LITERARY NOTICES. 



497 



Six centuries have not sufficed to 

 abate this ecclesiastical bigotry. There 

 is the Bisho]) of Montpellier claiming 

 for his Church the exclusive right to 

 teach mankind. He leaves no doubt as 

 to what sort of teaching it would be. 

 Nothing inconsistent with the dogmas 

 of the Church. None of your asti'on- 

 omy, or geology, or physiology, or oth- 

 er atheistic sciences. Let American 

 colleges and universities lay this thing 

 to heart ! Their turn may some day 

 come. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Nature of Light, with a General 

 Account of Physical Optics. By Dr. 

 Eugene Lommel, Professor of Physics 

 in the University of Erlangen. With 

 188 Illustrations. D. Appleton & Co. 

 No. XIX. "International Scientific Se- 

 ries." Pp. 356. 



A BOOK has long been wanted, making 

 clear to the popular mind the most in- 

 teresting and important piinciples of the 

 beautiful science of optics. The subject 

 is usually treated in a meagre way as a 

 subdivision in our text-books of physics, 

 and, even in the largest of these, the dis- 

 cussion of light is usually very incomplete. 

 But no subject is more worthy of separate 

 treatment, and Dr. Lommel has made a 

 volume well worthy of its position in the 

 " International Scientific Series." An in- 

 teresting portion of one of his chapters, 

 that dealing with the curious and wonderful 

 phenomena of fluorescence, is given in our 

 present number, furnishing a fair illustra- 

 tion of the clearness of the author's writing 

 and the freshness of his presentation. 



In an elaborate notice of the work, 

 which appeared in Nature^ it is remarked : 

 ' In the present treatise. Prof. Lommel 

 has given an admirable outline of the 

 nature of light and the laws of optics. 

 Unlike most other writers on this sub- 

 ject, the author has, we think wisely, post- 

 poned all reference to theories of the 

 nature of light, until the lawfe of reflec- 

 tion, refraction, and absorption, have been 

 clearly set before the reader. Then, in the 

 fifteenth chapter Prof. Lommel discusses 

 Fresnel's famous interference experiment, 

 VOL. VIII. 32 



and leads the reader to see that the undu- 

 latory theory is the only conclusion that 

 can be satisfactorily arrived at. A clear 

 exposition is now given of Huyghens's the- 

 ory, after which follow several chapters on 

 the diffraction and polarization of light- 

 bearing waves. The reader is thus led on- 

 ward much in the same way as the science 

 itself has unfolded, and this, we think, is 

 the surest and best way of teaching natural 

 knowledge." 



Mind : A Quarterly Review of Psychology 

 and Philosophy. No. I., January, 1876. 

 Pp. 156. Price $1.00, subscription $4.00 

 a year. Republished by D. Appleton 

 & Co., New York. 



We have here the promise of a periodi- 

 cal new in its plan, broad and important in 

 its scope, and very ably sustained. It rep- 

 resents the new departui'e in psychological 

 study, from the point of view taken by 

 Bain and the modern school; in fact, the 

 project of its establishment is largely due 

 to Prof. Bain himself, who will have an ac- 

 tive share in its management, although the 

 responsible editor is Prof. George Croom 

 Robertson, of University College, London. 

 The range and quality of this work will be 

 best gathered from the following passages 

 taken from the prospectus : 



" MIND will be an organ for the publication 

 of original researches, and a critical record of 

 the progress made in Psychology and Philoso- 

 phy. 



"Psychology, while drawing its fundamental 

 data from subjective consciousness, will be un- 

 derstood in the widest sense, as covering all 

 related lines of objective inquiry. Due promi- 

 nence will be given to the physiological investi- 

 gation of Nerve-structures. At the same time, 

 Language and all other natural expressions or 

 products of mind, Insanity and all other abnor- 

 mal mental phases, the Manners and Cnstoma 

 of Races as evincing their mental nature, mind 

 as exhibited in Animals generally much of 

 what is meant by Anthropology, and all that is 

 meant by Comparative Psychology will come 

 within the scope of the Review. 



"The practical application of psychological 

 theory to Education will receive the attention 

 it so urgently claims at the present time. 



"Beyond Psychology, account will be taken 

 of Logic, iEsthetics, and Ethics, the theory of 

 mental functions being naturally followed by the 

 doctrine of their regulation. 



" P'or the rest, MIND will be occupied with 

 general Philosophy. Even as a scientific jour- 

 nal, it cannot evade ultimate questions of tho 

 philosophical order, suggested as these are with 



