SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



709 



control the individual. Dr. Waldstein shows 

 how this can be roused to activity by the 

 repetition of some impression, an unobserved 

 odor, a sound, or familiar surrounding, and 

 create in us an emotion, or mood, for which 

 we can not otherwise account. Likes and 

 dislikes, antipathies, "love at sight," even 

 religious feeling may be the offspring of 

 this subconscious self. In the earlier years of 

 life, before consciousness is fully developed, 

 it has its largest growth. It is important, 

 therefore, that the impressions received by 

 the young be carefully guarded. As nervous 

 disorders spring from the predominance of 

 this hidden nature, the inhibiting will and 

 judgment must be cultivated. " It is in every 

 case a grave risk to delegate the educational 

 and directing powers of a mother to any 

 stranger." Life in the country supplies the 

 best conditions for the child. To the sub- 

 conscious self it furnishes the impressions of 

 restfulness and singleness of purpose, while 

 the conscious intellectual activity is exercised 

 in learning to distinguish the differences in 

 natural objects. In the opinion of the au- 

 thor, the subconscious self is always the 

 basis of the aesthetic mood, and not only in 

 a receptive fashion, empowering us to enjoy 

 music, art, and poetry, but it is also respon- 

 sible for the creations of genius. He enters 

 here upon debatable ground, for the asser- 

 tion that "Shakespeare perceived without 

 effort great truths through the subconscious 

 self " is somewhat contradictory. Perception 

 involves classification and implies conscious- 

 ness. Several antitheses are brought forward 

 which are probably merely casual. That be 

 tween music and mental analysis suggested 

 by Charles Darwin is amply disproved by the 

 case of Chauvenet, distinguished mathema- 

 tician and musician ; also that " careful ob- 

 servers and those of analytical habits can 

 not abide perfumes " is equally doubtful. It 

 is certainly unscientific to connect two coex- 

 istent characteristics as cause and sequence 

 when no causative relation has been proved. 

 The author suggests that " heredity " is often 

 invoked to account for habits that are the 

 effects of early impressions or mimicry. This 

 is credible where there has been contact, 

 but not where a generation has intervened. 

 Neither are inherited tendencies "unalter- 

 able," "beyond our influence." If recog- 

 nized in time they may be modified even as 



the character of leaves may be changed by 

 varying food and temperature, or seedless 

 oranges produced by culture. 



This work,* forming a supplement to the 

 Journal of Morphology, vol. xii, No. 2, is the 

 outcome of ten years' study of protoplasmic 

 structure in the Protozoa, Metazoa, and higher 

 forms of life. The author made her obser- 

 vations upon living material although com- 

 paring it with various " preserved " forms, 

 and concludes that the original delicacy of 

 structure is altered by the reagents commonly 

 used. One object, therefore, of publishing 

 her researches is to induce the biologist to 

 observe the living substance as the naturalist 

 studies the habit of an organism. Acknowl- 

 edging her indebtedness to Biitschli's work, 

 she claims that the structure known by his 

 name is not the final constitution of the pro- 

 toplasmic foam, but only one of a graded 

 series yet undiscovered. She finds that there 

 is not only an external environment, but an 

 internal one which the living substance is 

 ever seeking to control, to render itself more 

 independent. As the result of her investiga- 

 tions, a new biological standpoint is offered, 

 that the true organism is the invisible ve- 

 sicular substance ; all powers, functions, and 

 organs are primarily for this, and only inci- 

 dentally for the animal and plant. Reflex 

 actions are noted as pointing toward this 

 view, in establishing the fact that activities 

 seemingly of the organism are products of 

 local function. Man thus finds himself but 

 a secondary affair, a mere phase of proto- 

 plasm, and it is unquestionably " difficult to 

 overcome the natural egotism of the unit " 

 and persuade him of this as truth without 

 many more facts than are brough t forward 

 in the present volume. The plea, however, 

 that the phenomena of life is best observed 

 in living protoplasm is well founded and sup- 

 ported by the circumstance that the chemical 

 properties of dead and living cells are unlike, 

 shown in a pamphlet by Prof. Oscar Loew.f 



The Eleventh Annual Report of the Com- 

 missioner of Labor, 1895-'96 (Washington, 

 Government Printing Office), comprises the 

 results of an investigation relative to the 



* The Living Substance, as such and as Organ- 

 ism. By Gwendolen Foulke Andrews. Boston : 

 Ginn & Co. Pp. 176. Price, $1.50. 



t Popular Science Monthly, vol. li, p. 711. 



