# Popular Science Monthly/Volume 25/August 1884/Literary Notices

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Geological Excursions, or the Rudiments of Geology for Young Learners. By Alexander Winchell, LL.D. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. Pp. 234. Price, $1.50.
In his experience as a teacher of geology, and interested in extending a knowledge of this interesting and important subject in the common schools and among the people, the author of this work found himself confronted with this formidable difficulty, that "in most of our colleges, no knowledge whatever of the subject is required for entrance, and there is no course where geology is a prerequisite; and since geology is not required for entrance into college, it has ceased to be taught in the schools—as if geology had no uses, if not demanded as a preparation for college." As our higher educational system, therefore, virtually works against the recognition of this science, the difficulty must be met by preparing the necessary rudimentary books for introduction into the schools, on the ground of the importance of this kind of knowledge, and with no reference to the influence of the colleges. Dr. Winchell says: "As geology is not taught in the schools, and as nineteen twentieths of our teachers have not studied it in college, there is almost no preparation among teachers of primary or secondary grades to induct a pupil into an elementary knowledge of the subject. The only hope of early reform seems to lie in furnishing teachers with a text-book so framed as to be capable of successful use by a teacher without previous acquaintance with the subject. Certainly, no such text-books exist; for though there are several which might be employed by teachers thoroughly disciplined by previous study, the large majority of our teachers are not so disciplined. These text-books, moreover, arc too much conformed to the dogmatic ​or didactic method—telling about things which are far away, or, if near at hand, are not identifiable by the aid of the book. Due discrimination is not observed between those conceptions of the subject which are abstract, and beyond the reach of the young pupil or older novices, and those which can be attained through accessible concrete illustrations."
The method of these "Excursions" is practical, and implies the observation and study of geological phenomena as they lie all about us among the most obtrusive and noticeable of the objects which we daily encounter. The author, moreover, informs us that a large part of the "Excursions" has been used while yet in manuscript, in actual trials by actual teachers. This is unquestionably the true method in scientific education, because it makes the mental acquisitions real, and the adoption and extension of this plan of study is unquestionably the great desideratum of the time.
Brain-Exhaustion, with some Preliminary Considerations on Cerebral Dynamics. By J. Leonard Corning, M. D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 235.
Interesting and valuable as are the investigations that have been made upon questions of muscular dynamics. Dr. Corning believes that the economical questions involved in normal and morbid intellection constitute a field of physiological research that transcends all others in importance. With the growing demands made in the present conditions of society upon the thinking apparatus come factors to exert a prejudicial influence upon the cerebral mechanism; and these have never been more numerous than now, as is proved by the alarming increase of brain disorders during the last few years. Dr. Corning has endeavored to consider a group of symptoms, associated with these disorders, from as scientific a point of view as possible. The opinions he expresses have been formed from direct clinical observation, and from inferences derived from physiology and experimental pathology. In a chapter of "Preliminary Considerations" he discusses the relation of the law of the convertibility of forces to the dynamics of the healthy and the morbid brain; the emotions of the healthy and morbid mind, and memory in its healthy and morbid relations. In the two following chapters are considered the clinics and pathology, and the causation of brain-exhaustion; account being taken in the latter chapter of predisposing and exciting causes, false educational conceptions and methods, the effects of tobacco and alcoholic excesses, and "mental hygienics." The last chapter is devoted to the principles of treatment. Rest is prescribed as the most wholesome and efficient remedy. Drugs are objected to, but coca is prescribed as an excellent remedy against worry, and one which, besides exercising an invigorating effect upon the cerebral centers, "imparts an indescribable sensation of satisfaction." A special treatment by electrization of the sympathetic nerve, with simultaneous bilateral compression of the carotids, is described.
Methods of Historical Study. By Herbert B. Adams, Ph. D. Baltimore: N. Murray. Pp. 137. Price, 50 cents.
