SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



217 



those of our Gaelic colleagues; and, ac- 

 cordingly, when a book such as Dr. 

 Fleury's leaves its native soil, it comes in 

 contact with forms of critical judgment 

 which it cannot successfully meet. As 

 the author himself almost naively notes, 

 in contrasting French works with those 

 of an English writer, Sir John Lubbock, 

 "With us a philosopher writes books for 

 his own renown. Sir John Lubbock 

 thinks of himself not at all." Dr. Fleury 

 follows the French ideal and produces 

 a chatty volume thoroughly infused 

 with his personal opinions and interests, 

 kaleidoscopic in scope, rather aimless in 

 design, literary in form, and, judged by 

 our own ideals, a very bad exemplar for 

 popular science. 



The general point of view is that of a 

 physician who wishes to record for the 

 benefit of other types of professional 

 men, the medical aspect of the large 

 and ever-present problems of civiliza- 

 tion. From responsibility in cases of 

 crime, and the methods in use at the 

 Salpetriere, to an essay on the bad ef- 

 fects of tobacco, and the proper regimen 

 for literary men (illustrated by copious 

 testimonials from men of literary note) ; 

 and again from disquisitions on the ef- 

 fects of serum and other liquids hypo- 

 dermically applied and an account of 

 the nervous system, through discussions 

 of mental and physical fatigue and the 

 treatment of indolence and melancholy, 

 to the psychology of love and anger as 

 morbid passions, and the 'physiological 

 analysis of flirtation,' — the volume pro- 

 ceeds at times interestingly, often 

 touching upon new and significant ob- 

 servation, but always aimlessly, self- 

 consciously and with a strained attempt 

 to introduce novelty and paradox. When 

 the author remarks "who knows but 

 the twentieth century may rewrite 

 Werther in its own way, with figures 

 in the text, as a medical publication," 

 he suggests only a moderate exaggera- 

 tion of some of his own pages. The 

 scientific point of view and useful scien- 

 tific writing are not dependent upon 

 diagrams and phrases, but on the natu- 

 ral outcome of fullness of learning, of a 



fundamental training and a combination 

 of enthusiasm and skill. Dr. Fleury's 

 book affords glimpses of an attractive 

 personality endowed with some of these 

 requisites; but his volume can have lit- 

 tle influence upon the English reading 

 public. 



Of translations, as of the dead, it is 

 generally best to say nihil nisi bonum. 

 But the imperfections of the present 

 task are all of that totally unnecessary 

 type which makes them particularly ag- 

 gravating. The foreignness of the pres- 

 entation is left unmitigated by skillful 

 phrasing; the existence of appropriate 

 technical terms in English is ignored, 

 and minor errors (such as the wrong re- 

 translation of an English work cited by 

 the French author) are numerous. 



Prof. Flotjrnoy's skillful descrip- 

 tion of a remarkable case of sub-con- 

 scious automatism was noticed in a re- 

 cent issue of this Monthly. It is in 

 every way worthy of presentation to 

 English readers; and such readers are 

 under obligations to Messrs. Harper & 

 Bros, and the translator for the credit- 

 able appearance of the English volume. 

 The translation is fluent and ac- 

 ceptable, and the composition of the 

 book eminently satisfactory. Apart 

 from the general query as to the de- 

 sirability of placing a volume of this 

 type before the public at large in a 

 form intended to suggest its popular 

 assimilability, the temper of the trans- 

 lator's preface demands a word of com- 

 ment and of protest. To present this 

 volume as a contribution to the mysti- 

 cal aspect of that composite activity, 

 the results of which are denominated 

 'Psychical Research,' is a wrong to the 

 author's purposes and (with few excep- 

 tions) is antagonistic to his own point 

 of view. To put forward the volume as 

 a contribution to a line of investigation 

 that shall scientifically prove to be 'the 

 preamble of all religions,' that shall 

 demonstrate unsuspected and anoma- 

 lous mental powers, and all but demon- 

 strate immortality, to claim that for 

 any one skeptically inclined and out 



