September 19, 1890.] 



SCIENCE, 



165 



brain are fascinating.' Three patients came to him whose skulls 

 had been so dislurl ed by disease or accident that he was able to 

 fee and register the pulsations of their brains through the win- 

 dow-like opening thus formed. The observations were made in 

 sleeping and in waking moments. The registered curves proved 

 that every emotion, every thought, is accompanied by an increase 

 in the volume of blood in the brain. The severer the mental 

 work, the more violent the emotion, the stormier were the 

 pulsations of the brain. Another interesting series of ex- 

 periments which the author describes are those made with an 

 ■originally constructed balance, by means of which he was able to 

 register the respu-atory movements and the flow of the blood from 

 the feet to the head. The table of the balance was large and wide 

 enough for a man to lie at full length upon it. It was upon this 

 table that Mosso observed that a sudden noise caused the blood of 

 a man asleep upon the table to leave the lower extremities and 

 flow to the head; further, that the head end of the balance sank 

 deeper during the solution of a difficult mathematical problem 

 than when the mind was less severely occupied. By these two 

 methods, as well as by means of the more common methods of 

 registering the beat of the heart and the respiratory movements of 

 the lungs, he found that any sensation exciting fear sends the 

 blood to the brain, increases the strength and frequency of the 

 heart-beat, and alters the regularity of the breathing. He describes 

 the effect upon our system thus: 'We men, who constantly carry 

 the fragile machinery of our body about with us, must remember 

 that every jolt that exceeds the ordinary limit cao be fatal to us; 

 that a slight shove accelerates the motion of the wheels, a 

 stronger one arrests the motion, a gentle push drives us forward, 

 a violent jerk throws us to the ground. For this reason the phe- 

 nomena of fear, which in a small degree might he useful to us, 

 become unhealthy and fatal to the organism as soon as they ex- 

 ceed certain limits: hence one must look upon fear as an illness." 



He denies that the phenomena of fear, as trembling, scowling, 

 the raising of hair and feathers, are essential to the survival of 

 the fittest, and claims that the strong and healthy animals are 

 those who do not fear, but concentrate all their powers to escape 

 or defy the enemy. To the weak man a sudden danger brings 

 fear; to the strong it is an incentive to action. 



Fear, however, does not act upon the distribution of the blood 

 and upon the respiration alone ; but, since our body is a unit, it 

 acts also upon the muscles, — those of the eye, the skin, the face, 

 the digestive and secretory organs, as well as upon the larger 

 muscles of motion. All this is of special interest (1) to the edu- 

 cator, the physician, and parent ; (2) to the artist, the novelist, and 

 poet. To the former Mosso's words are, ' ' The first purpose of an 

 education must be to increase man's strength, and to favor every 

 thing that sustains life." Further, " One moment of violent fear 

 causes far more dreadful effects and significantly severer injuries 

 in woman thao in man; but the fault is ours, who have always 

 considered woman's weakness as a charm and an attraction; it is 

 the fault of our educational system, that seeks to develop the 

 emotional nature in woman, and, on the other hand, neglects that 

 which would be more effectual, — to give her character. We imagine 

 sometimes_that the most important part of culture is that which 

 education and study have given us; that the progress of mankind 

 is accomplished entirely through the science, the literature, the 

 works of art, which the generations have handed down to one 

 another; but we carry a no less important part of the progress of 

 culture with us in our blood. Civilization has reconstructed our 

 nervous system; there is a culture that is transferred to the brains 

 of the children by inheritance; the superiority of the present gen- 

 eration depends upon its greater ability to think and act. The 

 future of a nation does not exist in its trade, its science, its army 

 alone; but it exists in the bodies of its citizens, in the lap of its 

 mothers, in the courageous or cowardly disposition of its sons." 



