132 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. XV. No. 



after being withheld from the public gaze by their author for 

 half a century. These rude sketches will for tlve first time be 

 made public, in facsimile, in Scrilmer's for Mai'ch. 



— Kirk Muni-oe, who has spent many winters among the 

 Florida Seminoles, in. his article for the March Scribner, de- 

 scribes the immense turban which is the universal masculine 

 head-di-ess and disting-uishing badge of that tribe. 



— Professor William James of Harvard, in his article on hyp- 

 notism, entitled "The Hidden Self,"' in the March Scribner, 

 says, "I know a non- hysterical woman who, in her trances, 

 knows facts which altogether transcend her possible normal con- 

 sciousness, — facts about the lives of people whom she never saw 

 or heard of before. I am well aware of all the fiabilities to 

 whicli this statement exposes me, and I make it deliberately, 

 having practically no doubt whatever of its truth. My own im- 

 pression is that the ti-ance condition is an immensely complex 

 and fluctuating thing, into the understanding of which vv-e have 

 hardly begun to peneti-ate, and concerning which any very 

 sweeping generalization is sure to be premature. A comparative 

 study of ti'ances and subconscious states is meanwhile of the most 

 urgent importance for the comprehension of our nature. ' ' 



— Horace Baker, who studied the subject carefully in Aus- 

 tralia, will describe ' ' The Blackf ellow and his Boomerang ' ' in 

 the March Scribner' s. " This curious and unique weapon," he 

 says, ' ' about which so much has been %vi-itten and so little is 

 really known, is a cixrved piece of wood, slightly convex on one 

 side, and nearly flat on the other. It is cut from a natural bend 

 or I'oot of a tree, the hardest and heaviest wood being always 

 selected, and its curve follows the gi'ain of the wood. Thus it 

 will vary from a slight curve to nearly a right angle, no two 

 ever being the same shape. It is about three-eighths of an inch 

 thick, and from two to tlu-ee inches wide, tapering toward the 

 ends, n-hich are either round or pointed. The edge is sharpened 

 all around, and the length varies from fifteen inches to three and 

 a half feet. ' ' 



— The March number of Tlie Chautauquan presents among 

 other subjects the following : ' 'The Politics of Mediaeval Italy, ' ' 

 by Professor Philip Van Ness Myers ; ■ 'Tlie Archseological Club 

 at Rome, ' ' by James A Harrison ; ' -Eoman Morals, ' ' by Princi- 

 pal James Donaldson ; ' 'Life in Mediaeval Italy, ' ' by the Rev. 

 Alfred J. Church; "Torquato Tasso," by Ai-lo Bates; "Traits 

 of Human Nature," by the Rev. J. M. Buckley; "The Nation- 

 alization of Industry in Europe," by Franklin H. Giddings; 

 ' 'The Problems in the Physics of Photography, ' ' by Professor 

 Edward L. Nichols ; ' 'Moral Teachings of Science, ' ' by Arabella 

 B. Buckley; "English Politics and Society," by J. Ranken 

 Towse ; ' 'Karl Marx, ' ' by Professor Charles J. Little ; ' 'Trusts, 

 and How to deal with Them, ' ' by George Gunton ; ' 'Pan-Ameri- 

 can Congi-ess, " by the Hon. W. P. Frye; "The Woman Question 

 in Germany," by Frau J. Kettler; "Common Sense as to Chris- 

 tian Science, " by H. M. Dexter. 



— Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce to be published in April, 

 ■"Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany," for high 

 schools and elementary college courses, by Douglas Houghton 

 Campbell, Ph.D., professor of botany in the Indiana University. 

 It is designed to serve as both a laboratory guide and an outline 

 of the classification of the vegetable kingdom, based upon the 

 results of the most recent and reliable authorities. To this end a 

 number of tjTpical plants have been carefully selected, and these 

 studied in detail, with full directions for gathering or growing 

 the specimens as well as for the study of their stx-ucture. This 

 work is supplemented by a brief diagnosis of the group to which 

 each plant belong-s, with such descriptions or figures of related 

 forms as will enable the student to recognize the common forms 

 likely to be met with, as well as the relationships of the differ- 

 ent groups of plants. Since the place to begin is the beginning, 

 and the elements of botany do not consist in the "analysis" of a 

 certain number of flowering plants, the lower plants are consid- 

 ered fii-st, and at some length, as a preparation for the study of 

 the more difficult structure of the ferns and flowering plants. 

 This featvire is especially commended to the attention of teachei-s 

 as an aid in their work, as well as an incentive to the study of 



these important forms, some knowledge of which is indispensable 

 to an intelligent comprehension of any scientific classification of 

 the plant kingdom. 



