328 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



given by the State Geologist, John C. 

 Smock, form a splendid volume of very 

 great practical value as well as of 

 scientific interest. 



Three important bulletins (Reports 

 Nos. 5, 7 and 11) of the U. S. Dept. 

 of Agriculture, dealing with the investi- 

 gations upon vegetable fibers, have been 

 recently mailed to correspondents. It 

 is notable that comparatively slow prog- 

 ress has been made in the perfection 

 of methods of cultivation and use of new 

 fiber plants. The time seems at hand 

 for the making of extended and serious 

 attempts to utilize the fiber furnished 

 by ramie and other plants, and the 

 importance of adding a staple of this 

 kind to the products of the country 

 would justify any reasonable expendi- 

 ture of time and experimentation. 



The indexes and bibliographies which 

 are being issued by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture are among 

 the most complete and comprehensive in 

 the fields which they cover, and will be 

 found helpful to persons who are pursu- 

 ing studies in the various branches of 

 science related to agriculture. The 

 latest contribution in this line is an 

 'Index to Literature relative to Animal 

 Industry,' prepared by Mr. George 

 F. Thompson. The volume covers the 

 publications issued by the Department 

 of Agriculture from its establishment in 

 1837 to 1898, and comprises 676 pages, 

 with some 80,000 entries. It includes a 

 wide range of subjects, relating to the 

 care and management of domestic ani- 

 mals, diseases and their treatment, sta- 

 tistics of different kinds of live stock, 

 and investigations upon animal prod- 

 ucts such as milk, butter, cheese, eggs, 

 wool, meats, etc. In these lines it ren- 

 ders available for convenient reference a 

 large amount of scientific investigation, 

 much of it unsurpassed in its line, which 

 is so scattered through various bulletins 

 and reports as to be easily lost sight of, 

 and difficult for one unfamiliar with the 

 * publications of the Department to bring 

 1 ogether. 



NEUROLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY AND 

 EDUCATION. 



Th'S eighth volume of the 'Science 

 Series,' edited by Professor J. McKeeu 

 Cattell and published by the Putnams, 

 is Professor Jacques Loeb's 'Compara- 

 tive Physiology of the Brain and Com- 

 parative Psychology.' The author is 

 known as an able investigator of the 

 physiology of the invertebrates and a 

 thinker of daring genius. His book is 

 in no sense a mere compend; it has the 

 life and vigor natural to a student's 

 presentation of his own research and 

 theories. Professor Loeb's aim is to an- 

 alyze the behavior of animals, roughly 

 attributed to the nervous system, into 

 elements, and to seek the definite factors 

 that account for these elementary re- 

 actions; to replace the various hypo- 

 thetical accounts of the nervous mechan- 

 ism by the- theory that it is a complex 

 of a number of largely independent seg 

 mental organs; and to pave the way 

 for an explanation of nervous action by 

 definite laws of physical and chemical 

 change. The book is thus an important 

 example of the present attempts of 

 students of life-processes to reduce phys- 

 iology to the more elementary sciences 

 of matter. 



In 'Fact and Fable in Psychology' 

 (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), Professor 

 Joseph Jastrow reprints with some al- 

 terations a number of essays. The 

 author is eminent among psychol- 

 ogists for his original research, and 

 his clearness and skill in exposition are 

 already known to readers of the Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly, in which most 

 of these essays originally appeared. His 

 wide knowledge and clear judgment fit 

 him admirably to treat the rather deli- 

 cate subjects with which his book is 

 concerned, namely, that group of fact3 

 which arise in our minds at the word 

 'occult,' matters which have received 

 such diverse treatment by both psy- 

 chologists and laymen. They are direct- 

 ly dealt with in the essays on 'The mod- 

 ern occult,' 'The problems of psychical 

 research,' 'The logic of mental teleg- 



