310 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 766 



been omitted without serious loss, yet the re- 

 search student must examine it in detail, since 

 there occurs from time to time statements 

 such as " This ' heat test,' as it was called, in- 

 vented and perfected by the late Dr. Dupre, 

 chemical adviser to the home office, is in uni- 

 versal use to-day : it is a test for the purity of 

 guncotton, nitroglycerine and freshly made 

 explosives, and the home office has so far 

 found nothing to supersede it," for from 1896, 

 at least, when P. Gerald Sanford published his 

 " Nitro-Explosives " in London, to 1909, when 

 Dr. H. Kast published his " Anleitung zur 

 chemischen und physikalischen TJntersuchung 

 der Spreng- und Ziindstoffe " in Brunswick, 

 this stability test has been almost universally 

 styled the Abel heat test, and in view of such 

 governmental publications as that issued from 

 Woolwich, under date of February 11, 1874, it 

 has seemed proper to do so, but of course we 

 must recognize the primary right of the Eng- 

 lish people to determine questions of priority 

 between their own investigators. They should, 

 however, also resolve the conflicting claims to 

 invention and ownership of modem explosives 

 set forth in these pages by the representatives 

 of private establishments. 



As indicated above, the book is a disappoint- 

 ing one and most so in the matter of statistics, 

 for while the rise of an industry in its vari- 

 ous phases may be set forth chronologically, 

 the progress is to be measured quantitatively, 

 and yet one searches these pages in vain for 

 the quantities of the explosives of various 

 kinds produced at different periods. It is true 

 that the report of the Nobel's Explosives Com- 

 pany, Limited, shows that, starting in 1871 

 with a capital of £24,000, it accumulated re- 

 serves which were capitalized in 1900 at £800,- 

 000, in addition to which debentures to the 

 value of £500,000 were issued, and that, by 

 1909, it owned nine factories, the chief one 

 known as the Ardeer Factory, occupying 837 

 acres, containing 1,004 buildings, and employ- 

 ing 2,300 foremen and laborers, together with 

 35 chemists. Had the editor arranged a sys- 

 tem of reporting whereby the other establish- 

 ments made returns of items similar to these 

 just cited, some measure of progress would 

 have been presented. 



In one regard the book is a surprise, for 

 claims to preeminence are set forth in it in no 

 uncertain tones and it may be read with com- 

 fort by Americans who are restive under for- 

 eign criticism. In fact, in many regards, the 

 book suggests those which may be found in 

 hotels and on routes of travel frequented by 

 commercial travelers. 



Charles E. Muneoe 



Phrenology or the Doctrine of the Mental Phe- 

 nomena. By J. G. Spurzheim. Eevised edi- 

 tion from the second American edition, pub- 

 lished in Boston, 1833. With an introduc- 

 tion by Cyrus Elder. Philadelphia and 

 London, J. B. Lippincott and Company. 

 1908. 



This is a reprint, without change in the text, 

 except the omission of Spurzheim's reflections 

 upon the moral and religious constitution of 

 man, his voluminous Latin notes and a con- 

 troversy with George Combe, of the antiquated 

 " phrenology " which sought to define the in- 

 tellectual and affective powers of the mind, be 

 they perceptive or reflective, propensities or 

 sentiments, in terms of parts that can be dis- 

 tinguished by the external configuration of 

 the head. A frontispiece shows the familiar 

 charts of the head in three views, setting forth 

 with great thoroughness the location of each 

 and all of the powers of the mind. Fourteen 

 plates show portraits of men, bull-dogs and 

 horses, with " readings " of the various " or- 

 gans " indicating destructiveness, amativeness, 

 philoprogenitiveness, inhdbitiveness, henevo- 

 lence, ideality and so on. 



Phrenology has had its day, of even shorter 

 duration than alchemy or astrology, alike em- 

 piric and mystic, though it can not be denied 

 that Gall and Spurzheim, particularly the 

 former, did much to prepare the foundation 

 for the rising superstructure of proved facts 

 regarding the brain and mind. Even modem 

 attempts to revert to phrenology and phreno- 

 logic methods in localizing the passions and 

 emotions — that is, the subtle moral qualities 

 as distinguished from the intellect — such as 

 the pretentious work of Bernard Hollander 

 have failed signally to convince. 



