Chapter VII: Part 7

M. Mélinand writes in a candid spirit, and yet we think his article is calculated to encourage a somewhat unhealthy type of mysticism. We do not see how it is possible to take too serious a view of the life we live in the present. Whether we view it tragically or not must depend in large measure upon our individual experiences; and happy are they into whose lives tragedy does not enter. The very fact that M. Mélinand would dissuade us from taking life tragically shows that he recognizes that life--our waking life--can be brought under the rule of right reason. He does not advise us not to take our dreams tragically, for he knows that the dream state is one not susceptible of rational regulation, and this, we think, might very properly be accounted a third very important difference between dream and reality. The true advice to give to those whose happiness we have at heart is, not to look upon life as a kind of dream, but to take it seriously, to study its laws, and to accept the burdens and duties it imposes. It may be remarked that dreams give very little trouble, as a rule, to those whose waking hours are well spent, and whose minds and bodies are kept in a condition of healthful balance. We can indeed in the waking state take measures to reduce our dreams to a minimum, and to provide that at least they shall not be of a distressing character. Such being the case, it seems idle, to say the least, to speculate, as many besides M. Mélinand have done, on the possible reality of dreams. What Bottom said of his dream, "Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream," might be applied without much risk of error to dreams generally; unless the exposition takes the direction of endeavoring to explain what antecedent mental or physical condition, or what circumstances acting upon the sleeper, may have given rise to the dream in a given case.

M. Mélinand makes a remark which the experience of many will confirm, that dreams sometimes throw a light of extraordinary intensity on characters and situations, giving us, perhaps, truer views of certain things than we had ever attained in our waking hours. This, however, would only imply the withdrawal at such moments of influences or conditions which, in our waking life, may have the effect of rendering insight less keen and uncompromising. If, for example, we could in our dreams revert to the standpoint of childhood, we should see many things with a directness which is more or less lacking to our mature cogitations, and pronounce judgments in a correspondingly down-right manner, with perhaps a closer approximation to absolute truth. This, however, would manifestly not imply any extension of our mental range, nor afford any guarantee of the "reality" of the dream life. The intuitions of the novelist or dramatist, when they are true and profound, give a wonderful air of reality to the scenes which the author portrays, but do not make them real. There are various waking states in which our perceptions are more than normally acute; and, as we know, the loss of one physical organ leads frequently to an increase of power in others; but these facts throw little light on the main problem of life, which is how to develop and use our normal powers to the best purpose and with the best results. At the same time it is well not to despise any knowledge that may come to us from dreams in the way of self-revelation or otherwise, but to use it for the strengthening of what is weak and the rectifying of what is wrong. In that way dreams may be made subsidiary to the better government of our higher waking life.

As to the conclusion the writer draws, that, as we wake from dreams, so we may some day wake from this life, which is so like a dream, we leave it to the judgment of our readers, merely remarking that it would be very unfortunate if the thought of such an awakening should lead any one to think little of this life, or abate any effort which he can make to render it, if a dream, a happy dream to himself and others.

Scientific Literature.

SPECIAL BOOKS.

The period since the Congress of Vienna has been immensely fruitful of great and far-reaching events--of events that have essentially modified the fortunes of the world, its theories of government, and the condition of its peoples; and of that period the nearly fifty years covered by the second volume of Professor Andrews's history[13] have been most eventful and marked by momentous changes. At the opening of this history the continental sovereigns had established despotism throughout their domains on what they thought were firm foundations, and surrounded it with guards which they considered unassailable. The close of it finds the conditions reversed; government in the interests of the people recognized, and yielded to, even if grudgingly, by those backward monarchs who would prefer to contend against it. The first volume of Professor Andrews's history brings the story down to the close of the revolutionary movements of 1848, when the princes, again set upon their thrones, were studying and plotting as to how they might resume their old authority. In France, Louis Napoleon had become a central figure, and the tendencies were taking shape under which the republic was destroyed and imperialism established. Taking up the record again at this point, Mr. Andrews tells us he has treated only those phases of the history that concern the development of Europe in the larger sense, rather than that of each particular state or country. On the ground that no event can be understood in isolation, and that history is something more than a series of events chronologically considered, he has endeavored to give logical form to the treatment of the subject, to carry each movement forward to its conclusion before turning to the others; and has introduced nothing that did not seem to him to be absolutely essential to an understanding of the subject. He has not deemed it necessary to describe battles and military movements at length, and has omitted, with a few exceptions, biographical discussions. He has been successful in adhering to his plan, and, writing always dispassionately, yet without sacrificing interest, and with his mind fixed on the main object, has given a clear and complete view of what each event recorded signified and of what Europe has accomplished in the past half century. The first chapter concerns France, the failure of the second republic, and the rise of Napoleon III to imperial power. This was extremely unwelcome to the other sovereigns, who were disposed to resent the entrance of an intruder into their ranks, and led to diplomatic skirmishing, ending in the Crimean War--a war that "did not create the forces that led to the national unity of Italy and Germany, ... but gave to Cavour and Bismarck the opportunity that each was seeking." It requires but a few uncolored words at the beginning of the story of the achievement of the unity of Italy--the mightiest event of the whole series--to picture Victor Emanuel the hero that he was. With similar success are presented the masterly statesmanship of D'Azeglio and Cavour and the high-souled patriotism of the people of Italy. This achievement, a victory over opposing Europe, compelled the recognition of an international principle based on the affinities of peoples, and inaugurated, "not only a new _régime_ for Italy, but also a new public law for Europe." The empire of Napoleon, which rose to its culmination while these things were going on, was "nothing but an adventure out of accord with modern highly developed civilization," exhausted France and checked the education of the people in matters of government and habits of self-reliance. The rise of Prussia and the establishment, under Bismarck, of the unity of Germany, are regarded as an instance of the accomplishment of a noble end by the use of force. The struggle culminated in the war of 1870, the ultimate consequence of which was that "scarcely a vestige remained of those conditions of the Congress of Vienna which for so many years had been the anxious care of the European concert." The arrangement between Austria and Hungary, creating a dual monarchy, "established a government which was the result, not merely of political ingenuity, but of experience, and one that on the whole was successful"; and Austria has taken its place among the enlightened governments of Europe. The "Eastern question" is presented as one in which the attitude of the powers is no longer determined in Europe, but in China, India, and Africa, the settlement of which seems to be indefinitely postponed. The concluding chapters relate to present conditions.

