September 27, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



123 



space. He rejects Kant's view that space is a product of our own 

 mental action, and also the empirical theory, which reduces space 

 to sensation, and gives as his own view that " the mind has a 

 native and original capacity for re- acting upon certain physical data 

 in such a way that the objects of its activity appear under the form 

 of space." This theory he expounds at considerable length, but 

 fails to make clear what this " mental reconstruction of space " 

 really is, or even what he considers space itself to be. It is plain, 

 however, that this theory is a compromise, or medium, between the 

 Kantian view and that of the empiricists, and thus illustrates what 

 we mean in saying that Professor Baldwin's work reflects the un- 

 settled state of philosophy. If space permitted, we might incline 

 to criticise some of his other views, and particularly his theory that 

 perception and representation are fundamentally the same, and also 

 some of his views on association. In the present state of opinion, 

 however, no treatise on psychology can be entirely satisfactory ; 

 and Professor Baldwin's work, in spite of what we consider its 

 errors, has much in it that is good. 



An Elementary Class-Book of General Geography. By Hugh 

 Robert Mill. London and New York, Macmillan. 12°. 

 90 cents. 



Mr. Mill is the lecturer on physiography and on commercial 

 geography in the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh. His book is a 

 descriptive geography, without maps, for which the student is 

 referred to some good atlas, but with a few scattered illustrations 

 intended to convey an idea of specially characteristic features of 

 this or that country, or of scenes typical of the life. For instance, 

 there are given views of a street in London, of a street in Cairo, of 

 the Brooklyn Bridge, and of a hotel in the Blue Mountains, Aus- 

 tralia. 



In his descriptions we fear Mr. Mill has occasionally, for the sake 

 of vividness, preferred to tell of one phase of the life he is handling, 

 leaving his readers ignorant of the great variations that may exist 

 in different branches of the same people. He tells of the Eskimo 

 as living in their snow-huts in an atmosphere rendered so warm 

 by the oil-lamps that they throw off all their clothing. That this 

 is not the constant practice is well known. Again, the tendency 

 to be a little hasty is shown in the statement that " when the sun 

 is rising at Labrador, it is noonday at Vancouver Island." 



The general narrative runs smoothly, however ; and the book 

 will be found suggestive by American teachers, though its being 

 written markedly for the young of Great Britain will not inure to 

 its advantage in this country. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



The Harrisburg (Penn.) Telegram is preparing to publish in 

 book form a history of the Johnstown disaster. The volume will 

 meet the popular demand for a full description of the great calam- 

 ity. Besides, the fact that the net proceeds from the sales will be 

 applied for the benefit of printers' orphan children, and aged men 

 and women who suffered by the flood, commends the work to the 



favorable consideration of the public. The book will be sold by 

 subscription only. 



— ■ The October St. Nicholas has contributions from Noah 

 Brooks, Joel Chandler Harris, Celia Thaxter, Elizabeth Robins 

 Pennell, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Julian Ralph, Margaret John- 

 son, Elizabeth Cavazza. 



— Seven writers — clergymen, college professors, and public 

 men, some of them specialists of acknowledged standing — have 

 associated themselves to discuss special questions of social interest 

 and import, and to prepare papers to be afterwards given to the 

 public from time to time in the pages of The Century. The writ- 

 ers include the Rev. Professor Shields of Princeton, Bishop Potter 

 of New York, the Rev. Dr. T. T. Munger of New Haven, the Hon. 

