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THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, HELD IN LONDON, AUGUST, 1892.

BY ARTHUR MACDONALD, SPECIALIST IN THE U. S. BUREAU OF EDUCATION, AND OFFICIAL DELEGATE TO THE CONGRESS. ONE of the distinguishing features of the late International Congress for Psychology is the prominent part that physiological investigations assumed. This may be taken as an indication of the prevalent tendency to study the objective rather than the subjective side of consciousness. Yet not a few of the members read papers, which gave the results of an empirical study of subjective reality. The subject of hypnotism and allied states was also one of great interest to all.

Some of the most important questions considered were in the domain of the physiology of the brain, about which comparatively little is known. The statement has often been made that the frontal convolutions are the seat of the intellect as distinguished from the will and desire. This was based upon comparison in the development of this region in man and the lower animals, upon results of accident or disease in man and experiments upon monkeys by Ferrier, Horsley, and Schäfer, and upon dogs by Hitzig and Goltz. For the reason that antiseptic precautions were not taken in either Ferrier's earlier experiments or Goltz's or Hitzig's, it is not certain but that the results obtained may have been due to an extension of the effects of the injury. Professor Schäfer thought it worth while to repeat these experiments upon the prefrontal region by a mode of operation that entirely avoided the shock following from a bilateral removal of a more or less extensive part of the brain. He said that he had often noticed in operating upon the brain that extensive bilateral lesions are liable to be followed by apathy and apparent idiocy, whether the operations were in the frontal or in other regions, more in fact in the temporal than in the frontal region. He thinks it is very probable, therefore, that (1) the question of shock and (2) that of considerable loss of brain substance and removal of support from the rest of the brain (thus impairing the cerebral functions generally) may modify the result. For these reasons Professor Schäfer has recently operated, not by actually remov. ing the portions of the brain, but by severing their connections with the rest of the mantle and with the brain-stem. This can be effected with scarcely any hemorrhage and with no perceptible shock. In several instances in which Professor Schäfer has thus severed the prefrontal lobes in monkeys, there was an entire want of appreciable symptoms. In no case did the animals show the dullness and apathy previously noticed, but they appeared as bright and intelligent after recovering from the effects of the anæsthetic as before the operation. These experiments, therefore, do not support the view that the prefrontal lobes are especially the seat of intelligent attention.

In this connection it will be interesting to note Professor Horsley's demonstration of localization of functions in the monkey's brain, which was given before a number of specialists and psycho-physicists. The monkey was put under the influence of an anæsthetic, and quite a portion of the cranium removed. By electric stimulation Professor Horsley demonstrated clearly the fact of localization; he was able to predict before applying the electrodes what movements would take place, as in the arm, fingers, and face. The experiment was very satisfactory to the witnesses, although Professor Horsley did not think it had succeeded as well as in many former cases when he had performed it before his classes. These now well-known localized areas in the brain of monkeys have been found also by Horsley and Schäfer in the anthropoid ape, which is still nearer man. But the proof has been made complete in a demonstration upon human beings by Professor Horsley. It was in the case of two epileptics in whom an operation was necessary. As far as the operation permitted, it was found that the same localization of function existed in man. It is well to note that the success of experiments upon animals is often due to developed operative skill, as is obtained in surgery. The writer has witnessed many opera

tions of this nature by well-known specialists, but has never seen it so neatly done as by Professor Horsley. Professor Horsley

was also very careful to see that the animal felt no pain throughout the whole operation. One is reminded of Professor Munk's experiments on the dog at Berlin, which attracted great attention at the time. Both Munk and Horsley are surgeons

It is true that, if one single function is localized, brain localization is established; but this a priori method is being made less and less necessary by experimentation. It would seem from these and other investigations that the intellectual function is diffused over the whole brain; this is strengthened by purely psychological considerations from the directing power of the reasoning faculty over the psychical functions in general. It would seem probable that by more exact methods and skilful operations general localized areas will be established throughout the brain, but that these areas can be absolutely defined is quite improbable; first, because they seem gradually to overreach, one area into the other, and, second, the brain is a vicarious organ and the extent of this characteristic will be difficult to determine. But when one thinks of the complexity of the finer anatomy of the brain, not to mention its histo-physiology and chemism, the vastness of the field of investigation is evident; yet these positive results in the coarser anatomy and physiology are an initial starting-point of the highest importance, and may lead in the future to things as yet unthought of.

