586 



NA TURE 



[April i8, 1901 



seem that the author has made out a case for the Board 

 of Agriculture taking over his farm and converting it 

 into a national object-lesson. It would be much cheaper, 

 and quite as useful, to have his prescriptions tested on a 

 practical scale in other parts of the country, and this the 

 Board of Agriculture and the agricultural colleges might 

 very well arrange to do. 



Friederich W'dhler, Ein Jugendbildniss in Briefen an 



Hermann von Meyer. Edited by Georg W. A. Kahl- 



baum. Pp.97. (Leipzig: J. A. Barth, 1900.) Price 



M. 2.40. 



These letters were found amongst the Hermann von 



Meyer's bequest to the Munich Academy of Science, and 



Prof. Kahlbaum has done well by making them accessible 



to a larger circle in their present form. 



Although A. W. V. Hofmann, in his charming work, 

 " Zur Erinnerung an Vorangegangene Freunde " (Braun- 

 schweig : Vieweg und Sohn, 1888), has given a history of 

 Wohler's life, these letters to the intimate friend of his 

 youth furnish a most interesting supplement to Hofmann's 

 narrative, and will.be particularly appreciated by the 

 surviving pupils and friends who enjoyed the privilege of 

 personal acquaintance with Wdhler, or the still larger 

 number who now or in the future take an interest in the 

 history of the early days of modern chemistry. This 

 publication comprises letters covering but a short period, 

 they are neither remarkable for style nor form, as they 

 were obviously only intended for the person to whom 

 they were addressed ; but they are, perhaps, all the more 

 valuable an this account, for they give a characteristic 

 and life-like record. Prof. Kahlbaum, whilst scrupulously 

 preserving the original text of the letters, has taken great 

 pains in collecting additional information respecting the 

 persons and places mentioned, and his copious footnotes 

 afford a most useful framework to the letters, which in 

 themselves give us so vivid a picture of the condition of 

 things under which the ardent and youthful enthusiast 

 pursued, with such eager devotion, his experiments and 

 studies, and thus prepared himself for the high position 

 he so soon attained amongst the leading chemists of his 

 age. H. M. 



Die Flora der Deutscheti Schutz-gebiete in der Siidsee. 

 Von. Prof. Dr. Karl Schumann und Dr. Karl Lauter- 

 bach. Pp. xvi -F 613, with 23 lithographic plates. 

 Large octavo. (Leipzig : Gebr. Borntraeger, 1901.) 

 Since the acquisition of Kaiser Wilhelmsland and the 

 neighbouring islands, German explorers and botanists 

 have been busy working out the flora of their new pos- 

 sessions ; and now, some seventeen years from the date 

 of annexation, all available information is made accessible 

 in the imposing volume under review. The immediate 

 cause of the issue of this Flora is that the series of 

 extensive collections that have recently come to hand 

 necessitated a considerable volume for their adequate 

 description. This, and the fact that the literature on the 

 flora is much scattered, has prompted the authors to 

 expand their undertaking so as to include the results of 

 earlier explorations. The area dealt with includes, be- 

 sides Kaiser Wilhelmsland (German New Guinea), the 

 adjacent Bismarck Archipelago, the more westerly of the 

 Solomon Islands, the Marshall, Caroline and Marianne 

 Islands. In all over 2200 species are enumerated, and 

 of these 400 are described for the first time, or have 

 become known only from the recent collections which 

 have led to the publication of this Flora. The species 

 are distributed as follows : — Algze, 222 ; Fungi and 

 Lichens, 226; Bryophytes, 200; Pteridophytes, 155: 

 Gymnosperms, 12 ; Monocotyledons, 392 ; Dicotyledons, 

 1000. The new forms are all fully described, whilst both 

 for these and for all the plants enumerated, admirably 

 full localities are given. Many of the new forms are of 

 considerable interest, and fourteen new genera are 

 created. There is a new species of Cycas occurring in 



NO. 1642, VOL. 63] 



the Bismarck Gebirge up to a height of 3000 ft., in habit 

 resembling an Australian Xanthorrhcea ; Guppy's inter- 

 esting Sararanga (Pandanaceae) is recorded with an 

 extended distribution ; there is a small Palm, Dammera, 

 allied to Licuala; whilst among Dicotyledons, Ficus 

 arbuscula^ a fig-tree 3 to 6 feet high, may be mentioned. 

