422 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ress during imprisonment, and their condi- 

 tions, socially and industrially, after liber- 

 ation. 



In a volume of 194 pages Mr. Nathan 

 Cree contributes a useful argument for Di- 

 rect Legislation by the People, which is the 

 title of his work. He does not claim that 

 such a form of government would be a 

 " remedy for all the political ills of society," 

 but he points to many errors in the existing 

 systems, and argues that at least an epoch of 

 direct legislation would tend to better and 

 more economic government. He says that 

 " popular power in this country stands in no 

 need of a vindication, either of its rightfulness 

 or practicability," but he adds that the 

 "power-holders do not govern directly, al- 

 though elected by a widely extended suffrage." 

 The author charges that the electoral bodies, 

 which are the ultimate power in the United 

 States, " delegate their powers to agents," and 

 he seeks to prove that a modification of the 

 present system combined with the primitive 

 direct government would not alone be better 

 and more interesting, but that the adoption 

 of it is within the natural order of modern 

 political evolution. (A. C. McClurg & Co., 

 Chicago. Price, 75 cents.) 



Bulletin No. 7 (Part I) of the Geological 

 and Natural History Survey, Minnesota, N. 

 H. Winchetl, State Geologist, consists of a 

 descriptive and popular account of the fea- 

 tures and habits of the Mammals of Min- 

 nesota, by C. L. HerricJc. In consequence 

 of the delay in the publication of the re- 

 ports, which were handed over in 1885, 

 this portion of the work contains only the 

 descriptive and popular portion of the sur- 

 vey. The scientific part, which embraces the 

 materials collected on the anatomy, espe- 

 cially the myology and osteology of the 

 Minnesota mammals, will form the second 

 part. Part I is clearly written, and will be 

 welcomed by all lovers of natural history. 

 It is illustrated with twenty-three figures and 

 seven plates, and is published by Harrison & 

 Smith, State Printers, Minneapolis. 



In a volume of 128 pages, Elizabeth E. 

 Evans offers to the public a peculiar theo- 

 logical discussion, which she describes as " a 

 condensed statement of the results of scien- 

 tific research and philosophical critcism, as 

 applied to the history of religion." In her 

 argument the authoress assails every Chris- 



tian belief, and in the preface she declares 

 that " all creeds are alike false." She scoffs 

 at the idea of a Trinity as accepted by all 

 Christians ; says that Jesus was a myth or 

 simply a pure man and a fanatic; and that 

 " the idea of a God originated from the fears 

 of man in the presence of the natural forces 

 which he is unable to control." She seems 

 to lean toward the doctrine of metempsycho- 

 sis ; and, while scoring the Roman Catholics 

 and Protestants, pays tribute to the purity of 

 intention of the Buddhist faith. (New York : 

 Commonwealth Company.) 



/. E. Usher, M. D., has given to the world 

 an interesting and useful treatise on Alcohol- 

 ism and its Treatment. Comparing the dis- 

 ease with insanity, he says that although the 

 latter is a deplorable thing in any form, " no 

 phase of mental breakdown is more far- 

 reaching in its influence " than alcoholism. 

 Tracing the disease through its " inherited " 

 and " acquired " forms, he brings his reader 

 to the fourth chapter, which is entitled Insan- 

 ity and Alcoholism. Here, in four pages, he 

 lays bare, with admirable skill, the awful re- 

 sultant danger to chronic drunkards from the 

 condition of insanity into which their over- 

 indulgence has plunged or may at any mo- 

 ment plunge them. 



The chapters on Alcoholic Trance and 

 Crime and Cerebral Automatism or Trance 

 are the most interesting parts of the work. 

 They are devoted to the examinations of cases 

 of murder, forgery, manslaughter, robbery? 

 etc., committed while the automatic action of 

 the brain continues from the action of al- 

 cohol. The last two chapters are devoted to 

 the best means of treating those suffering 

 from alcoholism, embracing a number of use- 

 ful prescriptions as well as a ringing denun- 

 ciation of all patent nostrums sold for this 

 purpose. (New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 

 1892. Pp. 151. Price, $1.25.) 



In a book of 184 pages, Mr. Arthur Wil- 

 ling, in order that a more easily comprehen- 

 sive idea of God whom he designates the 

 Unseen may be attained, says that his ob- 

 ject is to submit as a proposition that " it is 

 in higher space that we are to look for the 

 understanding of the unseen." He carries 

 us by a rather difficult but ingenious road 

 through what he supposes to be the first, 

 second, and third directions or dimensions of 

 space to the " fourth dimension "or " high- 