A recent experiment illustrating kinæsthesis was described by Dr. Ransom; it was a case of epilepsy where the convulsions began by tingling and spasm in the left hand; the following permanent abnormal conditions resulted in this hand: (1) Slight tactile anæsthesia, (2) diminution of muscular sense, (3) diminution of motor power. The operation showed a cyst compressing the cortical centre for the left hand. After recovery from the operation this area was faradized by electrodes inserted through the scalp, without an anæsthetic. From this resulted (1) contraction of groups of muscles in arm and hand by moderate current, (2) production of sensation with a weaker current, contraction added when current was strengthened, (3) improvement of muscular sense during and after stimulation, (4) weakening of voluntary motor power, after a strongly induced contraction.

Dr. H. Donaldson, in his observations on the anatomy of the brain of Laura Bridgman, found the following peculiarities: depression of the moter speech-centre, a slenderness of the first temporal gyrus on both sides and a blunting of both occipital poles with a special disturbance of the fissures in the right cuneus, poor development of temporal lobes, the cranial nerves connected with the defective sense organs were slender, the left optic nerve being the one most affected; the extent of cortex was normal but unduly thin all over; this thinness, however, was most marked in the areas for the defective senses, due in part at least to the smallness of the cortical cells there present. In general, the case represents a maximum peripheral disturbance in the sensory cranial nerves, associated with only such central lesions as followed from lack of exercise and growth.

In his investigations of the muscular sense in the blind, Dr. Goldscheider found a developed sense of touch in the hand and finger joints, and the cause of this was psychical, consisting in a sharpening of the attention and in practice. The sense of location in the skin is small in the blind. In order to recognize forms by touch, the sensation of motion is of greater importance than the sensibility of the skin. Children, whether blind or not, possess a finer sensibility for passive motion than adults.

An interesting paper was that on "A Law of Perception," by Professor Lange of Odessa. The process of every perception consists in a rapid change of a whole series of psychical moments or steps, in which every preceding step presents a less concrete and more general condition, and every following step a more concrete and differentiated psychical condition. There are four principal steps, or stages, in this process of perception: (1) the simple shock, without quality, (2) the consciousness of general modality in the sensibility, (3) consciousness of its specific quality, and (4) consciousness of its spacial form.

The steps, or stages, of our perception correspond to the develThe soopment of perception in general biological evolution. called muscular reactian consists in a reaction in consciousness upon a simple and undifferentiated shock; the muscular or the in

nervation effort is not essential to the muscular reaction. The socalled sensorial reaction is not a determinate act, but the reaction upon one of the following steps of perception. The relation between subject and predicate in an act of judgment is a particular case of the law of perception. The consciousness of difference has no ground in the sense of time. The so-called time of choosing shows no element of will.

Mrs. C. L. Franklin, after explaining the difficulties of the Hering or the Young Helmholtz theories of light sensations, proposed the following new theory: In its earliest stage of development vision consisted of nothing but a sensation of gray (using the word gray to cover the whole series, black-gray-white). This sensation of gray was brought about by the action upon the nerve-ends of a certain chemical substance, set free in the retina under the influence of light. In the development of the visual sense, the molecule to be decomposed became so differentiated as to lose only a part of its exciting substance at once; these chemical constituents of the exciter of the gray sensation can therefore be present separately and cause the sensation of red, green, and blue. A recombination of these substances produces the gray sensation; the mixing of these three colors gives a sensation of no color at all, but only gray. The theory is that of a differentiated color-molecule.

Professor Pierre Janet gave a somewhat extensive description of a disease which he designates as a new form of psychological disaggregation, a mental disease consisting in the weakening of the power of synthesis, which permits during each moment to attach new psychological phenomena to the personality, which are reproduced in the mind. This disease has different forms, according as the incapacity for synthesis affects the sensations, movements, or souvenirs.

Professor Liégeois of Nancy showed it to be quite probable that a woman, who had been condemned to twenty years of hard labor for attempting to poison her husband, was suggestible and, hypnotizable to a high degree; that she had received suggestions from a doctor, her lover, to poison her husband in order to be able to marry the doctor; that her moral liberty was greatly diminished if not abolished. Professor Liégeois commended such cases to magistrates, judges, physicians, and juries, so that incompetence and contradictions and excessive severity may be prevented.

