5 6 4- 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pie as the nature of the subject will allow, 

 and sufficiently accurate for every-day use. 

 (Macmillan & Co. Price, $3.75.) 



Helen Gilbert Ecob makes a plea for 

 rational dress in The Well-dressed Woman, 

 which she designates as a study in the practi- 

 cal application to dress of the laws of Health, 

 Art, and Morals. The study is made in the 

 light of scientific investigations of the injuri- 

 ous effect of certain features of modern dress 

 upon the vital organs. Of these features the 

 tight corset is the worst and most formidable ; 

 and several chapters are devoted to the ex- 

 hibition of the ills it causes on the breathing, 

 the liver, heart, circulation of the blood, 

 stomach, and pelvic organs ; while the feet 

 and the proper fitting of the shoes are not 

 forgotten. Physical culture is commended 

 as authorized by the laws of our being, and 

 as teaching .muscular economy as well as 

 muscular development ; and " one great step 

 toward physical restoration will be taken 

 when women adopt a style of dress which 

 allows diaphragmatic breathing and muscu- 

 lar freedom." But " the failure of reform- 

 ers who have appealed only to the conscience 

 of women shows that correct dress will be 

 adopted only when it is made beautiful." 

 The latter part of the book is therefore de- 

 voted to showing how this may be done. 

 (Fowler and Wells Company, New York. 

 Price, $1.) 



The Bureau of Education has issued a 

 Circular of Information on Shorthand In- 

 struction and Practice, by Julius Ensign Rock- 

 well, which is in part a revision of a similar 

 circular issued in 1884, but with some new 

 matter. One important addition is a digest 

 of legal decisions in regard to shorthand 

 writers. The statistics of the new volume 

 are for the scholastic year ending June 30, 

 1890. We can not see why any part of the 

 taxes paid by the people of the United States 

 should have been used for publishing this 

 book. In justification of the outlay it is 

 stated in the letter submitting the publica- 

 tion to the Secretary of the Interior that of 

 the earlier circular " an edition of twenty 

 thousand was soon distributed, and was fol- 

 lowed by another of equal size, which was 

 exhausted in a few years, and for the past 

 three years I may say that there have been 

 more frequent calls for this circular than for 

 any other published by the Bureau of Edu- 



cation." Now the people, represented by 

 the Government, are supposed to publish 

 only such useful books as have no money in 

 them for private enterprise. But a book of 

 which over forty thousand gratis copies are 

 called for would doubtless sell to half that 

 number at a price covering cost, royalty to 

 the author, and a fair profit to the publish- 

 er. The persons to whom the book has 

 value would pay for the copies, and those 

 who have no interest in it would not be 

 forced to contribute to the cost of producing 

 it. In no case should a second or a revised 

 edition of an inexpensive book for which 

 there is a large demand be published by the 

 Government. 



Part XXIV of the Proceedings of the So- 

 ciety for Psychical Research (Paul, 3*. 6d.) 

 contains three papers. Mr. F. W. H. Myers 

 furnishes two chapters in continuation of his 

 series on The Subliminal Consciousness, the 

 first of which describes phenomena that 

 seem to indicate the existence of a double 

 personality, and the second brings together 

 a considerable number of cases of thought- 

 transference, under the head of Motor Au- 

 tomatism. The defense which the theoso- 

 phists have made against the adverse verdict 

 of the society upon their operations and 

 claims is reviewed by Dr. Richard Hodgson. 

 There is also a joint paper by A. T. Myers, 

 M. D., and F. W. H. Myers on Mind Cure, 

 Faith Cure, and the Miracles of Lourdes. 

 Their provisional judgment on this class of 

 cures is that no evidence of their being mi- 

 raculous has been furnished, but that they 

 produce, " by obscure but natural agencies, 

 eifects to which no definite limit can as yet 

 be assigned." Dr. Hodgson, 5 Boylston 

 Place, Boston, is the agent of the society in 

 America. 



Professors James Harkness and frank Mor- 

 ley have published a Treatise on the Theory of 

 Functions (Macmillan). The earlier chapters 

 are made complete in themselves by includ- 

 ing indispensable theories which are given by 

 some, but not all, recent writers on algebra, 

 trigonometry, the calculus, etc. The authors 

 have aimed at a full presentation of the 

 standard parts of the subject, with certain 

 exceptions. Thus the theory of real func- 

 tions of a real variable is given only so far as 

 they deem necessary as a basis for what fol- 

 lows. In the account of Abelian integrals 



