July 20, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



Mr. Gurney contributes two articles. In the first he describes 

 some curious experiments in hypnotism, in which the subject is 

 given an hypnotic suggestion to write such and such a word, and 

 when awal<ened is utterly unable to recall the word, not even by an 

 offer of money ; but when seated at the planchette he unconscious- 

 ly, or, as Mr. Gurney prefers, automatically, writes the word 

 without knowing what he has written. The variations on this ex- 

 periment are more curious than valuable ; but the cardinal idea is 

 a happy one, and promises to shed new light on ihero/eoi memory 

 in hypnotic states. Many of the author's deductions from and ex- 

 planations of his phenomena will not be indorsed by authorities in 

 hypnotism. In his second article Mr. Gurney argues at great 

 length for the admission of two kinds of suggestion in hypnotism, 

 — the first the recognized physical suggestion ; and the second a 

 purely psychical suggestion, acting without contact and at a dis- 

 tance. He traces the relations and analogies of the one to the 

 other, and marks off the boundary-lines of the two. All of this is 

 decidedly premature, but it serves a useful purpose in singling out 

 the very point upon which further study should and will be directed. 

 Can the increased sensibility, the astounding subtlety, and the 

 marvellous shrewdness of hysterical hypnotics account for the ob- 

 served phenomena, taking into account the difficulties of a complete 

 observation and our ignorance of the possibilities of deception, or 

 must we introduce an agency new to the domain of science ? Quite 

 relevant in this connection is the footnote of Mr. Gurney 's, pointing 

 out that hypnotic subjects easily establish a fashion, and that 

 here is the clew to the differences between the schools of Paris and 

 of Nancy; and it may be added, that an omission of a factor such 

 as this would make a telepathic fact of what, under this view, is 

 only a shrewd and largely unconscious acting-out of a suggestion. 



Among the critical notices, Mr. F. W. H. Myers vifrites a very 

 matter-of-fact account of the work of the Seybert Commission, and 

 describes some observations of Professor Foutan on seeing with 

 the fingers, and hearing with the fingers, the chief feature of which 

 is their incredibility. Mr. Myers overestimates their value, and 

 they must be corroborated before they can rank as facts at all. 



What in many ways is the most important and interesting con- 

 tribution in the number is to be found on the last two pages. Here 

 we are told that the Creery girls, from whom experimental evi- 

 dence of telepathy had been gained, were detected in the use of a 

 code of signals. They had both a visual and an ordinary code ; 

 and, though these codes may not have been used on all occasions, 

 it throws discredit on all results obtained through their agency. If 

 scientific observers can thus be deceived by young girls, — inex- 

 perienced, and apparently perfectly smcere girls, — ought not this 

 to impress upon ever)- investigator the profound importance of ac- 

 quainting himself with the possibilities of deception, and perhaps 

 to conduct his observations on the principle of the detective who 

 held every one to be criminally inclined until proven to be honest.' 



Looking Backward. By EDWARD Bellamy. Boston, Ticknor. 

 16°. 50 cents. 



The preface to this work is dated in the year 2000, and its ob- 

 ject is to show the state of society which in the author's opinion is 

 destined to prevail at that time. The author, being a novelist, has 

 written the work in the form of a story, the principal actor in which, 

 Mr. West, tells his own tale. He goes into a trance in the year 

 1SS7, and awakens in the year 2000, when he finds himself in a so- 

 ciety so different from that he had been accustomed to, that it took 

 him some time to get acquainted with it. This society is based on 

 State socialism in the most extreme form. All industry is con- 

 trolled by the national authorities at Washington, the individual 

 States as well as all private corporations and capitalists being done 

 away with. The authorities are almost exclusively occupied with 

 managing the national industr)', but little legislation being needed; 

 for the people are all so very good, that they have no disposition to 

 wrong each other, the few cases of crime thatoccur being regarded 

 as examples of ' atavism.' 