 The new Hibiscus papuanus is spoken of as possessing 

 the most strikingly beautiful flowers in the whole region. 

 The additions to Rubiaceae are considerable, and include 

 Dolicholobium Gertrudis with curious dimorphic flowers. 

 A second species of Bothryocline (Compositas) consider- 

 ably extends the distribution of a genus previously 

 restricted to Africa. In Psychotria myrmecophila, from 

 the Bismarck Gebirge, we have a new type of ant-plant 

 with curious excavated trifid stipules, which appear to 

 harbour ants in their recesses ; its biological relations 

 will require to be worked out on the spot. 



The work contains, in addition to a brief introduction 

 by Prof. Schumann, an interesting history of the 

 botanical exploration of the whole region by Dr. Lauter- 

 bach, the enlightened director of the New Guinea 

 Company. Included in the volume are twenty-three 

 large plates, which adequately portray the characters of 

 the more important novelties. Certainly the authors are 

 to be congratulated upon their achievement, which is a 

 model of what such a work should be. It will prove a 

 boon to the local officials, colonists and missionaries, and 

 cannot help but stimulate further research. 



Fact and Fable in Psychology. By Joseph Jastrowij 

 Pp. xi -f 375. (Boston and New York : Houghton|| 

 Mifflin and Co., 1900.) 

 Of the eleven essays here reprinted the first seven are 

 devoted to a common subject, viz. the so-called "occult" 

 side of mental life and its significance for psychology. 

 Prof. Jastrow's attitude towards the whole problem isj 

 marked by a luminous common sense which is, unfor*^! 

 tunately, rarer even among serious psychologists than it! 

 should be. For scientific psychology the real question^J 

 as he never tires of pointing out, is not how to explain th« 

 marvels of spiritualism and allied arts, but how to accoun| 

 for the existence and wide diffusion of the state of mine 

 which can believe in them. It is for the expert in conr 

 juring tricks to show how the feats of the medium anc' 

 the miracle- worker are done ; the task of the psychologist 

 is to investigate the " Psychology of Deception." In- 

 cidentally, however, such papers as Prof. Jastrow's essays 

 on "The Psychology of Spiritualism" and "Hypnotismj 

 and its Antecedents," besides throwing light on the men- 

 tal condition of the deceived, are interesting as showingj 

 how more than one famous occultist has executed his 

 deceptions. The latter of the two papers just namedj 

 brings out clearly and well the enormous difference { 

 between the spirit and methods of science and of super- 

 stition in dealing with one and the same set of facts. In 

 the essay on " The Problems of Psychical Research " 

 Prof. Jastrow is perhaps on more debatable ground, 

 though his attitude seems to the present reviewer at least 

 the only scientific one. Briefly his position may be 

 summed up thus : the psychologist, as such, has no in- 

 terest in the facts of "telepathy" except in so far as they 

 throw light, as any facts about abnormal mental states 

 may, on the known laws of normal mental processes. 

 The " psychical researcher," on the other hand, thinks his 

 facts sufficient warrant for postulating types of mental 

 process of which normal life reveals nothing. Hence, 

 unlike the psychologist, he approaches the facts in a non- 

 scientific spirit. In a subsequent " Study of Involuntary [ 

 Movements," conclusive experimental proof is given of I 

 the dependence of " thought-reading " performances upon] 

 unconscious movements of the muscles of the "subject"! 

 towards the object on which attention is directed. Ofl 

 the remaining papers the most suggestive is perhaps that! 

 on " The Dreams of the Blind." 