* * * * *

Mr. _Seward_ excuses himself in rather an apologetic way for undertaking to write a book on _Fossil Plants_[14] for the Cambridge Natural Science Manuals--a task which Professor Williamson, a founder of modern palæobotany, had considered too serious; but students of botany and geology have cause to thank him for having consented to attempt the writing of a book intended to render more accessible some of the important facts of the science, and to suggest lines of investigation in it. The botanist and geologist, not being always acquainted with each other's subjects in a sufficient degree to appreciate the significance of palæobotany in its several points of contact with geology and recent botany, the subject does not readily lend itself to adequate treatment in a work intended for students of both classes, and the author has accordingly tried to shape his treatment with this point in view, and so as to adapt it to both non-geological and non-botanical students. As a possible aid to those undertaking research in this field he has given more references than usually seem appropriate in an introductory treatise--often to specimens of coal-measure plants in the Williamson cabinet of microscopic sections, now in the British Museum--and has dealt with certain questions in greater detail than an elementary treatment of the subject requires. His plan has been to treat certain selected types with some detail, and to refer briefly to such others as should be studied by any one desiring to pursue the subject more thoroughly, rather than to cover a wide range or to attempt to make the list of types complete. The book opens with a sketch of the history of palæobotany, which is followed by a discussion of the relation of palæobotany to botany and geology. A succinct review of geological history is then given, in which the several principal formations are briefly described. The theory of the process of the preservation of plants as fossils is explained, the difficulties and sources of error in the determination of fossil plants are pointed out, and the rules for nomenclature and of priority in it are explained. The systematic part follows these introductory chapters, giving as full descriptions as the condition of the fossils admit, with illustrations--one hundred and eleven in all--of those belonging to the orders _Thallophyta_, _Bryophyta_, and _Pterodophyta_, carrying the subject as far as the _Sphenophyllales_. Technical as the subject necessarily is, the treatment is clear and, where the matter admits, fluent, so that no student need complain of difficulties in that line.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] The Historical Development of Modern Europe from the Congress of Vienna to the Present Time. By Charles M. Andrews. Vol. II, 1850-1897. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 467. Price, $2.50.

[14] Fossil Plants. For Students of Botany and Geology. By A. C. Seward. With Illustrations. Cambridge, England: The University Press. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 452. Pries, $3.

GENERAL NOTICES.

DR. _W. Detmer's Practical Plant Physiology_[15] is a book of experiments for the use of teachers as well as of students in higher-grade schools, and supplies an aid to the study of the whole of that branch of the science by experimental processes. While the arrangement of the material in the second German edition is essentially the same as in the first, nearly every section has been enlarged or remodeled, and the book is essentially a new one; new experiments have been included for lecture demonstration or private work, and pains have been taken to render the book increasingly useful to serious students of plant physiology, especially to those who desire to familiarize themselves with methods of research. Great care has been taken in the selection of research material recommended for the experiments; and material suitable for winter work has received attention as well as summer material. This second German edition is presented by the publishers in the translation in its entirety, without addition or alteration. The two great divisions of the book are into the Physiology of Nutrition and the Physiology of Growth and Movements resulting from Irritability. In the first division the experiments bear upon the food of plants (assimilation, production of proteids, constituents of the ash, and organic compounds as food for plants); the molecular forces and processes (including movements of gases, absorption and movements of water, and absorption of mineral substances in plants); and metabolic processes in the plant. In the second division the characteristics of growing plant structures, the conditions necessary for growth, the influence of internal causes and external conditions; geotropic, heliotropic, and hydrotropic mutations, and other phenomena of irritability; the winding of tendrils and twining plants; dorsicentrality, polarity, and anisotropy and phenomena of correlation; and movements of variation, are presented.