— The Cassell Publishing Company, New York, announce thi-ee 

 editions of the "Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff. " The one they 

 first issued at two dollars has been reduced to one dollar and a 

 half ; there is another in plainer binding at one dollar, and a 

 third in paper at fifty cents. These editions are printed from 

 the same plates ; and the two former have the portrait and illus- 

 trations as in the original two-dollar edition, while the latter 

 has the portrait only. Nothing has been ' 'suppressed' ' in this 

 ti-anslation of Mile. Bashkirtseff ' s journal. Mrs. Serrano simply 

 left out such parts as were uninteresting or trivial. The same 

 firm also announce a new story by Judge Tourgee, under the 

 title ' 'Pactolus Prime. ' ' "Rliile dealing with a new phase of 

 the race problem, the author slashes right and left at the pet 

 follies of the time, and touches a good many people's self-com- 

 placency, who perhaps have little thought of being hit. 



— P. Blakiston, Son, & Co., Philadelphia, will publish next 

 week a new German-English medical dictionary, by Frederick 

 Treeves, F.R.C.S., and Mi-. Hugo Lang; "A Manual of the Prac- 

 tice of Medicine, " by Frederick Taylor, M.D. ; and a text-book 

 on obstetrics, by Dr. F. Winckel (Munich) , translated by Pro- 

 fessor Edgar F. Smith of the University of New York. 



— Last week's issue of Oarden and Forest contains an inter- 

 esting view of the entrance to Pere-la-Chaise, the famous Paris- 

 ian cemetery, and an illusti-ation of a remarkable specimen of 

 the beautiful blue orchid, Vanda ccendea ; Mr. William Wat- 

 son of the Royal Gardens at Kew writes of cape heaths ; and the 

 duty of Congress to our public forests is discussed editorially. 

 Among the contributors to this number are Professor Budd of 

 Iowa, Herr Max Leichtlin, Charles A. Dana, and Mrs. Schuyler 

 Van Rensselaer. 



— The following new publications are announced by the J. B. 

 Lippincott Co. : ' 'A Text-Book of Assaying, ' ' for the use of 

 students, mine managers, assayers, etc., by J. J. Beringer, lec- 

 turer to the Mining Association of, and public analyst for, the 

 county of Cornwall ; and S. C. Beringer, — a work that has been 

 prepared to meet the existing want of a practical ' -handy-book' ' 

 for the assayer. Aside from a description of those substances 

 which have a conmiercial value, the work contains shoi-t accounts 

 of the rarer elements, since they are frequently met with, and 

 occasionally affect the accuracy of an assay. Under the more 

 important methods, the results of a series of experiments showing 

 the effect of varying conditions on the accuracy of an assay are 

 given. This record will be of great value to students who, learn- 

 ing any particular process, cannot do better than repeat such a 

 series of experiments. ' 'Manual of Mythology in Relation to 

 Greek Art, "by Maxime Collignon, ti-anslated and enlarged by 

 Jane E. Han-ison, author of ' 'Manual of Ancient Sculpture. ' ' 

 The subject of this work is not jnythology in general, but sti-ictly 

 mythology as seen in art. Literature is cited, but only in so far 

 as it throws light upon the conceptions of art. All questions 

 dealing with the origins of myths and their literai-y variations 

 are of necessity set aside. A brief summary is fii-st given of the 

 general principles that govern the formation of types in art ; and 

 the development of the type of each god or goddess, genius or 

 hero, is historically considered. The book is intended, in fact, 

 to supplement, not to supersede, existing handbooks. "Manual 

 of Ancient Sculpture, ' ' by Pierre Paris, formerly member of the 

 Ecole Fran5aise at Athens; edited and augmented by Jane E. 

 Harrison, author of "Introductory Studies in Greek Art," etc. 



' 'Crime : Its Nature, Causes, Treatment, and Prevention, ' ' by 

 Sanford M. Green, author of "Green's Practice, " etc. Of books 

 in press, the.fii-m announces ' 'Stanley's Emin Pasha Expedition, ' ' 

 by A. J. Wauters, with maps, thirty-four porti-aits, and illus- 

 trations; -'Medical Diagnosis, " a guide to the knowledge and 

 discrimination of disease, by J. M. Da Costa, M.D. ; "A Text- 

 Book of Clinical Diagnosis: The Chemical, Microscopical, and 

 Bacteriological Evidence of Disease," ti-anslated from the second' 

 edition, by James Cagney, with additions by William Stirling, 

 professor of physiology, Owens College, Manchester: "Lippin- 



