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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing experiments without making it publicly 

 known. The opening address was by Mr. 0. 

 Chanute, and it is followed in the book by 

 thirty-six other papers, on the work of the 

 wind, propelling devices, sailing flight, soar- 

 ing flight, the machines of flight and aspira- 

 tion, forms of flying machines, aeroplanes, 

 kites, balloons, explorations of the upper air, 

 and discussions. 



The Ills of the South. By Charles H. 

 Atken, LL. D. New York : G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons. Pp. 2*7*7. 



Demoralized labor, lost fortunes, a ruin- 

 ous credit system, and the indirect conse- 

 quences of Southern lien laws, are the chief 

 subjects dealt with in this volume. 



The book is penned in no hostile spirit 

 to any one State or class of people, while to 

 the student of modern history it forms a 

 valuable adjunct to his historic knowledge 

 of the Southern States. In all, the work 

 contains fourteen chapters, each imparting 

 a succinct view of the various needs of the 

 Southern people from 1865 to the present 

 time. 



Psychologie des Grands Calculateurs et 

 Jouecrs d'Echecs. Par Alfred Binet. 

 (Psychology of Great Calculators and 

 Chess-players. By Alfred Binet.) Paris : 

 Librairie Hachette et Cie. 1894. 



The author of this work has made his 

 investigations in these unusual forms of 

 memory with the fundamental desire to dis- 

 cover something that might be utilized in 

 pedagogics. The investigation of the men- 

 tal processes of mathematical prodigies was 

 made at the suggestion of the late Prof. 

 Charcot. The investigation of chess-players' 

 memories was made at the suggestion of M. 

 Taine. 



Mathematical prodigies form a natural 

 class, and their ability is independent of 

 heredity or environment. They manifest 

 their talents precociously, and the familiar- 

 ity with figures is at the expense of general 

 intelligence. Furthermore, their aptitude is 

 developed by exercise and is decreased by 

 non-usage. It is largely a matter of audi- 

 tory and visual mnemonics. 



In blindfold chess the ability depends 

 upon knowledge, memory, and imagination. 

 The ability to recall so complex a mental 

 image as one or more chessboards contain- 



ing thirty-two or less pieces, in a variety of 

 positions, constitutes what Binet designates 

 as a visual geometrical memory, associated 

 with which is a memory of recapitulation or 

 faculty of repeating all the moves in the 

 order in which they were played. 



The work is an interesting study of curi- 

 ous phases of mentality. 



The Pygmies. By A. de Quatrefages. New 

 York : D. Appleton & Co. (The Anthro- 

 pological Series.) Pp.255. Price, $1.*75. 



This work of one of the most eminent 

 anthropologists of the century, translated by 

 Prof. Frederick Starr expressly for the An- 

 thropological Series, relates to a race, or rather 

 a group of races, of meD, concerning which 

 speculation and tradition were rife for many 

 centuries, but of which little or nothing was 

 definitely known till very recently. They 

 were mentioned by Homer, they were de- 

 scribed by Aristotle, and were referred to as 

 a historical fact by Herodotus. These authors 

 placed them in Africa. Pliny, a more recent 

 writer than they, speaks of them as living in 

 different countries. The African pygmies re- 

 mained substantially unknown, except from 

 these ancient references, until a few years ago 

 explorers of the heart of Africa brought home 

 accounts given of them by neighboring tribes. 

 Schweinfurth saw them and obtained an in- 

 dividual Akka, and specimens were brought 

 to Europe ; since then acquaintance has been 

 direct. Besides these, M. de Quatrefages 

 classified with the pygmies other " small 

 black races " which had attracted his atten- 

 tion and interest in a special manner, and 

 made frequent references to them in his 

 writings. "These little blacks," he says, 

 " are to-day almost everywhere scattered, 

 separated, and often hunted by races larger 

 and stronger ; nevertheless, they have had in 

 the past their time of prosperity," and have 

 played a very real ethnological part. The 

 principal purpose of this book is to make 

 known the scientific truth in regard to the 

 ancient fables, and to show what the pygmies 

 of antiquity really were. He finds that the 

 ancients had information " more or less in- 

 exact, more or less incomplete, but also more 

 or less true," concerning five populations of 

 little stature from whom they made their 

 pygmies. Two were located in Asia ; a third 

 to the south, toward the sources of the Nile ; 



