Apeil 17, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



603 



views of invisible objects. Two photographic 

 shadow-pictures, say of a mouse, are obtained 

 from two different points of view and stereo- 

 scopically combined into a solid phantom- 

 picture, showing the skeleton, etc., in actual 

 relief. This is simply a modification, by the use 

 of the Rontgen rays, of Mach's old and well- 

 known method of getting solid views of con- 

 cealed anatomical structures, etc. Prof. Mach 

 has also a few remarks to make on the physical 

 character of the X-rays. The same subject is 

 treated at length in a second article by Prof. 

 Hermann Schubert, who gives an account of the 

 methods successfully employed in the Hamburg 

 State Laboratory. Two actinograms, one of a 

 plaice with shells in its intestines, and one of a 

 lady's hand, showing the position of a fragment 

 of a needle, accompany this article. 



In the third article Edward Atkinson discus- 

 ses ' The Philosophy of Money. ' A Polish 

 philosopher, W. Lutoslawski, of Kazan, gives 

 a brief sketch of the philosophy of Polish in- 

 dividualism. 



The article ' From Animal to Man,' by Prof. 

 Joseph Le Conte, is a contribution to compar- 

 ative psychology. Considering successively 

 speech, art, thought, imagination, conscious- 

 ness and will. Prof. Le Conte tries to put his 

 finger as nearly as he can ' on the dividing 

 line where humanity emerges out of animality.' 

 The abstraction of self from the facts of con- 

 sciousness, he thinks, may be regarded as the 

 consummation of humanity. ' The Dualistic 

 Conception of Nature ' is a contribution by 

 Prof. J. Clark Murray, tracing the fortunes of 

 dualistic notions in the history of philosophy 

 and religion. 



Prof. Kurd Lasswitz attacks a more difficult 

 problem in ' Nature and the Individual Mind,' 

 a metaphysical question of profound interest to 

 psychologists and philosophers. Prof. Lass- 

 witz seeks to show that there is no change of 

 mode of existence when things physical become 

 things mental ; the difference is merely a differ- 

 ence of combination of elements. 'Objective 

 and subjective are distinguished solely by their 

 existential contents.' The opposition of object 

 and subject is originally produced in and by 

 knowledge, and nature itself is fashioned on 

 lines parallel with the growth of knowledge. 



The doctrine of ' parallelism ' which views 

 physical and psychical phenomena as two 

 modes of representation of the same synthesis 

 is critically discussed, and we have also an in- 

 teresting application of the psychological law 

 of I thresholds as marking the difference be- 

 tween nature and mind. 



The last article is a discussion of the ' Nature 

 of Pleasure and Pain,' by Dr. Paul Carus, with 

 particular reference to the theory of Ribot. He 

 thinks that the current views of pleasure and 

 pain exhibit a neglect of the element of form 

 or of the qualitative aspect of feeling. In his 

 view the nature of a commotion is determined 

 by its relation to the constitution and memory- 

 structures of an organism. Pleasure is the 

 satisfaction of a want originating in constitu- 

 tional habits; pain is the felt evidence of an 

 unsatisfied want or of any other disturbance. 

 The author claims that this view will do away 

 with all troublesome exceptions and inconsis- 

 tencies of the old theories. 



The number concludes with the usual literary 

 correspondence and book reviews. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADESIIES. 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON — 25STH 

 MEETING, SATURDAY, MARCH 21. 



Barton W. Evermann exhibited specimens 

 of Animals from an Artesian Well at San Marcos, 

 Texas. This well was sunk to obtain water for 

 the station of the U. S. Fish Commission, and 

 when the drill had reached a depth of 180 feet 

 it dropped four feet, indicating the presence of 

 a cavity. Although sunk much deeper, the 

 well was finally closed up to a depth of 184 

 feet, an abundant supply of water being ob- 

 tained at that level. The water flowing from 

 the well contained a considerable number of 

 crustaceans and a few batrachians, all blind 

 and all new. The crustaceans comprised one 

 species of shrimp, an isopod and a copepod. 

 The batrachian, according to Dr. Stejneger, be- 

 longed to the Proteida, but was remarkable for 

 the great length of its legs. 



C. Hart Merriam spoke of the Big Bears of 

 North America, giving the distinctive characters 

 of the various species. 



Leonhard Stejneger spoke on The Use of 



