bread, eggs, vegetables, puddings, cake, and even pics, which the author says are wholesome or not as they are well or badly made; also the preparation of tea, coffee, etc., with cautions as to their use, and a variety of beverages from fruit-juices, milk, etc.
The Peter Redpath Museum of McGill University has issued a pamphlet on specimens of Eozoön Canadense and their Geological and other Relations, by Sir J. William Dawson, F. R. S. (Dawson, Montreal, 50 cents), the purpose of which is stated in these opening lines. "Whatever may be the ultimate decision of palæontologists as to the nature of Eozoön, it is important that the original specimens on which its description was based, and those later acquisitions which have thrown further light on its structure and have been published in that connection, should be preserved and catalogued. The collections made by Sir W. E. Logan arc now for the most part in the Museum of the Geological Survey at Ottawa. Those accumulated by the author of these notes, as well as duplicates preserved by Sir W. E. Logan, are in the Peter Redpath Museum. It is to these latter collections that the present paper relates, and the object is to render them as useful as possible for scientific purposes in the future." The pamphlet is not a catalogue, though it contains a synopsis of the specimens to which it relates, but has the form of a monograph, the divisions of which are, geological relations, state of preservation, new facts and special points, notes on peculiar specimens, replies to Möbius, Hahn, etc., paleozoic fossils mineralized with silicates, phosphates, and graphite of the Laurentian, and a summary of arguments in support of the animal nature of eozoön. A bibliography of the subject occupies six pages, and sixteen cuts illustrate the text.
Parts II and III of Vol. II of The Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University, Tokio, Japan, have been received. Part II comprises three papers: "On the so-called Crystalline Schists of Chichibu," by Prof. Bundjiro Koto, Ph. D.; "On the Plants of Sulphur Island," by Prof. Samuro ​Okubo; and "Some New Cases of the Occurrence of Bothriocephalus liguloides, Lt.," by Isao Ijima, Ph. D., and Kentaro Murata. Five plates illustrate these papers. Part III is wholly occupied by an account of "A Magnetic Survey of all Japan," carried out, by order of the President of the Imperial University, by Prof. Cargill G. Knott, D. Sc, and Asst. Prof. Aikitsu Tanakadate. The paper is accompanied by maps showing lines of equal magnetic dip, of equal magnetic horizontal force, of equal magnetic total force, and of equal magnetic declination; also charts of diurnal variation of declination, and two plates representing instruments.
Great-Circle Sailing, by the late Richard A. Proctor (Longmans, 35 cents), is a pamphlet "indicating the shortest sea-routes and describing maps for finding them in a few seconds." The routes may be found by the aid of one chart and a few lines of directions, but two charts are more convenient, and a dozen pages of explanation and illustration are given in addition. To meet the difficulty that the true great-circle course would often carry a ship into inconveniently high latitudes, the author gives Mr. Towson's method of composite sailing, which consists in taking a great-circle course to touch the highest latitude deemed safe, then following this parallel to a second great-circle course which passes through the port of arrival. Charts for this mode of sailing, eighteen inches in diameter, reductions of which are given in the pamphlet, may be obtained of the publishers.
We have received from Messrs. Thomas Prosser & Son, New York, A Sketch of Alfred Krupp, by K. W. and O. E. Michaelis, to which is added A Visit to the Krupp Works at Essen, from the French of Captain E. Monthaye. The sketch makes prominent the sturdy character of the man in forcing his way to success over enormous obstacles. A portrait of Krupp and views of his works are given.
