758 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



seen that there are wars of opinion and 

 conflicts of ideas carried on in the in- 

 tellectual world which have at least an 

 equal interest with the narratives of 

 military campaigns and the records of 

 carnage on fields of hattle. 



It is but an act of justice to Dr. 

 Deems, of this city, to state that he re- 

 plied to the article of Mr. Boyd in the 

 June Monthly, entitled " Science and 

 the Logicians." Ve were compelled to 

 decline publishing the reply to cut off a 

 controversy that would have consumed 

 more space than we can allow to such 

 discussions. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Five Senses op Man. By Julius 

 Bernstein, Professor of Physiology in 

 the University of Halle. With Numer- 

 ous Illustrations. No. XXI. of the " In- 

 ternational Scientific Series." Pp. 304. 



The work intrusted to the accomplished 

 Professor of Physiology at Halle, Dr. Bern- 

 stein, has been admirably performed. Aware 

 of the importance of his undertaking, and 

 that his work would promptly reappear in 

 all civilized countries, the author has taken 

 his time, and produced a volume second to 

 none in the series to which it belongs, and 

 which will be valued as an able and perma- 

 nent contribution to physiological literature. 

 Many works have appeared upon this gen- 

 eral subject, of varied merit, but they have 

 generally been more anatomical than physi- 

 ological, and have dealt rather with the 

 mechanism of sensation than with its pro- 

 cesses and philosophy. Prof. Wilson's 

 book, published several years ago, was a 

 pleasant piece of rhetorical work, but whol- 

 ly inadequate as a scientific discussion of 

 tin' subject, even at that time. Dr. Bern- 

 stein has taken up the problem of the 

 senses of man from the latest point of view 

 reached by physiology and psychology, and, 

 while very full and clear in his description 

 of the instruments and apparatus of sensa- 

 tion, the strength of his book and its more 



especial claim to attention will be found in 

 the lucid analysis which he gives of what 

 may be called the psychical aspect of sense- 

 activity. He views the senses as the bio- 

 logical gateways where impressions from 

 the external world pass into the organism, 

 and are transformed, through the wonderful 

 endowments of the nervous system, into 

 consciousness in the mental sphere. This 

 is unquestionably the profoundest mystery 

 in the realm of life, and the ultimate how 

 of this transformation will probably forever 

 remain one of Nature's impenetrable secrets. 

 But all ultimate explanations are beyond 

 the grasp of science, which completes its 

 work when it has analyzed and established 

 the conditions of phenomena. No doubt it 

 would be interesting to solve the ultimate 

 problems of Nature, were such a thing pos- 

 sible to the human mind, but it is only of 

 importance to find out that which is capable 

 of being known. Even this field is inex- 

 haustible, and whatever explanation may be 

 reached we are never certain that a deeper 

 explanation is not still attainable. In this 

 matter of the nature and operation of the 

 senses great progress has recently been 

 made, and physics, chemistry, physiology, 

 histology, and psychology, have all con- 

 tributed their separate rays to the illumina- 

 tion of the subject. Many points are un- 

 settled, and many perplexities and obscuri- 

 ties remain to be cleared up ; but there has 

 still been an immense amount of efficient 

 and successful work of research that re- 

 quired to be digested by some master-hand 

 so as to be available for the common reader 

 who has no time to master elaborate scien- 

 tific treatises. It was not an easy thing to 

 find a man competent, interested, and will- 

 ing to undertake this, task ; but it fortu- 

 nately fell into the right hands. Dr. Bern- 

 stein has proved himself to be not only pos- 

 sessed of the requisite knowledge, but to be 

 an adept in the art of presenting it, as will 

 be seen by the extract from his work given 

 in the present number of the Monthly. 

 He had a reputaion as a clear and skillful 

 writer, which the present volume will en- 

 hance; while the translation does him jus- 

 tice, and presents his exposition in an at- 

 tractive English form. This volume is one 

 that might be well adopted as a text-book 

 for our schools. 





