May 



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SCIENCE 



345 



-vidual counts for a great deal. Moreover, he makes the acute 

 remark, that, even if we could succeed in predicting the actions of 

 men, the mere publication of our predictions would probably lead 

 them to act differently. The chapter on these subjects is one of 

 the best in the book. With regard to the general character of 

 induction and the principles on which it is founded, we are not in 

 agreement with Mr. Venn, nor do we think that any one has yet 

 given us the true theory ; but we trust that no one who studies the 

 subject will overlook this able .work. 



Home Gymnastics for the Well and the Sick. Ed. by E. Anger- 

 stein and G. Eckler. With many woodcuts and a figure- 

 plate. From the 8th German ed. Boston and New York, 

 Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 8". 81.50. 

 This book is intended, as its title implies, to instruct members 

 of the home circle how to exercise in order to preserve health, or, 

 if perchance they are sick, how to restore health in so far as any 

 restoration is possible through the judicious use of exercise. Only 

 such movements are described as can be made intelligible by 

 descriptions and drawings, for the very object of the book is to 

 ■enable one to do without a teacher. In the first division of the 

 work the effect of bodily exercises, and rules for the practice of 

 gymnastics, are given. After describing the beneficial effect of 

 exercise on the muscular system, the author directs attention to its 

 ■effect on the nervous system, a point which is apt to be overlooked. 

 He truly says, that, of all parts of the organism, the nervous system 

 occupies the first rank, inciting and guiding, at it does, all the per- 

 formances of the body. A healthy nervous system is a fertile soil 

 for the growth of a normal mental and spiritual life ; and, while 

 the use of gymnastics creates conditions which develop the nervous 

 system, it has the power at the same time of exercising a whole- 

 some effect on mind and spirit, and in many special cases of de- 

 pression, hypochondria, and melancholia, may effect a cure. He 

 further calls attention to the fact that the power of attention and 

 of quick volition develops eventually into a capacity of quickly 

 grasping new situations, and of quickly re-acting on given incite- 

 ments ; in other words, alertness, determination, and presence of 

 mind are developed. The general rules for the practice of gym- 

 nastics are well chosen, concise, and practicable. In them the 

 best time for taking exercise, the proper manner of dressing, and 

 simple forms of apparatus, are described. In the second division 

 the author considers gymnastic exercises at home, including move- 

 ments of the head and neck ; exercises for the trunk, arms and 

 hands, legs and feet ; walking, running, and jumping, The third 

 division deals with the application of the exercises to healthy 

 persons during babyhood, childhood, the school age, adolescence, 

 maturity, and old age. The application of the exercises for 

 invalids is thoroughly described, and those who have any physical 

 trouble which can be remedied by judicious exercise will find 

 specific directions for its employment. The book is well and 

 sufficiently illustrated, and is by far the best work of the kind with 

 which we are acquainted. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



"The Insane in Foreign Countries : An Examination of Euro- 

 pean Methods of Caring for the Insane," by the Hon. William P. 

 Letchworth, president of the New York State Board of Charities, 

 was recently published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and 

 London. To the physicians and managers connected with the in- 

 stitutions for the insane, and to all interested in the care and wel- 

 fare of the mentally diseased, this book will prove serviceable and 

 instructive. The introductory chapter comprises a brief historical 

 survey of the treatment of the insane in various countries from the 

 earliest times to the present day. Then follow chapters devoted 

 to the lunacy systems of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and to 

 representative institutions of these and continental countries ; and 

 a chapter each is given to the remarkable insane colony of Gheel 

 and to the noted asylum at Alt-Scherbilz, near Leipzig, which lat- 

 ter illustrates the combined excellences of a colony and a hospital. 

