LITERARY NOTICES. 



131 



examined by nations, for it presents very 

 varied phases in different countries, accord- 

 ing as it lias been modified by the character 

 and circumstances of their people and by 

 their history. Everywhere, however, India 

 is looked to as the land of its origin ; and it 

 is in India that its oldest and most impor- 

 tant books are found. Mr. Davids has, 

 therefore, very properly selected India as 

 the country in which to consider it for the 

 elucidation of its fundamental principles. 

 His lectures, which were delivered on the 

 Hibbert foundation, consider, first, " The 

 Placs of Buddhism in the Development of 

 Religious Thought," under which head the 

 author reviews the condition of India at the 

 time of the introduction of Buddhism, the 

 effect the new religion had on that condi- 

 tion, and the influence the condition exerted 

 upon the shape it eventually took ; and, 

 afterward, the "Pali Pitakas," or the prin- 

 cipal books of Buddhism the Buddhist 

 theory of Karma, or what takes the place, 

 with a striking difference, of the Christian 

 idea of the future life ; the " Buddhist Lives 

 of the Buddha " ; " Gotama's Order," or the 

 rules that were laid down by the founder 

 of the religion himself ; and " The Later 

 Forms of Buddhism," which are immense in 

 their variety. Among the lessons to be de- 

 rived from the study, Mr. Davids points out 

 that " the knowledge of what man has been 

 in distant times, in far-off lands, under the 

 influence of ideas which at first sight seem to 

 us so strange, will strengthen within us that 

 reverence, sympathy, and love, which must 

 follow on a realization of the mysterious 

 complexity of being, past, present, and to 

 come, that is wrapped up in every human 

 life." 



Bacteria. By Dr. Ferdinand Cohn. Trans- 

 lated by Charles S. Dolley, Rochester, 

 New York. Pp. 30, with a Plate. 



The title of this paper and the name of 

 its author commend it without any further 

 words. We need notice especially only the 

 translator'^ statement of one of his objects 

 in offering it, which is, to set the example 

 of publishing scientific books in cheap edi- 

 tions, as is done abroad. The plate of illus- 

 trations consists of figures that were drawn 

 by Dr. Cohn himself for " The Microscopical 

 Journal." 



Beliefs about Man. Bv M. J. Savage. 

 Boston: George H. Ellis. Pp. 130. 

 Price, $1.50. 



This work, a complement to a previously 

 published volume on " Belief in God," em- 

 braces the substance of a number of regu- 

 lar Sunday-morning sermons on the nature, 

 origin, and destiny of man, in which were 

 also considered some of the problems, such 

 as those of sin and salvation and of free- 

 will, which have troubled him during all the 

 ages. The points brought out may be sum- 

 med up in brief, that " man is the animal 

 that has learned to think of himself, to 

 think of right, to think of God, and has 

 ended by thinking that he is a son of God " ; 

 that the doctrine of evolution has no rela- 

 tion to theism or atheism ; that the doctrine 

 of necessity, as distinguished from free-will, 

 "gives us motive power, gives us a way to 

 work, gives us confidence that our work will 

 ' not be without its appropriate results " ; that 

 the forces, the powers, that are at work in 

 human nature to-day do not need uprootal 

 or change, but only instruction, guidance, 

 self-control ; that the perfect city of God 

 is to begin here ; that the absolute condi- 

 tions of progress are freedom and knowl- 

 edge ; and that death is not the end, but 

 may be simply the fitting for " that other, 

 higher life, that we may trust surrounds us 

 everywhere now, and of which, even to-day, 

 unknowingly, we are a part." 



Transactions of the Medical Association 

 of Georgia. Thirty-second Annual Ses- 

 sion, 1881. Edited by Dr. A. Sibley 

 Campbell, M. D., Secretary. Augusta, 

 Georgia : Pp. 314. Price, 1 ; by mail, 

 $1.05. 



This volume includes the papers which 

 were read at the meeting of the association 

 whose proceedings it records ; which papers 

 pertain to appropriate subjects in medical 

 and surgical treatment, and are based upon 

 material drawn chiefly from cases in the 

 practice of their authors. The one, perhaps, 

 of most general interest is that of Dr. R. J. 

 Xunn, on " Female Diseases, the Result of 

 Errors in Habit and Hygiene during Child- 

 hood and Puberty." Illustrations are given 

 where the matter calls for them. The ne- 

 crology of members of the association who 

 died during the year is followed by a num- 

 ber of biographies of physicians previously 



