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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



should suppose he shrank from the bondage 

 of an engagement." 



Egotism and love of dominion were also 

 dominant traits of his character, which, along 

 with his love of independence, his almost 

 diseased sensitiveness, and his life-long ill 

 health, enable his biographer to give, in most 

 cases, a consistent view of his life. But, 

 when psychology breaks down, medical sci- 

 ence steps in and completes the rational ac- 

 count of this hitherto mysterious man. 



Readers of the " Monthly " will remem- 

 ber an article by Dr. Bucknill, in the April 

 number of last year, giving an account of 

 " Dean Swift's disease." We were there 

 told of Meniere's recent discovery of a defi- 

 nite form of disease labyrinthine vertigo, 

 which is shown by conclusive evidence to 

 have been the " cruel illness " to which 

 Swift so often alludes in his journal and 

 correspondence. From the age of twenty 

 he suffered from this disease, whose charac- 

 teristic symptoms are, that the patient is 

 suddenly seized with vertigo and a feeling 

 of nausea or positive sickness, with great 

 constitutional depression and faintuess. 



" This fact," says Stephen, " requires to 

 be remembered in every estimate of Swift's 

 character. His life was passed under a 

 Damocles's sword. . . . The references to 

 his sufferings are frequent in all his writ- 

 ings. It tormented him for days, weeks, 

 and months." Dr. Bucknill says that it was 

 not necessarily connected with the brain- 

 disease which ultimately came upon him, but 

 it accounts for the terrible anxiety always 

 in the background, and for much in Swift's 

 gloomy despondency. 



"We commend the book, as well for its in- 

 trinsic charm, as because it dispels a most 

 painful feeling in regard to one of the great- 

 est of men. 



Herbert Spencer on American Nervous- 

 ness : A Scientific Coincidence. By 

 George M. Beard, A. M., M. D. New 

 York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 17. 

 Price, 50 cents. 



The late Dr. Beard, as is well known, has 

 for some years made a professional study of 

 nervous diseases, and has published a book, 

 which was duly noticed in these pages, en- 

 titled "American Nervousness." As was 

 natural, writing and publishing much upon 



the subject, he came to regard himself as a 

 representative man who had made the field 

 very much his own; and, as was equally 

 natural, he grew somewhat sensitive in re- 

 gard to the recognition of his claims. 



The present pamphlet has its origin in 

 this state of feeling. It is put forth as a 

 reclamation of ideas which he regards as 

 belonging to himself, and which have been 

 used, he thinks, without due recognition of 

 this fact. He is of the opinion that Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer was to a very notable ex- 

 tent indebted to him, consciously or uncon- 

 sciously, for the distinctive ideas of his 

 speech at the late complimentary dinner in 

 New York. Dr. Beard does not accuse 

 Spencer of plagiarism ; indeed, he repeatedly 

 disclaims the accusation. Yet he declares 

 that there is a "coincidence," both of 

 thought and language, between what he had 

 published and Mr. Spencer's expressions, 

 that is so remarkable as to justify calling 

 public attention to it by printing the respec- 

 tive statements in parallel columns. There 

 is here, if not an insinuation of plagiarism, 

 at least an oblique imputation of literary 

 indebtedness not acknowledged. 



Dr. Beard is at the pains to say that his 

 action in this matter is not entirely of his 

 own motion ; he has been influenced in it 

 by others. He remarks : " I have not been 

 the first or only person to notice this paral- 

 lelism ; it has been the subject of independ- 

 ent comment by various individuals. The 

 frequency of these comments led me to 

 make the following detailed comparison." 

 Dr. Beard was here mislad, both by his 

 own bias and the bad judgment of his 

 friends. There is nothing even remarkable 

 in the similarity of passages quoted, letting 

 alone all questionable implications noth- 

 ing more than that vague "coincidence" 

 which is constantly arising when two think- 

 ers happen to be running upon the same 

 track. Dr. Beard puts his most pointed 

 illustration first. He quotes Mr. Spencer 

 as saying : " We have had somewhat too 

 much of the gospel of work. It is time to 

 preach the gospel of relaxation." He then 

 quotes from "American Nervousness," p. 

 313, his own expression, " The gospel of work 

 must make way for the gospel of rest," and 

 this he offers as a remarkable " coincidence." 

 But certainly no word is more stereo- 



