The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-12

1 to tell you Of all the happenings in this | romance. which is fairly. good, If you l care for such things.
 The book will not injure or disturb you by reading through it's 400 pages; the
 reviewer can assure you of that. l ''Psychotherapetutics by Morton Prince, M. D., and others. (Richard G. Bad ger.)
 This volume contains a collection of
 papers read before the last annual meet
 ing of the American Therapeutic society and covers a wide variety of phases or
 a subject that is much in the public mind
 at this tirne Most of the contributors are
 specialists in those nervous diseases which
 lend themselves especially to various
 sorts of so-called mental treatment, sci-
 entific or otherwise
 Dr. Prince discusses the psychological principles and field of psychotherapy. pr.
 F. H. Gerrish of Bowdoin college the therapeutic value of hypnotic suggestion' . Dr. G. A. Waterman of Harvard con- siders fatigue states. Dr. Ernest Jones of Toronto deals with psycho-analysis'
 pr. Boris sidis. father of the mathemau- | cal prodigy who was lately enrolled as
 the youngest student on record at liar ward. Is another contributor, whose con- tributions are of special interest In view of his achievement in forcing his sons mental powers.
 There are nine papers in this sympo- siunn. and in connection with the move ment to recognize and use m reg uiar medical practice, those enects or lne mind upon the purely physical state which the charlatan has hitherto mo- nonolized. they may be considered as likely to interest the 1ayman, hardly less
 than the physician. T..
 Rut you laymenl Can you work It out for goodness sake, just why doctors and things like that, think II heces-
 sary to tie on to suoJeot' prescrip- tions. etc, such whaling Dig names,
 simply to worry us laymen, as that 1s-word, psyohotherapeutics? Why not
 don't you think, as long as they are about it, get In the 26 letters to com
 plete the alphabet?
 Or better, don't you think, it would have been to say that this book IS
 what it is-one that deals with that
 portion of medicine concerned with the composition, application and mode or operation, etc., of remedies, treatment, etc., in the science which classines ana analyses the phenomena of the human
 mind? All right, whatever you sayl
 "A Wave of Life" a Novel, by Clyde
 Fitch Mitchell Kennerley, Esq.).
 "De mortuis nil nisi bonum"-a good
 saying that; of coursel The Latins'
 slick old ducks. knew lot Of things; they knew too many when you come 10 recall the Latin books you struggled with or instead of struggling With, TOT which you bought ponies" in your col leee days. Even now you have to look up Latin ouotations-you know you do!-as this reviewer had to on the one quoted above, to discover that 1t Is expected of us that we shall say nothing of the dead but what is good. Ever think seriously of that? Just why rascally, sanctinionious, hypocrr- ical yap, simply because unable to leave the world any other way, he dies and those who survive are expected to pin pretty, sweet wings on him? Tnlnk it right? Well hardly.
 You can say nothing, do no pinn1ng of wings of course, but when book is offered for you to read or discuss, such as "The Wave of Life" the only novel ever written by Mir Fitch, the
 successful dramatist, published in Lip-
 pincott's Magazine in 1890, simply be- cause MT. Fitch Is dead--does that com pei the novel to be thrilling, interest ing, etc.? Not at all--it is strictly ari- other pair of shoes. The novel Is fair and had MT. Fitch not been the suc- cessful writer of plays that he was, | had he not died recently In Europe, It IS | not probable that MT. Mitchell Kenner- | ley would have sent the book forth 1 between covers of it's own.
 The plot is fair, dealing with two | daughters of q widowed mother, artis- tically inclined. The two daughters are different in every way. One steady, loving, a good Alice-sit by fire. The other, she was lovely, too. but oh. so different Which one did the hero fall in love with and marry? Easy, isn't 1t? The novel is said to be largely auto biographical, dealing with Mir Fitch's literary life, his struggles, etc. There is a fine foreword to the book in the form of an appreciation of MT. Fitch. "A Wave of Life" will not possibly
 bore any one-but it is not exciting even
 in spots.
 "stradella," by F. Marion Crawford.
 (The Macmillan Co)-
 '.stradella" is the last book published
 by the late MT. Crawford. It ran serial
 ly in the Delineator and it Is well worth
 reading in book form. "Stradella' IS
 one of the best stories MT. Crawford
 ever wrote and 1t is well that 1t is sent
 forth. so far as the last, that he may
 be remembered by that charming TO-
 nance.
 The romance tells the story of Sep-
 ator Michele Pignaver, a childless wid-
 over of several years standing and
 nersonare of great wealth and worth in
 Venice who has made up his mind, 1ol-
 ]v ol. bcwi--that some day soon, not
 too far, D. ", hs would marry his