992 
Rome, expounds in the January Monist his the- 
ory of the origin of Latin and Greek civilization, 
which he claims was not the creation of the 
Aryans, who were an inferior stock, but of the 
Mediterranean race proper ; the Aryans merely 
transformed the language of the Mediterranean 
races. In the same number Major Powell traces 
‘The Evolution of Religion’ in the light of eth- 
nology and the general history of civilization ; 
Dr. Woods Hutchinson holds an impassioned 
brief for ‘ Love asa Factor in Evolution,’ where- 
in he shows that love, sympathy, charity, etc., 
which are generally supposed to be subversive 
of natural selection in society, are really the 
prime conditions of evolutionary progress, 
through their strengthening of the moral fibre 
and their enhancing of solidarity. The philo- 
sophical articles are: (1) ‘Causation, Physical 
and Metaphysical,’ by C. Lloyd Morgan ; (2) 
‘The Philosophy of Laughing,’ by Dr. Paul 
Carus; (38) ‘On the Philosophical Basis of 
Christianity in Its Relation to Buddhism,’ by 
Professor Rudolf Eucken. As for the first of 
these, Professor Morgan seeks the solution of 
the problem of causation in the separation of 
the domain of knowledge into two provinces, 
a physical province and a metaphysical proy- 
ince. The search for transcendental causation 
in the latter province is as legitimate in its way 
as the search for scientific causation in the former 
province. The book reviews of the number em- 
brace philosophy, psychology, biology and com- 
parative religion. 
TEN or twelve years ago The Critic published 
a series of ‘Authors at Home,’ including 
sketches of Lowell, Whittier, Holmes and other 
American men of letters. In its issue for the 
18th ult. The Critic begins a new series of 
‘ Authors at Home,’ with a sketch of ‘ Charles 
Conrad Abbott, M.D., at Trenton,’ by Mr. 
Ernest Ingersoll, who holds that ‘systematists 
and dissectors’ have not appreciated Dr. Ab- 
bott’s contribution to science, owing to ‘its 
literary form.’ 
The Contemporary Review.—Why can we not 
haye in America monthly reviews as good as 
The Contemporary, The Fortnightly and The 
Nineteenth Century? — for December contains 
several articles of scientific interest. A well-in- 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Voz. VI. No. 157. 
formed writer who signs himself ‘A British 
Naturalist ’ discusses the seal question from an 
American point of view. The article concludes 
with the paragraph : ‘‘ Hence, considering that 
the industry is commercially of no great im- 
portance, that the pelagic sealing involves the 
killing of pregnant females and the starving of 
their pups, and that the United States can settle 
the question over the heads of England and 
Canada, it seems a pity that the argument 
should be embittered by abuse of the United 
States. The question has been so -simplified 
that the officials on both sides no doubt see the 
advisability of a friendly settlement. And it is 
to be hoped that the British press will give that 
fair open-minded consideration to the American 
claims that has marked the irreproachable atti- 
tude of the British Foreign Office.”’ 
ANOTHER article in the current number of 
The Contemporary Review is a criticism, by Mr. 
Andrew Lang, of the recently published work 
on ‘The Evolution of the Idea of God,’ by Mr. 
Grant Allen. Mr. Lang maintains, and not 
without reason, that Mr. Allen’s treatment is 
not strictly scientific in character, but Mr. 
Lang himself holds that savages got their idea 
of spirits from converse with real spirits. 
Whence the conclusion is not unnatural that 
literature, science and writing for the market 
do not combine to produce results of value to 
science. ; 
AT a recent meeting of the Royal Botanical 
Society, of London, Mr. Sowerby, the Secretary, 
called attention, as reported in the London 
Times, to some kola plants grown in the gar- 
dens, and said that the tree, which was a native 
of the west coast of Africa between Sierra 
Leone and the Congo, belonged to the natural 
order Stericuliacze. The seeds, several of which 
were contained in a fleshy fruit, 4 inches to 6 
inches long, were the well-known kola nuts of 
West Africa, where they had been used as far 
back as it was possible to trace. By eating 
these seeds people were enabled to endure pro- 
longed labor and exertion without fatigue. It 
was estimated that kola paste is five times more 
sustaining than cocoa; it contained over 2 per 
cent. of pure caffeine, and, compared with tea, 
coffee and cocoa, the kola preparations were 
