562 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



we should have a virtual life of Holmes while 

 he is yet among us and busy as ever, seems 

 to us as far as possible from being objec- 

 tionable. 



And certainly no man ever had a greater 

 temptation for working up a personal ca- 

 reer to the edification of all contemporaries 

 than the writer of this book. His mate- 

 rials are abundant and attractive, to many 

 they will be fresh, and to all entertaining. 

 The account of the early life of Dr. Holmes 

 we have found very pleasant and satisfac- 

 tory, and the information about his various 

 publications interesting; the eulogy is of 

 course inevitable, and the criticism more or 

 less passable. For Mr. Kennedy must also 

 favor us with his estimates of the genius, 

 performances, and opinions of the author 

 he has taken in hand. But his judgments, 

 if not very valuable, can not be much mis- 

 leading, because everybody has read these 

 fascinating books, and each one can make up 

 his own mind as to their merits. On the 

 whole, however, we confess ourselves much 

 obliged to Mr. Kennedy for his agreeable 

 volume. 



Methods of Social Reform, and other Pa- 

 pers. By W. Stanley Jevons, F. R. S. 

 New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 383. 

 Price, $3. 



This volume consists of various articles 

 contributed within the last few years by Dr. 

 Jevons to the reviews on a variety of social 

 subjects, and which have been collected by 

 his wife for those who desire to possess 

 them in a permanent form. It was the in- 

 tention of Dr. Jevons to reissue them him- 

 self, and before his untimely and lamented 

 death he had already revised two of them, 

 "Experimental Legislation and the Drink- 

 Traffic," and "Amusements of the People." 

 The remainder are reprinted just as they 

 were originally written. 



It is unnecessary to commend the work 

 of this able writer. His several treatises on 

 philosophical subjects are of excellent re- 

 pute. But the present volume, while quite 

 miscell;. leous in its topics, probably repre- 

 sents his latest views on important practi- 

 cal questions of a social character. They 

 are marked by clearness and moderation, and 

 will be found full of sober reflection upon 

 questions too frequently treated by extrem- 



ists in visionaryand extravagant ways. Much 

 of Dr. Jevons's criticism deals with the so- 

 cial condition of things in England, and is 

 designed to bear upon special practical re- 

 forms, but the discussions are always car- 

 ried on with reference to principles that are 

 not without application in other countries. 



Inquiries into Human Faculty and its De- 

 velopment. By Francis Galton, F. R. S., 

 author of " Hereditary Genius." New 

 York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 387. Price, 

 83. 



Mr. Galton, as is very well known, has 

 taken up the systematic study of human 

 character from the most modern point of 

 view, and, pursuing it in the light of the 

 doctrine of evolution, has carried out a 

 course of experimental inquiries ingenious 

 in conception and fruitful of many new con- 

 clusions. With his numerous papers con- 

 tributed to learned societies and to the pe- 

 riodical press, scientific readers are familiar ; 

 these, which are of a varied character, he 

 has now revised, extended, reduced to con- 

 siderable unity of method, and published 

 in the volume before us. Mr. Galton's re- 

 searches are characterized by great subtilty 

 of perception, a remarkable insight into the 

 elements of human character, and a surpris- 

 ing skill in pursuing his fertile suggestions 

 to verification by experimental tests. He 

 has done much, more indeed than any other 

 investigator, to bring the elements of re- 

 search respecting individual characteristics 

 into quantitative and statistical form, so as 

 to favor accuracy of inductions. If a more 

 technical title had been admissible, the pres- 

 ent work might have been called a treatise 

 on anthropometry the measurement of the 

 traits of human nature. It is through the 

 bodily correlations of intellectual and emo- 

 tional effects that this experimental method 

 becomes possible, and all Mr. Galton's 

 studies, although they deal largely with 

 psychical phenomena, are made upon the 

 basis of organic conditions and physical 

 characteristics. The subject of composite 

 portraiture, to which Mr. Galton has given 

 much attention, and which, indeed, he has 

 created as an important branch of investi- 

 gation, is fully treated in this volume, the 

 result of his latest methods being given and 

 pictorially illustrated, while graphic and dia- 

 grammatic resources are extended to other 



