January 9, 1902] 



NA TURE 



these, and any other casual omissions, will ultimately be 

 dealt with in an appendix. 



The next family to be monographed, if the author 

 continues to follow the arrangement prefixed to his first 

 volume, will be the extensive family of Noctuid;e, which 

 alone may be expected to occupy several volumes. 



To the technical portion of the book we can scarcely 

 refer here in detail. It is a work that appeals mainly to 

 specialists, and only specialists will be able to appreciate 

 the time and labour involved in its production at their 

 full value. 



Psychology Normal ana Morbid. By C. A. Mercier, 

 M.B. Pp. xvi + 578. (London: Swan Sonnenschein 

 and Co., Ltd., 1901.) Price \-,s. 

 Mr. Mercier's "morbid" psychology is, as one would 

 naturally expect, the best part of his book, and almost as 

 good is the general discussion of the questions raised by 

 pleasure-pain and by emotion. The author dissents from 

 Prof. James's "back-wave" theory of emotion on much 

 the same grounds which have led to its rejection by Stout 

 and other contemporary psychologists, and, like Stout, 

 rightly insists that the dependence of emotion upon an 

 object beneficial or injurious to the organism must be the 

 starting-point of any theory of its nature. An interesting 

 feature of the discussion of pleasure-pain is the writer's 

 belief that there are no reproduced ideas of pleasure and 

 pain. The present reviewer is inclined to agree with 

 him, but the question is a difficult one. In his general 

 theorising Mr. Mercier is far too ready to accept 

 associationist views which are virtually dead in the 

 scientific psychology of to-day. This is specially true of 

 his account of perception, which is identical with 

 Spencer's, but quite at variance with the doctrine (which 

 pathological cases as well as the study of animals seem 

 to demand) that " ideas " are subsequent to precepts. 



The weakest part of the book is the long section on 

 logic, which is also, strictly speaking, irrelevant in a 

 treatise on psychology. The axiom formulated on p. 86 

 would justify the inference, "Solomon is the son of 

 David, and Uavid the son of Jesse, therefore Solomon is 

 the son of Jesse." The furious attack upon the mathe- 

 matical doctrine of probability also rests largely upon the 

 pure misconception that the statement of chances is put 

 forward by mathematicians as a measure of the actual 

 strength of our belief. A. E. T. 



A Record of the Prof,ress of the Zoological Society of 

 London during the Nineteenth Century. Edited by the 

 Secretary. Pp. 248. (London : Clowes and Sons, 

 Ltd., 1901.) 

 Under the auspices of a committee consisting of Mr. 

 Sclater, Dr. Smith Woodward, Prof. Howes and Mr. 

 Beddard, Mr. Scherren has prepared an excellent 

 account of the principal doings of the Zoological Society 

 since its foundation in 1826. The statements made are 

 partly financial and partly relate to the number of the 

 public who have availed themselves of the opportunity of 

 entering the gardens, as well as to the papers read before 

 the Society and to the lectures delivered in the gardens. It 

 is curious to note the gradual growth of the popularity of 

 the Zoological (Jardens as a place of resort, a growth 

 which is not altogether pari passu with the increasing 

 population of the country. Thus from 1872 to the pre- 

 sent day the number of visitors has always exceeded 

 600,000, and in two notable years, viz. 1876, when His 

 Majesty the King, then Prince of Wales, deposited the 

 animals brought back by him from India, and again in 

 1882, the year of the "Jumbo-mania," exceeded the usual 

 maximum by a hundred or two huntlred thousand. From 

 1864 to 1871 the numbers were 500,000 and upward, 

 while in earlier years the average number was not more 

 than 300,000 to 400,000, with the exception of the phe- 

 nomenal years 185 1 and 1863, when the admissions rose 



NO. 1680, VOL. 65] 



to more than 600,000. The earliest year in which these 

 numbers are recorded is 1S29, when only 98,605 persons 

 visited the gardens. The numbers then rose and again 

 fell during the 'forties. During these seventy-four years 

 there have been eight presidents, seven secretaries and 

 three vice-secretaries. The late Earl of Derby and the 

 late Sir William Flower held their office of president for 

 the longest period, viz. twenty years, and next in order 

 of tenure come the Prince Consort and the Marquess of 

 Tweeddale, who occupied the chair for ten years each. 

 This volume contains also a list of the present Fellows of 

 the Society and the charter and bye-laws. 



Leitfaden der Landschafts-Photographic. By Fritz 

 Loescher. Pp. v -f 162. (Berlin : Gustav Schmidt, 

 1901.) Price Mk. 4-50. 



With so qiany books in the English language on the 

 subject cf landscape photography, the amateur or pro- 

 fessional may not think it worth while to read any new 

 German work on the subject. This, however, should not 

 be the case, for from such a volume as the one under 

 notice it is possible, not only to obtain useful hints 

 familiar on the Continent and unknown here, but at the 

 same time to acquire facility in reading a foreign 

 language. 



The reader will certainly not be disappointed when he 

 spends a few hours in becoming acquainted with what 

 Herr Loescher has to say in these 162 pages, for although 

 the author goes, for the main part, over familiar ground, 

 yet here and there a subject or object is seen from a new 

 point of view. 



The book is logically divided into three parts, namely, 

 before the exposure, the exposure and after the exposure. 

 The first deals with the apparatus generally employed in 

 tripod and hand-camera photography, touching on the 

 use and determination of the speed of shutters, perspec- 

 tive as produced by the objective, various kinds of and 

 uses for photographic plates, and useful hints as regards 

 packing, &c., for those who make long tours with 

 cameras. 



The second portion is restricted to the choice of the 

 subject and the best way to photograph it, the author here 

 giving some valuable suggestions on the consideration 

 of distance, foreground, trees, sky, illumination and minoi 

 accessories to the picture. In the third and last portion 

 of the book the treatment and after treatment of the ex- 

 posed plate are described, the latter including all such 

 manipulations as intensifying, retouching, copying, 

 mounting, framing, enlarging and lantern-slide making. 



Accompanying the text are twenty-four autotype 

 reproductions from the author's own negatives. 



Inductive Sociology. By F. H. Giddings, Ph.D., LL.D., 

 Professor in Columbia University, New York. Pp. 

 xviii-f302. (London: Macmillanand Co., Ltd., 1901.) 

 Price '6s. 6d. net. 



The object of this book, in the words of the author, is 

 " to present a scheme of inductive method, a somewhat 

 detailed analysis and classification of social facts, and 

 a tentative formulation of the more obvious laws of social 

 activity." It is not in any way a mere discussion of the 

 possibilities of census taking, but an attempt to formu- 

 late a general scheme for the statistical, or quasi- 

 statistical, description of a nation or " society," using 

 materials from every available source. Thus the descrip- 

 tion covers the features of the area inhabited, the nature 

 and sources of the food supply, the density, multiplica- 

 tion, migration, &c., of the population, and its racial com- 

 position ; the political activity, cooperation for social 

 ends, and general organisation of the society ; its social 

 security and administration of justice ; wealth and its dis- 

 tribution ; education ; vitality and morality. The wor 

 is prefaced by four introductory chapters on the study of 

 sociology and the inductive methods to be used. 



