36 



NATURE 



[July 14, 19 10 



■ Idem cum nova quaedam de Hibernia consilia sibi 

 periculosa esse vidercntur, maliiit a duce suo, maluit 

 etiam ab amico suo, discedere quam insulas nostras 

 in uno coniunctas, quod ad sese attineret, sinere 

 divelli. Ipse inter senatores suffragiis electos partium 

 suarum ductor constitutus, socios suos quam fortiter 

 ducit, adversaries quam acriter oppugnat ! Etenim, 

 quamquam in rerum natura eos potissimum Acres 

 dilifcere dicitur, qui solis a radiis remoti in horto 

 secluso ab aperto caelo delicate defenduntur, ipse vitae 

 publicae solem atque pulverem numquam reformidat, 

 quolibet sub caelo ad dimicationem semper promptus, 

 temper paratus." 



But we cannot indulge in quotations which would 

 reach to infinity. In nearly six hundred specimens 

 of the art of Dr. Sandys there is hardly one from 

 which could not be quoted some felicitous phrase or 

 allusion. The letters written in the name of Cam- 

 bridge are as happv. Among these, specially interest- 

 ing are the letter to the American Cambridge and that 

 to Lord Morlev. The volume is one to which the 

 scholarly reader will recur again and again with 

 interest and admiration. R. Y. Tyrrell. 



PSYCBICAL RESEARCH. 

 Spirit and Matter before the Bar of Modern Science. 



By Dr. Isaac W. Heysinger. Pp. xxviii -1-433. 



(London : T. Werner Laurie, 1910.) Price 155. 



net. 

 ' I ■'HE venue of Dr. Heysinger 's elaborate though 

 -1- very readable work is the debatable land where 

 three rival powers meet — religion, philosophy, and 

 science. He shows very clearly that these three 

 explainers are to some extent merging ; the sharp 

 distinctions are vanishing. Religion is freeing itself 

 from rigid metaphysical dogmas, philosophy is becom- 

 ing more concrete, and science is becoming more 

 philosophical — is recognising that it cannot provide 

 ultimate explanations of anything. The hope of the 

 future is in a spiritual interpretation of the universe. 

 This interpretation is being forced upon us as the 

 only possible one by the recent advances in psychology 

 and psychical research. 



In dealing with spiritualism and occult phenomena 

 generally. Dr. Heysinger takes up a sane and scien- 

 tific position. He demolishes Hume's argument of 

 "impossibility," quoting Huxley in support of the 

 view that nothing can safely be called impossible out- 

 side mathematics and formal logic. As to miracles, 

 either ancient or modern, the really scientific man 

 will say : — " It is a question of evidence; I will make 

 no a priori decision, either for or against." The 

 evidence brought forward during the last twenty-five 

 years, by such men as Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William 

 Crookes, Prof. James, Dr. A. R. Wallace, F. W. H. 

 Myers, and other careful investigators, seems sufficient 

 to establish at least a prima facie case. Nevertheless, 

 as the author is careful to point out, it must not be 

 rashly conceded that all psychic phenomena are due 

 to the agency of disembodied spirits ; many of these 

 phenomena are probably the work of the subliminal 

 consciousness of some living person, or even of some 

 impersonal world-soul, as many philosophers have 

 thought; but, in many cases, the evidence seems 

 to be sufficient to justify at least a provisional hypo- 

 NO. 2124, VOL. 84] 



thesis that the minds of discarnate people are some- 

 how still producing effects in our material world, by 

 some such process, perhaps, as telepathy. The 

 phenomena are various in kind, from planchette- 

 writing to "apparitions"; but they point in the same 

 direction — to survival of human personality past the 

 wrench of bodily death, and consequently to a spiritual 

 interpretation of experience. 



The present reviewer is a member of the Society 

 for Psychical Jiesearch (though belonging to its 

 " sceptical wing "), and has devoted much time and 

 thought to the subject for many years. He is dubious 

 about "materialisations," and has lurid opinions 

 about "slate writing by spirits" (or, rather, about 

 the mediums who produce it), but personal experience 

 has convinced him that things do happen, sometimes, 

 which seem inexplicable by orthodox hypotheses. The 

 thing to do is to maintain a rigorously scientific atti- 

 tude, to observe the phenomena with all possible keen- 

 ness and precaution against fraud or illusion, and to 

 beware of drawing hasty inferences. Darwin col- 

 lected facts for many years before he "permitted him- 

 self to speculate" concerning explanations. It is per- 

 haps too much to expect that such caution should be 

 shown by psychical researchers, for the subject is more 

 intimately connected with our deepest interests ; but 

 it is nevertheless desirable. On the other hand, it can 

 truthfully be said that there is more foolishness shown 

 by the ignorant disbeliever who has never investigated 

 than by the man who has learnt a little and is apt 

 to believe too much. 



Dr. Heysinger's book may be warmly recommended. 

 Not the least of its good features is its tremendous 

 armoury of quotations — showing very wide reading — 

 from all the leading investigators. J. A. H. 



PSEUDOCYTOLOGY. 

 The Plant Cell, its Modifications and Vital Processes. 

 A Manual for Students. By H. .\. Haig. Pp. 

 xxx + 79g. (London: C. Grifiin and Co., Ltd., 

 1910.) Price 6s. net. 



WRITERS of elementary text-books might be 

 expected to take some trouble to ensure that 

 their statements are, at any rate as far as possible, 

 accurate and clear. It is a matter of common experi- 

 ence that failures in both respects are not uncommon, 

 and the author of the book before us has compiled a 

 volume which may have some merits, but they are 

 hardly those which the ordinary student will appreciate. 

 To start with, we may remark that some of the 

 illustrations and photographs are decidedly good, but 

 that the text strikes us as useful chiefly as an exercise 

 in criticism for more advanced students. What are 

 we to make, for instance, of such statements as the 

 following: — "The various forms of 'pits' occurring 

 in the walls (of tracheids) may possibly be of use in 

 sap conduction, but, as a matter of fact, these pits 

 function more as a means of exit for the protoplasm 

 after it has finished its work in the Xylem elements." 

 The confusion (on p. 115) between normal and homo- 

 typic nuclear division is absurd. Germination of 

 pollen, &c., is wrongly and very misleadingly described 

 as maturation. 



