September 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGK ♦ 



341 



understand. The world Las been familiar with such 

 atrocities from time immemorial. But haphazard murder, 

 or attempts to murder, with no other motive but the idiotic 

 notion that by injuring the innocent those hated as 

 imagined wrong-doers may be territied — this is what, until 

 the last few years, tlie world had not seen ; nor had even 

 the liveliest imagination conceived such horrors. 



* * * 



Ameuicans, however, are i-ather amused, if not over well 

 pleased, at the way in which the iniquities of recently- 

 arrived ruffians — aliens and foreigners — are quietly attri- 

 buted in Europe to American democracy. In America 

 the)' are attributed, perhaps as absurdly (but perhaps not), 

 to the degrading influences of the monarchi&il system. To 

 attribute them to American institutions is as preposterous 

 as it would be to attribute political or municipal wrong- 

 doings in America to democracy. This last mistake, by the 

 way, incredible though it may seem, has lieen made by 

 certain of the more old-fashioned folk in the old countrv. 



JUfai'fiusi, 



Microhes, Fenncnls, and Moulds. By E, L. Tbouessart. 

 International ScientiBc Series. (London : Kegan Paul, 

 Trench k Co, 1886.) — The subject of M, Trouessart's 

 volume possesses a peculiar interest at a time when we 

 are assured that the researches of Pasteur have resulted in 

 the discovery of a prophylactic against tLat most dread 

 disease hydrophobia ; and when, consequently, the words 

 " microbe," " bacteria," ic, are often heard from the lips of 

 those whose ideas of what they are talking about are of the 

 very vaguest. The task set himself by our author is to give 

 the previously uninstructed reader clear and definite infor- 

 mation as to the nature .and functions of those microssopic 

 cryptogamous plants which are believed by a large and 

 increasing number of pathologists to be, if not the primary 

 causes, at all events the invariable concomitants of specific 

 forms of disease. This he does with all that clearness and 

 charm of style which distinguish popular French scientific 

 literature, and which suffer nothing in the very excellent 

 rendering of his anonymous translator. Following an 

 introduction, in which the nature .and general chai'acteristics 

 of microbes and protista are set forth, come nine chapters : — 

 The first, on Parasitic Fungi and Moulds ; the second, on 

 Ferments and Artificial Fermentations ; the third, on 

 Microbes, strictly so called, or Bacteria ; the fourth, on the 

 Microbes of the Diseases of Domestic Animals; the fifth, on 

 the Microbes of Human Diseases ; the sixth, on Protection 

 against Microbes ; the seventh, on Laboratory Research and 

 Culture of Microbes ; the eighth, on the Polymorphism of 

 Microbes ; while the ninth summarises the arguments of 

 those which precede it. and compares the microbian theory 

 with others advanced to explain the origin of contagious 

 diseases. Eight appendices further elucidate points in the 

 text ol" the first five chapters. If we felt disposed to cavil 

 at M. Trouessart's treatment of his subject, we might be 

 temptad to refer to the manner in which he speaks of things 

 as irrefragably established which, to put it in the most favour- 

 able way, are, at least, at present only subjudici. To take a 

 single example : he talks (on p. 197 et scq.) of the " comma 

 bacillus " as the undoubted proximate cause of cholera, an 

 assertion on the truth of which the very gravest doubt has 

 been thrown by the results of recent investigation and dis- 

 cussion. And so in other cases, he appears to us to make 

 allegations which, if not unwarrantable, are at all events 

 unwarranted in the existing imperfect sUite of our know- 



ledge. It is notable, too, that practically the only English- 

 man who gets any credit for the results of his investigations 

 in microbial pathology is Sir Joseph Lister, to whose 

 antiseptic system of surgery, however, he does full justice. 

 But this does not prevent his book being at once readable 

 and valuable to those desirous of obtaining a competent 

 general knowledge of its subject, and it may be t^afely 

 recommended to all who wish to do so. 



Echellus : Consideratioiis upon Culture iri Enghmd, by 

 (tEOUGE Whetexall (T. Fisher Unwin), is, without doubt, 

 a most original book, written by a man so far out of joint 

 with the age he lives in that he finds something to con- 

 demn in everything in which it triumphs most proudly, 

 from the telegraph, telephone, and railway to the sewing- 

 machine and the School Board, which he, with justice, 

 stigmatLses as " a machine for thrusting poor b.aby-wits of 

 every shape and size through a regulation sieve." He rightly 

 indicates the evils of the examination fever now so rife, and 

 suggests that parents like to see the certificate or diploma 

 as a sort of guarantee that their money has been properly 

 expended on education by " a system which fills the iVesh 

 minds of children with surfeit and flatulence of disorderly 

 fact." Tho'Jgh few would be willing to follow Mr.Whetenall, 

 in that the majority would consider his wish to return to a 

 simpler, more aixadian life — abolishing the outcome of re- 

 cent years in the way of machinery, gas, staam locomotion, 

 cheap literature, ttc. — unpractical, his book is by no means 

 despicable, inasmuch as it sei'ves to point out many evils 

 overlooked in the general complacency of the age, and the 

 truth of many of his contentions is beyond question. At a 

 time when the milk-and-water style of composition prevails 

 so extensively as at present the force and vigovu- of Mr. 

 Whetenall's writing and the eccentricity of his language, 

 which retui-ns to a purer epoch of English literature, render 

 his book welcome to the jaded critic. 



Mechanics and Faith : a Study of Spiritual Truth in 

 Nature. By Charles Talbot Porter. (New York and 

 London: G. P.Putnam's Sons. 18SG.) — It has been jocularly 

 said that the first Mr. Smith has a tremendous deal to answer 

 for. Upon a cognate principle, we cannot but feel that 

 Professor Drummond incurred a considerable amount of 

 responsibility by publishing his " Natural Law in the 

 Spiritual World ; " giving rise, as that work has done, to 

 such numerous imitations, of a more or less weak and 

 v^-ishy- washy character. Beyond the exhibition of an earnest 

 and i-everent spirit, we are sorry to say that we can find 

 nothing to praise in this latest attempt at reconciliation. 

 Mr. Porter's style is as dreary and monotonous as his tone 

 is dogmatic, which is saying much. If from the weary 

 mass of iteration and reiteration of which the book consists 

 we endeavour to make a precis of his argument, the diffi- 

 culty is found to be great indeed. Perhaps it may convey 

 some idea of its character, however, if we say that the 

 human mind is (according to Porter) incapable per se of 

 apprehending or discovering any physical truth ; that 

 mechanical inventors have only proceeded tentatively, and 

 succeeded after failures more or less numerous ; and that 

 hence all so-called mechanical discoveries are really revela- 

 tions ! He further denies the existence of reason as a 

 special intellectu.al faculty, and at the same time claims 

 blind obedience to the teaching of the Bible. How without 

 the prior exercise of reason anyone is to satisfy himself 

 that the Bible must demand such obedience, he fails to 

 inform us. If by carefully weighing the best available 

 evidence a man convinces himself that the Bible is actually 

 the Word of (iod, then at his peril he neglects to listen to 

 it. If, however, he accepts it simply on account of certain 

 assertions contained in it, witliout the employment of his 



