March 25, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



179 



the age. He hopes, also, that this work will furnish, to students 

 and veterinarians, knowledge which will aid in surgical operations 

 on the mouth." The publishers are, F. A. Davis & Co., 1231 Fil- 

 bert Street, Philadelphia. 



— Macmillan & Co. will issue early in April an important work 

 by Professor J. Henry Middleton on the " Remains of Ancient 

 Rome," comprising two fully illustrated volumes. 



— Messrs. Gauthier-Villars have published a work entitled 

 "Lemons de Chimie," by Henri Gautier and Georges Charpy. It 

 is intended mainly for the use of students of special mathematics. 



— Professor Geo. J. Romanes has arranged with the Open Court 

 Publishing Co. to bring out the American edition of his lal;est 

 work, "Darwin and after Darwin." It will be published simul- 

 taneously with the English edition. 



— Mashonaland, in south Africa (called "the future gold-fields 

 of the world "), will be described in the April Scribner by Frank 

 Mandy, a member of the Pioneer Corps which opened up the 

 country for settlers. He has spent many years in that region, and 

 is an acknowledged authority upon it. 



— An excellent series of ' ' Museum Hand-Books " is being issued 

 by the Manchester Museum, Owens College. A "General Guide 

 to the Contents of the Museum " has been prepared by Mr. W. E. 

 Hoyle, keeper of the Museum, and Professor Milnes Marshall has 

 drawn up an " Outline Classification of the Animal Kingdom," 

 and a " Descriptive Catalogue of the Embryologioal Model?." 



— We learn from Nature that the first part will shortly be issued 

 by Messrs. Dulau & Co. of a new botanical publication, to be 

 called British Museum Phycological Memoirs, edited by Mr. 

 George Murray. It wiU be devoted exclusively to original algo- 

 logical papers, the records of research carried on in the Crypto- 

 gamic laboratory of the British Museum in Cromwell Road, and is 

 intended to be issued at about half-yearly intervals. The first part 

 will be illustrated by eight plates, and will contain, among other 

 articles, the description of a new order of Marine Algse. 



— There is evidently, in the opinion of one man at least, a per- 

 fect climate in one portion of the United States. The man is P. 

 C. Remondino, M.D., and the place is Southern California. The 

 beauties of Southern California Dr. Remondino sets forth in "The 

 Mediterranean Shores of America," just published by F. A. Davis 

 & Co., Philadelphia. After speaking of the beautiful adjustment 

 of humidity to- temperature, so that hot, muggy days are unknown, 

 our author goes on to tell of the calm character of the weather, 

 which is such that thunder-storms are almost unknown, and the 

 signal office at San Diego, after eight years' waiting, found the 

 storm flags of no use and returned them to Washington. Southern 

 California, our author maintains, has as varied a climate as that 

 of the north of Italy, or even more extremes of condition, but, 

 with these extremes, enjoys the anomalous condition of having 

 these extremes alike favorable to health and long life — just the 

 reverse of northern Italy. The book is, of course, intended to 

 convey such information as those seeking a health resort desire. 



— The American Academy of Political and Social Science, with 

 headquarters at Philadelphia, announce for early publication the 

 following monographs on political and economic subjects: " Ethical 

 Training in the Public Schools," by Charles DeGarrao, president of 

 S warthmore College, an essay which is intended to prove the necessity 

 of moral instruction in our public schools, buttoshow thatitneednot 

 necessarily be religious; " The Theory of Value," by the Austrian 

 economist, F. von Wieser, a scientific explanation of the views 

 of the Austrian school on this subject; "Basis of Interest," by 

 Dwight M. Lowrey, a reply to Heniy George's doctrines on this 

 question. They will also publish at an early date a monograph 

 on "Party Government," by Charles Richardson, which is a severe 

 attack on the theory that devotion to party is a political virtue ; 

 and a pamphlet by J. R. Commons of Oberlin College on "Pro- 

 portional Representation," in which a plan is disclosed which will 

 prevent gerrymandering and secure minority representation. 