This treatise constitutes the opening double number of the second series of the "Johns Hopkins University Studies" in historical and political science, and includes papers describing improved and special methods of historical study that have been introduced at the university, and at other institutions in the United States and Europe. The main principle of the training at Johns Hopkins is to encourage independent thought and research. Little attention is given to text-books and mere phraseology, but all stress is laid upon clear and original statements of fact and opinion, whether the student's own or a consulted author's. At Smith College the study is pursued by four classes in regular gradation, with liberal use of collateral literary works and historical romances as aids to the lectures and formal treatises. In another paper are given expositions of four new methods of historical study, viz., the topical, comparative, co-operative, and seminary or laboratory methods. In the first method the study is begun with and enlarged from some special topic, preferably from one which is nearest and most familiar. In the comparative method, like phases of history are studied connectedly. In the co-operative method, each student makes a thorough study of a single branch of the subject, and the work of all ​is so co-ordinated in the class that each member may, to some extent, reap the benefit of the labors of his companions. The seminary method is adapted from the old scholastic methods of the ecclesiastical and philosophical seminaries, and has been applied in numerous German and some American institutions.
The Bible analyzed in Twenty Lectures. By John R. Kelso, A. M. New York: "Truth-Seeker" office. Pp. 833. Price, $3.
We believe that the Bible should be subject to criticism and investigation, in all its aspects, like any other book; and that the criticism should be searching and fearless. Still, there are proprieties to be observed, even by a critic who does not believe the book the product of divine inspiration. It is a very ancient book, embodying unique historical records and traditions of the earliest times of civilization, the genuineness of which is newly illustrated by every new excavation in the ruined cities of the East; prophetic books and poems which, regarded in the literary aspect alone, are worthy to be ranked with the world's masterpieces; and religious declarations and moral precepts which have been built into the foundations of modern manners. These things should entitle it to respectful treatment, even at the hands of an enemy. Mr. Kelso has not given it such treatment, but has made it the object of persistent ribald, indecent, blasphemous assaults, the very violence of which obscures whatever of force his argument might have had ho presented it in a becoming style.
The Book of the Beginnings. By R. Heber Newton. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 310.
In this little book Mr. Newton gives a study of Genesis, with an introduction to the Pentateuch, conducted according to the canons of free, independent investigation. The study is based upon the lectures which the author, a well-known Episcopal clergyman, had begun to deliver to his Bible-class, but which he discontinued at the request of his bishop. The singular position in which he was put by this event made it seem due, he says, "alike to my people and myself, that the public should be enabled to judge of the real nature of the lectures which had called forth such a very unusual if not unprecedented episcopal interruption of a presbyter in the course of his parochial ministrations." Mr. Newton accepts to the full the results of what is called the "new criticism" with regard to the mode of composition, the time, and the authorship of the five Mosaic books; and while he presents these clearly and in all their force, he does it in the spirit and with the manner of one who accepts, as he avows that he does, the religious teachings of the Bible as authoritative.
The Outskirts of Physical Science. Essays, Philosophical and Religious. By T. Nelson Dale. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Pp. 187. Price, $1.25.
The studies contained in this book seem to be products of a mind much exercised about the relations of religion and modern science. Its author has read widely, and is evidently in much sympathy with the study of natural science, for which he declares he had an early fondness, while he possesses strong religious convictions, and strives with sincerity to bring the two orders of thought into unity and harmony. The second part, on "Scientific Studies: their Place and Use in Education," presents a very fair resume of the educational claims of the sciences, but the author is still in agreement with the classicists, holding that there is nothing like "the humanities" for the cultivation of the mind.
Home and School Training. By Mrs. H. E. G. Arey. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. Pp. 192.
The author of this plea for home instruction has made it under the feeling that the subject has at no time received the attention it demands, but that we are coming to neglect it more and more. We are apt to leave the whole matter of the training of our children to the schools, in utter forgetfulness of the fact that the specially important phase of it—that which forms a symmetrical character—is ostensibly ignored in many of them, and that "the most abiding portion of the child's mental seed-sowing has already taken root and given its tints to the soil before the period for entering the school-room arrives." The oversight of "this first lush ​growth of the young mind" is the one thing that seems especially given into the hands of the parents, and it is treated by the author as a duty that should be peremptorily observed from the very moment of birth. The subject is handled in all its aspects as by one who is well qualified to do it, and the presentment, both in matter and manner, is admirable.
Lectures on the Science and Art of Education, with other Lectures. By Joseph Payne. New York: E. L. Kellogg & Co. Pp. 256. Price, $1.
