LITERARY NOTICES. 



277 



ness, and to left - handed exceptions, the 

 writing of ancient documents, and the posi- 

 tions of the figures in drawings, bear in the 

 same direction. Consideration of these evi- 

 dences precludes the idea of the origin of 

 right-handedness lying in any ancient custom, 

 or of its development and enforcement by 

 education into a nearly universal habit. The 

 conclusion is therefore inevitably forced on 

 the inquirer that the bias in which this law 

 originates must be traceable to some special- 

 ty of organic structure. This argument be- 

 comes stronger when we reflect that right or 

 left handedness is not limited to the hand, 

 but partially affects the lower limbs, as may 

 be seen in foot-ball, skating, the training of 

 opera-dancers, etc., so that eminent anat- 

 omists and physiologists have affirmed the 

 existence of a greater developmeat through- 

 out the whole right side of the body. The- 

 ories have been proposed assuming stronger 

 circulation, visceral predominance, or more 

 vigorous muscular growth on the right side, 

 but they do not seem to go to the root of the 

 matter ; while the theory of cerebral localiza- 

 tions on which many other human faculties 

 have been found to depend seems more am- 

 ple. It is understood that each hemisphere 

 of the brain affects the opposite side of the 

 body. In the majority of cases where the 

 hemispheres have been weighed separately, 

 the left hemisphere has been found heaviest. 

 This would give predominance to the right 

 Bide In the case of a single left-handed 

 patient, Dr. Wilson and an associated physi- 

 cian found the right hemisphere to weigh 

 the most. "No comprehensive indications 

 can be based on a single case, but its con- 

 firmatory value is unmistakable at this stage 

 of the inquiry; and thus far it sustains the 

 conditions previously arrived at." 



Laroratory Practice. A Series of Experi- 

 ments on the Fundamental Principles of 

 Chemistry. By Josiah Parsons Cooke, 

 LL. D. New York : D. Appleton k Co. 

 Pp. 193. Price, $1. 



Teachkrs who are striving against many 

 obstacles to teach science according to its 

 own proper method will be glad of the help 

 which the senior Professor of Chemistry in 

 Harvard College offers them through this 

 volume. It is a manual of directions for 

 experiments in which especial care is taken 

 that what the experiments teach shall not 



be lost sight of. " The student should be 

 given to understand clearly," says Prof. 

 Cooke in his introduction, " that experiments 

 performed mechanically, without intelli- 

 gence, or carelessly recorded, are worth ab- 

 solutely nothing, and should be so estimated 

 in any system of school or college credits." 

 This book is designed as a companion to The 

 New Chemistry, by the same author, which 

 contains no experiments for the student, as 

 the present volume contains no extended 

 statement of chemical principles. The prin- 

 ciple that each experiment illustrates, how- 

 ever, is indicated by a heading, and in many 

 cases the conclusions that the teacher should 

 enforce are explicitly stated. Notes, ques- 

 tions, and problems are also inserted after 

 each experiment or group of experiments, 

 in order to direct the student's attention 

 upon the essential features of the investiga- 

 tion in hand. Ample cautions accompany 

 all experiments that would be dangerous if 

 carelessly performed. The present issue of 

 this manual has the value of a revised edi- 

 tion, for the book is an enlargement of a 

 list of experiments printed in pamphlet form 

 that has been used for several years in Har- 

 vard College and in a number of fitting 

 schools. In order to make the expense less 

 of an obstacle to the performance of these 

 experiments by school classes, the author 

 has sought to adapt to the purposes of in- 

 struction common household utensils, such 

 as may be made by a tinsmith or found at 

 any house-furnishing store. Two figures of 

 a kerosene stove applied to laboratory pur- 

 poses are given, and many other definite 

 suggestions in regard to apparatus are fur- 

 nished. 



By the publication of Part IV, Dr. Michael 

 Foster, F. R. S., has completed the fifth edition 

 of his Text-book of Physiology (Macmillan, 

 $1.90). This part comprises the conclusion 

 of Book in, on the Central Nervous System 

 and its Instruments, and Book IV, on the Tis- 

 sues and Mechanisms of Reproduction. There 

 is also an Appendix on The Chemical Basis 

 of the Animal Body. In the portion of Book 

 III here presented the special senses and 

 the voice are briefly treated, and the account 

 of reproduction is also brief. A little more 

 than two hundred pages are given to the 

 topics here enumerated, bringing the whole 



