LITERARY NOTICES. 



73 



repair. Efforts have been made to improve 

 the garden in all respects, but particularly 

 in those features which will make it attract- 

 ive and instructive to visitors, and render 

 possible in it the performance of substan- 

 tial and useful botanical work. The task 

 of mounting the Engelmann herbarium has 

 been nearly completed, and the collection is 

 temporarily deposited in a nearly fire-proof 

 building, awaiting the erection of a perma- 

 nent fire-proof house. Measures will then 

 be taken to form a museum. The record is 

 given of the school of horticulture, in which 

 provision is made for six pupils at once, and 

 the announcement of the Washington Uni- 

 versity School of Botany, to which the 

 garden furnishes a laboratory and working- 

 ground. Besides these accounts of routine 

 work, the volume gives the proceedings at 

 the first annual banquet to gardeners, flor- 

 ists, and nurserymen, given December 13, 

 1890, and, under the heading of " Scientific 

 Papers," a revision of the American species 

 of Epilobium occurring north of Mexico, by 

 Mr. Trelease, which is richly illustrated. 



The Soul of Man. An Investigation of 

 the Facts of Physiological and Ex- 

 perimental Psychology. By Dr. Paul 

 Carus. Chicago : Open Court Publish- 

 ing Co., 1890. Pp. 458. Price, $3. 



This work, containing one hundred and 

 fifty-two illustrations and diagrams, chiefly 

 of the nervous system in man and the lower 

 animals, aims to present some account of 

 The Philosophical Problem of Mind, The 

 Rise of Organized Life, the basic facts of 

 Brain Activity, some remarks upon The Im- 

 mortality of the Race and the Data of Prop- 

 agation, the results of some of The Inves- 

 tigations of Experimental Psychology, and 

 The Ethical and Religious Aspects of Soul- 

 life. According to Dr. Carus, the true con- 

 ception of the soul is as form. The idea of 

 form, he thinks, is not a mere speculative 

 theory, but of practical importance, espe- 

 cially as related to the problem of life after 

 death. The following passage will indicate 

 the author's position on this point : " Man's 

 soul was formed in the course of the evolu- 

 tion of the human race by the reactions upon 

 the external influences of the surrounding 

 world, and the present man is the outcome of 

 the entire activity of his ancestors. . . . 

 E'.'ery one of us began his life with the be- 



ginning of all life upon earth. We are the 

 generation in which the huge billow of hu- 

 man life now culminates. We, ourselves, 

 are that billow ; our real self, our spiritual 

 existence, will continue to progress in that 

 great wave. 



" Our existence after death will not mere- 

 ly be a dissolution into the All where all in- 

 dividual features of our spiritual existence 

 are destroyed. Our existence after death 

 will be a continuance of our individual spir- 

 ituality, a continuance of our thoughts and 

 ideals. As sure as the law of cause and 

 effect is true, so sure is the continuance of 

 soul-life even after the death of the individ- 

 ual, according to the law of the preservation 

 of form " (p. 423). 



The author regards " as not the least im- 

 portant feature of the book" its philo- 

 sophical foundation as corroborating "the 

 unitary conception of the world, commonly 

 called Monism, or, more exactly expressed, 

 Monistic Positivism." 



A Clinical Study of Diseases of the Kid- 

 neys has been published by Clifford Mitchell, 

 M. D. (Keener), in which the author insists on 

 the importance of thorough examination of 

 the urine for information in regard to not 

 only diseases of the kidneys but also many 

 other disorders, and in regard to the effects 

 of diet and treatment. One hundred pages 

 are devoted to the treatment of Bright's 

 disease, including the regulation of diet, air, 

 exercise, care of the skin, place of residence, 

 psychical influences, etc. In writing this 

 book the author has kept in view the needs 

 of American patients, and has shunned those 

 recommendations of English writers on diet 

 and hygiene which are not suited to the 

 climate of America. Although the title of 

 the book limits it to renal diseases, the au- 

 thor has deemed it necessary, in connection 

 with these, to pay attention also to those of 

 the entire urinary tract. 



Ezamcn Quimico y BacteriolSc/ico de las 

 Aguas Potables is a treatise on drinking- 

 water and its impurities by A. E. Salazar and 

 C. Newman, of the laboratory of the Naval 

 School at Valparaiso, Chili. It is the result 

 of studies of the waters of the city carried on 

 in the laboratory in 1887 and 1888, and is 

 published partly as a guide to those who wish 

 to make similar studies in other parts of the 



