March 25, 1892.J 



SCIENCE. 



177 



went up at a fair pace without restingT Arrived on the top, with- 

 out a moment's pause, the men took their spades and shovels and 

 began digging. They asserted that they did only about a third 

 less work in the day than in the valley; and that they suffered no 

 inconvenience from a prolonged stay in the Bosses hut; slept well, 

 and ate largely. Their work was to excavate a tunnel in the sum- 

 mit ridge about thirty feet below the top. The object of this 

 tunnel was to reach rock, in which a shelter- cave might be ex- 

 cavated. 



Mountain-sickness is a term which has been used during the 

 nineteenth century to designate the ailments which come to men 

 and beasts on reaching high elevations on mountains. Some sup- 

 posed that the uncomfortable symptoms were the result of local 

 causes, and did not depend solely on reduced atmospheric pressures, 

 as is the opinion of Mr. Whymper. 



It was largely with a view to settle various questions in regard 

 to mountain-sickness that the journey to the Andes was under- 

 taken. Mr. Whymper wished to learn: (1) at what pressure the 

 symptoms would first appear; (ii) what form the sickness would 

 take; (3) whether one could become habituated to low pressures. 



To the first question the answer came at a pressure of 16.5 

 inches. Most of the party were simultaneously incapacitated for 

 work and found themselves preoccupied by the paramount neces- 

 sity of obtaining air. Precautions had been taken not to intro- 

 duce complications in the way o.f physical exhaustion, Mr. 

 Whymper maintaining " that our * incapacity ' was due neither to 

 exhaustion nor to deficiency of bodily strength, nor to weakness 

 from want of food, but was caused by the whole of our attention 

 being taken up in efforts to get air." This gasping for air was ac- 

 companied with intense headache and an indescribable feeling of 

 illness, pervading the whole body. The attack was sudden, but 

 the recovery gradual; and even at the best it was only while at 

 rest that sufficient air could be secured through the nostrils ; on 

 exerting themselves it was necessary to breathe through the mouth 

 as well, and the capacity for work was low. 



In reviewing the whole of their expeiiences, two different sets 

 of effects could be distinguished : those which were transitory, 

 and those which retnained so long as the paity was exposed to 

 low pressures. The transitory effects were acceleration of the cir- 

 culation, and increase in temperature. The permanent ones were 

 more rapid respiration, indisposition to take food, and lessening of 

 muscular power. 



In the opinion of Mr. Whymper, the mountain-sickness is due 

 to diminished atmospheric pressure, which operates in two ways: 

 by lessening the value of the air inhaled, and by allowing the 

 gases within the body to expand and seek partial escape 



But aside from the value of the book as a record of investiga- 

 tion on mountain-sickness, which is, by the way, made by no 

 means prominent, we have in " Travels amongst the Great Andes 

 of the Equator" a most valuable record of travel, well written. 



A " Supplementary Appendix." to which some fifteen prominent 

 naturalists contribute, is devoted to the collections made in the 

 Andes, a very considerable part being on the coleoptera. The 

 ample number of plates and illustrations make the whole work 

 one of special value as a scientific record, and the account of the 

 journey is most entertaining. 



Order in the Physical World and its Fii'st Cause According to 

 Modern Science. From the French. New York, James Pott 

 & Co. 12". $1. 

 Natural Law in the Spiritual World. By Henky Deummond. 

 New York, James Pott & Co. 12°. 75 cts. 