This amazing moral improvement, our readers will understand, 

 is entirely due to the equal distribution of property. Every individ- 

 ual has an equal share with every other in the national industry, so 

 that there is no check on the increase of population. On the other 

 hand, every one is required to work according to his abilities ; yet 



the men of the new era are represented as loving each other so very 

 much that they are perfectly satisfied with this arrangement. 

 Moreover, the wealth of the world is so enormously increased, that 

 everybody lives as luxuriously as the richest folks do now. In 

 short, the book depicts the usual socialistic Utopia, with many re- 

 finements of detail. 



The absurdity of the whole thing is evident from various consid- 

 erations. Besides the difficulty of managing such a colossal indus- 

 trial system in the way supposed, — a difficulty which the author 

 of the book fails entirely to appreciate. — the social order here ex- 

 hibited assumes such an increase of wealth as could not possibly 

 take place without mechanical or other inventions such as have not 

 yet been even dreamed of, and which Mr. Bellamy does not even 

 hint at. For, not only are all men to be rich under the coming 

 regi^ie, but they are not to work more than five or six hours a day, 

 and are to cease work entirely at the age of forty-five. The idea 

 advanced by the author, that such a vast increase in the production 

 of wealth will result from a mere change in the mode of distribu- 

 tion, is preposterous. 



Again : Mr. Bellamy's scheme assumes the possibility of a moral 

 improvement such as cannot be made in less than some thousands 

 of years, if indeed it ever can be. The theory that all wickedness 

 and crime are due to the unequal distribution of wealth is contra- 

 dicted by every man's personal consciousness and of all that we 

 know of human nature. It should be added, that Mr. Bellamy's 

 ideal of human happiness is any thing but a high one, for it consists 

 mainly in ' easy and agreeable relaxation : ' and he expressly says 

 that ' bread, and games' are the prime necessaries of life. In short, 

 the book describes a state of society and of human life that is not only 

 impossible, but in many respects as undesirable as it is impossible. 



Memory and its Doctors. By Dr. E. Pick. London, Triibner. 



Memory: What it is, and How to improve it. By David K.W. 

 London, Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co. 8'. 



" Loisette " ex-posed, together with Loisette's Complete System of 

 Physiological Memory. By G. S. Fellows. New York, The 

 Author. 8". 25 cents. 



Although the search for the philosopher's stone has been 

 abandoned, and men have come to agree that there is no royal road 

 to knowledge, still one can often detect in many a mind a lurking 

 fondness for the belief that there may possibly be some undiscov- 

 ered short cut to mental attainment which a modern Raymond 

 Lully or Ponce de Leon may reveal in a few lessons under the in- 

 spiration of a proper fee. It seems not a rash assumption to make, 

 that, of the many thousands who within a few years have paid 

 tribute to a certain ' American memory professor,' not a few came 

 with the secret hope of emerging from the five lessons with their 

 entire mental furniture put into perfect order and vastly improved. 

 While these people lend a willing ear to the physiologist when he 

 explains to them how mental acquisition is related to organic 

 growth ; how everywhere normal growth is a gradual, assimilative, 

 and digestive process, not to be hurried by overdosing and cram ; 

 yet they have not the necessary faith to apply this knowledge to the 

 particular case in which they are interested. This, together with a 

 successful advertising machinery and production of testimonials, 

 must largely account for the phenomenal success that has attended 

 this professor of memory. 



Remarkable memories have from ancient times attracted a good 

 deal of attention. Especial attention seems to have been given to- 

 the subject of artificial memorj' throughout the sixteenth, seven- 

 teenth, and eighteenth centuries. Dr. Pick gives a convenient 

 sketch of the histor)' of the topic. Petrus de Ravenna is said to 

 have played a game of chess, and to have dictated two letters on 

 stated topics at the same time that dice were thrown and the throws 

 recorded. When the game was over, he recited all the moves of 

 the game of chess, all the words of the two letters backwards, and 

 each throw of the dice in order. System after system of mnemon- 

 ics was proposed, each promising more than its predecessor, and 

 all painfully artificial. The association of dates and items to be re- 

 membered visually with the compartments of an imaginarj' house, or 

 orally with the names of the letters, with numbers and harsh com- 