Dr. Liébeault and Professor Liégeois described a case of monomaniacal suicide, which was cured by suggestion during hypnotic sleep. It was a woman who had had tendencies to suicide for eleven months.

Dr. Bérillon, editor of the Revue de l'Hypnotisme, spoke on the applications of hypnotic suggestion to education. From an experience of attempting hypnotism with some 250 children of both sexes, he deduced these conclusions: In ten children from six to fifteen, of different classes of society, eight could be put into pro found sleep after the first or second seance. Contrary to the general opinion, the difficulties of causing profound sleep were greater in proportion as the child presented neuropathic hereditary defects. Healthy children with good antecedents were generally very suggestible, and consequently hypnotizable; they are very sensitive to imitation. While their sleep has the appearance of normal sleep. yet it is easy to obtain amnesia on awaking, negative hallucinations, suggested dreams, and automatic accomplishment of suggested acts. This sensibility to suggestion and hypnotism has been utilized in treating cases which concern pedagogics as much as medicine; such are those with nervous insomnia, nocturnal terrors, somnambulism, cleptomania, onanism, incontinence of urine, inveterate laziness, filthiness, and moral perversity. These facts have been verified by a large number of authors; they belong to practical psychology. Suggestion constitutes a process of investigation which permits us to submit to a rigorous analysis the different intellectual faculties of children, and thus to aid pedagogics by the experimental method.

Mr. F. W. H. Myers, in a paper on "The Experimental Induction of Hallucinations,” considers it a drawback to experimental as compared with introspective psychology that we are liable to lose in profundity what we gain in precision; new experiments are required if the operations of the subconscious strata of our in

telligence are to be reached; such operations tend to be manifested spontaneously in forms of active and passive automatism, such as automatic writing and visual or auditory hallucinations. As to the extent to which these phenomena can be reproduced experimentally, hypnotism is at present the principal means. A form of hallucination which is harmless and easily controlled is "crystal vision," that is, the induction of hallucinatory images by looking steadily into a crystal or other clear depth or at a polished surface. In this way the crystal helps the externalization of those images, sometimes by scattered reflections which suggest points de repère; or by partially hypnotizing the gazer. crystal vision may sometimes pass insensibly into the summoning up of externalized images, or quasi-percepts, with no definite nidus or background. Such images, or percepts, may depend upon a perceptivity antecedent to sensory specialization and of wider

scope.

But a

In speaking of experiments in thought-transference, Mrs. Sidgwick considered the hypnotic state as favorable in such inquiries. By thought-transference is meant the communication of ideas from one person whom we call the agent to another called the percipient, independent of the recognized channels of sense. Mrs. Sidgwick conducted her experiments in conjunction with Professor Sidgwick and others. The successful percipients were seven in number, and were generally hypnotized. It was possible to transfer numbers, mental pictures - that is, mental pictures in the agent's mind and induced hallucinations given by verbal suggestion to one hypnotic subject and transferred by him to another. There were failures, but the proportion of successes was sufficient to show that the result was not due to chance. One percipient succeeded in experiments with numbers, when separated from the agent by a closed door and at a distance of about seventeen feet. Sometimes the ideas reached the percipient as visual impressions received with closed eyes, sometimes as hallucinations on a card or paper, or by automatic writing, or by table tilting.

It is not known how to produce results at will; only certain persons seem capable of acting as agents or percipients, and these persons succeed at one time and fail another, varying at different times in the same day; the reason for this is as yet unknown.

In the nerve-centres of flying in certain insects, Alfred Binet showed that the dorsal root is motor and the ventral root is sensitive.

Professor Preyer of Berlin read a paper on the origin of number. All concepts can arise through the senses only. No concept (even the concept of number) through heredity alone, without individual sense impressions, can take place. But the child, like many animals, can value things and numbers without knowledge of numbers; it feels the numbers, not by means of touch or sight, but through hearing. The series of positive whole numbers did not arise originally through addition of 1 to 1; such a hypothesis presupposes a knowledge of a number, namely of 2, and a method of adding. Numbers are acquired in a normal way through hearing and comparison of tones, but later through touch and sight.

As to the effect of natural selection on the development of music, Dr. Wallaschek said that primitive music is not an abstract art, but, taken in connection with dance and pantomime, is bound up with the necessities of primitive tribal life, that is, in war and hunting, for which these dances seem to prepare, and, further, that it helps the tribe to maintain its strength and skill during times of peace. These dances are of a social nature, being performed by the whole tribe with great exactness, due to the influence of rhythm, of which primitive music chiefly consists. This tie of music enables the community to act as one body, holding the community together. Tribes accustomed to play at war and hunting associate more easily, act better in case of need, and so are better prepared for life. The musical faculty is thus developed and trained for this purpose.

