February 15, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



127 



particular point of view is represented, tlie wliole treatment being 

 rather amateurist. 



Very different in cliaracter is the address of Professor Miescher 

 (7). After a clear history of hypnotism, showing its analogies with 

 previous psychic doctrines, and with especial consideration of the 

 work of Dr. Braid and Dr. Liebault, the author describes the chief 

 well-established phenomena from the standpoint of the Nancy 

 school. To this he adds a consideration of the will in hypnotized 

 subjects. We have a state of automatism, in which every impulse 

 mu.st realize itself, but it is an automatism varying in degrees. 

 Not all self-control is lost, any more than in sleep ; the loss, too, is 

 quite similar to what occurs in normal conditions. None the less 

 it illustrates how closely a practical freedom of the will is con- 

 nected with physical conditions, and how readily a state of irre- 

 sponsibility may be induced. 



The anonymous philologian introduced by Dr. Sallis (8) treats a 

 question upon which the French have written much. They have 

 advocated the introduction of hypnotism into the schoolroom to 

 cure wayward children of bad habits. Laziness, pilfering, physi- 

 cal weaknesses, moral foibles, — all have yielded to this all-powerful 

 agent ; and an hypnotic moralization seems to be regarded as the 

 automatic educator of the future. It is against this growing opin- 

 ion that the author writes. He points out the obvious dangers of 

 such a process, hints at cases in which children have learned to 

 hypnotize one another, and urges that its use should be confined to 

 distinctly abnormal children, requiring an abnormal treatment. 

 Education has developed more natural methods of curing such de- 

 fects, and so peculiar a cure as hypnotism should not be allowed to 

 usurp their place. 



As a final illustration of the ramifications of hypnotism, the last 

 pamphlet on our list (9) will do service. The church enters the 

 arena of hypnotism. A passing analogy between the trance states 

 found among hypnotics and the religious ecstasies of saints is suffi- 

 cient to arouse in Domprediger Steigenberger a fear lest the ac- 

 credited church miracles will lose their hold upon the people. He 

 thereupon denounces hypnotism as the work of demons, and pro- 

 ceeds to show how different is the basis of the miracles, and ends 

 by claiming, that, inasmuch as hypnotism is avowedly incapable of 

 explaining all the wonders of history, it is idle to consider it at all. 

 With such different methods of reasoning, a sympathy between 

 church and science in this topic could hardly be expected ; but the 

 shape this mutual misunderstanding takes is interesting. 



From this review, however cursory, it is easy to gather some 

 notion of the vastness of the researches still to be elaborated in this 

 field, of the many-sided interests the problems present, and no less 

 of the complicated pitfalls that beset their solution on all sides. 

 Moreover, it may not be too hazardous to claim that one of the 

 great controversies of hypnotism is about settled, — the issue be- 

 tween the Paris and the Nancy schools, the balance of evidence and 

 opinion being decidedly in favor of the " suggestionists." 



The English Reitorationand Louis XIV. By Osmund Airy. 

 (Epochs of Modern History.) New York, Longmans, Green, 

 & Co. 16". 



This work labors under a disadvantage, in that its. subject is 

 not really an epoch. In English history, indeed, the age of Charles 

 II. m.ay be considered an epoch, though not a very important one ; 

 but in the general history of Europe it was rather the close of one 

 epoch and the beginning of another. The earlier chapters of Mr. 

 Airy's book deal with the wars of the Fronde in France, which re- 

 sulted in the definite establishment of absolutism ; while the rest of 

 the work treats of the early years of Louis' reign, but breaks off 

 in the midst of his career. The author, however, has perhaps done 

 as well as could be expected with such a theme, and he shows a 

 clear grasp both of English and of European politics in the period of 

 which he treats. The principal fault of the work is one common 

 to most short histories, — an excessive amount of detail. This is 

 specially conspicuous in the treatment of military affairs and court 

 intrigues, the details of which are of little interest to the reader, 

 though it must be admitted that court intrigues were more impor- 

 tant in those days than they are now. Mr. Airy's style is good, 

 and his judgment of men and events marked by good sense and 

 impartiality. His chapters on the Fronde show how different that 



movement was from the English revolution, and how inferior in 

 interest ; while, on the other hand, he does not fail to point out the 

 ecclesiastical bitterness of the English Parliament after the restora- 

 tion of the monarchy. In the general politics of Europe the chief 

 interest centres, of course, in the ambitious schemes of Louis XIV., 

 — in his contest with Spain and the Dutch Republic, on the one 

 hand ; and his intrigues with the king of England, on the other. 