One of the most effective contributions to the literature of tariff reform which has been made during the past year of active discussion is the pamphlet on Relation of the Tariff to Wages, by Hon. David A. Wells, in the "Questions of the Day Series" (Putnam, 25 cents). Taking as a text a statement by Mr. Claine about "the condition and recompense of labor in Europe," Mr. Wells proceeds to show in catechetic form that the protectionists who try to work the "pauper labor" scare "either mean to deceive, or do not know what they are talking about." The scheme of his argument is, first, that the position of labor is more favorable in the United States than in Europe because of the exemption from enormous military and tax burdens, the abundance of fertile land and of means of communication and transportation, the diversity of soil and climate, and the intelligence and energy of the laborers in this country; secondly, that, in proportion to the work done, American laborers do not receive more wages than European; next, that restrictions of markets restrict the opportunities for labor; then, that wages have not been reduced heretofore by reductions in tariff rates; that only five or ten per cent of the bread-winners of the country are engaged in producing protected articles; and, finally, that our present tariff policy is certain to reduce wages. The subject is presented in the clear and vigorous style which marks all of Mr. Wells's economic writings.
The very readable character of the pamphlet by Henry J. Philpott, in the "Questions of the Day Series," makes its title, Tariff Chats (Putnam, 25 cents), a remarkably fit one. The author points out that the tariff is a tax, and that it favors trusts. He gives figures to show how much it raises the prices of certain woolen, cotton, and iron manufactures, and charges with supreme selfishness the few who are benefited by the tariff at the expense of the many. In a striking table he shows that our wealth, manufactures, wages, and various other interests, advanced far more from 1850 to 1860, under a low tariff, than from 1860 to 1870, or 1870 to 1880, under a high tariff. That the high tariff is not for the farmer's interest is shown by the much lower prices obtained for corn and wheat now than before 1860; and that the wages of the laborers in protected manufactures are governed by something else than the tariff is shown by the very different wages paid in different States of the Union all under the same tariff.
Sharing the Profits, a pamphlet, by Mary W. Calkins (Ginn), is a very interesting ​brief presentation of the subject of participation by employés in the profits of the business in which they are engaged. In the words of the preface, "It is an attempt to state, in the shortest and clearest terms, the theory of profit-sharing, to explain its methods, and to describe its results." A visit by the author to Paris and Guise in 1886 and to Geneva in 1887, in addition to study of the literature of the subject, has furnished the material for this essay. A brief statement of the arguments for profit-sharing is first given; this is followed by descriptions of the ways in which the practice is carried on by a number of concerns in France and neighboring countries; the relation of profitsharing to pure co-operation, and the aid it may give to industrial reforms, are then pointed out, while in the last chapter certain ethical and economic objections to profit-sharing are answered.
The Union of the Societies for Ethical Culture began with April, 1888, the publication of a quarterly organ, called The Ethical Record. The subscription price is $1 a year, and the address of the publication committee is Post-office box 772, Philadelphia. The purpose of the "Record" is to present news of the ethical movement, and articles stating the spirit and aim of ethical culture. The third number, now before us, contains an address by S. B. Weston, Lecturer of the Philadelphia Society, on "The Final Aim of Life," in which Mr. Weston gives reasons for discarding the ancient Greek and the Christian views, and states, as the modern rationalistic idea, that the highest human purpose is "the development of life to its fullest perfection, physically, intellectually, morally." Another paper in the same number is part of an essay on "The Ethics of Insolvency," by Leo G. Rosenblatt. There are also "A Responsive Exercise," in use by the children's classes of the St. Louis Society, a selected poem, several pages of notes, and two pieces of music.
The Agnostic Annual for 1889, which is its sixth number, is edited by Charles A. Watts (W. Stewart, London, &d.), and contains eight essays and three poems. The leading article is by Samuel Laing, and is a criticism of the position taken by Mr. Gladstone in his controversy with Colonel Ingersoll. Miss Constance Naden contributes a paper on "The Atrophy of Religion," and Mrs. E. Lynn Linton one on "Women and Agnosticism." The other essays are "Life: the Agnostic Definition," by Albert Simmons; "The Sublimity of Nature," by Charles Watts; "Science and its Detractors," by John Wilson; "Agnosticism among the Moors," by H. J. Hardwicke, M. D.; and "The Aloneness of Man," by G. M. McC.
