January 24, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



6f 



Aside from these unfortunate ventures, speculative regions, and 

 a certain tendency to looseness of statement, which is, however, in 

 most cases annoying rather than misleading, we find much to com- 

 mend in the book. It presents the most complete and connected 

 discussion of photochemical theories with which we are ac- 

 quainted, is in the main accurate in its statements of experimen- 

 tal facts and the explanations which have been proposed for them, 

 and thus forms an important and valuable contribution to the lit- 

 erature of the subject. It is rich in suggestion to the chemist, and 

 will undoubtedly fulfil the author's hope of attracting new workers 

 to this field for experimental inquiry. 



Evohttio7i. Popular Lectures and Discussions before the Brooklyn- 

 Ethical Association. Boston, James H. West. 12°. $2. 



This book consists of fifteen different papers, originally prepared 

 for a popular audience, but designed to present the evolution theory 

 in a thorough and scientific manner. They are by many different 

 authors, and deal with all the leading aspects of the subject. The 

 two opening papers treat of the life and work of the two chief ex- 

 pounders of the new doctrine, Darwin and Spencer ; then follow 

 others on the evolution of the earth and the solar system ; then the 

 biological department is dealt with ; while a considerable portion 

 of the book is devoted to the evolution of morals, religion, and 

 society. The essays, or lectures, are in the main well adapted to 

 the special object in view, that of making evolutionary doctrines 

 better known to popular audiences and general readers ; for the 

 writers seem to have taken pains to make their subject plain, and 

 to have had good success in doing so. Each lecture, as originally 

 delivered, was followed by a discussion, in which views opposed to 

 those of the lecturer, and even to the evolution theory generally, 

 were sometimes expressed, and which seem to have been of consider- 

 able interest ; but the report of them in this volume is rather too 

 brief to give an adequate idea of them. 



The views expressed in the various lectures are, of course, in the 

 main those of Darwin and Spencer ; but we notice, nevertheless, 

 a decided disagreement with those thinkers on certain points. 

 Thus Professor Raymond regards the theory of natural selection as 

 inadequate to account for the derivation of species, and intimates 

 that " Darwin's formula left out more important factors than any 

 of those it contained ; " and Professor Cope expressed a similar 

 opinion. Again, Mr. Chadwick, speaking of Spencer's proposed 

 reconciliation of science and religion, says that he " cannot con- 

 ceive a more senseless and ridiculous reconciliation than this ; " 

 ■and he elsewhere speaks of it as " the disreputable compromise 

 between science and religion." We notice, as the most prominent 

 fact in the series of discussions, that when the subject of religion 

 was introduced, a great divergence of opinion was immediately 

 manifest ; one, at least, of the speakers expressing the extremes! 

 materialistic views, while the views of others were strongly spirit- 

 ualistic, and of others still pantheistic. Indeed, it looks very much 

 as if the evolution school was likely to divide, as the Hegelian 

 school did after its founder's death, into three distinct branches, 

 — one theistic, another pantheistic, and the third atheistic. How- 

 ever, we have no desire to set up as prophets ; and so we close by 

 recommending this collection of essays to those who wish for a 

 simple but accurate exposition of the evolutionary philosophy. 



An Appeal to Pharaoh. The Negro Problem and its Radical 

 Solution. New York, Fords, Howard, & Hulbert. 16°. $1. 



The anonymous author of this work is very much troubled 

 about the negro problem, and he here devotes two hundred pages 

 to a proposed solution of it. He dwells at great length on the fact 

 that the black and the white races in this country show no sign of 

 intermingling even socially, and paints in extraordinary colors the 

 antipathy that exists between them. He maintains that in the 

 Southern States the two races are farther apart in feeling, and less 

 disposed to social intercourse with each other, than they were when 

 slavery prevailed ; and he fears that this estrangement will increase 

 with the progress of time. In the North, too, he asserts that the 

 separation of the two races is scarcely less marked ; and for this 

 race antipathy there is, in his opinion, no cure. Moreover, he pre- 

 dicts that all sorts of evils will result from this antipathy in the 

 future ; that race conflicts of one kind or another will continually 



arise; and that there will never be harmony between the North- 

 and South till the negro is got rid of. And so he proposes to send- 

 the whole body of seven million blacks back to Africa, whether 

 they will or no. A colony is to be planted on the Kongo or some- 

 where else, and the negroes are to be transported thither, the 

 United States paying for their passage, and also furnishing them a 

 little money with which to begin their new life. The author fears 

 that his scheme will be pronounced impracticable, and devotes a 

 great deal of space to showing how it could be put into execution. 

