December 17, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



885 



not be introduced afterward as the gift of 

 either the nervous system or of the system of 

 presentations. 



No wonder, then, that when, in Book III., 

 the same general theory is applied to the pro- 

 found and difficult problems oilered by such a 

 conception as that of the human self, we come 

 almost immediately upon the following state- 

 ment (p. 475 and note) : " We are bound thus 

 to assvime that all animals which experience a 

 stream of presentations must have selves not 

 fundamentally dissimilar from human selves." 

 We refuse to recognize any such obligation. 

 And this because we do not find that any 

 semblance of a real self, human or otherwise, 

 can be constructed by any system of presenta- 

 tions, no matter how manifold or skilfully 

 compounded. 



The book closes with discussions of the 

 problems of moral responsibility and immor- 

 tality. This seems to us the most interesting 

 and suggestive part of the entire treatise. 

 But the general theory is carried, in the at- 

 tempt at a solution of these problems, to its 

 consistent logical result. What appears to the 

 self as free will, even when it culminates in 

 choice, is but the triumph of the stronger over 

 the weaker group of presentations. Character 

 is the general fact that such, rather than other 

 presentations, are accustomed to triumph in 

 the conflict for realization of presentations in 

 the successive fields of consciousness ; its basis 

 is laid in an inherited neururgic system. The 

 empirical ego and the self, being a series of 

 presentation compounds, can not, of course, 

 reasonably maintain even the hope of an im- 

 mortal life. In these important particulars, 

 Mr. Marshall's views resemble more closely the 

 Buddhistic doctrine of Kharma than those of 

 western writers generally, when uninfluenced 

 by oriental philosophy. 



George Trumbull Ladd 



some new chemical books 

 An Elementary Treatise on Qualitative Chem- 

 ical Analysis. By J. F. Sellers, Professor 

 of Chemistry, Mercer University, Georgia. 

 Revised edition. Boston, Ginn & Co. 

 The revised edition of Professor Sellers's 



manual is a very good book. The author bases 

 analytic reactions on the dissociation theory, 

 and introduces a number of questions, answers 

 and examples, showing the student in a very 

 helpful way just how this theory explains so 

 many phenomena met in analysis. 



A Manual of Qualitative Chemical Analysis. 

 By J. F. McGregory, Professor of Chem- 

 istry and Mineralogy in Colgate University. 

 Revised edition. Boston, Ginn & Co. 

 The revised edition of Professor McGreg- 

 ory's manual is also a good, thorough, well- 

 written book. The author does not think it 

 advisable to introduce the dissociation theory 

 at this stage, and prefers old well-tried meth- 

 ods of separation. Many teachers agree with 

 him. 



These two manuals — each excellent — are ex- 

 amples of radically different methods of teach- 

 ing analysis. A few years ago an occasional 

 book appeared written more or less (generally 

 less) on physical-chemical lines. Now, as a 

 matter of fact the reverse is true. Within 

 the last few years some excellent methods of 

 separation have been devised by Noyes and his 

 co-workers and by others. The conservative 

 manual, rejecting new theories and clinging 

 to the old methods of analysis, is slowly dis- 

 appearing. The same tendency is even more 

 noticeable in elementary text-books of chem- 

 istry; the next three books we have under 

 consideration are text -books, and while each is 

 markedly different from the others all have the 

 common factor of explaining the action of 

 acids on bases and many other phenomena, by 

 the dissociation theory. 



Elementary Modern Chemistry. By Wilhelm 

 OsTWALD, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry 

 in the University of Leipzig, and Harry 

 W. Morse, Instructor in Physics in Har- 

 vard University. Boston, Ginn & Co. 

 Ostwald's little book is probably intended 

 for schools; he touches only the leading facts 

 in chemistry, omitting much that others 

 would retain, while introducing many phys- 

 ical experiments which others would omit. 

 Writers of quite elementary books generally 

 reduce theory to a minimum ; Ostwald makes 

 the proportion of theory much greater in this 



