June 26. 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



361 



would involve the question of a great Pacific atmospheric whirl, 

 comparable to the supposed general movement during winter 

 about the area of low pressure in the northern Atlantic. It would 

 also involve a comparison of our weather here when we are in the 

 Atlantic whirl with that which comes when the Pacific circulation 

 pushes eastward over the mountains. There are numerous other 

 questions involved in these observations, but they are postponed. 



G. H. Stone. 



Colorado Springs, Col., June 15. 



Consecutive Lightning Flashes. 



About 5.45 p.m. yesterday, while travellin<j over the "Jersey 

 flats " on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, I 

 saw toward the south-west no less than six strokes of lightning 

 following the same path — a nearly vertical one — in quick suc- 

 cession. The number was obtained from the grouping or " phras- 

 ing," as it were, of the flashes, which impressed itself on my 

 mind. First there was a single flash, then a group of three, and 

 then a group of two. They followed one another so rapidly that 

 their separate character could just be distinguished, and the dura- 

 tion of the six must have been less than a second. I was at first 

 inclined to believe that the paths had been precisely the same, 

 even to tlie slightest sinuosity, but I am now inclined to think 

 that they varied slightly, and that this variation aided me in rec- 

 ognizing their separate character. I am not aware that so many 

 consecutive strokes have ever been noticed before. It may be in- 

 teresting to add that this morning's papers report great dam- 

 age by lightning in Elizabeth, N.J., in the direction of the ob- 

 served flashes. Arthur E. Bostwick. 



New York, June 17. 



Mocking-Birds and their Young. 



As educated Southern lady made to me the following statement, 

 which seems too extraordinary to be true. My informant honestly 

 considers it a fact. Ts it true, or is she deluded by some accident? 

 I leave the matter for those learned in the lore of birds to decide. 



My friend says that while living in Mississippi, she frequently 

 took young mocking-birds from a nest near the house, and placed 

 them in a cage hanging on tlie verandah. The parent birds came, 

 not to feed the young, but to endeavor to liberate tliem, by pluck- 

 ing at the cage. Failing in this, my friend says that they invaria- 

 bly brought to then- imprisoned young bitter-sweet berries, which 

 poisoned them, the birdlings only living a very short time after 

 receiving the berries. She further said that the captives would do 

 well as long as the parent birds were kept from the cage, but if 

 by any inadvertence the cage was left on the verandah while the 

 family went into the house, on returning they would find the hit- 

 ter-sweet berries in the cage, and the little fledglings in a dying 

 state. My informant further declared that this had occurred 

 again and again within her experience, and that her grandfather 

 gave strict orders that no mocking-birds should be captured, as 

 their death would certainly be effected by the old birds. This is 

 a strange story of bird-ways, that birds should be capable of 

 choosing for their progeny death rather than captivity ! I wish 

 some of the Southern readers of Science would observe in the 

 mocking-bird direction, and give us positive and recent informa- 

 tion from careful experiment. 



Julia McNair Wright. 

 Fulton, Mo., June 16. 



Thunder-storms. 



It has been noticed in connection with thunder-storms in this 

 vicinity this season that in every instance there has been an out- 

 flow of air in every direction from the storm, extending even be- 

 yond the area of precipitation and cloudiness. For example, in 

 the case of a storm appearing upon the south-western horizon and 

 moving due east, and passing then three or four miles south of 

 this village, the weather-vane pointed directly toward it continu- 

 ously, veering slowly from south-west to south-east, showing that 

 the wind came steadily from the storm. The same thing also 

 occurred in the case of a storm which appeared upon the north- 



western horizon and moved eastward, passing three or four miles 

 north of the village. In this case the vane pointed directly toward 

 the storm throughout, the winds being quite brisk. In other in- 

 stances in which the storms passed directly over the village the 

 same thing was manifest, the vane shifting sharply from west to 

 east as the storms passed. In previous years I have noticed the 

 puff of wind in front of an advancing thunder-storm moving in 

 the same direction as the storm itself and occurring just before the 

 rain begins to fall, but my attention has never been called to such 

 an outflow of air in every direction as has been apparent in con- 

 nection with thunder-storms recently. Whatever may be its ex- 

 planation, it certainly is entirely inconsistent with the idea of an 

 indraught and uprush at the centi'e of the storms in which it 

 occurs. M. A. Veedee. 



Lyons, N.Y., June 29. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



The Modalist, or the Laws of Rational Conviction. By Edward 

 John Hamilton. Boston. Ginn. 8°. .$1.40. 



The author of this work claims to have perfected the science of 

 logic. He says in his introductory chapter: "The treatise now 

 offered to the public is the result of long-continued studies which 

 have had for their object to place the doctrines of logic on satis- 

 factory foundations; and it would be false humility were the 

 author to conceal his assurance that these studies have been suc- 

 cessful. He claims to have completed a work which Aristotle left 

 unfinished." And again he says, speaking of himself: "He 

 knows what he has been enabled to do; he is certain that he has 

 found the truth on every important point" (pp. 1 and 3). 



When we come to examine the improvements that Mr. Hamil- 

 ton claims to have made in the science, we find that they consist 

 mainly in the introduction of modal syllogisms, that is, syllogisms 

 in which the conclusion is expressed in terms of possibility, proba- 

 bility, or contingency, as distinguished from the ordinary, or pure, 

 syllogism, in which the conclusion is categorical. Such syllogisms 

 were treated of by Aristotle, but modern logicians have rejected 

 them as not properly belonging to the science, since possibility, 

 probabihty, etc., belong, not to the form of thought, but to its 

 matter. Tliey are properties, not of our thought, but of the facts 

 and events that we think about, and therefore have no proper 

 place in a work on theoretical logic. Mr. Hamilton, however, 

 gives such modal syllogisms the foremost place among the forms 

 of reasoning, afiirming that "the pure syllogism is the secondary 

 mode of thought, and should be interpreted by the modal." Yet 

 he immediately adds that the pure syUogism " is the best expres- 

 sion of our ordinary reasonings" (p. 263), an admission which is 

 fatal to his whole theory. 



Another of Mr. Hamilton's innovations consists in treating the 

 principle of antecedent and consequent, which lies at the basis of 

 the hypothetical syllogism, as the first principle of all reasoning, 

 even in the ordinary syllogism. Such a turning of logic topsy- 

 turvy as Mr. Hamilton proposes seems to us the reverse of an im- 

 provement, and we believe it will be so regarded by thinkers gen- 

 erally. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



An illustrated article by Edwin Checkley, which introduces 

 some of his new theories of physical culture, forms one of the 

 features of the July Lippincott. 



— Among its contents the Chautauquan for July has the fol- 

 lowing: " A Symposium — Where Should a College be Located?" 

 by Julius H. Seelye, Henry Wade Rogers, James B. Angell, Hjal- 

 mar Hjorth Boyesen, W. R. Harper, and Herbert B. Adams; 

 "Modern Methods of Tr-eating Inebriety," by H. R. Chamberlain; 

 " Objections to College Training for Girls," by EmUy F. Wheeler; 

 and "Elizabeth Thompson, the Philanthropist," by Frances E. 

 WiUard. 



— The publishei's of the Ilhistmted American of this city an- 

 nounce a Monthly Illustrated American. The monthly has been 

 planned for over a year, and is offered to the public as " the 

 cheapest and best illustrated magazine in the world." It is com- 