 The breaking-off of the narrative, however, in the flush of Louis' 

 career, makes it impossible to give a complete picture; and the 

 reader will have to turn to other volumes of the series for the con- 

 clusion of the story. 



Masle?- Virgil. By J. S. TUNISON. Cincinnati, Robert Clarke- 

 & Co. 8°. $2. 



It is well known that during the middle ages a number of legends 

 connected themselves with the name of Vergil. As a companion 

 of the Devil, as a magician, and as a learned and competent physi- 

 cian, Vergil was presented at various times and by various writers. 

 These legends and their history are curious in themselves, and' 

 interesting as indices of certain obscure phases of mediaeval thought.. 

 Mr. Tunison has, at great labor, collected a vast amount of infor- 

 mation on this subject, and now presents it in these interesting, 

 essays. The book is too learned to be popular, but it will have a. 

 cordial reception from men of letters. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



The February number (No. 40) of the Riverside Literature 

 Series (published monthly at 15 cents a number by Houghton, 

 Mifflin, & Co., Boston) contains " Tales of the White Hills " and 

 " Sketches by Nathaniel Hawthorne." The " Tales of the White 

 Hills" are " The Great Stone Face," a story about the Profile or 

 Old Man of the Mountain, which is one of the most powerful and 

 famous imaginative writings in all literature ; " The Great Carbun- 

 cle," founded on a wild and beautiful Indian tradition about the 

 existence of a wonderful gem called by that name ; and " The 

 Ambitious Guest," an imaginative story of the memorable moun- 

 tain-slide in Crawford Notch in 1826, which destroyed the whole 

 Willey family, but left intact their house, from which they had fled 

 in fright. The sketches comprise, " Sketches from Memory," " My 

 Visit to Niagara," " Old Ticonderoga," and " The Sister Years." 



— D. Lothrop Company will publish shortly, in their Story of 

 the States Series, " The Story of Vermont," which will be of inter- 

 est, as there has been no history of the Green Mountain State pub- 

 lished for forty years. John L. Heaton, the author, is a well-known 

 Brooklyn newspaper man, and is one of the many editors born and 

 brought up in Vermont. 



— Thomas Whittaker announces that the next volume in the 

 Camelot Series will be " Essays of William Hazlitt ; " in the Can- 

 terbury Poets, " Poems of Dora Greenwell ; " and in the Great 

 Writers, " Life of Schiller. " 



— William R. Jenkins has just published " A Chinese and Eng- 

 lish Phrase-Book for the Chinese to learn English," which is per- 

 haps the first book with Chinese characters published in America, 

 Its compilers are Dr. T. L. Stedman and K. P. Lee ; and, while it 

 is unpretentious in its character, it is excellently adapted to furnish 

 Chinamen with a large vocabulary of colloquial phrases. The first 

 edition of five hundred copies, though only just published, has been 

 taken up so quickly that a second edition is already in the press. 



— Alphonse Picard, of 82 Rue Bonaparte; Paris, is publishing 

 an 'important historical work that will be of value to collectors of 

 Americana. It is entitled " Histoire de la participation de la France 

 a I'etablissement des Etats-Unis de I'Amerique." The author is 

 Henri Doniol, director of I'lmprimerie Nationale. Three volumes 

 are now ready, covering the years 1775-79. These explain the ef- 

 forts of the ministers of Louis XVI. to influence Spain to enter inta 

 the alliance against England, which went into effect after the first 

 victories by the Americans over the English, — an alliance which 

 later indirectly was the cause of the famous League of Nantes. 

 The book is published by the French Government in connection 

 with the Universal Exhibition which is to take place in Paris next 