 Seth Low of Brooklyn, and Professor Ely of the Johns Hopkins 

 University. For each paper the author will be responsible, but he 

 will have had the benefit of the criticism of the other members of 

 the group before giving it final form. The opening paper will be 

 printed in the November number. The Century also has in prepa- 

 ration a series of papers on topics relating to the gold-hunters of 

 California. The articles will be prepared for the most part, as 

 were the war papers, by prominent participants in the events which 

 they describe ; and they will include accounts of early explorations, 

 life in Calfornia before the gold discovery, the finding of gold in 

 1848 at Sutter's Fort, the journey to California by the different 

 routes (around the Horn, across the plains, by Nicaragua, and by 

 Panama), life in the mining-camps and in San Francisco, and 

 other important aspects of Calfornia life at the time. It is be- 

 lieved that these papers will be in the nature of a revelation to the 

 reading public of the present day as to many interesting aspects of 

 the pioneer period, its romance and adventure, its tragedy and 

 pathos, and its poetry and humor. A careful search in California 

 and elsewhere has already brought to light many interesting pic- 

 tures never yet engraved. The publication of the papers will not 

 be begun until the series is further advanced. 



— Mr. M. F. Sweetser,*for the past seventeen years connected 

 with James R. Osgood & Co. and Ticknor & Co. as writer of their 

 capital series of American guide-books, has become editor-in-chief 

 for the Moses King Corporation. For a long time he will be ex- 

 clusively engaged on the mammoth " King's Handbook of the 

 United States," the most important and costly work of the kind 

 ever published, and which will be issued next year. 



— The success of_ Marshall P. Wilder's book, " The People I've 

 Smiled With " (Cassell & Co.), has surprised no one more than 

 that amiable little fellow, its author. He knew that he had a great 

 many good friends, who would buy it and read it, but he did not 

 know that they were to be counted by the thousands. The sale of 

 this book has been second only to that of Max O'Rell's "Jonathan 

 and his Continent." 



— Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons announce as in preparation " An 

 Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism," by R. von 

 Krafft-Ebing, professor of psychiatry and nervous disease in the 

 University of Graz, Austria, translated by Charles G. Chaddock, 



D. ^PI>LETOIsr & CO. 



PUBLISH THIS WEEK. 



EUROPEAN SCHOOLS; i- 



OR. WHAT I SAW IN THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY, FRANCE, AUSTRIA, 



AND SWITZERLAND. By L. R. Klemm, Ph.D., Principal of the Technical School, 



Cincinnati, Ohio. Vol. XII of '' The International Education Series,'' edited by William 



T. Harris, LL.D. Fully illustrated. 121110. cloth. Price, ¥2.00. 



Xu this volume ttie author reports ttie results of a ten months' Journey among the schools of Europe. 



Lessons which the author heard are sketched as faithfully as a quick pencil could gather and the memory 



retain them. The author saw the best that Europe could offer him, and in this volume he has pictured 



the beat results, described the most advanced methods, and given a great number of valuable hints that 



will be serviceable to all teachers who wish to advance the standard of their work. 



II. 



THE STRUCTURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF CORAL REEFS. 



By Charles Darwin. With Notes, and an Appendix giving a summary of the principal 

 contributions to the history of Coral Reefs since the year 1874, by Prof. T. G. I30NNEY. 

 From the third English edition just published. With Charts and Illustrations. 121110, cloth. 

 Price, $2.00. 

 The publishers have taken the occasion of a new English edition of this work to issue the first American 

 edition, which is made especially valuable by the important additions by Prof. Bonney. 



1, 3, & 5 BOND STREET, NEW YORK. 



NOW BEADY. 



THE BERMUDA ISLANDS: 



A Contribution to the Physical History and 

 Zoology of the Somers Archipelago. With 

 an Examination of the Structure of Coral 

 Reefs. Researches undertaken under the 

 Au.spices of the Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences of Philadelphia. By Prof. Angelo 

 Heilprin, F.G.S.A., F.A.Geogr.Soc. 8°. 

 Cloth, 19 plates, S3. 50. Sent, post-paid, on 

 receipt of price. 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, 



Philadelpbla. 



HEAVEN AND HELL, by EMAN- 

 UEL SWEDENBORG, 416 pages, paper 

 cover. Mailed pre-paid for 14 Cents by the 

 American Swedenborg Printing and Publish- 

 ing Society, 20 Cooper Union, New York 

 City. 