Dr. Joseph Payne was for many years a distinguished and most successful practical teacher in England, and, retiring from his profession late in life, he continued to devote himself to the subject with great assiduity, and became at this period the first Professor of the Science and Art of Education in the College of Preceptors in London. Dr. Payne was well versed in the history of education, and familiar with the most advanced methods of teaching, and the lectures contained in this volume are the ripe results of wide knowledge and critical experience. The book is full of valuable suggestions and wise practical observations, and will be found very useful to inquiring teachers.
A History of Tuberculosis. By Eric E. Sattler, M. D. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. Pp. 191. Price, $1.25.
The first five chapters of this book consist of a translation of the first part of a work on "Studies of Tuberculosis," by Dr. Arnold Spina, of Vienna, who is a vigorous opponent of the theories of Koch. These chapters present the results obtained from long series of inoculation, inhalation, and feeding experiments, the first of which date back to 1789, bringing the history of the subject up to March, 1882, when Robert Koch published his investigations. In the next chapter Dr. Sattler presents a review of the steps by which Koch arrived at the conclusion that tuberculosis is caused by a specific micro-organism. Koch's announcements set many investigators at work upon tuberculosis and other diseases supposed to be infectious, and many additional discoveries have been published. There are those also who deny many of the discoveries claimed, and even the existence of the Bacillus tuberculosis. After giving some account of the controversy. Dr. Sattler says in conclusion: "Whether Koch has been too sanguine in the one direction, or Spina has gone too far in the other, it is not for us to decide. The great number of scientific men engaged throughout the civilized world in repeating these experiments, and in studying their results, will soon sift out the truth of the matter, and bring the question to a final and authoritative decision."
Biogen: A Speculation on the Origin and Nature of Life. By Professor Elliot Coues. Second edition. Boston: Estes & Lauriat. Pp. 66. Price, 75 cents.
The substance of this disquisition was delivered as a lecture before the Philosophical Society of Washington, and now appears with the trimmings—dedication, mottoes, preface, introduction and appendix—forming altogether a very lively little treatise on biological mysticisms. Professor Coues seems to have got tired of working under the restraints of observation, analysis, and induction at the mere phenomena of life, as is the work-a-day habit of science, and so he determined to break away and have a spree of speculation, and see what might come of it. He makes a rally for the relief and rescue of the old but declining doctrine of the "vital principle," or "vital force," which he denominates "Biogen," and which he insists is a thing, and a very real thing, "possessed of sensible qualities and attributes which may be investigated by proper scientific methods, and by scientific experimentation, quite as readily as any other of the so-called 'imponderables' of Nature. It is as open to examination as luminiferous ether, and its properties if not its substance may be studied as we may study light, heat, or electricity; it is therefore not only a proper object of science, but a proper subject of philosophy." However this may be, it is certain that the doctrine of the "vital principle" was made the most of in times of ignorance before anything was known of the laws of life. The "vital principle" explained everything in the middle ages, and we observe that the publishers of this brochure, doubtless aware of the fitness of things, have printed it in mediæval type.
The Land-Laws. ("The English Citizen" Series.) By Frederick Pollock, Barrister-at-Law, M. A., etc. London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 215. Price, $1.
The land-laws of England, which form the subject of this book, must not be mistaken for the land-laws of the United Kingdom. Scotland has a distinct legal system of her own, with a distinct history; Irish land-law, on the other hand, is nothing but imported English law, with certain modifications, the most important of which have been made too recently, and are too much involved with political questions, to be profitably treated in connection with English institutions. The aim of the author is to make the principles and the leading features of the English law of real property intelligible to a reader who is without legal training, but is willing to take some little pains to understand. "Almost every possible kind of ownership and almost every possible relation of owners and occupiers of land to the state and to one another have at one time or another existed in England, and left a more or less conspicuous mark in the composite structure of the English law of real property." The customary Germanic law, which the Angles and Saxons brought to England, is first taken up; the changes resulting from the Norman conquest are next described; and then follows an account of the legislation through which the modern law has developed. A chapter is devoted to the relation between landlord and tenant, and the book concludes with an examination of some modern reforms and prospects. Several special points are discussed in an appendix.
