708 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of determining the chemical constituents as 

 a factor in securing accuracy in identifica- 

 tion. 



Demonstrator G. 8. Neioth opens his 

 Manual of Chemical Analysis* with a pro- 

 test against the thought of " doing " analy- 

 sis without learning more than the minimum 

 amount of chemistry, and against teaching 

 and practicing it in such a manner as to de- 

 grade it to the level " of a purely mechanical 

 and often unintelligible series of rule-of- 

 thumb operations." He says he has done 

 his best to make it " as little of a cram book 

 as possible," and has endeavored " to teach 

 analytical chemistry as well as analysis " — 

 that is, the theoretical as well as the practi- 

 cal side of the subject. He begins with em- 

 phasizing the importance of the student 

 making himself practically familiar with cer- 

 tain simple operations he will have to per- 

 form constantly, and gives clear, concise defi- 

 nitions of such terms as filtration, solution, 

 evaporation, fusion, precipitation, ignition, 

 etc., which relate to those operations. He 

 condemns slovenly formulas and mechanical 

 notes, but commends real notes of the stu- 

 dent's own observations. In his treatment 

 he excludes merely descriptive details that 

 have no bearing on analysis ; and in quanti- 

 tative analysis, prefers describing fully a few 

 typical methods and processes to covering 

 much ground slightly. 



The Ingersoll Lectureship at Harvard 

 University is constituted on a legacy by Miss 

 Caroline H. Ingersoll, carrying out the wishes 

 of her father, George G. Ingersoll, for the 

 foundation of an annual lectureship on the 

 ' ' Immortality of Man," to which no condi- 

 tions as to doctrine or method of treatment 

 are attached. The purpose of the lectures, ' 

 or perhaps their operation, as defined by 

 Prof. William James, is that out of the series 

 may emerge a collective literature worthy of 

 the theme. Professor James took as the 

 special subject of his lecture f the answer 

 to two objections to the doctrine of immor- 

 tality : first, the absolute dependence of our 



* A Manual of Chemical Analysis, Qualitative 

 and Quantitative. By G. 8. Newth. New York: 

 Longmans, Green & Co., pp. 462. $1.75. 



t Human Immortality. Two Supposed Objec- 

 tions to the Doctrine. By William James. Bos- 

 ton: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., pp. 70. $1. 



spiritual life, as we know it here, on the 

 brain ; and the second relating to " the in- 

 credible and intolerable number of beings 

 which, with our modern imagination, we 

 must believe to be immortal, if immortality 

 be true." To the former objection the au- 

 thor replies that thought is not a productive 

 but a permissive or transmissive function of 

 the brain ; when the brain decays the sphere 

 of being that supplied the consciousness is 

 still intact, and the stream still goes on ; to 

 the second, that spiritual being is not as ma- 

 terial being, that each new mind brings " its 

 own edition of the universe of space " along 

 with it, that there is no crowding or inter- 

 ference, and that the supply of individual 

 life in the universe can never possibly ex- 

 ceed the demand. 



The first number of In Lantern Land, a 

 monthly journal " devoted to literature, the 

 fine arts, the play, with some discussion of 

 passing events," Charles Dexter Allen and 

 William Newnham Carleton, editors, gives 

 promise of a literary journal of elevated tone. 

 It holds its aim to be unprejudiced and inde- 

 pendent. (Published at Hartford, Conn., by 

 Charles Dexter Allen, for one dollar a year.) 



Mr. Henry Carr Pearson presents in his 

 Greek Prose Composition (American Book 

 Company, 90 cents) results of his own experi- 

 ence in the class room. The aim of the 

 book is to combine study of the essentials of 

 Greek syntax with practice in translating 

 connected English into Attic Greek, and to 

 afford convenient practice in writing Greek 

 at sight. The work is in three parts : Part 

 I, containing, in graded lessons, the principal 

 points of Greek syntax, designed for use at 

 the beginning of the second year's study of 

 Greek; Part II, short simple English sen- 

 tences modeled after sentences in Xenophon's 

 Anabasis, for daily use in connection with 

 reading of the text; and Part III, connected 

 English prose, graded, also based on the 

 Anabasis. Review lessons are introduced, 

 and a Greek-English vocabulary is provided. 



Mr. James W. Crook, in the introduction 

 to his history of the development of German 

 Wage llieories (Columbia University Studies 

 in History, Economics, and Public Law), re- 

 marks upon the slowness with which political 

 economy, and particularly the study of ques- 

 tions concerning wages, has advanced in 



