332 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 488 



Crookes says, indeed, "that the atoms are not eternal in existence, 

 but share with all other created beings the attributes of decay and 

 death." They cannot be dissolved into nothing;, however, and 

 the only condition they could assume would be that of the formless 

 fluid from which they originally emerged. If this were to 

 happen, matter as we know it would cease to exist, and material 

 or three-dimensional space would with it disappear. 



Such a change as is here supposed would be one of pure nega- 

 tion, that is, it would be the negation of all material existence. 

 And yet it would not be absolute negation. It might be described 

 as the absence of position. Every past stage of evolution is nega- 

 tive to that which immediately succeeds it, and yet it is positive 

 to that which has gone before; so that if we go back to the begin- 

 ning of evolution, the earliest negation is the most real of all 

 existences, because it is that from which all other existence has 

 been derived. Thus formed matter in ceasing to exist as such, 

 and in being resolved again into the primitive formless fluid, 

 would yet continue to exist in a negative state, that is, in its 

 original formless condition, as to the nature of which we can 

 frame no clear idea, beyond that it would be non-material and 

 invisible. Probably we should be justified in considering it the 

 same as the ether. 



The existence of the ether is as real as that of formed matter, 

 judging from the phenomena of light, and for that we know there 

 may be ethereal existences which are not subject to the laws 

 which affect that matter. It may be, moreover, that the ether 

 furnishes the link which unites individuals so as to form '-genetic 

 or race relationships," and that it conceals the world of spirits, if 

 such exists, from material gaze. The race unity which Profe.'isor 

 Hall refers to may, indeed, be conceived of as consistent with, 

 and as even requiring the continued existence of, individuals; just 

 as the existence of a wire depends on that of its constituent mole- 

 cules. Thus the death of an organism may include a change, 

 unless it be simply a return, to a state of immateriality and, 

 therefore, of invisibility. If so. such a negative existence may be 

 the end of all things, material as well as organic; and, since com- 

 plete change of form often, as in the case of destruction by fire, 

 takes place rapidly, there may be conditions under which, instead 

 of as Professor Hall imagi".es a plane being stepping, out of our 

 space and re-entering it again, matter may suddenly become invi- 

 sible, that is, be reduced to a state of formless fluid, and again 

 become visible. Under such a condition, all the phenomena 

 which it is supposed the existence of four-fold space would render 

 possible, could be equally well produced without it. The erratic 

 nature of ghosts even would be explainable on the assumption 

 that ethereal existences have the power, under sp'^cial circum- 

 stances, of making use of the physical forces so as to render 

 themselves visible. This is, however, beside the real question, 

 which is the possibility of a state of relatively negative existence, 

 which, although invisible to us, is as real as that on the material 

 plane. C. Staniland Wake, 



349 North Clark St., Chicago, June 1. 



The Possibility of a Realization of Four-Fold Space. 



De. Hall's argument for this possibility {Scltnce, May 13, 1893) 

 turns upon two other possibilities: first, upon the possibility of 

 building up the conception of this kind of space from that which 

 we already know; and, second, on the pcssibility of making such 

 a conception so perfect that it may fairly be said to be realized. 

 In support of the first he instances the visual perception of space 

 in which we are supposed to get three fold space by inference 

 from a plane image. Many psychologists, however, contend that 

 such a constructive inference is quite impossible, and others be- 

 lieve that it is only made possible in the case of vision by the aid of 

 touch. Even those that admit a construction of the sort required, 

 can hardly deny that it occurs in the very beginning of babyhood, 

 a fact that points to a racial rather than an individual acquisition. 

 It appears, therefore, to be extremely doubtful whether Dr. Hall 

 could get a four fold space conception built up in a single genera- 

 tion, if at all; that is, if it is to be realized in anything like the 

 degree in which we realize tlireefold space. 



