The Portland daily press., 1880-04-26
Magazine Notices.

The May number OF The Popular Science
Monthly is uncommonly strong, and its con-
tents unusually varied. The first article, by
Professor ]. M. Buchan, is an interesting study
of ethnology unler the title of Climate and
Complexion. The paper is valuable both as
reporting tile state of knowledge upon this
subject and presenting the ingenious views of
the writer Under the title of The Carbon
Button Mr.. E. A. Engler, a talented young
physicist, gives an elaborate and instructive
account OF the growth of the telephone, so far
as the interesting properties of carbon in rela-
tion to sound are involved. Edison's researches
in this direction are clearly described and the
paper is made lucid and valuable by a profu-
sion of illustrations. Those concerned in the
question of religion and science will read with
profit the essay of the Lord Bishop of Carlisle.
entitled God and Nature, in which the study
of physical science is skillfully defended
against the charge of atheistic tendencies.
The Bishop maintains that scientific and relig-
ious conceptions exclude one another and do
not interfere; and that the scientific man, if he
takes up religious ideas, is no longer scientist
but theologian. He proposes new term to
express the proper relation OF the scientific
mind to the conception of Deity. Ernest
Ingersoll discusses The Buffalo and his Fate
in an extremely interesting chapter on the
natural history of this quadruped. Sham Ad-
miration in Literature is a pungent expose of
the emptiness of much of our literary talk con-
cerning authors and books, by James Payn.
He shows how the pretentious praise of the
classics and many celebrated authors is gener-
oJJxr IL Al H.
in which there is neither honesty nor serious
ness. A striking article entitled The Impedi-
ment of Adipose-a Celebrated Case, by E.
Vale Blake, treats of the physiology of fat and
influence of obesity upon character. The con-
clusions are applied to Shakespeare's Hamlet,
The Martyrdom of Science, well-worn topic,
is freshly illustrated and brought out with
more modern exemplifcations by Mr.. j. W.
Slater James Sully concludes his aesthetic
analysis of The Pleasures of Visual Form. But
the most weighty and suggestive article of the
number is by Charles Richet, entitled Hysteria
and Demonism: A Study in Morbid Psycholo-
gy. 1t abounds in new and most important
views concerning those singular perversions OF
conduct that result from the morbid action of
the nervous system, and it is based upon the
results of observations upon the Salpetriere,
an asylum in Paris for those afflicted with ner-
vous diseases, which contains more than five
thousand patients. This pregnant and origi-
nal discussion will be continued in succeeding
numbers of the Monthly. Professor e. Ray
Lancaster considers Bacteria as Destroyers of
Insects and DR.. Andrew Wilson has an elabo-
rate and curious paper on Some Facts and Fic-
tions of Zoology. How it is possible to light
up the interior of the human body so as to see
better what is going on there has been puzzle
to many people They will find the matter ex-
planned, with illustrations, in an article ON the
Electrical Polyscope. Capture among the Mol
lusks, with illustrations, shows the war tactics
that prevail among this lower order of crea-
lures; and How. Insects Direct Their Flight by
M. j. de Bellesme, is popular elucidation of
what we may call chronological dynamics.
There is sketch, with portrait, of the able
English physicist who has recently passed
away in the prime of life, Professor James
Clerk Maxwell, of Cambridge. Among other
topics the editor pays his respects to Matthew
Arnold in relation to his recently announced
views of international copyright The Scien-
tifc Miscellany summarizes great number of
subjects as usual, and the Literary Notices are
full and readable. New York: d. Appleton
& Co