630 



SCIENCE 



{N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 671 



the Frencli Academy. Hence we have a 

 more reliable sketch of this infant prodigy 

 than is possible to obtain in most other 

 cases; for instance, in the case of his 

 countryman, Pascal. The facts that Ber- 

 trand was permanent secretary of the 

 Academy of Sciences for more than a 

 quarter of a century, that he is the author 

 of many theorems relating to modern 

 mathematical subjects, and that he lived 

 so recently, add interest to the account of 

 his marvelous early aducation. 



In the article already cited, which comes 

 from the Psychological Seminary of 

 Cornell University, Mitchell gives an in- 

 teresting study of arithmetical prodigies 

 and devotes considerable space to his own 

 case. "We add some of his conclusions.'' 

 "Mathematical precocity, then, stands in a 

 class by itself, as a natural result of the 

 simplicity and isolation of mental arith- 

 metic. There is nothing wonderful or in- 

 credible about it. The all-round prodigy 

 like Ampere or Sir William Rowan Hamil- 

 ton or Macaulay is possible only in a well- 

 to-do and cultured family, where books are 

 at hand and general conditions are favor- 

 able, and he must possess genuine mental 

 ability. The musical prodigy, again — Mo-' 

 zart is the stock instance — must come of a 

 musical family, hear music, and have at 

 least some chance to practise, and hence 

 can not long hide his light under a bushel. 

 But the mathematical prodigy requires 

 neither the mental ability and cultured 

 surroundings of the one nor the external 

 aids of the other. He may be an all- 

 round prodigy as were Gauss, Ampere and 

 Saiford, but he may also come of the 

 humblest family, and be unable, even under 

 the most favorable conditions, to develop 

 average intelligence. ' ' 



Gr. A. Miller 



UrrtvEESiTY OF Illinois 



' Pacre 39. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



THE HARVEY LECTURES FOR 1905-6 



This volume consists of thirteen lectures 

 given during the year to the Harvey Society 

 of New York. This organization was founded 

 in the spring of 1905, largely through the 

 initiative of Professor Graham Lusk, for the 

 diffusion of knowledge of the medical sci- 

 ences by means of lectures given by authori- 

 tative research workers. The first volume 

 constitutes a most valuable collection of first- 

 hand information given by some of the most 

 prominent investigators in this country and 

 Europe and the reviewer finds before him an 

 embarrassment of riches from which it is 

 difficult to make a selection since all is good. 



The first lecture by Professor Hans Meyer, 

 of Vienna, is devoted to " The Theory of 

 Narcosis " upon which subject no one is more 

 competent to speak than this distinguished 

 esponent of pharmacological research. So 

 soon as scientific medicine began to break 

 away from, or at least to seek, other support 

 than blind empiricism, inquiry into the rela- 

 tion between the physiologic action of a drug 

 and the physical and chemical properties 

 began. One of the first investigations of this 

 kind was carried out by Crum-Brown and 

 Eraser, who discovered that practically all the 

 organic bases in which the pentavalent nitro- 

 gen is connected by four of these valences with 

 carbon have the same physiologic action not- 

 withstanding other differences in their con- 

 stitution and nature. The strong basic prop- 

 erties of these substances seem to be the 

 determining factor in their effects upon the 

 animal cell. Hofmeister and others pointed 

 out that the laxative and diuretic effects of 

 the neutral salts of the alkaline bases are due 

 to their diffusibility and osmotic strength. 

 The anesthetics include many substances that 

 differ from one another chemically, while all 

 depress the central nervous system. Meyer 

 has made a careful study of the distribution 

 coefficient of the narcotics between fatty and 

 watery solutions and arrives at the following 

 explanation of narcosis : 



The narcotizing substance enters into a loose 

 physico-chemical combination with the vitally im- 