If, however, by realization is meant only a tolerably complete 



knowledge about four-fold space,— such, for example, as a deaf 

 physicist could get of sound,— it may be possible to realize it; and 

 Dr. Hall has undoubtedly taken the right road. But knowledge 

 about a thing seems to come somewhat short of realization of it. 

 Some sensory element is also required, and especially verification 

 by touch, which is the sense of last appeal in cases of doubtful 

 reality. Dr. Hall's models would appear to this sense as un- 

 questionably three-fold as a perspective drawing would appear 

 plane. 



In regard to the benefits of a full knowledge of four-fold space. 

 Dr. Hall should not allow himself to hope too much. A really 

 clever and elusive ghost would never stop at four-dimensions, but 

 would surely lead him, Will o'-the-wisp fashion, through all the 

 series of n dimensions. Edmund C. Sanfoed. 



Clark University, Worcester, Mass , June 6. 



Eskimo Throwing-Sticks. 



In my pamphlet on the Eskimo Throwing-Sticks I drew atten- 

 tion to the fact that they are all right-handed save two from the 

 Alaskan Peninsula and that neighborhood. I also mentioned two- 

 specimens afterwar-Js described by Ensign Niblack from the 

 T'lingit area in south-eastern Alaska. I neglected to mention that 

 they are ambidextrous, and so is a beautiful specimen from the 

 Vancouver collection, figured by Mr. Charles H. Read in the Jour- 

 nal of the Anthrnjjological Institute (Vol. XXI. , pi. xi.). bilaterally 

 symmetrical and, doubtless, ambidextrous. In British Columbia 

 and Washington the long-handled fish-spear is ambidextrous, and 

 has two finger-notches on the end, answering to, if not derived 

 from, the form further south. Mr. Read's specimen from Santa 

 Barbara, Cal., is an abbreviated specimen of like form to one 

 lately recovered from Lake Patzcuaro, Mex. , by Captain John G. 

 Bourke, U.S.A., suitable for either hand. Looking over the in- 

 teresting pamphlets of Mrs. Nuttall and Messieurs Stolpe, Uhle, 

 Bahnson, Seler, and de Mortellet, I iind most of the spear- throwers 

 or throwing-sticks adapted to either hand. The ornamentation 

 throws a considerable amount of uncertainty over the elaborate 

 forms, but, omitting the Eskimo examples, all other spear-throwers 

 appear to be ambidextrous. Indeed, I should like to inquire 

 whether outside of the Eskimo area any American aborigines had 

 apparatus that would not fit either hand. 



Hasty conclusions are dangerous, but we may be allowed to say 

 that the development of a purely right handed implement points 

 to a southern origin for the "original invention. At any rate, the 

 atlatl is assuming an enviable importance in comparative tech- 

 nography. While upon the subject I should like to draw atten- 

 tion to the Mexican artist's fashion of pulling certain parts of a 

 solid body into the foreground, as in the heart-shaped finger-pocket 

 or grip on the bottom of the atlatl, always exhibited on the 

 side. Notice is also called to the fashion of shortening objects to- 

 get them into a picture ; for example, in many cases a harpoon 

 with a shaft ten feet long is represented with all its parts in as 

 many inches. O. T. MasON. 



Washington, D.C., June 7. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



The Scientific Publishing Company, 27 Park Place, New York, 

 ha\e in press Dr. Endlich's "Manual of Qualitative Blowpipe 

 Analysis." 



— William R. Jenkins, New York, has just issued ■' Parasites 

 and Parasitic Diseases of the Domesticated Animals," by L. G. 

 Neumann, professor at the National Veterinary School of Toulouse, 

 translated and edited by George Fleming. 



— Harper & Brothers have nearly ready a book which doubtless, 

 will provoke no little discussion and controversy. In is entitled 

 "The Puritan in Holland, England, and America," by Douglas 

 Campbell, who claims that the last word regarding the Purit-an 

 settlers of New England has not yet been written, and that many 

 of the prevalent ideas concerning the earlier influences upon the 

 political, social, and religious life of the American people are sus- 

 ceptible of revision. 