The Destructive Influence of the Tariff upon Manufactures and Commerce, and the Figures and Facts relating thereto. By J. Schoenhof. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
The contents of this little volume first appeared in communications to the New York "Evening Post," and they are now collected and published by the Putnams for the New York Free-Trade Club. The author of this book seems to believe that the way to develop trade is not to fetter it, and he proves abundantly by copious and varied statistics that the effect of legislative restrictions and congressional control of manufactures and commerce is injurious in proportion to the interference—is destructive rather than properly protective! There is a good deal of excellent sense in this book, and, although it deals chiefly in facts of the statistical kind, it contains many reflections and suggestions that are well worth attention, as, for example, the following:
Politics: An Introduction to the Study of Comparative Constitutional Law. By William W. Crane, and Bernard Moses, Ph. D., Professor of History and Political Economy in the University of California. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 305. Price, $1.50.
This book opens with a description of the structure of a nation and of the nature of sovereignty. The basis of every political community is affirmed to be physical force, and the importance of political instinct is insisted upon. Political heritage is illustrated by the history of the English colonies in America. The means by which the will of a sovereign is expressed are next taken up, the tendency of power in the United States and in some European federations is noted, and a chapter is devoted to political parties.
House-Drainage. By William Paul Gerhard. New York: Durham House-Drainage Company. Pp. 44. Sanitary Drainage of Tenement-Houses. By William Paul Gerhard. Hartford, Conn.: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company. Pp. 40.
In the former work, the essential features of any thorough system of house-drainage are laid down to be: Extension of all soil and waste pipes through and above the roof; provision of a fresh-air inlet in the drain at the foot of the soil and waste pipe systems; the trapping of the main drain outside of the fresh-air inlet, to exclude the sewer-gases from the house; provision of each fixture, as near as possible to it, with a suitable trap; and provision of vent-pipes to such traps under fixtures as are liable to be emptied by siphonage. In the second pamphlet, the principles of thorough sanitary drainage are applied to the tenement-houses of working-men.
Annual Report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station for 1883. S. W. Johnson, Director. New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor. Pp. 120.
The Board of Control of this institution report that the people of the State use the station more and more each year, and that the problem becomes more difficult how best to do the varied work asked for. To provide additional force. Dr. E. H. Jenkins has been appointed vice-director. Two hundred and nineteen analyses of fertilizers have been performed, fifteen of milk, three of butter, with negative results as to adulterations, and twenty of fodders. In connection with the last is given a table showing the average composition of American fodders and feeding-stuffs, compiled from all analyses that could be secured up to the 1st of September last. The chief seed-examinations were on onion-seed.
The Glacial Boundary in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. By Professor G. Frederick Wright. Cleveland, Ohio: Western Reserve Historical Society. Pp. 86.
The author began, ten years ago, investigations concerning the kames of the Merrimac Valley in Eastern Massachusetts. Continuing along the line, he has now traced the boundary of the glaciated area from the Atlantic Ocean to the southern part of Illinois. In the present pamphlet, the boundary is described in detail through the several counties and townships of Ohio, with local maps, and as to its general features through Kentucky—so far as it reaches that State—and Indiana.
Real and Imaginary Effects of Intemperance. By G. Thomann. New York: The United States Brewers' Association. Pp. 167.
The brewers have at last entered upon an active defense of their calling, against the assaults of the prohibitionists and the temperance orators, and in this pamphlet present their case and an appeal to facts and statistics. They claim that the arguments that have been hurled against fermented liquors are largely the offspring of the imagination, and do not rest on any solid foundation, or on what can be proved; and they publish counter statements and statistics favoring their own side. Leaving distilled liquors to take care of themselves, if they can, they contend that the beverages in which they are interested are wholesome, and are not instigators of crime, and that the use of them serves as a foil and a check to indulgence in stronger liquors; therefore it ought not to be discouraged.
Mineralogy. By J. H. Collins, F. G. S. Systematic and Descriptive Mineralogy. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Vol. II, pp. 329. Price, $1.25.
The present volume of Mr. Collins's "Mineralogy" is intended to accompany and supplement the first volume, which was published in 1878; and, like that, was written for the use of "practical working miners, quarrymen, and field geologists," as well as of students. The accounts are very brief, but they are clear, and illustrated with distinct drawings of the crystals, and include notices of all the minerals that had been described up to the time of the author's leaving England for Rio Tinto, Spain, in 1881.
Report of the New York State Survey for 1883. James T. Gardiner, Director. Albany: Van Benthuysen Printing-House. Pp. 182, with Six Maps.
