318 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 88. 



they bore what seemed to me and my associates 

 to be incontrovertible evidence of the immedi- 

 diate effect of cross-pollination. I had never be- 

 fore been convinced that such immediate effect in 

 flavor and other varietal characteristics can oc- 

 cur in the apple, but I am now satisfied that it 

 may occur ; but, like heredity of mutilations, it 

 is certainly rare and therefore apparently ex- 

 ceptional. L. H. Bailey. 



COENELL UnIVEESITY. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance with 

 an Index to their Works. Beenhard Beeen- 

 SON. New York, .^G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 1896. Pp. 141. 



This little handbook, by an accomplished 

 student of art history, deserves notice in these 

 pages because it is the first attempt we have 

 seen to apply elementary psychological cate- 

 gories to the interpretation of higher works Of 

 art. A painting, says the author, is of only 

 two dimensions and yet must suggest the third 

 dimension to the spectator's mind. The artist 

 to do this, must give tactile values to retinal im- 

 pressions. "It follows that the essential in the 

 art of painting * *^ * is somehow to stimulate 

 our consciousness of tactile values, so that the 

 picture shall have at least as much power as 

 the object represented, to appeal to our tactile 

 imagination." From Giotto onwards, the Flor- 

 entine painters preeminently did this, so that 

 the phrase 'tactile value,' instead of the more 

 familiar word 'form,' appears on every page of 

 Mr. Berenson's account of their characteristics. 

 The high pleasure derived from tactile values 

 artfully portrayed would seem to be due to the 

 rapidity and intensity with which they are sug- 

 gested. The tactile aspect of reality is actually 

 'heightened' by the picture, and thereupon 

 ensues the secondary enjoyment of our own 

 capacity for the enhanced experience. The 

 rendering of movement is a step farther in the 

 same direction ; we feel the motor life of the 

 figure in ourselves and a heightened sense of our 

 own capacity results. To say that pictures have 

 a ' life-communicating value ' is thus to sum up 

 the explanation of their effect on us from this 

 point of view. 



The essay is charmingly written, and will be 

 useful to all art-students. Whether we get 

 much deeper into the secrets of art-magic, or 

 account for the sense of preciousness that some 

 paintings diffuse, much better on Mr. Berenson's 

 terms than on more familiar ones, may be left 

 an open question. Mr. Berenson himself has 

 to add ' spiritual significance ' to his other terms 

 of 'life-enhancing value.' But until we can 

 define just what the superior ' significances ' are, 

 in the better of two good pictures — and surely 

 we hardly ever can — the explanation of all 

 merit by significance remains somewhat un- 

 satisfying. The better picture remains simply 

 the better picture, and its ultimate superiority 

 might, in the end, be a matter of immediate 

 optical feeling and not a matter of extraneous 

 suggestion or significance at all. 



W. James. 

 Haevaed Univeesity. 



Atlas of Nerve-cells. By M. Allen Stare, with 

 the cooperation of Oliver S. Strong and 

 Edward Leaming. LIII. Plates, 13 dia- 

 grams, pp. 79, 4to. Macmillan & Co., 66 

 Fifth Avenue, New York. 1896. Price, $10. 

 This latest volume from the University press 

 of Columbia University contains much more 

 than the preface indicates. 



A short preface serves to explain the nomen- 

 clature employed. The nerve cell is designated 

 as a neuron. It has protoplasmic branches as 

 dendrites and the pin-head enlargements along 

 the surface of the dendrites as gemmules. The 

 axis cylinder process is termed the neuraxon; 

 its branches, collaterals ; and the terminations 

 of these branches, end brushes. Immediately 

 following the preface is a valuable description 

 of the silver method of impregnation by Dr. 

 Strong, recounting the manner of preparing the 

 sections here employed for the plates, and ex- 

 plaining the modifications in technique which 

 he has introduced with such good results. Upon 

 the photographic methods employed. Dr. Leam- 

 ing adds a chapter which will materially assist 

 those who propose to work along similar lines. 

 The body of the book follows and contains 

 LIII. plates, which are reproductions of photo- 

 micrographs, and thirteen diagrams, together 

 with the corresponding text. The sections have 



