April 26, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



467 



not yet senile. A degenerate organism 

 can transmit to its offspring the morbid 

 peculiarities, but. as a rule, the stock soon 

 dies out. 



In like manner, mysticism is treated with 

 considerable detail as a pathological phe- 

 nomenon, without a hint that it is ever 

 anything else, and it is only in a succeeding 

 chapter that we are told that " Mysticism 

 is the habitual condition of the Imman race, 

 and in no way an eccentric disposition of 

 mind," and that the difference between 

 ■what may be termed normal and patholog- 

 ical mysticism is that " the health}- man is 

 in a condition to obtain sharply defined 

 presentations from his own immediate per- 

 ceptions, and to comprehend their real con- 

 nection. The mystic, on the contrary, 

 mbces his ambiguous, cloudy, half-formed 

 liminal representations with his immediate 

 perceptions, which are thereby disturbed 

 and obscured." 



In his fourth chapter the author discusses 

 the causes of the disorder, summing them 

 up as alcohol and tobacco, the gi-owth of 

 cities, and excessive fatigue due to the great 

 increase in the number of sense impressions, 

 perceptions and motor impulses which are 

 experienced in a given unit of time. His 

 argument from the supposed increase of in- 

 sanity has no sound basis, for there is no 

 good evidence that it lias increased, and on 

 this point the recent report of the General 

 Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scot- 

 land is very satisfactory. The argument 

 that the present generation is aging much 

 more rapidly than the preceding one be- 

 cause there are more deaths from heart dis- 

 ease, apoplexy, etc., now than formerly is 

 also fallacious. Deaths from all the causes 

 which chiefly affect persons over fifty years 

 of age are becoming more frequent, because 

 the proportion of persons over ftfty years of 

 age is becoming larger, and the death rates 

 of children are becoming smaller. 



His therapeutics are not very definite, 



being mainly the promotion of education, 

 the condemnation of works trading on un- 

 chastity, and the Ijranding of the pornog- 

 raphist with infamy. This is rather the 

 treatment of a symptom than of the disease 

 itself. 



The real ])rol)lem of dealing with the de- 

 generate, and of checking their increase, 

 is no doubt mainly connected with the con- 

 ditions of city life and the increasing use of 

 mechanism, and is to be solved by changes 

 in municipal organization adapted to the 

 new conditions of the day, combined with 

 intelligent direction of the work of private 

 associations of various kinds. 



The work of Xordau should be carefully 

 read by every one who is interested in so- 

 cial progress ; the translation is excellent, 

 and it is a book well calculated to make 

 one think. His dogmatic statements as to 

 the mechanism of nerve cells in mental 

 phenomena are, for the most part, pure hy- 

 potheses based on materialism and taking 

 no account of the persistence of individual 

 consciousness, but they are in many ways 

 suggestive and interesting; and while one 

 must object to some of his premises, his 

 conclusions with regard to the majority of 

 the authors whom he discusses will proba- 

 bly be accepted by the majority of persons 

 who are competent to form a definite opin- 

 ion on the subject. 



J. S. Billings. 



Darwinwn and Eace Progress. By John 



Berry Haycraft, M. D., D. Sc, F. R. 



S. E., Professor of Physiologj', University 



College, Cardiff. London, Swan, Son- 



nescheiu & Co. New York, Charles 



Scribner's Sons. 1895. 



This is an eminently sensible book, and 



besides its scientific interest it deserves the 



study of social reformers and religious 



teachers. Dr. Haycraft holds that the 



muscles and brains of a race are not bound 



to decay, but tliat the human species in 