 The final and longest chapter presents a rdsume of the author's 

 observations, and his conclusions drawn from them. Based upon 



the results of his inspections of foreign and American asylums, 

 and of his own experience in the supervision of the defective 

 classes of New York State, Mr. Letchworth offers his views as re- 

 gards the selection of sites and locations of asylums, the kind of 

 buildings to be provided, the questions of sewage-disposal, water- 

 supply, protection against fire, the laying-out of the grounds, the 

 furnishing and decoration of wards and rooms, the difficult prob- 

 lem of the disposition of the acute, the chronic, and the criminal 

 insane, the practice of restraint and the amount of liberty that may 

 be granted, the character of the attendants to be chosen, the re- 

 ligious exercises, amusements, employments, dress and clothing, 

 visitation and correspondence of patients, post-mortem examina- 

 tions, the question of voluntary admission, the methods of admis- 

 sion and discharge, and the value of summer resorts. Besides 

 these, the author gives his personal views respecting the insane in 

 poorhouses, local or district care of the insane, State care, the 

 boarding-out system. State supervision, and kindred topics. The 

 book is beautifully printed, and richly illustrated with engravings 

 and heliotype reproductions of plans of buildings and asylum inte- 

 riors, and pictures of historical interest. 



— Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. will shortly publish the life 

 of C. B. Vignoles, an English civil engineer, who was assistant 

 surveyor in South CaroUna in 1817-20, and who surveyed and 

 mapped Florida a little later. He aided Ericsson in building the 

 " Novelty " as a rival to Stephenson's " Rocket," and he became 

 one of the foremost of English railway engineers. 



— Lord Randolph Churchill is one of the English politicians in 

 whom Americans take an interest for various reasons. His 

 speeches, collected, edited, and annotated by Mr. Louis J. Jennings, 

 formerly of The New York Times, have just been published by 

 Longmans. In his introduction, the editor sketches Lord Ran- 

 dolph's political career, and draws a piquant parallel with that of 

 Lord Beaconsfield. 



— Ginn & Co. announce in their Classics for Children Series " The 

 Two Great Retreats of History," to be ready in May. This volume 

 contains Grote's "History of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand 

 Greeks from Babylonia," and an abridgment of Count Segur's 

 " History of the Retreat of Napoleon from Moscow." The two 

 works stand in striking contrast to each other : one as the story of 

 a great success ; the other, of unexampled failure. Both are ably 

 written, Segur's having been translated into nearly every European 

 language, and both convey important historical lessons to all who 

 desire to know not only what man can do, but also what man can 

 endure. Each narrative has an introduction, and is supplemented 

 with a map and all needed footnotes. This firm also announces 

 " Heroic Ballads and Poems " in preparation. 



— The April number (No. 42) of the Riverside Literature Series 

 (published monthly at 15 cents a number by Houghton, Mifflin, & 

 Co., Boston) contains Emerson's " Fortune of the Republic," and 

 other American essays. These essays, besides their literary merit, 

 have an historic interest ; and three of them were delivered in times 

 of great political excitement, — " American Civilization," at Wash- 

 ington, in January, 1862, in the presence of President Lincoln, some 

 months before the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation ; 

 " The Emancipation Proclamation," in Boston, in September, 1862 ; 

 and " Abraham Lincoln," at the funeral services consequent upon 

 President Lincoln's assassination, held in Concord, April 19, 1865. 

 Of the other two essays, •' The Young American " was delivered 

 in Boston in 1844, and " The Fortune of the Republic," in the Old 

 South Church, in 1878. 



— The May number of the Magazine of American History 

 brings information of " Washington's Historic Luncheon in Eliza- 

 beth," with pictorial attractions, including a sketch of the Boudinot 

 mansion, in which the luncheon took place ; portraits not before 

 published of some of Washington's contemporaries who were 

 present ; with engravings of pieces of the china table-service and 

 silverware that were used. The same table-service, in perfect pres- 

 ervation, was placed before President Harrison at the luncheon 

 given in his honor the day of his arrival in New York City, April 

 29, 1889. The second chapter of the number, "Oak Hill, the 

 Home of President Monroe," is also from the pen of the editor, and 