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mathematical relations of their parts; for we never can be sure that their æsthetic value does not rest upon an associative or other factor rather than upon the direct mathematical proportions; and the freedom in the choice of parts to be measured must throw considerable doubt upon the results of all measurements. Such attempts have proved no more than a limited æsthetic value of the proportion 1:1, while for the various other simple mathematical relations nothing decisive has been shown. A better method than Zeising's or Fechner's affords a choice not limited to a set of arbitrary proportions, but opens to a series of figures whose mathematical proportions vary in a constant ratio between the proportion of 1:1 and 1:x (x being any desired large number). This method permits of an easy observation of the relative increase or decrease in the æsthetic feeling attaching to the regularly increasing proportions. For all groups of figures and for all positions of the figure there are but two pleasing proportions: the ratio 1:1, or perfect symmetry, and a ratio which lies between 2:3 and 1:2, the most pleasing proportion. The proportion 1:1 is æsthetically so far fron all other proportions that a comparison between it and any other proportion on the same terms as between the other proportions among themselves is impossible. The most pleasing æsthetic proportion subsumes itself under æsthetic contrast; the æsthetic value does not lie in a pleasing and complex equality of the relations of the parts of a figure, but in a pleasing difference of parts. The proportion is therefore not clearly discoverable in complex designs and objects, as the demand for the best contrast of parts may easily give way to other considerations.

Dr. Alexander Bain's paper was entitled "The Respective Spheres and Mutual Helps of Introspection and Psycho-Physical Experiment in Psychology;" the recognized sources of our knowledge of mind are first and foremost introspection with the aids of outward signs; to which succeed the study of infancy, of abnormal and exceptional minds, and of the lower animals; also the workings of society collectively; next physiology; and last psychophysical experiments. The metaphysical problem of knowing and being, and that of the tracing of the origins of our mental furniture, have hitherto been the leading ones where introspection has been mainly employed. Neither of these are utile in the ordinary sense. Introspection takes the lead in qualitative analysis of mental facts; the next consideration is quantitative analysis, or the mensuration of psychological quantities; here psychophysics can render important service. The following is a list of researches where both methods concur: (1) The economy of muscular mechanism; (2) the fundamental laws of the intellect, more especially as regards memory acquisitions; (3) the fluctuation of our ideas in consciousness; (4) the conditions of permanent association as against "cram; (5) plurality of simultaneous impressions in all the senses; (6) the fixed idea; (7) similarity in diversity. In all these experiment can come in aid of introspection, but cannot supersede it without loss and failure.

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Professor Theodore Ribot's paper concerning concepts had for its object an inquiry as to the immediate state of mind at the instant a concept is thought, to determine whether this state differs in individuals. One hundred persons of every class and degree of culture were interrogated by announcing to them abstract terms (not letting them know the purpose beforehand) and noting the immediate state of consciousness which these terms evoked. The results were: 1. With the majority a general term awakened a concrete idea or representation, ordinarily a visual image, rarely a muscular image. 2. Many saw the word as printed, purely and simply, without any concrete representation. 3. Others (fewer in number) had only the word in the mind as heard, perhaps with motor images of articulation but without concrete image; without vision of the printed word. 4. The highest concepts, such as cause, relation, infinite, etc., did not give rise to any representation whatever in the case of the majority. Even those persons belonging to the pure concrete type declared they had nothing in their mind. There are therefore certain concepts to which an unconscious state corresponds. Hoping to penetrate into the nature of this unconscious state, Dr. Wizel continued the investigations on certain hysterical cases at Salpêtrière; they were interrogated first in the hypnotic state, then when awake, thus permitting a compari

son of responses. The results were more numerous and explicit in the hypnotic state than in the normal.

