LITERARY NOTICES. 



2 73 



abundantly proving his position, and shows 

 very clearly that, so far from the working- 

 man profiting by protection, he is injured at 

 every turn. It is much to be hoped that the 

 essential contention of the book can be prop- 

 erly brought before the farmers and artisans 

 of the country while attention is so keenly 

 alive to the importance of tariff questions. 

 Tariff reformers will find ready to their hand 

 in its pages just the kind of material needed 

 to illustrate and enforce their positions, and 

 should make good use of it in the opportuni- 

 ties afforded by present political discussions. 



Fragments of Science. By John Tyndall. 

 In two volumes. New York: D. Ap- 

 pleton & Co., 1892. Pp. 452 each vol- 

 ume. 



The original volume under this title is- 

 sued some twenty years ago has gradually 

 grown in size by the addition of new papers 

 until it finally became so unwieldy as to 

 necessitate dividing it into two volumes. 

 Besides the matter in the previous edition 

 there are some fifteen new papers, mostly re- 

 lating to researches in molecular physics. 

 The present volume and the volume recently 

 issued under the title of New Fragments 

 contain, the publishers state in an introduc- 

 tory note, all of the occasional papers which 

 Prof. Tyndall cares to preserve in a perma- 

 nent form. The first of the present volumes 

 contains the papers that relate to the laws 

 and phenomena of matter solely ; while the 

 second, with the exception of the address 

 upon the electric light, deals with questions 

 which traverse the domain of mind as well 

 as of matter. This volume contains the cele- 

 brated Belfast address delivered before the 

 British Association at its Belfast meeting in 

 1874, as well as Prof. Tyndall's reply to va- 

 rious critics which he issued under the title 

 of An Apology. The volume contains also 

 the well-known address upon the Scientific 

 Use of the Imagination, and that upon Mat- 

 ter and Force, as well as his excursion into 

 fields considered by theologians especially 

 their own, in which he discusses miracles 

 and prayer in relation to natural laws. 



It is not necessary at this late day to say 

 anything in commendation of Prof. Tyndall's 

 exposition of science. He is read wherever 

 the English language is spoken, and comes 

 perhaps in closer intellectual and emotional 

 VOL. xxii. — 18 



contact with his readers than any other 

 scientific man of our time. This is due in 

 large measure to that transparent intellectual 

 honesty which makes him scorn to be self- 

 deceived or to take any lower aim than the 

 pursuit of truth, lead whither it will. There 

 is, moreover, an elevation of moral tone per- 

 vading all his speculations concerning that 

 unknown world into which we vainly peer, 

 which brings him into sympathetic contact 

 with all earnest seekers after truth, no mat- 

 ter how widely they differ in their conclu- 

 sions. Of the literary merit of the discourses 

 of Prof. Tyndall it is also needless to speak. 

 The purity and vigor of his diction have al- 

 ways charmed his readers as much as his 

 lucidity of thought, and he has long been 

 recognized as one of the masters of style. 

 Those who prize his writings will be glad to 

 have them in this last form, which in all 

 probability will prove to be a final one. 



Life in Motion, or Muscle and Nerve. By 



John Gray McKendrick. London anil 



Edinburgh : A. & C. Black, 1892. Pp. 

 200. Price, $1.50. 



This little book consists of a course of six 

 lectures delivered before a juvenile audience at 

 the Royal Institution, and is an excellent exam- 

 ple of what a popular exposition of a scientific 

 subject should be. Though addressed to 

 juveniles, the lectures can be read with in- 

 terest and profit by older folk who are not 

 specially informed on physiological subjects 

 and the methods and apparatus used by ex- 

 perimenters in studying the problems to which 

 they address themselves. 



The title Prof. McKendrick has given 

 to his course is not a very happy one, as it 

 does not indicate with any clearness the sub- 

 ject-matter of the lectures, which deal with 

 muscular movement. He uses in his dem- 

 onstrations the muscle of the frog which 

 correponds with that of the calf of the leg 

 in man. This he excites by means of an 

 electric current, and performs a number of 

 the striking and beautiful experiments de- 

 vised by physiological experimenters for the 

 study of the behavior of living matter. He 

 illustrates by experiment the lifting power 

 of a muscle when contracting ; the nature of 

 the movement that occurs when a muscle is 

 contracting ; shows graphically by means of 

 curves on smoked glass the times of contract- 