The work of the survey was continued through last year in accordance with the matured plan on which it has all the time ​been prosecuted, and which is calculated, when completed, to produce an accurate and connected system of measurements over every part of the State. The survey of the Tonawanda and Oak-Orchard Swamps has formed a prominent part of it. We learn from the report that the rainfall in Western New York steadily increased from 1830 to 1880, and that the greatest average rainfall known for a similar period—88·73 inches—was reached during the years from 1868 to 1881, inclusive. The summer flow of the streams has, however, greatly diminished during the last fifty years.
The Teaching of Drawing in Grammar-Schools. A Paper on the Educational Features of the Subject. By Walter S. Perry. Boston: The Prang Educational Company. Pp. 26.
This essay was read as a paper before the department of Industrial Education at the last meeting of the American Educational Association. It considers the applications of drawing under three heads: as in industrial construction; in representing the appearance of objects and of nature; and in ornamentation. Of these, in the public schools, the first, the application in construction, is the most important. "It forms preeminently the educational and the practical side, and yet it is the one which has usually been ignored, while the picturesque and decorative sides have been given undue importance." It is dwelt upon at length, while the application to representation is treated as complementary to it, and that to decoration as essential to the completeness of the course of instruction.
The American University. When shall it be? Where shall it be? What shall it be? By John W. Burgess, Ph. D., of Columbia College. Boston: Ginn, Heath, & Co. Pp. 22. Price, 15 cents.
In the author's view, the reply to the first question should consist of three conditions. The university shall be when there exists in the nation the surplus of wealth to support it, the body of scholars to form its faculties, and the body of students qualified by previous training and acquirements to profit by university work. These conditions are believed to exist now in the United States. The place for the university should be at or near a center of wealth, education, and refinement, and that exists. The university should not be an institution of the State, but must be a private institution, supported by private donations, and directed by an association of private persons.
Administrative Organization. A Consideration of the Principal Executive Departments of the United States Government, in Relation to Administration. By LL. B. Washington: William II. Morrison. Pp. 108.
Imperfections in the workings of the administrative departments of our Government being recognized, the author of this essay seeks a permanent remedy for them by going to the principles on which departmental organization should rest. He finds that administration of the laws applied to the conduct of public affairs may be evil, by defect of the laws: first, where the administrative organization is in false relation with the administrative object; second, when, though the legal relation be perfect, the processes of administration are faulty; third, when both defects exist. The subject is considered prominently in the former aspect. The first-named defect is declared to exist seriously in the Treasury and Interior Departments, and a plan for reorganizing them is sketched.
Ancient Egypt in the Light of Modern Discoveries. By Professor H. S. Osborn, LL. D. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. Pp. 232, with Map.
Most good works on ancient Egypt are costly, and the knowledge of the subject is growing so fast that even a very recent book is likely to require to be added to or modified within a short time after it is published. Professor Osborn has endeavored to put what is really known of the history in such a brief form as to embody it in a really accessible book; to sift out what is conjectural and obsolete; and to include the results of the latest researches up to the time of his writing. He has been a diligent student of the monuments and inscriptions in the European museums and in their native land, has kept himself abreast of the literature of the subject, and has endeavored to present the results of matured studies. The work of later years is mentioned, ​including the discovery of the royal mummies near Thebes, and the excavations of M. Naville at Pithom-Succoth, or the latest that had been done till excavations were begun at Zoan last March. Dr. Osborn's style is not always happy, and his references to the work of later investigators are frequently not so clear as the reader would desire them to be.
Bilateral Asymmetry of Function. By G. Stanley Hall and E. M. Hartwell. Pp. 17.
The subject relates to supposed differences, essential or casual, in the power of similar organs on the different sides of the body; as, between the right and left eyes, ears, arms, or legs, or the right and left sides of internal organs. Numerous observations by different investigators are noticed briefly, and then the present authors describe their own experiments. From them they draw the conclusions that every deviation from perfect bilateral symmetry of form or function is to be accounted for without recourse to occult causes of any sort; that the key to the entire bilateral problem which shall reveal a common principle for all the various paired organs is to be sought in the study of bilateral muscle tension, the only act of will; and that the solution of this problem, when reached, will probably shed light on the nature of consciousness.
