SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



5 6 3 



tion of the subject, consists of papers on methods of study and comparative 

 psychology which have appeared in various scientific periodicals, includ- 

 ing this magazine. 



GENERAL NOTICES. 



In Four-Footed Americans and their 

 Kin * a similar method is applied by Mabel 

 Osgood Wriyht to the study of animals to 

 that which was followed with reference to 

 ornithology in Citizen Bird. The subject 

 is taught in the form of a story, with dra- 

 matic incident and adventure, and miniature 

 exploration, and the animals are allowed 

 occasionally to converse and express their 

 opinions and feelings. The scene of the 

 action is " Orchard Farm and twenty miles 

 around." Dr. Hunter and his daughter and 

 colored " mammy " have returned there to 

 their home after several years of travel, with 

 two city youths who have been invited to 

 spend the summer at the place and are told 

 the story of the birds. Another family have 

 come to make an autumn visit, but it is 

 arranged that they should spend the winter 

 at the farm. " What they did, and how they 

 became acquainted with the four-footed 

 Americans, is told in this story." Most of 

 the common animals of the United States are 

 met or described in the course of the party's 

 wandering, as creatures of life rather than 

 as in the cold and formal way of treating 

 museum specimens, and a great deal of the 

 lore of other branches of natural history is 

 introduced, as it would naturally come in in 

 such excursions as were taken. The scientific 

 accuracy of the book is assured by the par- 

 ticipation of Mr. Frank M. Chapman as editor. 

 At the end a Ladder for climbing the Family 

 Tree of the North American Mammals is 

 furnished in the shape of a table of classifi- 

 cation ; and an index of English names is 

 given. The illustrations, by Ernest Seton 

 Thompson, give lifelike portraits and atti- 

 tudes and are very attractive. 



St. George Mivart, whose enviable repu- 

 tation as a specialist in natural history has 

 perhaps given some justification for his at- 

 tempts at philosophy, has recently published a 

 new philosophical work entitled The Ground- 



* Pour-Footed Americans and their Kin. By 

 Mabel Osgood Wright. Edited by Frank M. 

 Chapman. New York : The Macmillan Company. 

 Pp. 432, with plates. Price, $1.50. 



work of Science * It is an effort to work out 

 the ultimate facts on which our knowledge, 

 and hence all science, is based. A short 

 preface and introductory chapter are devoted 

 to a statement of the aims of the work .and 

 some general remarks regarding the history 

 of the scientific method. An enumeration of 

 the sciences and an indication of some of 

 their logical relations are next given. The 

 third chapter, entitled The Objects of Sci- 

 ence, is given up chiefly to a refutation of 

 idealism. The methods of science, its phys- 

 ical, psychical, and intellectual antecedents, 

 language and science, causes of scientific 

 knowledge, and the nature of the ground- 

 work of science are the special topics of the 

 remaining chapters. The general scheme of 

 the inquiry is based on the theory that the 

 groundwork of science consists of three di- 

 visions. " The laborers who work, the tools 

 they must employ, and that which constitutes 

 the field of their labor. . . . Science is part- 

 ly physical and partly psychical. . . . The 

 tools are those first principles and universal, 

 necessary, self-evident truths which lie so 

 frequently unnoticed in the human intellect, 

 and which are absolutely indispensable for 

 valid reasoning. . . . The nature of the work- 

 ers must also be noticed as necessarily affect- 

 ing the value of their work. . . . And, last 

 of all, a few words must be devoted to the 

 question whether there is any and, if any, 

 what foundation underlying the whole ground- 

 work of science." The result at which the 

 author arrives is stated as follows : " The 

 groundwork of science is the work of self- 

 . conscious material organisms making use of 

 the marvelous first principles which they 

 possess in exploring all the physical and 

 psychical phenomena of the universe, which 

 sense, intuition, and ratiocination can any- 

 how reveal to them as real existences, wheth- 

 er actual or only possible. . . . The founda- 

 tion of science can only be sought in that 



* The Groundwork of Science. A Study of 

 Epistemology. By St. George Mivart. Pp. 8S8. 

 Price, $1.75. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 Loudon; Bliss, Sands & Co. 



