LITERARY NOTICES. 



753 



tigators, and assures the continuance of in- 

 defatigable research. Dr. Ferrier's inves- 

 tigations led him to certain important con- 

 clusions regarding the localization of func- 

 tions in the brain, which have been approved 

 by some physiologists, and criticised by 

 others, although all agree as to the value 

 of his skillful and well-directed experi- 

 ments. The chief object of this volume is 

 to present the author's views of the bear- 

 ing of his experiments, although it contains 

 a concise and well-digested account of the 

 functions of the cerebro-spinal system in 

 general, with the view more especially of 

 pointing out the mutual relations between 

 the higher and the lower nerve-centres. Dr. 

 Ferrier's work was elaborately reviewed 

 and in some respects adversely criticised 

 by Mr. George Henry Lewes in two num- 

 bers of Nature. We have no space to state 

 the points in issue, but will give his esti- 

 mate of the work as presented in the clos- 

 ing passage : 



"My space is exhausted, and I have not been 

 able to do more than criticise the main topic of 

 Dr. Ferrier's book and this not with the full- 

 ness which its importance demands. But if I 

 have shown grounds for regarding the hypothe- 

 sis of voluntary centres in the cortex as at any 

 rate far from proved, and in doing so have had 

 to adopt an antagonistic attitude throughout my 

 review, I should not be just to him, nor to my 

 own feelings of gratitude, if I did not, in con- 

 cluding, express a high sense of the value of his 

 work, full as it is of suggestions, and rich in 

 facts, which no counter-facts can set aside. It 

 will long remain a storehouse to which all stu- 

 dents must go for material. It may be the start- 

 ing-point of a new anatomy of the brain." 



Thk Carlyle Anthology. Selected and 

 arranged with the Author's Sanction. 

 By Edward Barrktt. New York : 

 Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 386. Price, $2. 



It was an excellent idea to get together 

 in one compact volume the best thoughts 

 of Carlyle, for there is a better and worse 

 in his writings, as well as in "those of all 

 other authors. He has produced a lot of 

 books in his day, unequal among them- 

 selves, but all containing, here and there, 

 brilliant and powerful passages, well de- 

 serving to be thus separated and brought 

 together for entertainment and edification 

 at odd hours. We suspect, indeed, that 

 Carlyle will be longer remembered for these 

 strokes of extraordinary insight than on ac- 

 vol. x. 48 



count of his elaborate works, in the great 

 bulk of which there is a prodigious amount 

 of wordiness a fault which he so hated in 

 other people. His works are mountainous, 

 brilliant with gilded peaks, 'but with great 

 stretches of valley between. It was not a 

 bad idea of Barrett's to truncate the upper 

 cones, and get the peaks all together in a 

 single book, and, if Carlyle approves of it, 

 as he says he does, and must do, all read- 

 ers will be pleased. 



New Encyclopedia of Chemistry. Chem- 

 istry, Theoretical, Practical, and Ana- 

 lytical, as applied to Arts and Manu- 

 factures. On the Basis of Dr. Mus- 

 pratt'sWork. Parts XV. to XX. Phil- 

 adelphia : Lippincott & Co. Price, 50 

 cents per number. 



We have already referred to this impor- 

 tant work in very commendatory terms, 

 and we may add that its character is well 

 sustained to the later issues. It is not so 

 much a dictionary of chemistry, in which 

 the science is pulverized into a great num- 

 ber of fragments, and each placed under 

 its alphabetical head, as a work in which 

 the great leading subjects of chemical 

 manufacture are taken up in succession, 

 and treated in elaborate and exhaustive es- 

 says. The work is hence in no sense a 

 rival of Watt's " Dictionary of Chemis- 

 try," which deals with the pure science 

 rather than its practical applications to art 

 and manufacture. The last installments 

 treat of the subjects of dyeing and calico- 

 printing, electro-metallurgy, enamels, ether, 

 explosives, preservation of food, fuel, and 

 gas. These topics are considered with full- 

 ness, and brought up to the latest results of 

 scientific investigation. 



Archology; or, the Science of Govern- 

 ment. By S. V. Blakeslee, Oakland, 

 California. New York and San Fran- 

 cisco : A. Roman & Co. Pp. 164. 

 Price $1.25. 



This is a very good little essay on gov- 

 ernment, but there is hardly enough sci- 

 ence in it to justify the author in inventing 

 a new term to describe it. He points out 

 the great strides of the modern physical sci- 

 ences, and contrasts with them the little 

 that has been done of this kind in the 

 fields of abstract thought, " especially in 

 the all-important science of government." 