* * * * *

The primary objects of Mr. _Hoffman's The Sphere of Science_[16] are to point out what constitutes a science, and set forth the ground upon which every science rests and the principles and rules that must be followed in order to construct one. The author maintains throughout that every department of knowledge is capable of scientific treatment, and must be so treated before any great advance can be made toward a consistent and rational conception of the universe. The subjects are considered in succession of the true conception and aims of science, what it takes for granted, the scientific method, certainty and probability in science, the use of the imagination, analogy as an aid, the limitations of science, recent advances in the physical sciences, the old and new psychology, modern scientific ethics, philosophy as the science of the sciences, and the harmony of the sciences. The author holds that the chief need in all departments of thought is not so much mere facts as a new arrangement and classification of facts already at hand; that we can be certain of no doctrine, but the most we can do to establish it is to show that the balance of probabilities is in favor of it; that philosophy is the life of science and science the vital breath of philosophy, and if one is severed from the other both pine away and die; and that those scientific researches are successful which are not exclusively special, but are illuminated by an ample idea of science. The book is the outcome of a series of lectures given to classes in Union College to supplement their work in formal logic.

* * * * *

The _Text-Book of Geodetic Astronomy_[17] was prepared by Mr. _John F. Hayford_ to meet the conditions of the course at Cornell University, the terms of which the standard works now in use could not be made to fit. The purpose of the book is to furnish a text short and easy enough to be mastered by the student of civil engineering in a single college term which shall give him a sufficiently exact and extensive knowledge of geodetic astronomy to serve as a basis for practice in that line after graduation. While it is primarily a manual for students, the author has endeavored to insert such matter, tables, and convenient formulas as would make it of value also to the engineer making astronomical observations. Mathematical processes have been omitted, except those that are actually necessary for developing the working formulas, and simple and special means for deriving the formulas have been chosen in every case admitting choice. Considerable attention has been devoted to a discussion of the various sources of error in each kind of observations. Those formulas have been selected, so far as possible, that lead to accurate and rapid computation.

* * * * *

_L'Année Psychologique_[18] of M. _Alfred Binet_ and his colaborers in the Laboratory of Physiological Psychology of the Sorbonne, Paris, is now in its fourth year, and the four volumes present a compendium of the psychological studies and literature of the period they cover, the value of which will be appreciated by any one who has occasion to examine the work. The first volume was a book of 619 pages, with 33 figures; the second, of 1010 pages, 141 figures, and several plates; the third, of 825 pages, 103 figures, and numerous plates; and the present volume has 849 pages and 117 figures. The plan of all the volumes is the same; it is to present in full the labors of the laboratory, with original memoirs, and to give a condensed but adequate and classified summary of the world's literature of the year relating to the subject. The present volume contains twenty-seven original memoirs, mostly by Professor Binet and M. N. Vaschide, with others by M. B. Bourdon and Mr. A. Le Clère; about ninety reviews of books and papers, classified under sixteen heads, according as they relate to the physiology of the nervous system, the several senses, mental faculties and operations, movements, individual psychology and character, sleep, dreams, and pathological cases, and animal psychology; a bibliography, also classified, of 123 pages; and an index of authors, occupying 17 double-columned pages.

* * * * *

_Prof. Cyrus Thomas_ has given, in his _Introduction to the Study of North American Archæology_,[19] a brief summary of the progress in the investigation and study of the subject which has been made up to the present time. The increased activity among students, the numerous explorations made, the accumulation of data and the flood of light thrown on questions relating to prehistoric North America since the publication of the last general work on it seemed to call for such a summary. While the author's chief object is to present and arrange the data so as to afford the student some means of bringing into harmony and utilizing the facts and materials at hand, yet, in view of the impossibility of presenting a full account of the archæological remains of the continent, and discussing all the questions connected with them in a single small volume, only those considered the best representatives of the leading types and those which best illustrate the arts, customs, and culture status of the former inhabitants are referred to. The movements and remains are treated under the three heads of the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific divisions; the first including the works of the Eskimos, the second those of the mound builders, and the third the curious variety of works scattered along the Pacific coast, and in Mexico and Central America, rising to great elaboration in the latter countries. Theories have to be considered, though they are all still uncertain, and Professor Thomas notices the various views which have been expressed as to the origin of the works and the people who executed them. He himself believes that they are all the work of the peoples who lived here when America was discovered, and are represented by the present Indians; that they are not of a very extreme antiquity; and that the continent was peopled by tribes who came down from the northwest through the region between Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains.

* * * * *

Of Nature books encouraging the study of the life around us we have an abundance--of some sorts, perhaps, a superfluity--and they have their uses, one of the chief of which is drawing people, who might otherwise never think of it, to the observation of natural facts, and to inquiry into their character and causes. Such books are fittingly complemented by the _Handbook of Nature Study_,[20] of _D. Lange_, of St. Paul, Minnesota, which teaches how system may be introduced into this occupation. In it, the author has undertaken to point out some of the material which may be made the basis of profitable lessons in Nature study, and to show how this material may be made available, and what the pupils may be taught about it. The author has arranged the matter of the subject of his teachings according to seasons and life communities. He begins at home in the spring, and directs the wanderings of the pupils to the waters, fields, and prairies, the roadsides and neglected corners, studying besides the plants and animals, the geological action of water, the flowers of the fields and the needs of neglected places, window flowers, and domestic animals. Then he goes to the woods--in spring, in summer, and in autumn--and their plant and animal life, the effect of all these upon the earth, and their relations to one another. Some practical precepts are given to teachers concerning the method of conducting the study of Nature.

