120 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and Postulates of the Theory of Capillarity " (" American Journal of Science," 



1384; also, "Journal de Physique," 1885). 



42. " Criticism of Bassnett's Theory of the Sun " (" Overland Monthly," 1885). 



43. "The Evidence of the Senses " (" North American Review," 1885). 



44. "The Metric System " (" Overland Monthly," 1885). 



45. " Thought Transference " (ibid., 1885). 



46. "Barometer Exposure" ("Science," 1886). 



47. "Electrical Phenomena on a Mountain" (ibid., 1887). 



48. " Standing Tiptoe ; a Mechanical Problem " (ibid., 1887). 



49. "Vital Statistics, and the True Coefficient of Mortality, illustrated by 

 Cancer " (" Tenth Biennial Report of the State Board of Health of California," 

 1888). 



50. " The Decadence of Truthfulness " (1889). 



About fifty additional papers are omitted from this list. 



m m 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



THE MENTAL BIAS OF WITNESSES. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



IN the recent controversy between Prof. 

 Huxley and Dr. Wace, I was struck by 

 the fact that the latter does not seem to have 

 seen that the truth of the gospel narratives 

 is not so much a matter of literary criticism 

 as of psychological criticism. Though M. 

 Itenan prove, with stronger arguments than 

 Dr. Wace attributes to him, that the Gospel 

 of St. Mark was written by an eye-witness, 

 the doubt still remains as to whether the 

 eye-witness could be trusted. We all know 

 that even in this age, from which supersti- 

 tion is supposed to have been eliminated, 

 people can not always be trusted to give an 

 exact account of what they have seen ; and 

 how much more would this be likely to be 

 true of the imaginative Oriental ! " All the 

 vaporing," as Dr. Wace calls it, " about the 

 great critical operation of the present centu- 

 ry " in " Robert Elsmere " is in reference to 

 this point, the value of human testimony 

 not whether such a one wrote at such a time, 

 but just how much he was influenced, when 

 he did write, by his psychological tendencies, 

 and also by the traditions of which he, in 

 common with his fellow-men, was the heir. 

 When we find in the ancient religions of 

 India, Persia, and Egypt exactly the same 

 supernatural elements that we find in the 

 gospel stories, and sometimes even a resem- 

 blance in details, such as there is between 

 certain points in the life of Krishna and of 

 Christ, we can not help drawing the conclu- 

 sion that these supernaturalisms were, in 

 their essence, survivals from older religions, 

 and, in their attachment to the life of Christ, 

 were a proof of the psychological tendencies 

 of the people of that time toward supernatu- 



ralism ; but that such conclusions should in 

 any way affect the sincerity of Christ him- 

 self is perfectly absurd. Dr. Wace thinks 

 that, unless Christ were what he is claimed 

 by orthodox Christians to be, he would be 

 perjuring himself, for example, in the Lord's 

 Prayer, by addressing " our Father," which 

 must show that he was aware of a special 

 connection between God and himself; it nei- 

 ther shows a special connection nor hypoc- 

 risy on the part of Christ, but is a most 

 natural form of expression. Even in the 

 hymns of the " Rig-Veda," probably forming 

 the oldest book in the world, men worshiped 

 Dyaus-Pitar (Heaven-Father), so the concep- 

 tion of "our Father who art in heaven" 

 is far older than the time of Christ. Through 

 the unbiased study of comparative religion 

 a far better way to arrive at the truth than 

 the study of literary criticism the figure of 

 Christ is made to stand out as the greatest 

 revealer of absolute truth ; and the super- 

 natural elements which have been welded 

 into his gracious life, refined of trivialities 

 which attached to them in other religions, 

 are but the attempt of the human mind to 

 clothe in fitting outward symbol the truth 

 which springs from within. 



Helen A. Clarke. 

 Philadelphia. 



WHY NOT "COBBLE-UP" THE HUMAN 

 BODY? 



Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



The loud trumpeting of Dr. Brown-S6- 

 quard's alleged discovery of an " elixir of 

 life " suggests another still more rational 

 and practicable way of securing immortality, 

 accompanied by youth and beauty, which I am 

 amazed that no eminent surgeon has as yet 