Ruth, the Christian Scientist, by John Chester, M. D., D. D. (Carter & Karrick), is a novel with a purpose, which is to present various theories in regard to the effects of mind in the cure of disease. The doctrine of "Christian Science" is put into the mouth of one character, that of "Faith Healing" into that of another, while materialism is represented by a young physician, and other characters fill in the background.
In The Human Mystery in Hamlet (Fords, Howard, and Hulbert), Mr. Martin W. Cooke, attempting "to say an unsaid word," maintains that this great tragedy, far from being a mere play-writer's happy thought, was wrought out, under an inspiration created by the achievements of earlier poets, with a definite end in view. This end was to show in the hero typical man, as he was moved under the force of the interior spiritual struggle of the passions for prevalence, under the domination of supernatural law. His arguments are well considered and forcibly presented, and are strengthened by illustrations from the "Electra" of Euripides and of Sophocles, and Vergil's "Æneid," illustrations which show great resemblance in motive and methods of treatment between Shakespeare and the classical poets.
Adams, Herbert B. Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 308.
Allen, Grant. Force and Energy: A Theory of Dynamics. London and New York; Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 161.
Atwater, W. O., Director. Storrs School Agricultural Experiment Station, Mansfield, Conn. Pp. 11.
Austen, Peter T. Chemical Lecture Notes. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 98. $1.
Bliss. V. L., Detroit. Mich. Report of the Principal of the Detroit High School concerning Overwork. Pp. 23.
Boehmer, George H., Smithsonian Institution. Systematic Arrangement of the List of Foreign Correspondents, July, 1888. Pp. 56. Additions and Corrections to the List of Foreign Correspondents. Pp. 32.
​Buller, Sir Walter L. Catalogue of the Collection of New Zealand Birds. London: E. A. Petherick & Co. Pp. 96.
Carrington, Henry B., U. S. A. Patriotic Reader. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 595. $120.
Cams, Paul. The Idea of God. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company. Pp. 26. 15 cts.
Compayré, Gabriel. Lectures on Pedagogy. Translated by W. H. Payne. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co. Pp. 491.
Cook, George II.. State Geologist. Geological Survey of New Jersey. Final Report. Vol. I. Trenton. Pp. 439.
Crothers, T. H., M.D. , Hartford. Conn. Inebriate Asylums and their Work. Pp. 16.
Darling, Charles W., Utica, N. T. New Amsterdam, New Orange, New York, with Chronological Data. Privately printed. Pp. 4:3.
Day, David T. Mineral Resources of the United States. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 832.
Dewey, Melvil. Columbia College Library. Annual Report of the Librarian, etc. Pp. 31.
A Dreamer. The Dream of Love and Fire. Boston: Estes & Lauriat. Pp. 42, with Plates.
Dryer, Lieutenant G. L. Annual Report of the Hydrographer of the Navy Department. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 59.
Foster, Michael, and others. "The Journal of Physiology." Vol. IX, No. 4. Cambridge, England. Pp. 112. $5 a volume.
Grossmann, Rabbi Louis. Some Chapters on Judaism and the Science of Religion. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 190.
Hall. Thomas Wright. A Correlation Theory of Chemical Action and Affinity. London: Remington & Co. Pp. 360.
Hanis, H. R. Report of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General. Washington: Government Printing-office. Pp. 115.
Harvard College Observatory Annals. Detection of New Nebulæ by Photography. Pp. 5.
Hydrographic Office, Navy Department. Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean, December, 1888, and January, 1889.
Julien, Alexis A. The Dunyte Beds of North Carolina. Pp. 10. Genesis of the Crystalline Iron-Ores. Pp. 10. Volcanic Tuffs of Challis, Idaho, etc. Pp. 10. Glaciation of Shawangunk Mountain, N. T. Pp. 8. Geology of Great Barrington, Mass. Pp. 20. Microscopical Structure of Iron Pyrites. Pp. 12. The Sealed Flasks of Crystal. Pp. 14. Decay of the Building-Stones of New York City. Pp. 32. Variation of Decomposition of Iron Pyrites. Pp. 140, with Plates.