— " The Will Power : its Range in Action," by J. Milner Fother- 

 gill, is a small book published by James Pott & Co. It is not a 

 metaphysical essay, but a practical work on the importance in 



human life of strength of will, which the author regards as the 

 principal thing in man's character and the main source of one 

 man's influence over others. The different aspects of the subject, 

 such as the will in relation to heredity, the will and circumstances, 

 etc., are treated of, and some interesting anecdotes related to 

 illustrate the author's doctrine. From the doctrine itself, how- 

 ever, we are obliged to dissent, because it puts strength of will 

 above rightness of will, force above virtue. The highest principle 

 in man is not will but conscience; conscience is the lawgiver, 

 while the will's business is to obey, but Mr. Fothergill shows no 

 sufficient appreciation of this fact. He admits, indeed, that 

 strength of will may be used for evil as well as for good, and in 

 many of the examples he adduces what he calls strength of will 

 is merely selfishness or a domineering temper. Yet he expressly 

 says: " Mighty as the will is, the first numeral in character, the 

 next is principle in this world ; in the next world, we are told, 

 principle will come first" (p. 181). Such a doctrine, if carried 

 into practice, would lead directly to immoral conduct; and we 

 cannot, therefore, recommend this book as a means of moral in- 

 struction. 



— The American Academy of Political and Social Science has 

 just published a monograph by Leo S. Rowe on "Instruction in 

 French Universities." This is the fifth of the monographs which 

 they have issued treating of instruction in political science, etc., 

 in various countries. Of the other four, two treated of German 

 universities, one of the University of Oxford, and one of Italian 

 universities. They also published a pamphlet on Jurisprudence 

 in American Universities. The present essay gives a careful ex- 

 position of the system of faculties in vogue in France, together 

 vi'ith a brief history of the higher educational system from the 

 time of Napoleon to the present. It also explains the new system 

 of universities which is now being advocated. Mr. Rowe then 

 discusses the courses in political science, etc., which are offered 

 by the law faculties and the other institutions, such as the Ecole 

 Libre and the College de France. The monograph concludes with 

 some very valuable university statistics and a complete list of the 

 instructors in political science and public law in the various insti- 

 tutions of higher education in France. 



— The latest issue in the "Contemporary Science Series," pub- 

 lished in England by Walter Scott and imported here by Charles 

 Scribner's Sons, is a work by Karl Pearrson entitled " The Gram- 

 mar of Science.'' It is a discussion of the scope and method of 

 science and of some of its fundamental principles. The author 

 sneers at metaphysics, declaring both metaphysics and natural 

 theology to be pseudo-sciences ; and yet his own book is meta- 

 physical from beginning to end, only it is bad metaphysics. Mr. 

 Pearson adopts the subjectivist, or "idealist" theory of knowl- 

 edge, which denies the existence of a real material world and 

 regards external objects as nothing but groups of sensations. He 

 adopts Kant's theory of space and time, though he derides Kant 

 for being a metaphysician. His view of causation is borrowed of 

 Hume; and he maintains that the business of science is merely to 

 describe facts, not to explain them. " Science," he says, " deals 

 with the mental, the inside world," and a law of nature is not an 

 order of external facts but merely a "routine of perceptions." He 

 alludes to Newton's formula of gravitation, and then goes on to 

 say: " The statement of this formula was not so much the dis- 

 covery as the creation of the law of gravitation. A natural law 

 is thus seen to be a ristime in mental shorthand, which replaces 

 for us a lengthy description of the sequences among our sense- 

 impressions. Law in the scientific sense is thus essentially a prod- 

 uct of the human mind and has no meaning apart from man. 

 It owes its existence to the creative power of his intellect There 

 is more meaning in the statement that man gives laws to Nature 

 than in its converse that Nature gives laws to man" (p. 104). 

 Such is the burden of the whole book, and it is thrust forward on 

 every possible occasion; and it shows, we think, with suflBcient 

 clearness the mental calibre of the author and the quality of his 

 book. 



— The first number of the new Zeitschrift fur Anorganische 

 Chemie, edited by Professor Kriiss, of Munich, was issued on Feb. 

 37. As its title implies, the new jommal is devoted exclusively to 