In speaking of the future of psychology, Richet said that psychology is one of the elements of physiology, and the most obscure; the first question is to know the connection which unites mind and body; at present we know nothing about it. An idea, a reasoning, a passion, are phenomena which do not seem to have the power of being reduced to a material phenomenon. It is certain, however, that there is a connection: without brain, or rather without nerve-cell, there is no intelligence. The first problem of psychology is therefore a most complete physiology of the brain: relations of ideation with cerebral circulation, with chemical changes in nerve-cells, with electric phenomena; localization of psychical acts in this or that part of the brain; in other words, a physiological résumé of the brain. We must recognize that brain physiology is little developed compared with the physiology of the heart or muscles. Physiology, properly speaking, is a study of sensations: relations of sensation with peripheral excitation, differential perceptive sensibility the threshold of excitation; these are investigations more difficult to pursue than the general physiology of the nerve-cell.

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Comparative psychology treats of the relations of man with other beings, and with the insane and criminal, from the intellectual point of view. One cannot admit that the human soul is stationary; it evolves, and therefore can be perfected through a sort of natural selection. The data for this problem are wanting, yet the future of humanity depends upon it. In transcendental psychology we have numerous data (often or almost always imperfect), which permit us to suppose that human intelligence has extraordinary resources and forces of which we have no conception. The future psychology will give us the key to clairvoyance and presentiments. If it should be proved that these are all illusions, a service would be rendered; sooner or later we will be able to say whether transcendental psychology is a reality or an illusion.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

*⋆ Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's nume is in all cases required as proof of good faith.

On request in advance, one hundred copies of the number containing his communication will be furnished free to any correspondent.

The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal.

The Libyan Alphabet.

I SHALL make no reply to the letter of Professor Keane in Science, Nov. 4, as there can be no advantage in discussing scientific questions in either the tone or the method which he adopts.

As the general subject, however, is one of great interest, I have secured permission to bring it before the Oriental Club of Philadelphia at its December meeting, when I expect to prove the following positions:

1. That certain able French scholars maintain that the Libyan alphabet antedates the foundation of Carthage, and probably had other than a Semitic origin.

2. That the first form of every letter, simple and compound, of this alphabet, as given by Hanoteau in his "Grammaire Tamachek," contains no curved lines.

3. That the only similarity noted by Hanoteau in that work between the Tuareg and Semitic writing is that they are both read from right to left.

4. Abundant documents in "Tifinar" to prove that this is not the case will be laid before the club.

5. Proof will also be presented that Prof. Keane's assertion in his last letter that "the Tuaregs never made any extensive use of this script" is utterly erroneous.

An official report will be made to Science of this meeting. As the president of the club is Mr. Talcott Williams, not only an excellent Arabic scholar, but the only American who, so far as I know, has collected Berber manuscripts in North Africa and brought to this country the only originals we have, readers of Science may expect a fairer statement of the case than in a disdussion where personal irritation may be suspected of obscuring scientific fact. D. G. BRINTON.

Philadelphia, Nov. 4.

Sense of Direction in Animals.

HAVING noticed the recent articles in Science on this subject, I wish to add an item that may be to the point

When living near Neosho Falls, Kansas, a neighbor, who was a market bird-hunter, went from there to western Missouri for the purpose of hunting quails and prairie-chickens in the fall of the year. He took with him a favorite pointer dog. The route taken was southward some fifty miles to Parsons, Kansas, by railroad thence north-eastward to Fort Scott, and on into Missouri nearly due east from the latter point. All went very well for a few days after he began hunting, but by some means the dog became lost from him. He spent two days hunting it, and as it was no use to try to hunt without the dog he went home, and there found the dog all right. According to the report of his family. the dog had reached there within two days from the time he lost him, and, as the distance was more than 75 miles, it is quite certain that the dog took a near cut for home. Now if this dog had no sense of direction, what had he that led him to take what we may confidently believe to be the straight and true course for home when he had passed over the other two sides of the triangle by rail?

Who does not know that a cat, or even a half-grown kitten, taken a long way from home in a bag nearly always finds its way back? When living in northern Michigan I had a cat we were tired of. I took her in a boat directly across the lake about two miles and turned her loose. Although it was about six miles around the end of the lake, a circuitous course, and certainly one unknown to her by sight, the next morning she was back at the old place. Another case is just stated to me of a cat that was taken by rail fully twenty miles in south-west Missouri, and the next day he walked in all right at his former home. H. E. VAN DEMAN. Washington, D.C.

A Lamentable Case.

