LITERARY NOTICES. 



275 



popular history of this most ancient of na- 

 tions, in the light of the latest researches. 

 While we accept as valid the author's rea- 

 son for not including the science, art, and 

 literature, as well as the dynastic history — 

 that the space contemplated by the plan did 

 not admit of it — we hope that some one 

 will do as good work for those features, and 

 the popular life, too, of Egypt, as is done in 

 this work for its politics and foreign rela- 

 tions. The material for illustrating them is 

 abundant, and is lively, characteristic, hu- 

 man, and vastly fuller of interest than the 

 long list of unpronounceable names of un- 

 known kings, with their ascriptions of divine 

 qualities to themselves, of which a chronicle 

 of events must largely consist. 



History and Pathology of Vaccination. 

 By Edgar M. Crookshank, M. B. Phila- 

 delphia : P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 2 vols. 



The story of the introduction of inocula- 

 tion for the small-pox into England, and of 

 its replacement by vaccination through the la- 

 bors of Jenner, is fully told in these two fine 

 volumes. It is a record which is extremely 

 interesting and instructive to the lay reader, 

 besides being historically valuable to the phy- 

 sician. The practitioner in England, where 

 the work originated, will also find many of 

 its facts and figures available for a practi- 

 cal purpose for which there is slight occa- 

 sion in the United States, namely, for com- 

 bating prejudice against vaccination. The 

 first volume opens with a history of small- 

 pox inoculation in various European and 

 Asiatic countries and in England. Then 

 follow the traditions, current among the dai- 

 ry-maids in the last century, that persons 

 who had taken the cow-pox from the ani- 

 mals were proof against the small-pox ; and 

 evidence is given to show that Benjamin 

 Jesty, a farmer, purposely transferred the 

 disease from a cow to his wife and his two 

 children in 1774, thus anticipating Dr. Jen- 

 ner in vaccination by over twenty years. A 

 portrait of Jesty forms the frontispiece of 

 the volume, and a small portrait of his wife 

 is also given. An account of Jenner's life 

 and his work in this field forms a large part 

 of the volume, and contains extracts from 

 many of his letters and essays on the sub- 

 ject. Successive chapters deal with various 

 sources of vaccine lymph — namely, human 



small-pox, cattle - plague, sheep small-pox, 

 goat-pox, cow-pox, and " grease " in horses. 

 A brief account of the progress of vaccina- 

 tion jn England after the death of Jenner is 

 also given. The volume is illustrated with 

 many full-page colored plates. The second 

 volume consists of reprints of selected es- 

 says, beginning with the first edition of Jen- 

 ner's Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of 

 the Varioke Vaccina, published in 1798. It 

 contains also essays by Pearson, Woodville, 

 Loy, Bousquet, Ceely, and other physicians 

 prominent in the early history of vaccina- 

 tion, and several others by Jenner. The 

 author contributes to this volume a paper 

 describing an Outbreak of Cow-pox near Crick- 

 lade (Wiltshire) in 1887. 



The Psychology of Attention. By Th. 

 Ribot. Authorized Translation. Chi- 

 cago : The Open Court Publishing Com- 

 pany. Pp. 121. Price, 75 cents. 



This treatise is a clear and interesting 

 study of the mechanism of the mental atti- 

 tude that is necessary to any advance in skill 

 or knowledge. It is founded upon the ex- 

 periments and investigations of recent years, 

 which have examined and defined the bodily 

 manifestations accompanying the intellectual 

 state. Heretofore many psychologists have 

 been content to view attention from the sub- 

 jective side only, and consequently have not 

 given any comprehensible account of its gen- 

 esis. M. Ribot uses the reverse method. He 

 finds that there are two forms of attention : 

 the primitive or natural, which he names 

 spontaneous, exhibited by animals with only 

 a few developed senses, and by man until 

 training or force steps in ; second, the arti- 

 ficial or voluntary, a cultivated product 

 whose effects psychologists have dissected. 

 Both forms are dependent upon emotional 

 states, and the mechanism of each is motory, 

 mainly in the form of inhibition or "arrest- 

 ed motion." The physical manifestations, 

 the vaso-motor phenomena, the respiratory 

 changes, the bodily expressions, and the 

 cerebral effects, are the wheel-work of atten- 

 tion ; and the patient investigation of these 

 by Darwin, Riccardi, Galton, Maudsley, Prey- 

 er, and Fer6, has made an explanation of its 

 mechanism possible. 



In considering the cerebral phenomena 

 the old problem is encountered — whether 



