October 17, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



221 



the education of the deaf must be subservient to this. Parents 

 and friends of the deaf need to be placed on their guard against 

 this grave error, and to be advised that those schools and systems 

 best deserve their confidence and support that seek to give the 

 broadest and most valuable education possible to all the deaf." 



After what has been said, the conclusion which the unbiassed 

 will be forced to is, that the combined system, which consists of 

 the sign-language as the basis of instruction, aq^, in addition, as 

 a side-show, pretends to teach articulation, is a farce, which serves 

 to mislead parents and friends of the deaf; and that the language 

 of signs, instead of being a stepping-stone, is a hinderance to deaf- 

 mutes in the acquisition and in the use of spoken language. 



B. Engelsman. 



New York, Oct. 8. 



Another Magnetic Man. 



My attention has been called to the following account from a 

 Lewiston paper, dated Sept. 25, of a scientific phenomenon in 

 which your readers may be interested. 



"The writer was entertained Friday evening by a wonderful 

 man, a resident of College Street. The gentleman is a well known 

 citizen of most trustworthy character. After an evening's per- 

 formance he feels exhausted in the morning. He can do nothing 

 with the palms of his hands on the object, but taust use the tips 

 of his fingers only. He first began with a common table with 

 swinging sides. Placing his fingers nearly in the centre, he could 

 cause either end to rise and remain suspended. It would rock, 

 beat time to music, or turn a complete somersault. No part of 

 his person touches the object but his finger-tips; and there are no 

 secret wires, for we examined the table carefully. Next he let 

 down the swinging sides, which are on hinges, and, by placing his 

 finger-tips, could raise the leaf, and hold it in that position several 

 minutes while we tried to pull it away from his fingers. Then 

 we took a heavy braided rug, and folded it in four thicknesses, 

 and placed it on the table. "With this obstruction he easily lifted 

 the table, and turned it completely over. A plate was jjut upon 

 the table, and this proved no hinderance. Then a tin dish inverted 

 was given to him, and still the table not only came up, but the tin 

 dish stuck fast to the table. He lifted chairs and other objects 

 while resting. Then the table was inverted ; and, placing his 

 finger-tips upon the table-legs, the heavy table came up, and re- 

 mained clearly suspended from the floor, with one foot of clear 

 space beneath. 



" The writer then sat upon the end of the table, which came up 

 so suddenly as to throw him off upon the floor. At last came a 

 strong test. We seated ourselves in chairs at opposite sides of the 

 table, the writer grasped the table-legs with all his strength, and 

 the gentleman stood clear of the table, and, placing only his 

 fingers upon the smooth surface, drew the table so violently as 

 to bring us down upon the floor in confusion. 



" Finally we grasped hands and tested our natural strength in 

 pulling, and the writer was the stronger man; but, as the current 

 came down in his arms, it went up into ours, feeling just the same 

 as when we hold the handles of a battery. Then the strength of 

 the gentleman was wonderful, throwing us around the room as 

 one would handle a toy. The whole evening was filled with these 

 performances. There is no possible chance for deception, and 

 those who have seen this say that the only motive power which 

 these objects receive comes directly from the finger-tips of this 

 man. He can perform the same feats in any room, or with any 

 soft-pine table, which may be placed in any position." 



E. W. Hall. 



Watervllle, Me., Oct. 7. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



Erster Nachtrag zur Bibliographie des Modernen Hypnotismus. 

 Von Max Dessoik. Berlin, 1890. 



In Science of June 23, 1888, will be found a notice of the origi- 

 nal work to which the author now issues a supplement. The ar- 

 rangement of the two contributions are practically the same, the 



supplement including all that was published from May, 1888, to 

 May, 1890. No more striking proof of the increase of interest in 

 the subject of hypnotism could be furnished than the fact that 

 this record of two years' work includes 383 titles of articles or 

 books, written by 374 authors in 13 different languages, and ap- 

 pearing in 113 periodicals. Very interesting, too, is the variation 

 in interest in different countries that has been going on in the last 

 two years. In the former bibliography the French language was 

 credited with 473 titles; English, with 103 (40 of which were 

 American); Italian, with 88; German, with 69; and the rest scat- 

 tering. In the supplement France still leads with 139, but Ger- 

 many (probably in part including Switzerland) is a close second 

 with 103; English comes next with 46 (24 of which are Ameri- 

 can); Italian following with 33. 



The author has evidently done all in his power to render this 

 bibliography useful and complete, and deserves great credit for 

 carrying on this necessarily unpleasant work. He again asks for 

 contributions and notices of works and articles bearing upon hyp- 

 notism, to be sent to Rothenerstr. 37 W. , Berlin. 



Ouyofs Earth and Man. Revised edition. New York, Scrib- 

 ner. 



The republication of Guyot's famous lectures on "The Earth 

 and Man" recalls a time which seems, in comparison with th& 

 wider opportunities of the present, to be a time of scientific 

 awakening, and which is marked in contrast with this age of 

 conventionalism as a time of scientific enthusiasm. In 1849, 

 when Guyot gave these lectures in French at the Lowell Institute 

 in Boston, the earlier geological surveys of our States were in 

 progress or had but recently been completed. A great fund of 

 fresh scientific information was published by them. Agassiz had 

 come to this country a few years before, and was then about to> 

 gather around him the first of the band of students of natural 

 history through whom he so greatly enlightened us. Lyceum 

 lectures then held the place now taken by magazines, and public 

 teachers were orators in the sight of their hearers, not writers hid- 

 den behind paper and print. Guyot's book is characteristic of that 

 time. The several chapters retain to perfection the quality of 

 enthusiastic discourses by a man full of his subject and devoted 

 to it. It is doubtless for this charm of style, as well as for the 

 interest of its matter, that the book has so long and deservedly 

 been popular with geographic readers. 



Two chief lines of thought run through the book. One is the- 

 importance of the vertical element, — the relief of the land ; the other 

 is the intimate relation between the conditions of the land and of 

 its inhabitants. Concerning both of these aspects of geography 

 we owe much to Guyot; but the " Earth and Man" hardly repre- 

 sents thetr present position. The more modern phase of geo- 

 graphic study accepts the importance that Guyot placed on relief,, 

 but adds the more direct consideration of local form and its evo- 

 lution, to which Guyot gave but brief attention. The physical 

 control of human conditions is as attractive a study as when 

 Guyot brought it to us; but, with a fuller understanding of its 

 complexitifs, we have come to be perhaps more cautious in our 

 generalizations than he was. The modern writer might well 

 hesitate before connecting the great area of our forests and the 

 "melancholy, co^d, and insensible" nature of our Indians in the 

 relation of cause and effect. 



As a book illustrating a well-marked epoch in our geographical 

 lirerature, Guyot's "Earth and Man'' should be placed in every 

 school library; but, as a school-book for this end of the century,, 

 it cannot be highly regarded, although its publishers would seem 

 to place it in that light. It does not appear to us to be true, as is 

 claimed in a prefatory note to the book, that "the present edition 

 of 'Earth and Man' has been revised in a few points affected by 

 the progress of scientific knowledge since the appearance of the- 

 work." It would not be Guyot's " Earth and Man" if it were so- 

 revised. It would be a new book. Moreover, it possesses few of 

 the qualities desired in a modern text-hook. It is not demonstra- 

 tive or disciplinary in its quality, and this because it accomplishes 

 so precisely the intention of its author. It presents his glowing 

 lectures as they were given; and as such, without significant re- 

 vision, its republication is welcome. 



