December 4, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



821 



in general simply described, in some cases 

 diflScult tecliniqiie is passed over with a few 

 words of description, so meager as to make it 

 almost impossible for the student to follow 

 them without very close supervision on the 

 part of the instructor. For example, it ia 

 doubtful whether a student could ever obtain 

 a pure culture of yeasts by the method de- 

 scribed without having an instructor at hand 

 to show him every detailed step. The numer- 

 ous experiments also imply the possession on 

 the part of the instructor of a large amount of 

 material commonly not at hand in a bacterio- 

 logical laboratory, especially in the way of 

 cultures of various organisms, and no direc- 

 tion is given as to how these may be obtained. 



In a little book of this kind not all labora- 

 tory methods can be included, and some omis- 

 sion may be well excused. Some of the 

 omissions are a little unfortunate. For ex- 

 ample, in describing the detection of nitrites, 

 the method that is commonly used, of in- 

 oculating bacteria into nitrate broth is not 

 given at all, the only method given depend- 

 ing upon synthetic media. The common use 

 of nitrate broth, included in the standard 

 methods, should certainly have been among 

 the methods given in this little manual. On 

 the whole, the manual is useful, and can be 

 recommended as an up-to-date reference book 

 of laboratory methods. 



H. W. Conn 



Wesleyan University 



The Elements of Psychology. By David E. 



Major. Eevised Edition. Columbus, E. 6. 



Adams & Co. 1914. Pp. 413. 



Much difficulty has been experienced in re- 

 cent years in preparing a satisfactory text for 

 introductory college courses in psychology. 

 Possibly the difficulty arises from the fact 

 that the customary elementary course in psy- 

 chology — unlike that in other sciences — aims 

 less to initiate the student into the use of a 

 set of special methods and a body of knowledge 

 obtained by their application, than to inter- 

 pret and rationalize what everyone is more or 

 less acquainted with from common experience. 



Evidently more tact and literary skill are re- 

 quired to treat what is already familiar in a 

 profitable way, than to launch out into what 

 is new to the student. However this may be, 

 there have certainly been a large number of 

 attempts to meet the felt need for an ele- 

 mentary text, and few of the attempts have 

 given much satisfaction. The present book is 

 another experiment in this direction, and ap- 

 pears likely to prove unusually successful. If 

 it makes no great claim to originality of teach- 

 ing, and has no special axe to grind, and if it 

 lacks somewhat in incisiveness, these are de- 

 fects which the student can readily overlook in 

 view of its well-sustained effort to meet him 

 on his own ground. Granted that the intro- 

 ductory course is to be kept within its tradi- 

 tional bounds, this text should make a very 

 satisfactory guide. 



e. s. woodworth 

 Columbia University 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ASTICLES 



Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric 

 Electricity for December contains the follow- 

 ing articles : " The Free and Forced "Vibrations 

 of a Suspended Magnet" (concluded), H. F. 

 Eeid; "Magnetic Declinations and Chart Cor- 

 rections obtained by the Carnegie from Bahia, 

 Brazil, to St. Helena, May 20 to June 22, 

 1913," L. A. Bauer and W. J. Peters; "On 

 Certain Matters relating to the Theory of 

 Atmospheric Electric Measurements," W. F. 

 G. Swann ; " Investigation of Certain Causes 

 Eesponsible for Uncertainty in the Measure- 

 ment of Atmospheric Conductivity by the 

 Gerdien Conductivity Apparatus," C. W. Hew- 

 lett ; " Magnetic Declinations and Chart Cor- 

 rections obtained by the Carnegie from Ham- 

 merfest, Norway, to Eeykjavik, Iceland, and 

 thence to Brooklyn, New York, July to October, 

 1914," L. A. Bauer and J. P. Ault; Letters to 

 Editor : " Principal Magnetic Storms recorded 

 at the Cheltenham Magnetic Observatory, 

 July-September, 1914," 0. H. Tittmann; 

 " Umbau an dem Schulze'schen D-Variometer 

 des Observatoriums in Tsingtau," B. Meyer- 