In the presentation of his conception of _The State_[21] or the Elements of Politics, Prof. _Woodrow Wilson_ has taken a comprehensive view. Designing a book for study and instruction, he has sought to set forth the evolution of existing systems of government from the beginning. Possessing no model, no text-book of like scope and purpose having apparently hitherto been attempted, he has had to make his own type; and, in the absence of anything else to refer the student to, has been obliged to include much that might otherwise have been omitted. The volume is consequently large; but this disadvantage, if it be one, is compensated for by the fact that the student has the whole subject before him. For his descriptions the author has chosen governments which are types of their several kinds. An indispensable prerequisite to studies of things of this sort is a knowledge of the constitutions of the states of classical antiquity; hence the institutions of Greece and Rome are studied: Greece, which furnished the spirit and inspiration under which the world has advanced; and Rome, which laid the foundations of modern jurisprudence. Before these, even, a glance at The Earliest Forms of Government, their Origin and Evolution, was required. Then, coming to modern systems, which are also traced in their historical development, "the government of France serves excellently as an example of a unitary government of one kind, and Great Britain equally well as an example of a unitary government of another kind; Germany exhibits a federal empire, Switzerland a federal republic of one sort, the United States a federal republic of another; Austria-Hungary and Sweden-Norway show the only two existing European types of dual monarchies." Russia might have been presented as having a place apart in European politics, but the book was full. The work has been prepared in the belief that "our own institutions can be understood and appreciated only by those who know other systems of government as well and the main facts of general institutional history." The accounts of the particular systems of government are followed by short chapters on the Nature and Forms of Government; Law, its Nature and Development; the functions and the objects of government; and summaries, in which the conclusion is expressed that law grows with the growth of the community, can not leap too far ahead of it, and must not lag behind it; and that "the method of political development is conservative adaptation, shaping old habits into new ones, modifying old means to accomplish new ends."

* * * * *

Mr. _H. E. Parkhurst_ has made in his _How to Name the Birds_[22] a book on a different plan from the other books about birds that are now appearing so abundantly--not to rival them, but to serve as an introduction to their more general use. It is intended to aid the field ornithologist in determining an unknown species, by calling his attention to their more obvious features and those more distinguishable from a distance than those which observers using the ordinary bird books have to depend on as a means of recognition. Color is chiefly relied upon, and, as a further means of finding the birds, they are grouped by the seasons, when they may be seen in a given locality--the summer, winter, migrant, and permanent birds, and birds of prey. The first four groups are subgrouped according to color, and the larger color groups are further subdivided. Other devices and signs are contrived, so that a complete description of the bird, as it will appear to the amateur watching it from a little way off, is given in three or four lines. To this a brief comment is added regarding the nesting and habits of the bird. These descriptions are preceded by an analytical key similar to the botanical keys; and the study is aided by giving three pages of diagrams illustrating the distinctive areas of the bird's body, to which reference is made in describing the colors, stripes, and spots. The list comprises only those birds that are normally found within the territory described in the title as regular summer or winter visitants, as migrants, or as permanent species.

* * * * *

A very important contribution to the economy of city administration is the quarterly _Supplement to Municipal Affairs_, June, 1898, in which the late superintendent of street cleaning in the city of New York, _George E. Waring_, Jr., presents his observations on street-cleaning methods in European cities, and general reports of his own work in that line. The observations in Europe, made in the summer of 1896, in a special study of the subject, for the information and improvement of Mr. Waring's own department, include accounts of the conditions as to cleanliness and the methods of doing the work in Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Brussels, London, Birmingham, Paris, Turin, and Genoa. Mr. Waring finds that the regulations under which the streets are really kept clean in those cities are no better than ours; "but there is the immense difference that in Europe laws and ordinances mean something and are executed, while here they are treated as mere matters of form." The reports of Mr. Waring's own work in New York embrace a review of the general operations of the department, the report of the snow inspector, and an account of the highly successful plan for the adjustment of labor questions instituted by Mr. Waring.

Mr. _Lauros G. McConachie_, in the study and development of legislative methods which he publishes under the title of _Congressional Committees_ (T. Y. Crowell & Co., New York, $1.75), assumes that a complete breakdown of parliamentary machinery took place on the floors of Congress under the sudden and vast augmentation of legislative burdens which our senators and representatives had to confront after the civil war. Two schools of reformers came to the front, one of which held up the British parliamentary system as a model and directed attention abroad in the search for light; while the other stood up for the defense of American legislative methods as developments of American political conditions. The author has sought a mean between these schools, and has tried to glean from contemporary debates, memoirs, newspapers, and other records the reasons assigned for each innovation as it has entered and enlarged the codes, and has taken the testimony of contemporary legislators upon the conditions prevailing in successive stages in the history of the national House and Senate. Among the lessons presented by the book are those of the tremendous power wielded by the speaker of the House of Representatives and of "other anomalies in a supposed elective folk congress."

* * * * *

_Whittaker's Mechanical Engineer's Pocket Book_, prepared by _Philip R. Björling_, if it does not contain everything, contains a great many facts and formulas concerning matters on which the mechanician is often called upon to seek immediate information, a considerable proportion of which are not easily subject to systematic classification. Among the one hundred and thirty formulas and processes are those relating to the flow and force of water and wind, the pressure of gases and the air, the weight, proportions, and strength of parts of machinery; stresses, rate of delivery of elevators, etc., gauges, tables of areas and circumferences, squares, cubes, fourth and fifth powers and roots, and items which can be indicated only by viewing them in detail. It is a valuable and indispensable companion for the mechanical engineer. The Macmillan Company. Price, $1.75.