Keen, W. W., M.D., Philadelphia. Explanatory Trephining and Puncture of the Brain.
Konsuetzoff's Patent Naphtha Gas. St. Petersburg.
Le Conte, John. Vital Statistics and the True Coefficient of Mortality illustrated by Cancer. Pp. 19. Lindley. Walter, M. D. Extremes in Altitude in Southern California. Pp. 12.
Lintner. J. A., State Entomologist. Cutworms. Pp. 36. The White Grub of the May Beetle. Pp. 31. McNutt, W. F., M. D. Mineral and Thermal Springs of California. San Francisco. Pp. 10.
Mantegazza, Paolo. Testa: A Book for Boys. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 258. $1.25.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Twenty-fourth Annual Catalogue. Boston. Pp. 184.
Mayo, Rev. A. D. Industrial Education in the South. Washington: Government Printing Office. Pp. 86.
Molloy, Gerald. Gleanings in Science. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 352. $2.25.
Moss, Oscar B. Beauty, Health, and Strength for Every Woman. Ann Arbor, Mich. Pp. 3*6.
Montelius, Oscar, Ph.D. The Civilization of Sweden in Heathen Times London and New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 214. $4.
Museum. U. S. National. Proceedings, 1887. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 771, with Plates.
Nason, Frank L. Some New York Minerals and their Localities. Albany: C. Van Benthuysen & Sons. Pp. 24.
New Hampshire Medical Society. Transactions, Session of 1888. Concord. Pp. 182.
New York Agricultural Experiment Station-Chemical Composition of some Feeding-Stuffs. Pp. 32.
Nuttall, Zelia. A Historical Essay on a Relic of Ancient Mexico. Pp. 52, with Three Colored Plates, Oliver, Charles A.. Philadelphia. Double Chorio-retinitis, etc. Pp. 6, with Two Colored Plates.
Pickering. Edward C. Report of the Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College. Cambridge, Mass. Pp. 11.
Pinkham, Henry M. The Lake Superior Copper Properties. Boston. Pp. 102, with Map.
Pope Manufacturing Company, Boston. Columbia Bicycle Calendar for 1889.
Ruskin, John. Sesame and Lilies. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 305, with Portrait. $1.
Sanders. P. Patent System for cleansing Towns by Hydraulic Pressure. St. Petersburg, Russia. Pp. 11, with Plates.
Searle, Arthur. Atmospheric Economy of Solar Radiation. Pp. 4.
Smith, Charles Sprague. The American University. Pp. 31.
Strauss, Charles T. Translator. Spelin, a Universal Language. By Prof George Bauer, of Agram, Austria. New York. Pp. 28.
Sunderland, Rev. J. T. A Ministry in a College Town. Ann Arbor, Mich. Pp. 16.
Swift, Morrison I. What shall be done with Trusts? Pp. 13.
Talmage, James E. First Book of Nature. Salt Lake City: The Contributor Company. Pp. 265.
Thomas, Cyrus. Burial Mounds of the Northern Section of the United States. Washington: Government Printing-office. Pp. 120.
Todd, David P. Instructions for Observing the Total Eclipse of the Sun, January 1, 1889. Amherst, Mass., Observatory. Pp. 14, with Plate.
"Truth-Seeker Annual and Freethinker's Almanac for 1889." New York: Truth-Seeker Office. Pp. 124. 25 cents.
Washburn, L. K. Was Jesus insane? New York: Truth-Seeker Company. Pp. 20. 10 cents.
Whitman. C. O., and Allis, E. P. "Journal of Morphology," Vol. II, No. 2. Boston: Ginn & Co. Pp. 150, with Plates.