LITERARY NOTICES. 



419 



Mind is Matter ; or, the Substance of the 

 Soul. By William Hemstkeet. New 

 York : Fowler & Wells Co. Pp. 252. 



It is impossible to concur with this au- 

 thor even in his presentation of physical 

 truth, and this naturally hinders serious con- 

 sideration of his views upon such impalpable 

 matters as " astral fluid," " odic force," or 

 "the atomicity of God." His purpose is 

 high and earnest — to win men from grossly 

 material pursuits to a more spiritual life. 

 This he hopes may be realized through his 

 philosophy, that God and the soul are mate- 

 rial existences, " God with us — not as a con- 

 jecture nor metaphor, but a chemical fact — 

 is all there is of religion." He seeks to 

 establish his theory of soul as a substance 

 " by scientific methods " and with " facts 

 that we all agree about." The most perti- 

 nent of these " facts " prove to be the phe- 

 nomena of personal magnetism and coinci- 

 dences of thought, in regard to which there 

 is scarcely any agreement of opinion. Other 

 extraordinary assertions are — "force is a 

 thing in motion," " all matter is reducible 

 to electric atoms," "electricity or nerve-fluid 

 is the latest discovery in physiology," " every 

 unit of matter must have a sex." The 

 statement is also made that the amoebae do 

 not eat. The biological truth is that an 

 amoeba incloses any vagrant diatom by its 

 pseudopods, ingests it, and assimilates it as 

 actually as higher organisms digest their 

 special food. The amoebas are even par- 

 ticular in their diet and do not feed upon 

 starch or fat, so that there is no necessity 

 whatever for the " direct conversion of ex- 

 isting atomicity into living things." There is 

 no doubt, " if we could learn by science and 

 philosophy the simple, natural fact that our 

 personal existence is continuous, it would 

 entirely change human life and society," but, 

 speaking scientifically, the " if " exhibits as 

 yet no sign of katabolism. 



The History of Commerce in Europe. By 

 H. DeB. Gibbins. London and Xew York : 

 Macmillan & Co. Pp. 233. Price, 90 

 cents. 



This short work is believed by the author 

 to be the first attempt in English to present 

 a connected account of the progress and de- 

 velopment of commerce in Europe from an- 

 tiquity to the present time. In the space to 



which the book is limited only the main out- 

 hnes of the subject could be given, but they 

 are enough to convey an idea of the course 

 of development, and to furnish a sketch 

 which may at some future time be more ad- 

 equately filled up. The history is given under 

 the three heads of Ancient and Classical 

 Commerce, Mediaeval Commerce, and Modem 

 Commerce, the last including the history of 

 the commercial empires in the East and in the 

 West ; English commerce in three periods — 

 from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, 

 the industrial revolution in England and the 

 continental war, and modern English com- 

 merce ; France and Germany ; and Holland, 

 Russia, and the other States of Modern Eu- 

 rope. The commerce of the United States 

 does not properly come within the scope of 

 the work, except as in its relations to the 

 European nations. References are made in 

 several places to the trade with the colonies, 

 and to the later trade with the States. And, 

 under the heading. Recent Developments of 

 Commercial Policy, the " insane example of 

 America " and the " notorious McKinley tar- 

 iff" are mentioned as patterns which Euro- 

 pean countries seem inclined to follow ; and 

 we are warned that, although we can not un- 

 derstand it, both Europe and the United 

 States may in time discover the fact " that 

 freedom of trade and industry, even though it 

 may seem to encourage foreign competition, is 

 nevertheless of inestimable advantage to the 

 country that adopts it. . . . Meanwhile, both 

 in her colonial policy and in her system of 

 trade and industry, England, though she has 

 yet much to learn, is setting an example to 

 all European nations." 



Catalogue of Minerals and Synonyms. By 

 T. Egleston. New York : John Wiley 

 & Sons. Pp. 378. 



The author began a catalogue in 1867 for 

 use in arranging the collections of the School 

 of Mines of Columbia College, but was inter- 

 rupted in the work. When he came to re- 

 sume it, in 1885, he found that the progress 

 of the science had been so great that the 

 whole had to be done over again from the 

 beginning. The study of mineralogy is em- 

 barrassed by the great varieties of synonyms 

 that prevail for the same mineral, whether in 

 different languages or in the works of differ- 

 ent authors. The object of the present cat- 



