146 SOME NEW BOOKS [august 



succeeded in making, from a papyrus in her hothouse, a paper exactly resembling 

 the ancient parchments of the East, commands our highest admiration. But 

 what shall we say of a green satin banner-screen, embroidered with jasmine 

 sprays, of which the starry flowers were simulated by five otoliths of fishes, and 

 the leaves by rose-beetle wings? M. E. T. 



A STRANGE MIXTURE. 



The Philosophy of Memory ; and other Essays. By D. T. Smith, M.D., 

 Lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence in the University of Louisville. 

 8vo, pp. 203. Louisville, Ky. : John D. Morton and Co., 1899. 

 Price $1-25. 



This work is a collection of essays upon very diverse subjects. How wide is 

 the range a mention of the different titles will indicate. Besides the essay on 

 the Philosophy of Memory, which gives its name to the book, there are articles 

 on the Functions of the Fluid Wedge, the Birth of a Planet, and the Laws of 

 River Flow. 



The degree of mental equipment which the author possesses, and the measure 

 of intelligence which he brings to bear upon these subjects may, perhaps, be 

 illustrated in the following manner : — After some 70 pages of argument concern- 

 ing memory, the author says, "Every animal in every part, every leaf in its 

 pattern of shapeliness," etc., etc., etc., " is now built up and developed by the 

 forces of nature playing on it chiefly from the worlds beyond. It is the little 

 waves of ether, coming mostly from the sun, that build up the plant, and by 

 their ceaseless pelting drive every atom and every molecule to its place " (p. 78). 

 And " The tenderest feelings must have a higher origin . . . than that of the 

 familiar forms of force ; and nothing appears as their proximate source except 

 the fading undulations of light as they journey through infinite space — the 

 * sweet influences of the Pleiades ' " (p. 80). 



In the essay on the Birth of a Planet the author brings forward several, at 

 any rate plausible, arguments against the nebular theory ; but then he concludes, 

 " One might be tempted to suggest . . . that worlds have a season to bring 

 forth, as do animals and plants, and that in their proper times and seasons, fixed 

 in the infinite councils, they drop their ripened fruit of young worlds into space " 

 (p. 136). We are tempted to suggest, knowing the universal solicitude of the 

 British Parliament for all afflicted, that the new Mid wives Bill provides for the 

 case of a world in labour. We cannot afford to lose a world through the 

 ministrations even of a celestial Sairey Gamp. 



The essay on the Laws of River Flow suffers from association. The author 

 does not suggest "light from the Pleiades," or the "infinite councils" having 

 any controlling influence on river flow. He leaves a volume of water to its 

 own devices, and suggests that it moves, in flowing, " like two equal cylinders 

 revolving spirally on parallel axes in different directions, outward at the bottom, 

 upward at the margins, inward at the top, and downward through the middle." 



The movements of a body of water flowing along a channel are evidently 

 most complicated. Whether among other movements it has that which the 

 author suggests might be determined in the laboratory. It should not be 

 difficult to devise a series of experiments adequate for the end in view. 



S. S. B. 



AN ALPINE GUIDE. 



Hints and Notes for Travellers in the Alps. By the late John Ball. A 

 new edition by W. A. B. Coolidge. 12mo, 164 pp. London: 

 Longmans, Green & Co., 1899. Price 3s. 



The late Mr. John Ball's " Hints and Notes," forming the General Intro- 

 duction to his "Alpine Guide," is too well known and too highly appreciated 



