706 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 383. 



into consistent ideas, that shall convert all 

 external reality into spiritual values, and sat- 

 isfy all the needs of the spirit with the results 

 of knowledge — this great synthesis we still 

 await." All men who study life, and indeed 

 all who live, will contribute to this synthesis. 

 The sociologists have volunteered for a part 

 of the work which is more general than that 

 attempted by either of the older divisions of 

 labor within the group of the positive sciences. 

 It is nothing less than the frank attempt to 

 achieve this synthesis. The most credible clue 

 which they have discovered as yet is that the 

 key to the interpretation of life is not one 

 interest, but all interests. The immediate 

 quest of the most alert sociology is a conspec- 

 tus and a calculus and a correlation of the 

 interests which actually impel real men. This 

 quest is completely readjusting the sociological 

 perspective. It is making us feel that we have 

 been dealing with the stage-settings instead 

 of the actors. It does not, and it cannot do 

 away with knowledge of the mechanism of 

 social structure and function, from the bodily 

 tissues and mental traits of the units up to 

 the conventions of world-society. It is begin- 

 ning to enforce the conviction, however, that 

 these are finally to be understood, not as their 

 own interpreters, but as interpreted by the 

 raore vital realities, i. e., the interests that 

 produce and use them. 



The change that has come over sociology is 

 not unlike the shifting of attention in botany 

 from the making of herbaria to the study of 

 ecology. The change is taking us out of an 

 atmosphere of isolated cases, on the one hand, 

 and of desiccated metaphysics on the other, 

 into the real life of men. We have to find out 

 what men want, why they want it, in what 

 proportions to other things that themselves 

 and others want, how the wants depend upon 

 each other, how association is related to these 

 wants (the real passage from psychology to 

 sociology), and how to appraise the same in 

 settling upon a theory of the conduct of life. 

 With this perception at the fore, our vener- 

 able structural and functional sociology be- 

 gins to look like a treatise upon the instru- 

 ments of Sousa's band by a man who had not 

 found out what they are all for. 



The conclusion of the whole matter is not 

 that appreciation of Professor Giddings' book 

 was promised at the beginning, only to be 

 withdrawn at the end. The sort of work 

 which the method proposes will have to be car- 

 ried on by somebody until we have the kind 

 of knowledge that it seeks. It requires the 

 prevision and the coiirage of the seer to ad- 

 vertise a program which is sure at the outset 

 to impress men in the exact sciences as quixotic. 

 My conviction that analysis of interests and 

 determination of interest-groups is more fun- 

 damental and more enlightening than classifi- 

 cation of types on any less essential basis, 

 makes me insist that Professor Giddings' pro- 

 gram is not the most timely. It points, how- 

 ever, toward something which must sooner 

 or later have its time. It is a powerful argu- 

 ment to the effect that the really fruitful work 

 of psycholog-y is virtually not yet undertaken. 

 It should have the effect of a keen spur in 

 promoting the development of both psychology 

 and sociology. Albion W. Small. 



The Microscope and its Revelations. By the 

 late Wm. B. Carpenter. Eighth Edition, 

 edited by W. H. Dallinger. With 23 plates 

 and nearly nine hundred engravings. Phil- 

 adelphia, P. Blakiston's Son & Co. 1901. 

 Price, $8.00. 



This standard work of reference has under- 

 gone another revision to keep it abreast the 

 rapid advance in microscopical optics and 

 construction during recent years. Two years 

 ago with the appearance of the seventh edi- 

 tion the work was entirely rewritten, and 

 while the changes now are less extensive they 

 embrace the complete reconstruction of eight 

 chapters, covering about one half of the 1,100 

 pages of the book. The portion rewritten 

 treats of the principles of microscopical 

 optics and of vision with the compound micro- 

 scope, the history and evolution of the instru- 

 ment and its accessories, the manipulation of 

 apparatus, the preparation of objects and the 

 application of the microscope to geological in- 

 vestigations. In this work the author has 

 had the assistance of such well-known au- 

 thorities as E. M. Nelson, A. B. Lee, E. 

 Crookshank, T. Bonuey, W. J. Pope, A. W. 



