448 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



In his later years, however, it appeared to some of his readers 

 that his opinions with respect to these and other matters were 

 considerably modified. In his two books, for instance, on 

 Criminal Responsibility and on Crime and Criminals, as also 

 in other papers, Mercier's quasi-dualism in psychology, and his 

 Spencerian tendencies in biology seem to affect but little his 

 clear discussion of the action of the human " will " or his 

 apparently later opinions on questions of heredity. And to a 

 considerable extent his book on Causation and Belief gave 

 evidence of alteration in his philosophical opinions. 



Space allows but short mention of a few others of this 

 author's notable works. His Conduct and its Disorders is a 

 very original and valuable work, largely complementary to 

 those on psychology on the one hand, and on insanity on the 

 other. His book on Spiritualism and Sir Oliver Lodge is a full, 

 strictly scientific, and brilliant exposure of the fallacious 

 reasoning which leads many writers, on various subjects 

 (some of them specialists in certain branches of science), to 

 announce that actually scientific proof has been arrived at of 

 possible communication by unknown means between persons 

 separated by vast distances, and also between the living and 

 the dead. And his acute and stimulating work, entitled the 

 New Logic, though it has been variously judged by some pro- 

 fessional logicians, is, at the very least, a book which must be 

 welcomed by all men of science who may be interested in its 

 subject. His masterly criticism of Mill's Canons of Induction 

 has not been upset, nor, with the present writer's knowledge, 

 even attacked. 



Dr. Mercier possessed a very wide knowledge of many 

 departments of English literature, and a rarely retentive 

 memory. He wrote, without a trace of pedantry, undefiled 

 and trenchant English, and was a brilliant talker, singularly 

 interesting from the number of different subjects of which he 

 had command. Eager and powerful controversialist though he 

 was, both in speech and on paper, he was, none the less, the 

 most clubbable, kindly and generous of men. 



Philip Edward Bertrand Jourdain — Bom October 16, 1879 ; Died October 1, 

 1919 (A. E. Heath, M.A., University, Manchester) 



The death of Mr. P. E. B. Jourdain, M.A., is more than a 

 personal or even a national loss ; for his work occupies a 

 unique place in mathematical thought. Unable to travel, he 

 yet succeeded in making his influence felt in every part of the 

 world — not merely by his own original contributions to know- 

 ledge, but also by the help he so generously gave to others. 