 To our mind, however, the scheme is not so much impracticable as 

 inhuman ; though its inhumanity is perhaps exceeded by its silli- 

 ness. If the negroes should choose to emigrate, there is no objec- 

 tion to their doing so ; but this proposal to compel them to go is 

 one to which the American people will not listen. The negro is 

 here to stay, and men like the author of this book must make up 

 their minds to treat him with justice and fairness; and when they 

 do so, all danger of trouble between the two races will disappear. 



The Psychology of Attention. By Th. Ribot. Chicago, Open- 

 Court Publ. Co. 12". 75 cents. 

 This work is an authorized translation from the French, and 

 originally appeared in the pages of the Open Court. It might bet- 

 ter have been entitled the " physiology " of attention, for it treats- 

 almost entirely of the motions and other physical phenomena that 

 accompany attention, and has very little to say about attention it- 

 self. The author defines attention as " an intellectual state, ex- 

 clusive or predominant, with spontaneous or artificial adaptation of 

 the individual ; " yet when he comes to treat the subject he neg- 

 lects the intellectual state entirely, and confines himself to its physi- 

 cal and e.motional accompaniments. The thesis that he attempts 

 to prove is that every species of attention is invariably accompanied 

 by certain motor changes in the bodily frame, and that these are 

 so essential to attention that they may almost be said to constitute 

 it. In other words, after defining attention as an intellectual state, 

 M. Ribot treats it as if it was a bodily state. Moreover, he fails to 

 show that attention is always accompanied by motions or motor 

 phenomena. Of course, in the case of sense-perception the motor 

 element in attention is apparent ; but in the case of abstract thought 

 it is not at all apparent to the ordinary consciousness, and M. Ribot 

 does not make it any more so. Nevertheless there is much in his 

 book that will be interesting, especially to students of psycho- 

 physics. The work is divided into three parts, treating successively 

 of spontaneous, voluntary, and morbid attention ; and under all 

 these heads are presented facts and ideas that will serve towards a. 

 more perfect theory of attention hereafter. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 

 The supplement to Harper's Weekly of Jan. 18 contains a^^ 

 interesting article on recent discoveries in the Kongo basin, detail- 

 ing " the geographical surprises and new-found peoples of the past 

 five years." The article is from the pen of C. C. Adams, and is 

 illustrated by a large map and several other engravings. 



— The picturesque forest pavilion at the Paris Exposition is 

 illustrated and described in Garden and Forest for Jan. 15, where 

 we find, as well, an account of the delightful voyage down the 

 Rhone, so seldom made by tourists, and a picture of a positiveljr 

 unique orchid, Phalcenopsis F. L. Ames. 



— The closing volume of C. A. Fyffe's " History of Modern Eu- 

 rope " is now in the hands of Cassell & Co. The volume embraces 

 the period from 1848 to 1S78, and throws, we understand, consid- 

 erable light on the complex problems in European politics which 

 led to the Franco-Prussian war. 



— More than twelve thousand letters and manuscripts of John 

 Ericsson, the great engineer, have been put in the hands of Col.W. C. 

 Church, to use in the preparation of his .biography. The first of 

 two articles on Ericsson, by Col. Church, will appear in the Febru- 

 ary Scribner's, with some illustrations from rare sources, among 

 them the reproduction of an engraving made by Ericsson at the 

 age of eighteen. G. Frederick Wright, president of Oberlin Col- 

 lege, will have a short article on the curious and very ancient image 

 thrown up not long ago by an artesian well at Nampa, Idaho. 