PERHAPS another case like the one here recorded will never

appear in your columns. At least we may hope so. The person referred to, and whose name will not be mentioned, from the respect in which I held him, was a true lover of nature and an observer. I first knew him, over a score of years since, when to my boyish view he presented the prime features of a country naturalist's existence. He was a poor man and not well educated, but he was a lover of my pursuits, and he read excellent books. Long years after, and upon returning from a residence in another quarter, I inquired about my nature-loving friend, and found that he was cared for at the County House. I went to call upon him and found that he was dead. One line in the poorhouse register was all I could find concerning the blameless man, for the present proprietor came after he was gone and knew nothing of him. There it was: aged years, died

In my fancy I compared him to Thoreau, and he undoubtedly had similar thoughts and feelings.

How lov'd, how honour'd once, avails thee not,

To whom related, or by whom begot;

A heap of dust alone remains of thee;

'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!

M. G.

Flight of Archippus.

ON the morning of October 22, between eight and nine o'clock, I witnessed the largest flight of Danais archippus I have ever seen, and the only one I have observed in Texas. The morning was cloudy with little or no breeze. The direction of the flight was southward. The butterflies were not in such close masses as I have seen them previously, and were flying at various elevations from twenty feet to as great a height as the eye could reach. I counted one hundred passing a given line in less than one minute. After watching them for some time I drove across the line of flight a quarter, or perhaps one-third, of a mile and then northward with the line of flight for more than a mile. Over the whole distance the butterflies were fully as numerous as when I first saw them. E. T. DUMBLE.

Austin, Tex., Nov. 1.

Codling-Moth Statistics from Oregon.

THE following points have been determined here this season, and may be of interest to the entomological readers of Science. Average life of moth, 10-15 days; egg-laping taking place during the latter part of that time. Time required for incubation, 4-10 days; length of life of larva in apple, 4 weeks (about); time passed in cocoon before emergence of moth, 23 days.

This tallies very closely with Riley's observations made a number of years ago in the East; but he makes the life in the cocoon considerably longer.

The first moths were observed here May 16, and the last egg noted, apparently fresh, on a pear September 19. The moth is at least four-brooded in Oregon. F. L. WASHBURN.

State Experiment Station, Corvallis, Ore., Oct. 25.

Action of Electric-Light on Plants.

IN various reports of the effects of electric-light upon the growth of plants I have noticed nothing upon the, to me, interesting question of whether the effect of electric-light is to keep open at night flowers like the lily and evening primrose, which ordinarily close at departure of daylight. If this point has been discussed, can you kindly give me reference to such discussion? C. H. AMES. Boston, Mass., Nov. 8.

Chemical Nomenclature.

WOULD you kindly correct an error which inadvertently crept into my article on the "Spelling and Pronunciation of Chemical Terms" in the current issue? On page 273, column 1, line 16 from the top, instead of "by an American chemist " read "from a North American mineral." T. H. NORTON. Cincinnati, Nov. 12.

The Humming-Bird's Food.

DOCTOR MORRIS GIBBS's article recalls an observation which suggests that the humming-bird may find, in spring, an important supply of food in the sap of certain trees-particularly before flowers are abundant. In the case observed it was taking the sap of Quercus rubra. Other trees would furnish a more agreeable repast, doubtless. H. L. BRUNER.

BOOK-REVIEWS.

Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples. By the MARQUIS DE NADAILLAC. Translated by NANCY BELL. Illustrated. 412 p. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3. The author of this work is already favorably known in this country by his excellent "Prehistoric America," and in France he ranks among the most active and respected of the students of prehistory. In this volume he endeavors to present a faithful and vivid portraiture of the life of man during the Stone Age, especially in Europe, though by no means confined to that continent. He does not undertake to assign a definite length to this phase of civilization, recognizing that it is not so much a period of duration as a stage in culture. He concedes, however, that it was in ancient Europe of great length, "countless centuries." During the greater part of it man depended upon hunting, fishing, and the natural products. But even then his arts had begun. He made weapons and tools, he used clothing, pleased himself with ornaments, was acquainted with fire, dug canoes from trees, and at times produced creditable artistic sculptures and drawings. The origin and growth of these arts are illustrated by numerous examples drawn from a surprisingly wide familiarity with the literature of the branch.

An interesting chapter is devoted to the kitchen-middens, caves, pile-dwellings, and stone buildings, which served to protect the ancient natives. He describes the magalithic monuments, such as the dolmens, menhirs, and cromlechs, which have excited so much discussion, but declines to assign them to any known people. Yet if, as he intimates, many of those in France were constructed during the Bronze Age, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that they were by the peoples whom Cæsar mentions as living there at the time of his conquest of Gaul.

