274 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Paleontology. New York Academy of Sciences. Pp. 

 118, with Plates. 



Williams, 8. T.. Detroit. Nickel Savings Stamp 

 System. Pp. S, with Photographs. 



Winslow, Arthur. Biennial Eeport of the State 

 Geologist of Missouri. Jefferson City. Pp. 53. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



School of Applied Ethics. An institution 

 with the above name is to hold its inaugu- 

 ral summer session, at some point on the 

 sea-shore near Boston, during six weeks be- 

 ginning early in July. The department of 

 economics will be in charge of Prof. H. C. 

 Adams, of the University of Michigan. He 

 will treat of the history of industrial society in 

 England and America ; President Andrews, 

 of Brown University, will discourse on the 

 evils of our industrial system, and discuss 

 proposed remedies. Prof. Taussig, of Har- 

 vard, will lecture on co-operation ; Hon. Car- 

 roll D. Wright, on factory legislation ; Prof. 

 J. B. Clark, of Smith College, on agrarian 

 questions ; Albert Shaw will describe the 

 housing of the poor in London and Paris, 

 and examine General Booth's " Way out." 

 Labor and industrial legislation in Europe 

 will be treated by Prof. E. J. James, of the 

 University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Henry D. 

 Lloyd, of Chicago, is expected to present 

 two chapters in the industrial history of the 

 United States. Prof. C. II. Toy, of Harvard, 

 will have charge of the department of re- 

 ligious history, for which he has enlisted a 

 corps of eminent scientific lecturers. Prof. 

 Felix Adler, of New York, who is the origi- 

 nator of the school, will preside over the 

 department of ethics. His lectures will treat 

 of personal and social ethics ; the ethics of 

 the family, the professions, politics, friend- 

 ship, and religious association. Criminal 

 and temperance legislation, and questions of 

 like importance, are to be presented by other 

 lecturers. The terms for the whole course 

 are but ten dollars. Detailed information 

 may be had from the dean, Prof. H. C. Ad- 

 ams, 1602 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 



The Floods of the Amazons. All the 



mighty tributaries of the Amazons west of 

 the Madeira and the Rio Negro, according 

 to Dr. P. Ehrenreich, present the same char- 

 acteristics viz., a course twisted into in- 

 numerable curvings, an uninterrupted navi- 

 gability over many hundreds of miles, and 



low banks inundated during a great part of 

 the year by high waters. The forest vegeta- 

 tion is remarkably luxuriant, and the India- 

 rubber plant grows in the utmost profusion. 

 Another characteristic feature of these rivers 

 is the continual change in their course. The 

 high water of the rainy season, exceeding 

 by from fifty to sixty-five feet the low level 

 of the dry season, under-washes the banks ; 

 the masses of soil thus detached are again 

 deposited at the next bends of the river, and 

 contribute in diverting the stream from its 

 bed. In this way a labyrinthine system of 

 canals arises, which accompanies the river 

 along its whole course the so-called iga- 

 rapes. The old bends of the river, half or 

 wholly shut off, form lagoons, which serve 

 as mighty reservoirs and draw off immense 

 quantities of water, so that the regime of 

 high waters commences in the lower basin 

 much later than in the upper part of the 

 river. At the head-waters of the river the 

 water-level is wholly dependent upon the 

 rainfall in the Cordilleras ; it rises and falls 

 very suddenly, so that it not unfrequently 

 happens that the steamer is obliged to be 

 set right about quickly on account of the 

 falling waters, if indeed it does not become 

 stranded for a long time. 



Hypnotism as a Therapeutic Agent. A 

 discussion of hypnotism as a therapeutic 

 agent was held at a recent meeting of the 

 Islington Medical Society, London, when Mr. 

 Pridgin Teale and other speakers described 

 some phenomena which they had witnessed. 

 They were followed by Sir Andrew Clark, 

 who characterized hypnotism as a " distor- 

 tion of the partial sight of truth," and pre- 

 dicted that, like mesmerism years ago, it 

 would have its day and follow into desue- 

 tude. Seeking for the physiological truth 

 contained in the subject, he looked for the 

 groundwork of many of the phenomena in the 

 relation of will to the body. The communi- 

 cation of the will with the body, he said, 

 brings about wonderful changes in it ; and, 

 independently of will, there is the exercise 

 of attention, of expectation, and of concen- 

 tration ; and we know that without the in- 

 troduction of any foreign agency that is to 

 say, the agency of any other person atten- 

 tion, expectation, and concentration of will 

 operating together bring about most remark- 