The Railroad as an Element in Education. An Address before the State Teachers' Association of Texas. By Professor Alexander Hogg, M. A. Louisville: Printed for the Author.
This brief pamphlet is filled with a great deal of interesting railroad information, its predominant idea being that railroads are a great factor of civilization, and help on the work of general amelioration and improvement in many ways. There is a brief sketch of the course of inventions that prepared for railroad constructions, some examination of the public influence of transcontinental railway systems, some defense of railroads against charges of monopoly, some account of the great "breakwaters" of the world, and finally an argument in favor of the construction of such a work at Galveston, in Texas, that shall give it deeper water and improve it as a seaport.
A Manual of Psychological Medicine and Allied Nervous Diseases. By Edward C. Mann. With Phototype Plates and other Illustrations. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son &; Co. Pp. 699. Price, $5.
This comprehensive treatise aims to "present the subject of insanity and allied nervous diseases in a scientific, clinical, and forensic light, and in so concise a form as to be available for the student and general practitioner." It is therefore addressed to the profession as a manual of medical practice, and a systematic text-book of medical education. Physicians must, therefore, be the best judges of its adaptation to their wants, but the work bears evidence throughout of matured knowledge, wide experience, and assiduous, painstaking labor. But while the work is thus designed for the uses of medical men, such is the profound interest and great importance of the questions which it discusses, that in many aspects it will be found instructive and valuable to general readers who are concerned with the great question of the conditions and causes of insanity, and the hygienic precautions that are needed for the maintenance of soundness and integrity of mind. Dr. Mann is evidently no extremist and no alarmist, but he recognizes that mental derangement in various forms is undoubtedly on the increase, and that its extension can be checked only by the widest diffusion of knowledge upon the subject, and some corresponding improvement in those habits of life which are promotive of mental deterioration. Dr. Mann emphasizes in his preface a most important fact, which is too generally overlooked, when he points out the long interval of time that may elapse between the slight initial perversions of cerebral activity and the distant consequences that often result from them. It is too commonly thought that if pupils leave school without becoming lunatics outright, all the talk about mental over-exertion amounts to nothing, yet we have here to do with causes and effects that work slowly, and require time for their full disclosure. Dr. Mann says:
The Treatment of Wounds as based on Evolutionary Laws. By C. Pitfield Mitchell, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons. New York: J. H. Vail & Co. Pp. 29. Price, 50 cents.
We recently called attention to the lectures of Dr. Hughlings Jackson, before the Royal College of Physicians in London, on the bearings of the law of evolution upon diseases of the nervous system, and in the monograph before us the principle of evolution is followed out in another field of medical practice. The author published a short essay in 1882, in "The New York Medical Journal," in which he "endeavored to find in the Spencerian doctrine of evolution the foundation of a satisfactory theory to guide us in the treatment of such wounds as are inflicted in the more common operations of surgery." The present pamphlet is a further extension of that view. We can only say here that the case is very strongly presented, and will repay the attention of those medical students of a philosophical turn of mind who care for those deeper elucidations and explanations of the living organism which the development theory is now so successfully affording.
Truths and Untruths of Evolution. By John B. Drury, D. D. New York: A. D. F. Randolph & Co. Pp. 140. Price, $1.
This volume consists of the Vedder Lectures delivered in April, 1883, before the students of the theological seminary and Rutgers College at New Brunswick. As might be expected, the author's interest in the doctrine of evolution depends entirely upon its relation to theology. He recognizes that there is some truth in it, which consists in that part that he can conform to the requirements of his theology. He will take evolution as a plausible hypothesis, not yet established as a truth, and which may be a help to scientific progress even if erroneous. He will accept it under theistic interpretation, or as "many Christians hold in conjunction with their faith in God and the Bible."
Dr. Drury examines the definitions of evolution, and, finding them unsatisfactory, remarks: "If I were to formulate a definition of evolution, such as the present condition of our knowledge warrants, it would be this: 'Evolution is that hypothesis which supposes the process by which the present diversity in nature has been reached to have been one of progression; the more complex and better endowed proceeding in accordance with laws imperfectly known out of simpler and lower forms.'"
Undoubtedly the laws will become more perfectly known, and then this germ of a definition will grow into greater completeness. Dr. Drury's book, though emanating from a mind in a state of anxious transition, and beset on all sides with difficulties, is, nevertheless, readable and instructive.