* * * * *

_M. J. Costantin_ conceives that science consists in something more than the mere accumulation, description, and classification of facts, with which too many persons confound it, and that the important thing is what the facts teach, and, as related to it or as what may help to find it out, the theories that may be deduced from them. He applies this principle to the evolution of plant life in his book _Les Végétaux et les Milieux Cosmiques_ (Plants and Cosmic Media)--adaptative evolution, which is essentially a study of the operation of the various material factors of the environment on growth and development. "Guided by Goethe's ideas, he invites us to witness the incessant variations of organized existence everywhere visible in Nature," under the influence of cold and heat, light, gravity, and the aquatic medium, hoping in these studies to find new and decisive arguments in favor of transformist conceptions. He aims to show how the new characteristics produced by changes in the influence of these factors to which plants are subjected may be fixed and gradually become hereditary. (Published by Félix Alcan, Paris, in the _Bibliothèque Scientifique Internationale_.)

* * * * *

Mr. _A. G. Elliot's_ little work on _Industrial Electricity_--a translation and adaptation from the French of Henry D. Graffigny--is the first and introductory volume of an electro-mechanical series published by Whittaker & Co., London, and the Macmillan Company, New York. The editor, in introducing the volumes, expresses the belief that there is room for them because they explain in very clear and non-mathematical language the many and various applications of electricity. Many thousand copies of the original French editions have been sold. The present volume is divided into short chapters, each dealing with a separate branch of practical electricity-its nature, the units, magnetism and induction, practical measurement, chemical generators, accumulators, dynamo-electric machinery, electric light, electricity as a motive power, electric chemistry and electro-plating, bells and telephones, and telegraphs. In the succeeding volumes of the series the more important branches of the subjects touched upon here will be treated separately and in detail.

* * * * *

_Franklin Story Conant_ was born in Boston in 1870; was educated in the public schools of New England, at the University of South Carolina, and at Williams College; and was a Doctor of Philosophy, Fellow, and Adam T. Bruce Fellow in Johns Hopkins University. He showed great appetency for biological investigation and devoted himself to it, at Baltimore, Beaufort, N. C., Wood's Hole, and in Jamaica. He published a few papers of mark, and would have published many more if he had lived. He went to Jamaica in June, 1897, to continue his investigations, and worked for nearly three months on the development and on the physiology of the sense organs of the _Cubomedusæ_. After the death of the director of the expedition, Dr. J. E. Humphrey, he took the burden upon himself, and labored faithfully till he contracted yellow fever; returned to Boston, and died there September 13, 1897. His associates of Johns Hopkins University have published as a memorial volume of him his dissertation on _The Cubomedusæ_, which he presented at the examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in June, 1897, accompanied by a brief notice of his life and a portrait.

* * * * *

_Frederick H. Ripley_ and _Thomas Tapper_, authors of the Natural Music Course, have arranged _A Short Course in Music_, consisting of two books, for use in schools in which the more complete course is deemed unnecessary or impracticable. In both books familiar songs are made the basis of elementary music instruction. In these songs the compositions of the best song writers are represented. Exercises in two and three parts in simple form are included in the course. A brief summary of elementary theory is inserted in the appendix. Few definitions are given, the thought of the learner being so directed as to render them either unnecessary or obvious. In the cultivation of tone and expression the authors insist that it is the mind rather than the vocal organs that at first needs attention. "If the pupil hears the ideal tone he will almost instinctively imitate it." A number of portraits of composers are given in connection with the songs. (American Book Company. Price, 35 cents.)

* * * * *

Mr. _Alfred Still_, believing that there was still room for a small book in which the principles determining the behavior of single-phase alternating currents under various conditions should be considered less from the point of view of the man of science than from that of the engineer, offers _Alternating Currents of Electricity and the Theory of Transformers_ for the place. The book has been written, not only for engineering students, but also for those engineers who, while having extensive practical knowledge of the subject, are yet anxious to get a correct elementary idea of the leading principles involved. Graphical methods are used throughout, and the introduction of mathematics has been carefully avoided. (Published by Whittaker & Co., London; The Macmillan Company, New York. Price, $1.50.)

* * * * *

A paper by _A. B. Stickney_, president of the Chicago Great Western Railway Company, on _The Currency Problems of the United States in 1897-'98_, takes the ground that currency is the creature of commerce; that legislation has nothing to do with it; that its problems are purely economical; and that the only thing that can be done for it is to improve the machinery of exchanges.

* * * * *

A valuable and useful publication is New York _State Library Bulletin, Legislation, No. 9_, containing a summary of legislation by States in 1897. This is the eighth annual number of the series, and its purpose is to show at a glance what laws have been passed by States on any subject, except those of purely local interest. The summaries, though concise, so well cover the principal points of the laws cited that consultation of the text of the laws may often be dispensed with. Constitutional amendments receive special treatment. The references in the present bulletin cover thirty-six States and three Territories.

