DISCOVERY 



165 



a whole Comedv, behold the action, apprehend the jests, 

 and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof." Had 

 he had such a collaborator as M. Cornillier, these remark- 

 able comedies might have been secured for posterity, and 

 without, we think, exposing their author to any very 

 severe reproach of mental disease. 



On the other hand there are indications — slight, it is 

 true — of possible psychological abnormalities in the 

 medium. The extreme readiness with which she passed 

 into a state of deep hypnosis is a condition that is almost 

 always found where there is a considerable dissociation of 

 personality, and it is also to be noted that although she 

 was eighteen she had " the air of a child of fifteen," and 

 it is as a " cliild " that the author always refers to her. 



It is interesting and perhaps significant that the chief 

 spirit who appeared, the venerable old man, soon came to 

 fill for the medium the role of an ideal father ; he was 

 protective and affectionate and he gave useful advice 

 about the practical details of her daily life ; she became 

 very attached to him, and he seems almost to have 

 replaced her real father, who was an alcoholic and a hope- 

 less ne'er-do-well. The data given in the book arc 

 naturally not sufficient, nor of a nature, to provide a 

 psychological explanation adequate to account for the 

 very remarkable results recorded, but it is to be hoped 

 that some day the spirituahstic phenomena iriay be 

 thoroughly sifted and, when all results attributable to 

 deception and unconscious expression have been excluded . 

 we mav perhaps look for some valuable addition to our 

 knowledge in the residuum that remains. 



F. A. H. 



MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS 

 Mr. J. M. Keynes has written a sequel to his Economic 

 Consequences of the Peace. His new work, A Revision of 

 the Treaty (Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 7s. bd.), advocates the 

 following proposals for the economic settlement of 

 Europe ; " (i) Great Britain, and if possible America too, 

 to cancel all the debts owing them from the governments 

 of Europe, and to waive their claims to any share of 

 German reparation ; (2) Germany to pay 1,260 million 

 gold marks (^63,000,000 gold) per annum for thirty years. 

 and to hold available a lump sum of 1,000 million gold 

 marks for assistance to Poland and Austria ; (3) this 

 annual payment to be assigned in the shares 1,080 million 

 gold marks to France and iSo million to Belgium." Other 

 books lately published and dealing with international 

 problems are The New World, by Dr. Isaiah Bowman, 

 Director of the American Geographical Society of New 

 York (G. C. Harrap & Co., Ltd., 21s.), who has compiled 

 a vast amount of information about the world's post-war 

 political geography, and an admirably lucid and scholarly 

 account of Foreign Governments at Work, by Mr. Herman 

 Finer (Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 

 2s. td.), in which a valuable chapter is devoted to Ger- 

 many's new constitution. 



The centenary of Pasteur's birth takes place in Decem- 

 ber of tliis year. We recommend those interested in the 

 great scientist's work to read the new biography trans- 

 lated from the French of M. Descour, Pasteur and His 



Work (T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., 15s.). The impression which 

 it, and indeed any biography of this pioneer, leaves 

 upon the reader's mind is the orderly and progressive way 

 in which everv field of experiment which he entered led 

 him on to another. After extensive studies of cr^'Stallo- 

 sraphy, Pasteur became a professof at Lille, " where the 

 ;nanufacture of alcohol from beetroot was one of the chief 

 industries of the locality." The leading chemists of the 

 day believed that the fermentation which produced this 

 .ilcohol was entirely due to chemical action. Pasteur's 

 work on crvstallography made him sceptical of this belief, 

 and in endeavouring to prove its error " he discovered 

 the laws of fermentation and recognised the real nature 

 of ferments." Thence he was led on to the discover^' of 

 anaerobes and to a " complete explanation of the disso- 

 lution of organic matter." Work followed on the origin 

 of ferments, which was fo\md of great help in meeting 

 the epidemics that were then ruining sericulturists and 

 wliich resulted in remarkable discoveries in human 

 pathology. He " studied successively, or simultaneously, 

 anthrax, the vibrion-septique, the microbes of osteo- 

 myehtis and puerperal infection, chicken-cholera." It 

 was work on the microbe of this last disease which pro- 

 moted his most famous scientific triumph — vaccination. 



Books of exploration and travel never cease to appear 

 in great numbers. There is such little distinction about 

 many of them that we welcome two, widely divergent 

 in subject, that have lately appeared. The first is written 

 by a well-known Alsatian theologist, musician, and doctor. 

 Professor Albert Schweitzer, who gave up his professor- 

 ship at Strasbourg to do medical work in Equatorial 

 Africa in the valley of the Ogowe River, which flows into 

 the Gulf of Guinea. His account of his experiences 

 amongst the natives and of the good and bad effects of 

 Western civilisation upon them give one food for thought, 

 and we intend reviewing his book, On the Edge of the 

 Primeval Forest (A. & C. Black, Ltd,., 6s.). at some length 

 in an early subsequent issue. This remark also applies 

 to Stefansson's The Friendly Arctic (Macmillan & Co., 

 Ltd., 30S.). Stefansson led the Canadian Government's 

 Arctic Expedition, 1913-1S. Despite the daring of his 

 adventures, he makes a striking case for the North as a 

 " countn,- to be used and lived in just like the rest of the 

 world. " 



From time to time we receive astounding pamphlets on 

 Evolutive Education from the " Los Angeles Co-operative 

 Information Center for Evolutive Education." The 

 latest pamphlet tells us of various new sciences, two of 

 wliich are described as follows : ' ' Embryogenetics is 

 expressive of Mind, impulses and reason, and thus of the 

 functional Principle. Ethereogenetics is expressive of 

 Soul, emotions and intuition, and thus of the interacting 

 Principle. It becomes necessary to advance such Super- 

 sciences to the underlying neuro-motor, nervo-motor, 

 muscular-motor and movement-motor Combustion-pro- 

 cesses of different nature and importance. Internal 

 Combustion is considered triune ; physical combustive, 

 embryonal combustive and galvanic combustive." And 

 so on ad lib. Evidently Charles Chaplin is not the 

 only humorist who lives in Los Angeles. 