The industry, commerce, and social organization of men in the Stone Age are inferred from a variety of evidence, and form the subject of an interesting chapter. The care which they evidently took of the wounded reflects favorably both on their kindness and skill. A chapter on fortifications concludes with an excellent summary of Dr. Schliemann's investigations on the site of ancient Troy.

In handling such a mass of material a few errors naturally creep in. It is not correct to say (p. 21) that "the mounds of North America contain none but copper implements and ornaments," as ornaments of gold, silver, and meteoric iron are not unfrequent. So (on p. 76) the writer says that the ancient canoes "must have been worked by means of oars," and seems surprised too at the absence of rowlocks. Of course, paddles, not oars, were the means of propulsion. It is difficult to perceive what he means by this extraordinary passage on p. 219 - "The most ancient settlements of Malabar contain iron tridents, and Genesius (sic) dates their use from before the deluge. It is, therefore, surprising to find that some races remained for an illimitable time ignorant of the way to procure a metal of such great utility." This sounds like eighteenth century science. But these are slight blemishes on a book of singular merit in its composition and unusually beautifully printed and illustrated. Alaskana, or Alaska in Descriptive and Legendary Poems. By BUSHROD W. JAMES. 368 p. Illustrated. Philadelphia, Porter & Coates.

IF Professor James had not had the unfortunate idea that he is a poet, he would have written a book of considerable interest, as he has visited various localities in Alaska and has read several works about that country. As it is, he gives us 360 solid pages of verses in the meter of "Hiawatha," with "some slight improve. ments," as the announcement of the publishers modestly puts it, describing the natives, the scenery, the seals, the sunsets, and the stories, which he has by the above means found out about.

CALENDAR OF SOCIETIES. Philosophical Society, Washington. Nov. 12.-J. P. Iddings, Geology of the Crazy Mountains; H. W. Turner, Lavas of Mount Ingalls; W. H. Dall, Dates of Publication of Conrad's Monographs of Tertiary Fossils.

Anthropological Society, Washington. Nov. 15.-Warren K. Moorehead, Xenia, O., Singular Copper Objects from Ancient Mounds in Ohio; James Mooney, Lester F. Ward, W. H. Holmes, W. Hallet Phillips, W. H. Babcock, and Frank Baker, Geographic Nomenclature of the District and Vicinity, a Symposium.

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Really, was it worth while to put capital letters at the head of these lines? And are there people who will read 360 pages of such? If so, human nature has certain qualities of patience or kindliness for which we did not give it sufficient credit.

There are a number of photogravures in the volume, very nicely done, and, as far as type and paper go, it is a creditable specimen of the publisher's taste, and looks as if it was intended to be a "Holiday book."

Experiments Arranged for Students in General Chemistry. By
EDGAR F. SMITH and HARRY F. KELLAR. Philadelphia, T.
Blakiston, Son & Co. 8°. 57 p., with alternate leaves
blank for notes.

THIS series of exercises, based on the authors' experience with their own classes, is intended to accompany any convenient textbook of inorganic chemistry; but reference is made to that of Richter. Beginning with fundamental operations (as with blowpipe, glass tubing, balance, and graduates) and general principles (as the difference between chemical and physical change) the course proceeds to the study of hydrogen and other non-metals in Part I., followed by the metals in Part II. Quantitative relations are well presented in the experimental work and stoichiometrical

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[Free of charge to all, if of satisfactory character.
Address N. D. C. Hodges, 874 Broadway, New York.]
For exchange. - Fine specimens of Wis. fresh-
water pearls. I want books or papers on marine
and fresh-water alga; also classified specimens of
same. I will exchange for Smithsonian reports or
D. M. ANDREWS, Dodge
crystallized minerals.
Centre, Minn.

For Sale or Exchange.-The undersigned has a
lot of first-class duplicate bird's skins and sets of
eggs, both rare and common, for sale or acceptable
exchange. Also about two hundred second class
skins and five hundred eggs, suitable for study
specimens, at very low figures. The latter, for
starting a collection, are as good as the best, em-
bracing all classes and nearly all families. Also
about forty species of fossils, principall De-
vonian. MORRIS GIBBS, M.D., Kalamazoo. Mich.
Gray's Anatomy, or Medical Dictionary. Must be
in good condition. Address, J. H. SIMPSON, Buch-

For Exchange - The Birds of Kansas,"- Goss, for

tel College. Akron, Ohio.