* * * * *

Two memoirs, published under one cover by the Peabody Institute of American Archæology and Ethnology, relate to explorations by _George Byron Gordon_ in two districts of Honduras, affording relics different in character. The work at the ruins of Copan having been suspended during 1896 and 1897 by some act of the Government of Honduras, Mr. Gordon had to turn his attention elsewhere, to explorations the results of which are given under the titles of _Researches in the Uloa Valley_ and _Caverns of Copan, Honduras_. The investigations in the Uloa Valley afforded a rich fund of objects of interest and of novel character--pottery adorned with elaborate and remarkably artistic designs, stone images, whistles, terra-cotta stamps, and only one idol. Human remains, of the most meager description, in connection with the pottery furnish reasonable evidence of burial places, but, being only crumbling fragments of bone, are too minute to supply any information respecting the form of burials or the relative position of the objects associated with them. The conclusions are drawn that the valley was at one time well populated, but not for any length of time occupied by the people whose ruined buildings of stone are found in the region up to southern Mexico, and that it was visited by several distinct peoples in ancient times. Some mounds covered with stone were discovered which deserve further investigation. Five caves of different size and character, described in the second memoir, were explored near Copan, and afforded objects peculiar to themselves and evidences of sepulture. They were very dusty, although stalactites had formed in some of them, and, although undoubtedly used by man many centuries ago, they do not seem to indicate a constant occupation for an extended period of time, or to furnish evidence of an extreme antiquity of man in the region. The most striking feature about them is probably the entire difference in character of the pottery from that found at Copan, only a few miles away, and its want of resemblance with the pottery of any other locality with which the author is familiar.

* * * * *

A series of Bulletins, _Some Miscellaneous Results of the Work of the Division of Entomology_, of the United States Department of Agriculture, is intended to furnish such material as was formerly published in Insect Life, presenting the results of observations made in the office of the bureau which are not extensive enough upon any one topic to form an independent and complete bulletin. The second number contains notices by different authors, mostly connected with the bureau, on twelve insects predatory on economical plants, with numerous "general notes" and correspondence.

* * * * *

_Under the Stars, and Other Verses_, is a small collection of ballads, relating chiefly to naval fights, by _Wallace Rice_ and _Barrett Eastman_, published by Way & Williams, Chicago. It is dedicated "to the wider patriotism," and appears well adapted to inflame the martial spirit, which is in this country already excited to an extremely unhealthy extent.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. Cornell University: No. 150. Tuberculosis in Cattle and its Control. By James Law. Pp. 30; No. 151: Gravity or Dilution Separators. By H. H. Wing. Pp. 12--Purdue University: No. 72. Field Experiments with Wheat. Pp. 12.--United States Department of Agriculture. Biological: No. 9. Cuckoos and Shrikes in their Relation to Agriculture. By F. E. L. Beal and S. D. Judd. Pp. 26: No. 10. Life Zones and Crop Zones of the United States. By C. Hart Merriam. Pp. 79; No. 11. The Geographic Distribution of Cereals in North America. By C. S. Plumb. Pp. 24; Botany: No. 20. Principal Poisonous Plants in the United States. By V. K. Chesnut. Pp. 60.

Alexander, Archibald. Theories of the Will in the History of Philosophy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 353. $1.50.

Allen, Alfred H., and Leffmann, Henry. Commercial Organic Analysis. Third edition. Vol. I. Philadelphia: Blakiston's Son & Co. Pp. 557. $4.50.

Babbler, The. Semimonthly. June and July, 1898. New York: E. Rock, 406 Fourth Avenue. Pp. 8. 10 cents. $2 a year.

Baillière, J. B., et Fils, 19 Rue Hautefeuille, Paris. Revue Mensuelle de Bibliographie Scientifique (Monthly Review of Scientific Bibliography), August, 1898. Pp. 20.

Carter, J. M. G. Advances in the Domain of Preventive Medicine. Waukegan, Ill. Pp. 13.

Chemical Publishing Company, Easton, Pa. Catalogue. Pp. 26.

Columbia University Bulletin, June, 1898. Pp. 102, with plate.

Creighton, J. E. An Introductory Logic. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 392. $1.10.

Drake, N. F. A Geological Reconnaissance of the Coal Fields of the Indian Territory. Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Palo Alto, Cal. Pp. 96.

Fitz-Maurice-Kelly, James. A History of Spanish Literature. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (Literature of the World Series.) Pp. 423. $1.50.

Holden, Edward S. The Earth and Sky. A Primer of Astronomy for Young Readers. (Appletons' Home-Reading Series.) New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 76, with plates. 28 cents.

Hering, Rudolph, New York. Dilution Process of Sewage Disposal. Pp. 9.--Bacterial Processes of Sewage Disposal. Pp. 14.

Industrialist, The. Ten times a year. June, 1898. Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan. Pp. 80. $1 a year.

Iowa Geological Survey, Vol. VIII. Annual Report for 1897, etc. Samuel Calvin, State Geologist. Pp.427.

Japan-American Commercial Journal. Monthly. Tokyo (Japan) Commercial and Industrial Association. (English and Japanese.) Pp. 80.

Jordan, David Starr. Lest we Forget (address to graduating class). Pp. 36.--Description of a Species of Fish (Mitsukurina owsteni) from Japan, the Type of a Distinct Family of Lamnoid Sharks. Pp. 8, with plates.

Kindergarten. The, Review. Monthly. Springfield, Mass.: Milton Bradley Company. Pp. 64. $2 a year.

