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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Morals of Evolution. By M. J. Sav- 

 age, author of " The Religion of Evolu- 

 tion." Boston: George H. Ellis. Pp. 

 191. Price, $1. 



We congratulate Mr. Savage, first of all, 

 on his standpoint in the treatment of moral 

 questions. He has at once taken' the ad- 

 vanced and unassailable ground that ethics 

 is properly a branch of science to be inves- 

 tigated like all other kinds of knowledge, 

 and that it forms no anomaly or sacred ex- 

 ception in relation to that common method 

 by which truth of all kinds is sought and es- 

 tablished. He is hampered by no restraints 

 of authority in inquiring into the grounds 

 and sanctions of right conduct, but discusses 

 problems in the full freedom of reason and 

 under the profound conviction that only in 

 this way can an authoritative and well-based 

 moral system ever be attained by man. And 

 Mr. Savage uses his freedom with the best 

 effect. He throws much light upon the prac- 

 tical aspects of the subject from the new 

 point of view, and shows the adequacy of 

 the canons of natural morality for guidance 

 in the conduct of life. He makes no claim 

 to work out a rigorous ethical scheme, but 

 contents himself with a popular exposition 

 of the principles of right and wrong action as 

 they are affected by the progress of knowl- 

 edge and those new views of the nature of 

 man which evolution has forced upon the at- 

 tention of the world. His style is familiar, 

 his illustrations apposite, and his reasoning 

 clear and forcible. His book will be found 

 helpful and instructive to many minds, and 

 the same thing may be said of the course of 

 liberal sermons which he has delivered from 

 the Unity pulpit in Boston, and which are 

 printed as a series of neat tracts. The con- 

 tents of the present volume at first took this 

 form of pulpit discourses ; and it is encour- 

 aging that at least one large congregation 

 has been found sufficiently intelligent and 

 liberal not only to tolerate, but to accept 

 and appreciate them. 



Brain and Mind; or, Mental Science 

 considered in accordance with the 

 Principles of Phrenology, and in Re- 

 lation to Modern Physiology. By 

 Henry S. Drayton, A. M., and James 

 McNeill. New York : S. R. Wells & Co. 

 1880. Pp. 334. Price, 1.50. 

 The authors here give a restatement of 



phrenology, with a great many cuts of heads, 



and a claim that the phrenological system 

 has been affiliated upon the principles of the 

 later physiology. It is generally considered 

 that the results of the most modern re- 

 searches into the nervous system contra- 

 vene phrenological doctrine as formerly ex- 

 pounded. How far they are capable of rec- 

 onciliation we will not undertake to say, but 

 if anybody is interested, and will get this 

 book, he will be in possession of perhaps 

 the latest attempt at harmonization. 



Sea-Sickness. By George M. Beaed, A. M., 

 M. D. New York : E. B. Treat & Co. 

 1880. Pp. 74. Price, 50 cents. 

 In this little work Dr. Beard has made a 

 careful study of this distressing malady, and 

 advances a theory of its nature, which, he 

 claims, harmonizes with all the facts, and a 

 mode of treatment which is effective. He 

 holds that it is a " functional disease of the 

 central nervous system, mainly of the brain, 

 but in some cases of the spinal cord also." 

 The symptoms, which he says have never 

 been before clearly described, he gives as 

 headache, backache, nausea without vomit- 

 ing, vomiting, pain in the eyes, constipa- 

 tion and diarrhoea, menstrual suppression, 

 hopelessness and mental depression, tem- 

 porary abnormal appetite, neuralgic pains, 

 chilliness with flashes of heat, sleepless- 

 ness, and nervous exhaustion. These symp- 

 toms are all due to the agitation of the 

 nervous system by the motion of the ship. 

 This view of the disease is quite at vari- 

 ance with the popular and even professional 

 one, which has regarded it as an affection 

 of the stomach and digestive apparatus. 

 Among the considerations brought forward 

 by Dr. Beard in support of his view is the 

 fact that the very young and the very old 

 are seldom or never troubled with it. " It is," 

 he says, " the disease of active cerebral life, 

 between fifteen and sixty-five," being in this 

 respect like sick - headache, which we now 

 know to be a nervous affection. In further 

 support of this theory, observation shows 

 the delicate, finely-organized, and nervous to 

 be more liable to sea-sickness than the strong 

 and phlegmatic. The treatment advocated 

 by Dr. Beard is based upon this view of the 

 nervous character of the disease. It con- 

 sists in giving such remedies before and 

 during the attack as will reduce the sensi- 

 tiveness of the central nervous system. He 



