LITERARY NOTICES. 



273 



bility is brought more directly under view in 

 Dr. T. R. Buckharn's paper on the " Right 

 and Wrong " Test in Insanity, in which it is 

 maintained that the subject may be irre- 

 sponsible, if acting under insane impulses, 

 even if he is aware that the deed he is com- 

 mitting is wrong. Mr. A. Wood Renton, 

 discussing the question of Testamentary Ca- 

 pacity in Mental Disease, collates what the 

 courts have defined as the law on that sub- 

 ject, maintains that the issue on that point 

 should be narrowed, when it arises, to the 

 question, "Was this man capable of making 

 this particular will at the time of its exe- 

 cution? " 



The Commonwealth is the name of a 

 monthly magazine of 144 pages, published 

 by the Commonwealth Publishing Company, 

 Denver, Col., which in June, 1889, had 

 reached its fourth number. Among several 

 stories and miscellaneous articles, we find 

 two or three relating to the early history 

 of Colorado. Of such are " Glimpses of 

 Early Days," describing the site and sur- 

 roundings of Denver in 1856, before there 

 was a town or house there; a relation of 

 remarkable trials and executions by extem- 

 porized courts that took place in the primi- 

 tive times of " thirty years ago " ; and an 

 account of the attempt to set up a Territory 

 of Jefferson in 1859, while the region of 

 Denver was still technically Arapahoe Coun- 

 ty, Kansas. The effect of a pungent paper, 

 suggesting condemnation of the awkward 

 attitudes into which religious newspapers 

 sometimes place themselves with regard to 

 politics, is neutralized by the editor's depre- 

 ciation of civil-service reform. 



Dr. T. D. Crothers, in a paper asking 

 Should Inebriates be punished by Death for 

 Crime ? and Dr. Joseph Parrish, in The Le- 

 gal Responsibility of Inebriates, argue against 

 treating inebriate criminals as if they were 

 responsible, and in favor of subjecting them 

 to the same kind of treatment as is given to 

 the insane. 



Six additional numbers of the Modern 

 Science Essayist, a monthly publication of 

 lectures and essays on topics immediately 

 related to evolution, invite attention. In 

 the first of the group, No. 1, on " The De- 

 scent of Man," Prof. Cope traces the descent 

 in lines not greatly different from those 



vol. xxxvi. 18 



drawn by Prof. Topinard in a recent num- 

 ber of the " Monthly," and insists that man is 

 still subject to the struggle for existence. In 

 " The Evolution of Mind," Dr. R. G. Ecclcs 

 argues that the elaborate mental functions 

 of man have been gradually developed from 

 the simplest beginnings. In " Evolution of 

 Society," Mr. James A. Skilton treats society 

 as an organism, capable of growth, of de- 

 crease as well as increase ; of vitality, of 

 disease as well as of health ; and of death 

 and decay as well as of life and growth all 

 by the operation of natural law. In " Evo- 

 lution of Theology," Mr. Z. Sidney Sampson 

 assumes that the tendency of the general 

 movement of the theistic conception is along 

 the same lines as in scientific thought, from 

 narrower to wider generalization ; following 

 the natural order of the evolution of the 

 mind, when free, from lower to higher ideals. 

 In "Evolution of Ethics," Mr. Lewis G. 

 Janes considers the individual as the chief 

 concern, and the individual character as the 

 supreme end, by the perfection of which 

 only society can be perfected. In the. 

 twelfth number of the series, the " Proofs ol 

 Evolution " are summed up by Mr. Nelson 

 C. Parshall as derivable from astronomy, ge- 

 ology, morphology, embryology, metamor- 

 phosis, rudimentary organs, geographical 

 distribution, discovered links, artificial breed- 

 ing, reversion, and mimicry. 



Alphonse Daudet's La Belle Nivernaise, 

 or the story of a river barge and its crew, 

 has been selected by Prof. James Boielle as 

 the " ideal " reading-book in French for the 

 junior classes of high schools and the higher 

 classes of preparatory schools. Having 

 been written for the author's ten-year-old 

 son, it is commended as a striking example 

 of " a great intellect coming down to the 

 level of a child of tender years, and telling 

 in short, simple, and pithy sentences, preg- 

 nant in meaning, the story of the loving 

 sympathy of the poor for their poorer and 

 more defenseless brethren. The notes give 

 clear definitions of idiomatic expressions, 

 with explanations of etymologies and allu- 

 sions. Ginn & Co. 



Three numbers 7, 8, 9 of the seventh 

 series of the Johns Hopkins University Stud- 

 ies in Historical and Political Science are 

 occupied with a paper on The River Towns 



