564 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



separated hy long intervals of time from the too 

 premature and intense stimulation of the brain in 

 school-children which causes these nervous diseases. 

 We meet with the preponderance of nervous dis- 

 eases in the refined and cultivated classes, where, 

 by premature and stimulating processes of educa- 

 tion, there has been forced an elaboration of brain- 

 structure, hastening the functional activity of the 

 brain, with no due regard to the law of evolutional 

 precedence. Normal growth and development will 

 give us healthy minds, while a structurally degraded 

 centric nervous system, or an altered quality of 

 blood, and secondary disturbance of nerve-function, 

 will antagonize healthy mental manifestation. If 

 we have want of sleep, a defective generation of 

 nerve-force, an unstable condition of the nerve- 

 centers, an incomplete development of any part 

 concerned in mental action, all of which Dr. Blan- 

 ford, of England, has ably shown to be causes of 

 mental disease, we can not expect healthy mental 

 function. Alcohol and opium are to-day responsi- 

 ble for much deterioration of brain. Dipsomania 

 and the opium-habit being on the increase among 

 Americans, there is a greatly increased nervousness 

 and an increasing inherited disposition to the differ- 

 ent neuroses; and the condition known as cerebral 

 hyperjemitt, an increase in the quantity of the blood 

 within the capillaries of the brain, or rather one 

 form of it, of vaso-motor origin, resulting from 

 overwork and mental strain, is greatly on the in- 

 crease. 



The Treatment of Wounds as based on 

 Evolutionary Laws. By C. Pitfield 

 Mitchell, Member of the Royal College 

 of Surgeons. New York : J. H. Vail & 

 Co. Pp. 29. Price, 50 cents. 



We recently called attention to the lec- 

 tures of Dr. Hughlings Jackson, before the 

 Royal College of Physicians in London, on 

 the bearings of the law of evolution upon 

 diseases of the nervous system, and in the 

 monograph before us the principle of evo- 

 lution is followed out in another field of medi- 

 cal practice. The author published a short 

 essay in 1882, in "The New York Medical 

 Journal," in which he " endeavored to find 

 in the Spencerian doctrine of evolution the 

 foundation of a satisfactory theory to guide 

 us in the treatment of such wounds as are 

 inflicted in the more common operations of 

 surgery." The present pamphlet is a fur- 

 ther extension of that view. We can only 

 say here that the case is very strongly pre- 

 sented, and will repay the attention of those 

 medical students of a philosophical turn of 

 mind who care for those deeper elucidations 

 and explanations of the living organism 

 which the development theory is now so suc- 

 cessfully affording. 



Truths and Untruths of Evolution. By 



John B. Drury, D. D. New York : A. 



D. F. Randolph & Co. Pp. 140. Price, 



SI. 



This volume consists of the Vedder 

 Lectures delivered in April, 1883, before 

 the students of the theological seminary 

 and Rutgers College at New Brunswick. 

 As might be expected, the author's interest 

 in the doctrine of evolution depends entirely 

 upon its relation to theology. He recognizes 

 that there is some truth in it, which consists 

 in that part that 'he can conform to the re- 

 quirements of his theology. He will take 

 evolution as a plausible hypothesis, not yet 

 established as a truth, and which may be a 

 help to scientific progress even if erroneous. 

 He will accept it under theistic interpreta- 

 tion, or as " many Christians hold in con- 

 junction with their faith in God and the 

 Bibl«." 



Dr. Drury examines the definitions of 

 evolution, and, finding them unsatisfactory, 

 remarks : " If I were to formulate a defini- 

 tion of evolution, such as the present con- 

 dition of our knowledge warrants, it would 

 be this : ' Evolution is that hypothesis 

 which supposes the process by which the 

 present diversity in nature has been reached 

 to have been one of progression ; the more 

 complex and better endowed proceeding in 

 accordance with laws imperfectly known out 

 of simpler and lower forms.' " 



Undoubtedly the laws will become more 

 perfectly known, and then this germ of a 

 definition will grow into greater complete- 

 ness. Dr. Drury's book, though, emanating 

 from a mind in a state of anxfous transi- 

 tion, and beset on all sides with difficulties, 

 is, nevertheless, readable and instructive. 



PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



Inebriate Automatism. By T. D. Crothers, 

 M. D. Hartford, Conn. Pp. 9. 



Filtrations of Saline Solutions through Sand. By 

 William Ripley Nichols. Boston. Pp. 12. 



Earthquake Measurement. By J. A. Ewing, 

 B. Sc Tokio, Japan : Toklo Daigaku. Pp. fl'2, 

 with Twenty-four Plates. 



The Eastern Pioneer of Western Civilization and 

 the Recognition her Efforts receive. By C. S. Eby, 

 Tokio, Japan. Pp. 52. 



The Sufficiency of Terrestrial Rotation for the 

 Deflection of Streams. By C. K. Gilbert. Pp. 5. 



Osteology of Ceryle Alcyon. By R. W. Shufeldt, 

 IT. 8. Army. Pp. 15, with Plate. 



The Subsidence Theory of Earthquakes. By 

 Samuel Kneeland. Boston. Pp. 8. 



