684 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 305. 



text-books, most of which are good but some of 

 which are sadly out of date. The laboratory 

 exercises partially cover the conventional ele- 

 mentary ground, but are inferior to those of 

 Miss Brown and of other authors. Unfortu- 

 nately the book is marred by slovenly English, 

 colloquial expressions and typographical errors. 

 Fkedeeic S. Lee. 



Physiology, illustrated by Experiment. By BUEL 



P. COLTON. Boston, D. C. Heath & Co. 



1900. Pp. xiii + 386. 



This book is intended as a ' Briefer Course ' 

 of Mr. Colton's ' Physiology, Experimental 

 and Descriptive.' As an elementary text-book 

 for secondary schools it can be recommended. 

 It contains an unusually large amount of matter, 

 concisely, briefly, and upon the whole at- 

 tractively presented. It is preeminently phys- 

 iological and hygienic as distinguished from 

 anatomical. Its language is not overburdened 

 with technicalities. Its directions for practical 

 work are limited, but this is excusable in view 

 of the many satisfactory laboratory books now 

 in existence. Most of its figures and diagrams 

 are excellent. 



The treatment of the subject of alcohol, while 

 fairly moderate as compared with that of some 

 writers of text-books, is somewhat intemperate 

 in its use of adjectives. At the beginning of 

 the chapter devoted to this subject the bald 

 statement is made that ' alcohol is not a food.' 

 At the close of the chapter it is allowed, on the 

 authority of well-known quoted writers, that 

 ' technically it may be called a food.' 



Feedbeic S. Lee. 



folk-loee in borneo. 

 Dr. William Henry Furness 3d, had pri- 

 vately printed an attractive little volume called 

 'Folk-lore in Borneo: A Sketch,' in which is 

 given a brief report of an ethnological field that 

 has acquired a new interest because of the re- 

 cent discoveries made in the group of islands to 

 which Borneo belongs. The influence of a 

 tropical environment is noted by the author in 

 the Kayan myth of creation, which he narrates 

 as a ' purely Bornean ' product, and contrasts 

 it with the Dyak account of the genesis of the 

 race, wherein he discerns Malay influence. 



Among the interesting pages of the book are 

 those which tell of head-hunting, ' the one 

 ruling passion of the people.' The tradition 

 of its origin is given, and the author thought- 

 fully remarks : " It is not unfair to infer from 

 this tradition that they have a crude, germinal 

 sense of the barbarity of their actions, in so far 

 as they think it necessary to invent an excuse 

 to palliate that savage love of trophy-hunting 

 which seems inborn in mankind." And he 

 points out how the native beliefs concerning 

 the five peculiar regions in ' the land of de- 

 parted spirits ' tends to conserve the practice of 

 the head-hunting ' rite.' Among the many in- 

 teresting subjects touched upon are the con- 

 nection between the Pleiades and agriculture ; 

 the omen birds and the devices the people 

 practice to avert bad luck ; the function of fire 

 as a ' go-between of man and the birds ' ; and 

 the glimpses of a river cult among these na- 

 tives. The illustrations really illustrate the 

 text ; they are admirably selected, and the 

 pictures of old and young, men and women, 

 inspire confidence as types, as they are without 

 exaggerated peculiarities. The book is a wel- 

 come addition to the literature of folk-lore. 



A. C. F. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



NEWSPAPER SCIENCE. 



To THE Editor of Science : I have had so 

 much satisfaction in the review and criticism 

 recently published in Science, of Mr. Tesla's 

 magazine article on ' Human Energy ' that I can- 

 not avoid making public acknowledgment of 

 my appreciation of its justice and timeliness, 

 especially the latter. Is it not the imperative 

 duty of men of science to do what the author 

 of this review has done, more frequently than 

 they have during the past ten years ? 



Within this decade there has been an enor- 

 mous decrease in the cost of publication and 

 especially in the expense of illustration, and 

 this has brought about a deluge of reading 

 matter of such infinite variety and general 

 worthlessness that the formation of a society 

 for its systematic suppression is worthy of seri- 

 ous consideration. With the daily newspapers 

 it has been distinctly an era of sensationalism. 



A reporter for a daily paper recently de- 