 These two works are eminently characteristic of the present 

 time. The relations between science and religion have been the 

 constant theme of comment and controversy for the fast thirty 

 years, and still excite extraordinary interest in certain classes of 

 minds. Persons of an atheistical turn point to certain discoveries 

 and theories of science as negativing the very idea of religion ; de- 

 fenders of Christianity repel the charge; while a third class of 

 writers endeavor to reconcile the two conflicting systems of thought 

 by finding some rational ground of agreement. The two works 

 now before us belong to this last category. The first, which is 

 translated from an anonymous French writer, is an adaptation of 



the design argument to the present state of scientific knowledge; 

 the discoveries of science themselves furnishing the basis on which 

 the argument rests. It is not a profound work nor in any way 

 original ; and it will not satisfy minds thoroughly imbued with 

 the skepticism so characteristic of the present time. But for those 

 who think the design argument a. convincing one the book will 

 have an interest. Unfortunately the English of the translation 

 is imperfect and sometimes ungrammatical, especially in the 

 earlier pages, and typographical blunders, such as "sideral" for 

 sidereal, " Emmersou " for Emerson, etc., are altogether too fre- 

 quent. 



The second volume before us is of a different character, and 

 somewhat curious. The author, Mr. Drummond, as he tells us in 

 his preface, had been employed for some years in teaching the 

 natural sciences on week days and lecturing upon religious themes 

 on Sundays. Naturally, and almost necessarily, he was led to a 

 study of the relations between the two subjects and to seek some 

 basis of agreement between them. The result afipears in this 

 book, in which he endeavors to show that the laws of biology, 

 which are manifest In organic life, are no less manifest in religious, 

 or, as he calls it, spiritual life. Analogies between organic life 

 and the mental and moral life of man have often been pointed out 

 before; but Mr. Drummond maintains there is something more 

 than analogy in the case, that the very same laws operate in these 

 widely different spheres. We cannot think, however, that he 

 proves his thesis, the resemblances that he points out between the 

 natural and the spiritual world being, in spite of his disclaimer, 

 nothing but mere analogies, and often remote and fanciful analo- 

 gies. For instance, he speaks of the law of biogenesis, that life 

 can only come from antecedent life, and argues that this is the 

 same as the Christian doctrine that a man must " he born of water 

 and of the spirit " in order to enter the Kingdom of God. He even 

 speaks of "spiritual protoplasm," and declares that the difference 

 between a Christian and a good man who is not a Christian is the 

 difference between the living and the dead. As poetic analogies 

 between natural and spiritual things, some of the resemblances 

 that Mr. Drummond dilates upon have a certain interest, and serve 

 well to illustrate moral and religious truth; but as the basis of 

 scientific doctrine and as proving the reign of law in the spiritual 

 world, they are of little value. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 

 The exclusive authorization to issue an English translation 

 of the ' ' Memoirs of the Baron de Mirbot," which have created 

 unusual interest in Paris, has been acquired from tbe Baron's 

 representatives by Longmans, Green, & Co. They will publish 

 the work immediately, both in New York and London. 



— P. Blakiston, Son, & Co. have brought out a second edition 

 of Blair's "The Organic Analysis of Potable Waters." Consider- 

 ing that the first edition was published but little over a year ago, 

 this shows that the book has proved a good one. 



— Messrs. Eason & Son, Dublin, will issue in April the first 

 numbt r of the Irish Naturalist, a monthly journal of general Irish 

 natural history, and the official organ of all the natural history 

 Societies in Ireland. 1 he editors will be Mr. George H. Carpen- 

 ter and Mr. R. Lloyd Praeger. 



— .\ new Physical Revieiv has been started by the publisher, J. 

 Engelhorn, of Stuttgart. The editor is L. Graetz. The o'oject of 

 this periodical will be to make German readers acquainted with 

 the work being done by physicists in other countries. It is in- 

 tended that it shall serve as a sort of supplement to the well- 

 known Annalen der Physik und Chemie. 



— W. B. Saunders, 913 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, has pub- 

 lished, as No. 22 of Saunders's Question Corapends, " Essentials 

 of Physics," by Fred. J. Brockway, M.D. The book is arranged 

 in the form of questions and ans«'ers prepared especially for stu- 

 dents of medicine. The author is assistant demonstrator of anat 

 omy at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. The 

 reasons assigned for the existence of the book are that Ganot is 

 too large for the purposes of medical students and that some of 

 the other text-books do not contain enough. 



