LITERARY NOTICES. 



8 49 



heard an interesting paper from Mr. L. 

 O. Howard, of Washington, detailing 

 his plan of campaign against the mos- 

 quito. He employs kerosene spread as 

 a thin film over the breeding-places of 

 the insect; the oil remains efficacious 

 for two weeks, and, as a little of it 

 goes a long way, the cost is a mere 

 trifle. 



A capital lecture, fully illustrated, on 

 Hypnotism, was given to the Roches- 

 ter public by Prof. Joseph Jastrow, of 

 the University of Wisconsin. Mr. C. K. 

 Gilbert, of Washington, who discoursed 

 on Coon Butte and Theories of its Ori- 

 gin, did not prove so interesting. It 

 is perhaps in its endeavor in some meas- 

 ure to requite hospitality by its public 

 lectures that the management of the As- 

 sociation is most open to criticism. Had 

 popular elements in the Rochester pro- 

 gramme received more attention, it is 

 safe to say that the local accessions 

 would have exceeded the small total of 

 twenty-six. 



Madison, Wis., was chosen for the 

 next place of meeting, with Prof. Will- 

 iam Harkness as president. The vice- 

 presidents elected were: Section A, 

 Mathematics and Astronomy, Prof. 0. 

 L. Doolittle, South Bethlehem, Pa. ; B, 

 Physics, Prof. E. L. Nichols, Ithaca, 

 N. Y.; C, Chemistry, Prof. Edward 

 Hart, Easton, Pa.; D, Mechanical Sci- 

 ence and Engineering, Prof. S. W. Rob- 

 inson, Columbus, O.; E, Geology and 

 Geography, Prof. C. D. Walcott, Wash- 

 ington ; F, Zoology, Prof. H. F. Os- 

 born, New York ; G, Botany, Prof. 

 C. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb. ; H, An- 

 thropology, Prof. J. Owen Dorsey, Ta- 

 coma, Md. ; I, Economic Science, Prof. 

 William II. Brewer, New Haven, Conn. 

 The probable time of the next meet- 

 ing will be the week beginning August 

 19, 1893. 



The Geological Society of America 

 accepted an invitation to hold its winter 

 meeting at Ottawa, Canada, December 

 28th-3lst. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Essays upon some Controverted Questions' 

 By Thomas Henry Huxley, F. R. S. New 

 York: D. Appleton & Co. 1892. Pp. 



489. $2. 



Most of these essays were first printed 

 from time to time in the Nineteenth Century, 

 and afterward republished here in the Month- 

 ly. They were written, the author says, 

 without premeditated purpose or intentional 

 connection in reply to attacks upon doctrines 

 which he holds to be well founded; or in 

 refutation of allegations respecting matters 

 lying within the province of natural knowl- 

 edge which he believes to be erroneous. 

 The circumstances of their origin gave them 

 a polemical tone, the traces of which dis- 

 appeared from his heart after the heat of 

 controversy was over, but which he has al- 

 lowed to remain as being most just on the 

 whole to all, and especially as excusing the 

 occasional severities his antagonists may 

 have indulged in. The author's main thought 

 in the papers has been to show that the 

 events of the world and of life have been 

 and are the outcome of a regular sequence 

 according to fixed laws, and that the inter- 

 vention of a supernaturalism on which much 

 stress is laid by the " other side " is super- 

 fluous not necessary, and not proved; not 

 that he denies the existence of a supernat- 

 uralism, or of real powers and knowledge, 

 equivalent to those which the supematural- 

 ists predicate; for, "looking at the matter 

 from the most rigidly scientific point of view, 

 the assumption that amid the myriads of 

 worlds scattered through endless space there 

 can be no intelligence as much greater than 

 man's as his is greater than a black beetle's ; 

 no being endowed with powers of influencing 

 the course of Nature as much greater than 

 his as his is greater than a snail's, seems to 

 me not merely baseless, but impertinent. 

 Without stepping beyond the analogy of that 

 which is known, it is easy to people the cos- 

 mos with entities, in ascending scale, until 

 we reach something practically indistinguish- 

 able from omnipotence, omnipresence, and 

 omniscience. If our intelligence can in some 

 matters surely reproduce the past of thou- 

 sands of years ago, and anticipate the future 

 thousands of years hence, it is clearly within 

 the limits of possibility that some greater 



vol. xli. 62 



