LITERARY NOTICES. 



845 



the liveliest interest. A good sanitary edu- 

 cation involves a very considerable under- 

 standing of the method of Nature. 



We heartily -welcome, therefore, the in- 

 creasing hygienic literature of the age, and 

 are glad to see that the best minds are de- 

 voting themselves to it, and giving the pub- 

 lic the results in various forms of their seri- 

 ous and careful studies. The little volume 

 now before us is a timely and most valu- 

 able contribution to the subject in its prac- 

 tical, every-day aspects for the use of house- 

 holders. First of all, it is a careful and 

 trustworthy book by a thoroughly prepared 

 man, who has had large experience of hy- 

 gienic subjects as Sanitary Inspector of the 

 New York City Health Department. It has 

 been Dr. Tracy's business to apply sanitary 

 science to the art of living under our pres- 

 ent domestic constructions and arrange- 

 ments. He has had to meet actual difficulties 

 that arise from the influence of bad air, bad 

 sewerage, bad drainage, bad house-construc- 

 tion, bad precautions respecting infectious 

 diseases, bad food, bad water, and bad 

 plumbing. It seemed to him that there was 

 needed a little book simply of facts and re- 

 sults, free from theory, discussion, or specu- 

 lation, and written in the plainest style, that 

 would serve for every-day guidance in rela- 

 tion to all these sanitary subjects. It is 

 full of brief rules and directions, and useful 

 information regarding sanitary contrivances, 

 how they are to be obtained and what they 

 cost, and from this point of view it may be 

 regarded a3 a practical summing up of the 

 most urgent requirements, the best facilities, 

 and the clearest directions, that will be of 

 service every day and to everybody. We 

 have read the book with care, and can rec- 

 ommend it, without hesitation or qualifica- 

 tion, as one that should be kept for constant 

 reference in every house. 



INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SEEIES. 



The Concepts and Theories op Modern 

 Physics. Second edition, revised ; with 

 an Introductory Essay. By J. B. Stallo. 

 New York : D.Appleton & Co. Pp. 358. 

 Price, $1.75. 



The first edition, and a pretty large one, 

 of this profound work was exhausted some 

 time ago, which speaks well for the interest 

 of American readers in the thorough discus- 

 sion of the fundamental ideas that are at the 



basis of science and philosophy. The con- 

 tinued demand for the work making neces- 

 sary a second edition, the author has sub- 

 jected the text to a close revision, and pre- 

 fixed to it a masterly introduction of forty- 

 four pages. He here avails himself of the 

 criticisms passed upon the work, both in 

 this country and abroad (where several edi- 

 tions of it have also appeared), to restate 

 the purpose of the volume, which has been 

 a good deal misunderstood, and to reply to 

 such objections as seemed to require atten- 

 tion. The effect of this lucid and brilliant 

 discussion will be to greatly facilitate the 

 general apprehension, and to enhance the 

 interest of the work to those who take it up 

 for the first time. 



In our review of Judge Stallo's book 

 upon its first appearance, we pointed out 

 that it is a philosophical study of the rela- 

 tions of metaphysics to physics, designed to 

 show that many of the leading physicists of 

 the age are by no means as far emancipated 

 from old metaphysical influences as it is 

 customary to believe. He attacks some of 

 the fundamental ideas of modern physics as 

 being strictly metaphysical assumptions, and 

 shows historically how they have survived, 

 and performed their old duties in new rela- 

 tions. But the book was construed as an 

 onslaught upon the foundations of modern 

 physics in the interests of a bad metaphys- 

 ics, and the author was called upon to offer 

 his substitutes for the fundamental doctrines 

 he aimed to sweep away. We quote some 

 passages from the new introduction, which 

 leave no room for further misunderstand- 



ing: 



The misapprehension I speak of is very surpris- 

 ing, in view of the explicit declaration, contained in 

 the very first sentence of my preface, that the book 

 is " designed as a contribution not to physics, nor 

 certainly to metaphysics, but to the theory of cog- 

 nition." Notwithstanding this declaration, most of 

 my critics assume it to be my purpose to expose the 

 short-comings and defects of particular theories a9 

 devices for the colligation of facts, or as instruments 

 of research, and suppose that my endeavor is sim- 

 ply, as one of my critics expresses it, "to pick 

 flaws in these theories," or, in the language of an- 

 other critic, " to classify and develop contradic- 

 tions " between them, to " set facts by the ears," 

 and " bump friendly heads together " in short, in 

 the spirit of a sort of scientific pyrrhonism, to dis- 

 credit the familiar methods of physical science, if 

 not to invalidate its results. And they complain 

 that I fail to apprehend what one of them is pleased 

 to term the "laboratory function" of a physical 



