4i8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it is itself the property and purpose and 

 highest issue of that system. The completest 

 type of organism has been reached through 

 countless ages of struggle and profuse de- 

 struction of the lower grades of creatures. 

 In those distant periods Mallock was only a 

 potentiality, and it has been a very expen- 

 sive process to bring him to pass. A few 

 years ago Mallock was but a globule of 

 English protoplasm, involving whatever life- 

 possibilities heredity had imparted to it. 

 He grew from a germ until his brain ac- 

 quired the power of thinking and asking 

 questions. He is a product of that long 

 process of life-unfolding that makes him 

 now competent to reason about the uni- 

 verse, and to deduce from it ideas of the 

 existence and attributes of God. Having 

 been brought forth in this way as a result 

 of cosmical operations to which no bounds 

 can be discovered either in time or space, 

 he looks about him and asks whether the 

 whole concern is not a blunder and a fizzle. 

 And the question he raises he is abundant- 

 ly ready to settle. We might perhaps ask 

 for some suspension of judgment on the 

 ground that, as the universe is in a state 

 of evolution, and has come up from a lower 

 or more worthless condition to a higher or 

 more worthy one, it will go on increasing 

 in worthiness so as finally to become toler- 

 able, if not valuable. Granting that Mal- 

 lock is no great result, possibly we might, 

 after a time, get something better than Mal- 

 lock. But he allows no postponement of 

 judgment. He has all the data of the case, 

 and is prepared with a final conclusion. 

 He argues the subject through three hun- 

 dred and twenty-three pages of his book, 

 and the upshot is a contingent answer. 

 Life is worth living, if you belong to a par- 

 ticular theological school ; if you belong to 

 any other theological school, or to no school 

 at all, it is not worth a pin. If you are a 

 Methodist, or a positivist, or a pagan, life 

 is not worth living, but if you are a Roman 

 Catholic, it is. When the mental evolution 

 of man lands him in the bosom of the Pa- 

 pal Church, the long process was well worth 

 while ; when it leaves him elsewhere, it is a 

 dead failure. We have here the last bril- 

 liant exploit of the theological mind in its 

 warfare with modern science. 



The logical implications of Mr. Mal- 



lock's position are somewhat curious. He 

 holds that there is no sound morality with- 

 out Christianity, and no Christianity without 

 a hell. When the heretic and the unbe- 

 liever and all beyond the pale of Mother 

 Church die, they sink into perdition, but 

 when the true Catholic dies he has a pass- 

 port to the happiness of heaven. Now, one 

 would think that this is decisive as to which 

 parties should most prize the continuance 

 of life. Life ought to be best worth living 

 to those who have most to lose when it ter- 

 minates, and least worth living to those 

 who have everything to gain when it comes 

 to an end. But great is the mystery of 

 logic to those who vacate their reason in 

 deference to infallible authority. 



Naval Hygiene : Human Health and the 



MEANS OF PREVENTING DISEASE. With 



Illustrative Incidents derived from Na- 

 val Experience. By Joseph Wilson, M. 

 D., Medical Director, U. S. N. Second 

 edition, with Colored Lithojiraphs. Phil- 

 adelphia : Lindsay & Blakiston. 8vo, pp. 

 274. 1879. Price, $3. 

 Wherever human beings live together 

 in considerable numbers for any length of 

 time, we expect the conditions of health will 

 soon become impaired unless constant and 

 well-directed efforts are made for their pro- 

 tection ; and, in spite of the popular notion 

 to the contrary, life on shipboard is no ex- 

 ception to the rule. Indeed, there are few 

 places where sanitary precautions are more 

 necessary, or where they may be applied 

 with better effect. 



The present work is intended as a help 

 in this direction, and contains much that, if 

 brought together in a compact form, would 

 be of service to medical officers and others 

 filling responsible positions in the naval and 

 mercantile marine. The author has chosen, 

 however, to include a great deal that has 

 only a remote relation to the subject, and 

 that here serves merely to encumber and 

 obscure what could otherwise be made prac- 

 tically available. Fifty pages, for example, 

 are given to zoology and botany, while the 

 immensely more important subjects of cloth- 

 ing, food and its preservation, the storage 

 and management of the water-supply, and 

 the cleansing and ventilation of the ship, are 

 compressed into an almost equal space ; and 

 much of this even is taken up with matter 