Inebriate Automatism. By T. D. Crothers, M. D. Hartford, Conn, Pp. 9.
Filtrations of Saline Solutions through Sand. By William Ripley Nichols. Boston. Pp. 12.
Earthquake Measurement. By J. A. Ewing, B. Sc. Tokio, Japan: Tokio Daigaku. Pp. 92, with Twenty-four Plates.
The Eastern Pioneer of Western Civilization and the Recognition her Efforts receive. By C. S. Eby. Tokio, Japan. Pp. 62.
The Sufficiency of Terrestrial Rotation for the Deflection of Streams. By C. K. Gilbert, Pp. 6.
Osteology of Ceryle Alcyon. By R. W. Shufeldt, U. S. Army. Pp. 15. with Plate.
The Subsidence Theory of Earthquakes. By Samuel Kneeland. Boston. Pp. 8.
​Report on the Exhibits at the Crystal Palace Electrical Exhibition of 1882. By Ensign Frank J. Sprague. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 169, with Plates.
Okadaira Shell-Mound at Hitachi. By I. Iijima and C. Sasaki. Tokio, Japan: Tokio Daigaku. Pp. 7, with Eleven Plates.
Chicago Manual Training School, First Annual Catalogue. Pp. 16.
Evolution and the Positive Aspects of Modern Thought. By W. D Le Sueur. Ottawa, Canada: A. S. Woodburn.
The Offices of Electricity in the Human Body. By H. B. Philbrook. New York. Pp. 81.
Washington High-School; Syllabus of the Courses in Botany and Zoölogy. By Edward S. Burgess. Pp. 89.
Wages and Tariffs. By E. J. Donnell. New York: Wilcox & O'Donnell. Pp. 47.
"The American Monthly," June, 1884. Chicago. Ill.: American Magazine Publishing Company. Pp. 100. 85 cents, $4 a year.
State Mineralogist. California, Third Annual Report Sacramento: James J. Ayres. Pp. 110.
Silver-Lead Deposits of Eureka, Nevada. Abstract of report by Joseph Story Curtis. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 24, with Map and Plates.
The Conventional Lies of Civilization. From the German of Max Nordau. Chicago: L. Schick. Pp. 860. $1.
Society for Ethical Culture, Chicago. First Annual Report of the Relief Works. Chicago: Max Stern & Co. Pp. 40.
Tokio Daigaku. Calendar for 1882-'83. Tokio, Japan: Z. P. Maruya & Co. Pp. 142.
Notes on the Volcanic Rocks of the Great Basin. By Arnold Hague and Joseph P. Iddings. Pp. 12.
Volcanic Sand at Unalashka, Alaska. By J. S. Diller. Pp. 4.
Arithmetical Aids. In box. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 20 cents.
Eleventh Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, 1883. Report of Board of Commissioners, W. W. Peabody, President. Pp. 812.
Naphthaline as an Insecticide, etc. By Dr. Thomas Taylor. Washington. Pp. 6.
Fibrine and Bacteria. By Thomas Taylor. Washington. Pp. 6.
"American Psychological Journal." Quarterly, Edited by Joseph Parrish, M.D. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 1883. Pp. 450. $2 a year.
Alabama Weather Service, May, 1884. Montgomery, Ala. Pp. 9.
Taxation in the United States, 1789-1816. By Henry Carter Adams, Ph.D. Baltimore: N. Murray. Pp. 80. 50 cents.
Criminal Responsibility of the Insane. By Orpheus Everts, M.D. College Hill, Ohio. Pp. 22.
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Manual of the Mosses of North America. By Leo Lesquereux and Thomas P. James. Boston: S. E. Cassino & Co. Pp, 447, with Six Plates.
The Laws of Health. By Joseph C. Hutchison, M.D. New York: Clark & Maynard. Pp. 223.
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U. S Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Report for 1881, Washington: Government Printing-Office, Pp. 1,146.
La Fábula de los Caribes (The Fable of the Caribs). By Juan Ignacio de Armas. Havana: Francisco S. Ibañez. Pp. 81.
Fridolin's Mystical Marriage. By Adolf Wilbrandt. Translated by Clara Bell. New York: William S. Gottsberger. Pp. 240.