Lambert, P. A. Differential and Integral Calculus; for Technical Schools and College. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp.245. $1.50.

Luce, W. B., Hingham Centre, Mass. Kites and Experiments in Aërial Photography. Pp.32. 25 cents.

MacCurdy, George Grant, and Mohiliansky, Nicolas. Indices Ponderaux du Crane (Weight Indices of the Brain). Paris. Pp. 16.

MacClure, Theodore R. A Quarter-Century of Public Health Work in Michigan. Lansing. Pp. 48.

Mivart, St. George. The Groundwork of Science. A Study of Epistemology. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.328. $1.75.

Musick, John R. Lights and Shadows of our War with Spain. New York: J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company. Pp. 224.

Muter, John. A Short Manual of Analytical Chemistry, Qualitative and Quantitative--Inorganic and Organic. Second American edition. Philadelphia: Blakiston's Son & Co. Pp. 228. $1.25.

New Jersey, Geological Survey of. Annual Report of the State Geologist for 1897. Pp. 368.

New World, The. A Quarterly Review of Religion, Ethics, and Theology. September, 1898. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 200. 75 cents. $3 a year.

New York State College of Forestry at Cornell University. Announcement. Pp. 40.

Shufeldt, Dr. R. W. On the Alternation of Sex in a Brood of Young Sparrowhawks. Pp. 4.

Smith. William B. Infinitesimal Analysis. Vol. I. Elementary; Real Variables. New York. The Macmillan Company. Pp. 852. $3.25.

Thomson, J. J. The Discharge of Electricity through Gases. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp.203. $1.

University of Tennessee Record. Knoxville. Pp.80.

Venable, F. P., and Howe, J. L. Inorganic Chemistry according to the Periodic Law. Easton, Pa.: The Chemical Publishing Company. Pp.266. $1.50.

Wilson, L. L. W. History Reader for Elementary Schools. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 403. 60 cents.

Wright, Mabel Osgood, and Chapman, Frank M. Four-footed Americans and their Kin. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 432. $1.50.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Practical Plant Physiology. An Introduction to Original Research for Students and Teachers of Natural Science, Medicine, Agriculture, and Forestry. By Dr. W. Detmer. Translated from the second German edition by S. A. Moor. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 555. Price, $3.

[16] The Sphere of Science. By Frank Sargent Hoffman, Ph. D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 268. Price, $1.50.

[17] A Text-Book of Geodetic Astronomy. By John F. Hayford. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 851, with plates.

[18] L'Année Psychologique. Edited by Alfred Binet--with the Collaboration of H. Beaunis, Th. Ribot and Bourdon, Courtier, Farrand, Flournoy, Philippe, Vaschide, and Warren. Editorial secretary, Victor Henri. Fourth year. Paris: Librairie C. Reinwald. Schleicher Brothers, publishers. Pp 849. Price, 15 francs.

[19] Introduction to the Study of North American Archæology. By Prof. Cyrus Thomas. Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Company. Pp. 891.

[20] Handbook of Nature Study for Teachers and Pupils in Elementary Schools. By D. Lange. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 339. Price, $1.

[21] The State: Elements of Historical and Practical Politics. By Woodrow Wilson. Revised edition. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 656. Price, $2.

[22] How to Name the Birds. A Pocket Guide to the Land Birds and to the Principal Water Fowl normally found in the New England States, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, for the Use of Field Ornithologists. By H. E. Parkhurst. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 115. Price, $1.

Fragments of Science.

=Carbonic Acid and Glaciation.=--In a paper on Hypotheses bearing on Climatic Changes, Prof. T. C. Chamberlin takes up a suggestion of Tyndall's that the periods of terrestrial glaciation might be dependent upon the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere, the peculiar competence of which to retain solar heat he had demonstrated. Following out the doctrine of atmospheric loss on its own lines, although only in a tentative way as yet, he seems to find a rhythmical action that may in part explain the glacial oscillations. The idea, he says, hinges on the action of the ocean as a reservoir of carbon dioxide, and on the losses of the organic cycle under the influence of cold. Cold water absorbs more carbon dioxide than warm water. As the atmosphere becomes impoverished and the temperature declines, the capacity of the ocean to take up carbonic acid in solution increases. Instead, therefore, of resupplying the atmosphere in the stress of its impoverishment, the ocean withholds its carbon dioxide to a certain extent, and possibly even turns robber itself by greater absorption. So also, with increased cold the progress of organic decay becomes less active, a greater part of the vegetal and animal matter remains undecomposed, and its carbon is thereby locked up; and hence the loss of carbon dioxide through the organic cycle is increased. The impoverishment of the atmosphere is thus hastened and the epoch of cold is precipitated. With the spread of glaciation the main crystalline areas whose alteration is the chief source of depletion become covered and frozen, and the abstraction of carbon dioxide by rock alteration is checked. The supply continuing the same, by hypothesis, re-enrichment begins, and when it has sufficiently advanced warmth returns. With returning warmth the ocean gives up its carbon dioxide more freely, the accumulated organic products decay and add their contribution of carbonic acid, and the re-enrichment is accelerated and interglacial mildness is hastened.

