3 z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the deceased turned the color of his blanket, which was yellow. But, 

 in most allusions to it, we find it spoken of as the true plague, or the 

 pestilence in its worst and most destructive form. 



The solitude of the forest at this time must have been most solemn 

 and awe-inspiring. Of villages once populous, nothing remained but de- 

 caying huts, tenanted by birds and beasts, who had left white and bare 

 the human bones scattered around. The desolations of Athens, of 

 Constantinople, of Florence, and of London, were all unequalled by 

 the spectacle of depopulation that has been presented on our very 

 shores. 



The Indian plague becomes an interesting faet of medical science, 

 since it has been supposed that our climate has prophylactic virtues 

 which render the pestilence, that, after an interval of centuries, has 

 again and again ravaged Europe, impossible. We have strong reason 

 to hope that the progress of science has banished this swift minister 

 of death from the civilized races, and that even the modified forms of 

 the disease are gradually yielding and disappearing. Still it is by no 

 means certain that it may not come travelling from the East again, 

 and, if so, we are no more protected by territorial or climatic influ- 

 ences than the inhabitants of the Old World. At least, so we might 

 reasonably infer from this last fearful but interesting chapter of history. 



-+*+- 



THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY. 1 



By DOUGLAS A. SPAULDING. 



TO give readers some idea of the contents of a good book is very 

 often the most useful thing a reviewer can do. Unfortunately, 

 that course is not open to us in the present instance. The subject is 

 too vast. We cannot exhibit the grandeur; we can only in a few gen- 

 eral phrases express our admiration of the profound, all-embracing 

 philosophy of which the work before us is an instalment. The doc- 

 trine of evolution, when taken up by Mr. Spencer, was little more than 

 a crochet. He has made it the idea of the age. In its presence other 

 systems of philosophy are hushed ; they cease their strife, and become 

 its servants, while all the sciences do it homage. The place that the 

 doctrine of evolution has secured in the minds of those who think for 

 the educated public may be indicated by a few names taken just as 

 they occur. Mr. Darwin's works, the novels of George Eliot, Mr. 

 Tylor's " Primitive Culture," Dr. Bastian's " Beginnings of Life," and 

 Mr. Bagehot's " Physics and Politics," have hardly anything in com- 



1 " The Principles of Psychology." In two volumes. By Herbert Spencer. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. 