For Sale or Exchange.-The subscriber would like to receive cash offers, or an offer in exchange for the earlier volumes of Poggendorf's Annalen and the later volumes of Silliman's Journal. upon the following list: Chenn-Manuel de ConchylioOnlogie. 2 vols. Nearly 5,000 figures, some hand-col

Society of Natural History, Boston.
Nov. 16.—Warren Upham, The Origin of
Drumlins; Professors Shaler and Davis,
the Origin of Drumlins.

Wants.

POSITION is desired in the South, preferably Can also instruct in other branches. Salary only the Gulf States, where I can teach the sciences. nominal, as I am simply desirous of employment while spending the winter in the South. A private work if not too confining. MORRIS GIBBS, M.D, family preferred, but will accest regular school Kalamazoo, Mich.

WA

WANTED.-By well qualified and experienced science master and associate of the Royal School of Mines, London, aged 26 (at present in Eugland), a mastership in technical college or university for any of the following subjects: Engineering sciences, geology and mineralogy, physics, chemistry and metallurgy, etc.. etc. Can provide excellent references and credentials. Apply, J. G., 17 Sussex St., Rochdale, England.

ETALLURGICAL CHEMIST will give instrucMtion in the metallurgy and chemical analysis of iron and steel. Complete or special courses applying to the manufacture of pig irons and steels, as well as to their uses. Address" METALLURGIST,” care SCIENCE.

GRADUATE of the University of Pennsylvania and a practical mineralogist of twenty years' net of 25,000 specimens, all named, with about the same number of duplicates, in minerals, crystals, rocks, gems, fossils, shells, archæological and ethnological specimens and woods to any institution desiring a fine outfit for study. The owner will increase the cabinet to 50,000 specimens in two years from any scientific institution. and will act as eurator. Correspondence solicited J. W. Hortter, M.D., Ph.D., San Francisco, Cal., General P. O. Delivery.

experience desires to give his services and a cabi

Paper. Paris, 1859. Edwards.-Butterflies of N. A. 2 vols. Plates hand-colored. Vol. I., half calf. Vol. II. in parts. Leyman, Agassiz, Hagen.Ills. Cat. Mus. Comp. Zool. at Harvard. No. I. Ophiuridae. No. II., Acalephae. No. III., Astacidae. | THE Civil Service Commission will hold All bound in one volume. American Naturalist. Vols. I-VII. Cloth. Silliman's examinations on Nov. 29 to fill two vacancies Science and Arts. Third Series. Vols. I.-X. Cloth. Am. Jour. of in the Quartermaster-General's Office, one Binney.-Terrestrial Mollusks of N. A. Colored plates. 4 vols. Stretch.-Zygaenidae and Bombyin the position of assistant civil engineer, cidae of N. A. Colored plates. Also a considerable at a salary of $1,200, the other in the posi-books, and a large number of duplicates of fossils, library of monographs, reports, and scientific C tion of architectural draftsman, at a salary minerals and shells. E. A. STRONG, Ypsilanti, Mich., Sept., 1892. of $1,400. An application blank and information as to the subjects of the examination

HEMIST AND ENGINEER, graduate German Polytechnic, Organic and Analytical, desires a position in laboratory or chemical works. Address 213 E. 7th Street, New York, care Levy.

may be obtained of the U. S. Civil Service The American Geologist for 1893.

Commission, Washington, D.C.

Reading Matter Notices. Ripans Tabules cure hives. Ripans Tabules cure dyspepsia.

Edited by PROF. S. CALVIN, University of Iowa; DR. E. W. CLAYPOLE, Buchtel College; JOHN EYERMAN, Lafayette College; DR. PERSIFOR FRAZER, Penn. Hort. Soc.; PROF. F. W. CRAGIN, Colorado College; PROF. ROB'T T. HILL, U. S. Irrigation Survey; DR. ANDREW C. LAWSON, University of California; Frank D. KNOWLTON, U. S. National Museum; JOSEPH B. TYRRELL, Geol. Sur.of Canada; E. O. ULRICH, Minnesota Geological Survey: PROF. I. C. WHITE, University of West Virginia; PROF. N. H. WINCHELL, University of Minnesota. Now in its Xth volume. $3.50 per year. Sample copies, 20 cents. Address

THE GEOLOGICAL PUBLISHING CO., Minneapolis, Minn.

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