July 5, 1894J 



NA TURE 



219 



complete knowledge of the same, a certain diagnosis 

 is often impossible. For this reason we should have 

 liked to see a fuller account of the methods of examining 

 blood for the Plasmodium malayiic, for we feel certain 

 that the inexperienced would not succeed with the 

 meagre instructions given on page 109. The foot-note 

 on page 115 is not clear, if correct. For purposes of 

 simple diagnosis cover-glass preparations of blood 

 should be stained " with a solution of alcohol-soluble 

 eosine ('5 gramme in 100 cc. of 50 per cent, alcohol)," 

 and not " with a 50 per cent, alcoholic solution of eosine," 

 which would overstain everything. The summary of 

 the methods used for the histological examination of 

 the nervous system is perhaps the best part of the book. 

 So far our remarks apply to the work of von Kahlden. 

 Dr. Morley Fletcher as translator and editor has done 

 his share creditably. The editorial notes on the whole 

 will be found useful, and in future editions we would 

 suggest to raise them from their position at the foot of 

 the page, and incorporate them with the text, at the same 

 time adding others, so as to render the book entirely in 

 keeping with English histological teaching. The idea 

 of a book for the pathologist is so good that it should 

 stimulate the editor to perfect it, all the more as there is 

 no other work in the English language which serves 

 the same purpose. Dr. Sims Woodhead's well-known 

 manual will always remain a favourite book with the 

 ordinary student, but as a compendium of descriptive 

 morbid histology rather than a laboratory guide. 



A. A. Kanthack. 



NATAL ASTROLOGY. 

 A Treatise of Natal Astrology. By G. Wilde and J. 

 Dodson. To which is appended "The Soul and the 

 Stars." By A. G. Trench. (Halifax, Yorks : The 

 Occult Book Company, 1892.) 



THREE authors have therefore combined to produce 

 this work ; and to accept a brief, either on behalf of, 

 or in opposition to, a work exhibiting so much erudition, 

 is to undertake a heavy responsibility. The peculiarity 

 of your astrologer is that he is so heartily in earnest. 

 He, with a faith that no disaster can overturn or con- 

 tradiction disturb, believes his results are as certain and 

 as unquestionable as the astronomy on which he relies 

 for his calculations and configurations. He, worthy man, 

 asks to be taken seriously, and society as a rule declines 

 to accept his deductions and explanations otherwise than 

 as literary curiosities. But his day of triumph and reward 

 may be approaching, for in the preface it is distinctly 

 asserted that the production (and presumably the sale) 

 of this kind of literature is on the increase. This is 

 curious, if it be true. What have the promoters of 

 primary education and the machinery of the School 

 Board to say to the assertion that " the literature of 

 astrology is to-day more perused than that of any other 

 natural science ".^ The authors cannot be angry with 

 anyone for saying that such an assertion is as true as 

 that the positions of the planets and luminaries decide 

 the healtii of a person (p. 86). 



It is only honest to confess our inability to do justice 

 to the aims and ambitions of those who read the future 

 MO. 1288, VOL. 50] 



in the skies. We need an exponent on whom the mantle 

 of the late Prof. De Morgan has fallen. Of men who have 

 enjoyed a reputation for sound mathematical knowledge, 

 he is the only one, that occurs to us at the present moment, 

 who has found leisure or inducement to make a serious 

 study of the peculiar tenets of the astrologer. And after 

 an examination, which was no doubt thorough and ex- 

 haustive, it is believed that he decided that there was no 

 ground for the conclusions drawn by the students of 

 horoscopes, a decision to the truth of which many will 

 subscribe, who have not the same means and the same 

 knowledge to guide them. But we have been told, and 

 let us hasten to add the fact for the satisfaction of the 

 votaries to this " science,' that he did not pronounce this 

 sentence till after three months' study. If three months 

 were necessary to convince a De Morgan of the useless- 

 ness of further prosecution of this occult inquiry, it need 

 be no wonder that a much longer period, embracing pos- 

 sibly a whole life-time, is in some cases necessary before 

 a less cultivated and less gifted man can escape from the 

 ensnaring meshes of a fascinating delusion. The authors 

 of this book have not yet issued from the realms of dark- 

 ness and recognised the inquiry as a curious, it may be 

 an absorbing, but certainly a misleading study. Nor are 

 they likely to gain enlightenment, for their methods of 

 inquiry and examination are imperfect and deceptive. 

 Their process seems to consist in the examination of 

 many cases, and the exhibition of those which favour, or 

 seem to favour, the conclusions drawn from the horo- 

 scope. The story of Dryden's sons is served up for our 

 edification, and a tale is told of a gentleman who married 

 at the age of fifty and went to Italy, which it is thought 

 by the authors ought to carry conviction to the uncon- 

 verted. How many men in a year do marry at fifty and go 

 to Italy for a honeymoon .' But averages or coincidences 

 are alike disregarded by the student of horoscopes. 

 " The successes of a science," say they, " establish it, 

 while the failures cannot disprove it. The practice of 

 medicine is recognised because of its successes, and not 

 rejected because of its failures." This is a very curious 

 remark, and apparently an oversight by the authors. 

 What success or what failure can there be for medical 

 science when men's health and condition are regulated 

 by the position of the stars and planets 1 



But apart from the question of the usefulness or the 

 worth of astrology, about which the authors w-ax eloquent, 

 and with whom of course it is absolutely useless to 

 argue, they have produced a book not without interest. 

 Astrology is a study which has occupied men's minds 

 for many ages, much time and ingenuity have been 

 devoted to it, and the student of science or of human 

 nature might very well like to know what were the 

 methods by which these men worked, what was the 

 character or the measure of the success that supported 

 them in their labours, and urged them on, in days when 

 planetary ephemerides did not exist and astronomical 

 calculation must have been difficult. Kepler is perfectly 

 frank about his horoscopes — he worked them for his 

 daily bread, and despised himself for doing it ; but others 

 certainly looked for success, undaunted by disappoint- 

 ment and failure. "Horoscopes," and "cusps," and 

 •'houses," and "malefics," and what not, constitute a 

 jargon that many an one might like to have explained 