=Additions to the Missouri Botanical Garden.=--We learn from the ninth annual report of the Missouri Botanical Garden that while the decorative features were maintained in 1897 in about the same manner as heretofore, considerable additions have been made in certain classes, especially orchids, and the collections of cultivated species, with their named varieties, are now estimated to number about five thousand. Circumstances made possible material additions to the contents of the herbarium; and, besides the purchased current collections, rather larger and more numerous than usual, the garden has secured the herbarium of the late J. H. Redfield, very rich in earlier collections representing the flora of the United States; the herbarium of the late Dr. J. F. Joor, containing 4,133 specimens, and largely adding to the representation of the flora of Louisiana and Texas; the interesting herbarium of Gustav Jermy, of San Antonio, Texas, containing a very full set of Carpathian plants and a nearly complete local flora; the important pre-Linnæan herbarium formed by Boehmer and Ludwig; and a Chinese collection by Dr. A. Henry. Even larger additions were made to the library. The instruction of garden pupils was continued, and the garden was visited by several research students. Among the scientific papers accompanying the report and bound with it are those of C. H. Thompson on American Lemnaceæ; N. N. Glatfelter on _Salix longipes_; H. C. Irish on the Genus Capsicum; A. S. Hitchcock on Cryptogams collected in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman; J. N. Rose on Agaves; C. H. Thompson on Cacti Anhalonium; and seven shorter papers under the heading of "Notes and Observations."

=The Indian Idea of the "Midmost Self."=--In attempting to explain the significance of a pentagonal stone dodecahedron with vestiges of figures on it found near Marietta, Ohio, Dr. J. C. Morris assumed that, besides the Aryan idea of three dimensions of space, there is, to the Indian and to the Eastern mind, another--the fullness. "It is not the length and breadth and thickness of a cube, for instance, but the whole of it, which is as much to be considered as any one of its sides. A cube would therefore be represented numerically by seven, a dodecahedron by thirteen. Among the Mexicans the thirteen lunar months would thus correspond in the year with the twelve zodiacal signs and the earth which passed under and embraced them all." Again, the five digits came to be a measure of man's power or individuality, and thus a sacred number. A pentagonal dodecahedron, then, might be the emblem of the world; and the best time to be active in some contemplated pursuit might be shown by the zodiacal sign that came uppermost when the dodecahedron was thrown or rolled with appropriate ceremonies. As Mr. Frank H. Cushing interpreted the doctrine at the same meeting of the Anthropological Society, when the primitive man contemplates or considers himself or anything in its relation to space or the surrounding directions, "he notices that there is ever a front or face, a rear or back; two sides, or a right and a left; a head and a foot, or an above and a below; and that of and within all of these is himself or it; that the essence of all these aspects in anything is the thing itself--that is, the thing that contains their numbers or sum, yet is one by itself. This is indeed the very key to his conception of himself and of anything in relation to space and the universe or cosmos. He observes that there are as many regions in the world as there are aspects of himself or sides to any equally separate thing; that there are as many directions from him or his place in the world (which is his 'midmost' or place of attachment to the Earth-mother), or from anything in the world (which is its midmost or natural station), toward these corresponding regions. Hence to him a plane would be symbolized not by four, but by five--its four sides and directions thence, and its central self--as was actually the notion of the prairie tribes; a cube, not by six, but by seven, as was the notion of the valley Pueblos and Navajos; a dodecahedron, not by twelve, but by thirteen, as was the notion of the Zuñis, the Aztecs, and apparently--from this example--of the mound builders as well."

=The Bactrian Camel for the Klondike.=--The great Siberian or Bactrian camel is recommended by Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, the famous Hamburg importer of wild beasts, as the best animal for the Klondike climate. It is at home in the coldest regions, can carry or go in harness, can cross mountains or traverse valleys, and is so easily supplied that Mr. Hagenbeck can undertake to deliver any number in New York, duty paid, for three hundred dollars each. It can endure thirst and long spells of hunger as well as freezing cold, and is not too delicate to make its bed on the snow. It sheds its coat before the summer heat, but as the cooler weather of the fall comes on "it grows a garment of fur almost as thick as a buffalo robe and equally cold-resisting. It is far more strongly built than the southern camel. It does not 'split' when on slippery ground, though it falls on moist, wet clay which yields to the foot. On ice and frozen snow it stands firmly, and can travel far." It is said that an excellent cross can be made between the male Bactrian and the female Arabian camel; but when the parentage is reversed the progeny is useless. General Harlan is said to have marched two thousand Bactrian camels four hundred miles and crossed the Indian Caucasus in ice and snow, with the loss of only one animal, and that by an accident. This camel is native to the high plateaus, steppes, and deserts of Mongolia and South Siberia, and it has been found wild on the plain of Tsaidam, maintaining itself in this "arid, cold, and waterless region, where the herds are said to travel seventy miles to drink. Nothing," we are further told, "but too much comfort or a damp climate seems to hurt it. For food it prefers dry, salty plants and bushes and grows sick and lean on good pasture. The salty efflorescence of the steppes is eagerly eaten by it, and in this country it prefers dry food, especially wheat straw and hay. Prjevalski's camels would eat almost anything--straw, bleached bones, old pack saddles, straps, and leather. The Mongols told him of camels which had been without food a long time, and then devoured an old tent belonging to their owner. They even ate meat and fish, and one of the traveler's camels made a meal of the bird skins ready for stuffing."