MISCELLANY. 



55 



tation of cosmieal laws, and the hidden 

 mysteries of molecular physics." 



The professor protests alike against the 

 narrowness of the traditional culture on 

 one side, and the newer policy of our scien- 

 tific and technological schools. 



" In urging the plea for sciente-educa- 

 tion, let it be remembered that we speak of 

 education in its broad and well-rounded 

 sense, by which all the powers of the 

 human mind are to be developed into a 

 symmetry which shall dwarf none of them. 

 We claim, with great reason, the existing 

 system does not do this, and is incapable of 

 doing it, owing to the overshadowing im- 

 portance attached to the ancient classics, 

 absorbing so much of the time given to edu- 

 cation that only a fragment can be grudg- 

 ingly given to the study of the inductive 

 sciences. But no institution, as we have 

 before remarked, which is confined to the 

 training of men for special professional 

 work can be regarded, in the broader sense 

 of that term, as an educational institution, 

 however ably it may discharge the more 

 limited work which is assigned to it. The 

 want of ethical and literary training and 

 general culture at West Point has always 

 been recognized as a deficiency, in a system 

 in many other respects unsurpassed, and 

 the same is true of all institutions similarly 

 organized." 



Recent Discussions in Science, Phlloso- 

 pht and Morals. By Herbert Spencer. 

 New and enlarged edition. D. Appleton 

 & Co., 350 pages. 



This volume completes the first collec- 

 tion yet made of Mr. Spencer's miscellaneous 

 essays. It contains thirteen papers, most 

 of which have not before appeared in this 

 country, and there are sis more articles 

 added to the present edition. The volume is 

 especially valuable, as containing Mr. Spen- 

 cer's complete discussion of the system of 

 Comte, the classification of the sciences, the 

 genesis of knowledge, and the work of dis- 

 covery of general laws. The other articles 

 are " Specialized Administration " a reply 

 to some views of Prof. Huxley in his arti- 

 cles on " Administrative Nihilism," " What 

 is Electricity ? " " The Constitution of the 

 Sun," " The Collective Wisdom," "Political 

 Fetichism," and " Miss Martineau on Evolu- 

 tion." As remarked in the preface to this 

 work, " these several discussions have been 

 drawn from Mr. Spencer at various times to 



correct misapprehensions and misrepresen- 

 tations that have been made regarding the 

 doctrines of his system of philosophy. Some 

 of them form valuable extensions of these 

 doctrines, and all will be useful in pro- 

 moting their right interpretation." 



MISCELLANY. 



Volcanic Energy. Mr. Mallet, in a pa- 

 per read before the British Royal Society, 

 claims that volcanic heat results simply 

 from the secular cooling of a terraqueous 

 globe subject to gravitation. He rejects 

 the chemical theory, on the ground that 

 facts show the chemical energies of the 

 globe almost wholly exhausted prior to the 

 consolidation of its surface. The mechani- 

 cal theory he also rejects, it being, accord- 

 ing to him, proved untenable by the known 

 thickness of the earth's crust. He then 

 points out various relations and points of 

 connection between volcanic phenomena, 

 seismic phenomena, and the lines of moun- 

 tain elevation, attributing all three to one 

 set of cosmieal forces, which decay with 

 time. As our globe contracted, there oc- 

 curred deformations of the spheroid, form- 

 ing the ocean-basins ; next came the fold- 

 ings-over and elevations of the thickened 

 crust into mountains ; and, lastly, we have 

 volcanic action. The author accepts C. Pre- 

 vost's theory of mountain elevation, viz., 

 tangential pressures propagated through a 

 solid crust, and produced by the relative 

 rate of contraction of the nucleus and of the 

 crust. As the nucleus shrinks, the crust is 

 partially unsupported. During the very 

 rapid cooling from a high temperature, 

 with a thin crust, we should have mountain 

 elevation as a result ; but the same causes 

 give rise, in the present state of things, to 

 volcanic heat. As the solid crust sinks 

 after the nucleus, its crushing together is 

 transformed into heat sufficient to fuse the 

 rock. The access of water then determines 

 volcanic action. Mallet made two series of 

 experiments to test his theory. He first 

 crushed sixteen species of -rocks, repre- 

 senting the whole series of formations from 

 oolites to the hardest crystalline rocks. The 

 second series of experiments, conducted on 

 a very large scale, was to ascertain the co- 

 efficients of total contraction, between fusion 