To the latter he says, " When art extends its territory over all 

 visible nature, it will find an incomparably greater number of 



1 Ueber den Kreislauf des Blutes im Mensehlichen Gehirn (Leipzig, Veit u, 

 Co., 1881): "La temperatura del cerveHo studiata in rapporto colla tempera- 

 tura di altre parti del corpo,^' in the pamphlets of the R. Accademia dei Lincei 

 <TRome, 1889); Sui movimeoti idraulici deir veide (K. medic, Akademie in Tu- 

 rin, 1875); Mosso et Pellaoonl, SuUe tunzioni della vescica CB- Accademia dei 

 Lincei, Bd. XII., 1881; Archives itaUennes de Bologne, 1883). . 



powerful effects in the reproduction of pain than art possessed in 

 classical times. The difficulties are certainly far greater here than 

 in the dignified production of ideal beauty. And the painters and 

 sculptors who undertake the great problem of reproducing pain 

 will be obliged to equip themselves with a study of nature, and 

 with anatomical and physiological knowledge to an extent for 

 which, up to the Hellenic period, we have no example in art." 



It is to illustrate the expressions of the face in suffering and 

 fear in their wonderful variety, that the author reproduces, in two 

 lithographic plates, a series of sixteen photographs taken of a boy 

 while enduring an oft-repeated painful operation. They are 

 worthy the study of psychologist and artist. The width of the 

 horizon which art is to possess when incited by this new physio- 

 logical knowledge is best indicated by his own words, which shall 

 at the same time be the final ones of this article. 



" I believe that with the progress in scientific criticism, together 

 with an exact knowledge of physiology and the functions of the 

 muscles, we shall come to the point where we can claim that the 

 Greeks were not adequately prepared to represent the violent 

 emotions effectively." 



Economic and Social History of New England, 1630-1789. By 

 Wt t.t.ta m B. Weeden. New York, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 

 3 vols. 8". $4,50. 



This is an elaborate and painstaking work, dealing with the 

 whole subject of New England industry from the first settlements 

 to the foundation of the present Federal Government. Beginning 

 with the landing of the Colonists in the wilderness, the opening 

 chapters are largely devoted to the subjects of agriculture, the 

 distribution of land, and ti-ade with the Indians. Ocean com- 

 merce and manufactures claim attention a little later, and soon 

 become the most prominent parts of the subject. The social life 

 of the Colonists is described with less fulness than the economic, 

 but yet is never neglected. The whole subject of the book is 

 treated by periods, —a method that has some ad vantages, and is to 

 a certain extent necessary, but which has led to some repetition 

 and diffuseness. The work is also &ncum,bered with too much 

 detail; the commercial and manufacturing operations, and even 

 such matters as dress and equipage, being treated with a minute 

 particularity which is wholly unnecessary, and wearisome to the 

 reader. Facts in history are chiefly valuable as illustrating natu- 

 ral and moral laws, and in enabling us to mentally reconstruct 

 the life of the past, and all details that are not needed for these 

 purposes may better be dispensed with. Nor can we think Mr. 

 Weeden altogether happy in his pictures of social life, his atten- 

 tion being too much fastened on the trifling matters of dress, 

 manners, amusements, etc., and too little on the more important 

 themes of morals and education. He gives a good deal of space 

 to the sumptuary laws and other restrictive measures of the Puri- 

 tans, but is not equally satisfactory in delineating the nobler ele- 

 ments of the Puritan character. 



But though the book has in our eyes these defects, it is never- 

 theless a valuable work, and an addition to our historical and eco- 

 nomical literature. It is written in a clear and simple style, which 

 makes it at once more interesting and more easily understood than 

 works of this kind often are. The author seems also to have taken 

 great care in collectinghis facts; town records, personal diaries, and 

 merchants' accounts having been ransacked for the purpose, and 

 often with good results. One of the strong points of the book is its 

 treatment of political subjects in relation to economic life. The 

 account of the settlement of the country and the beginnings of 

 industry and commerce is one of the best parts of the work, and 

 shows the working of both political and economical agencies in 

 the formation of the new community. Again, in dealing with 

 the navigation acts and other oppressive measures of the British 

 Government, the author shows with much felicity their effect in 

 injuring trade as well as in rousing the spirit of rebeUion among 

 the Colonists. Yet, though he has clearly grasped the economic 

 bearings of political agencies, he has not allowed himself to be 

 drawn off into. political history itself, but has confined himself to 

 his own proper theme. Mr. Weeden shows that the fisheries, in 

 which the Massachusetts people always excelled, were the main 

 foundation of New England commerce, agriculture being only a 



