260 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 268. 



and about their sinuous margins winds ter- 

 race upon terrace broadening up to the 

 plateau on which, some forty yards from 

 the sea, the sanatorium stands, sheltered 

 behind to the north by the mass of Monte 

 Pellegrino. Of this great and splendid cure- 

 house. Professor Cervello is the physician 

 in chief, and Baron Fassini, whose charm- 

 ing qualities as a host endear him to his 

 guests, is the director. The most perfect 

 modern systems of cure have been studied 

 in Germany and elsewhere by Professor 

 Cervello, whose dietetic regulations will be 

 rendered less oppressive by the ministra- 

 tions of a first-rate French chef, and whose 

 draughts of fresh air will be administered 

 to those who desire it in a beautiful yacht 

 of 300 tons, which is always to be at the 

 call of the patient. In Palermo Commen- 

 datore Florio himself, the Messrs. Whit- 

 taker and other residents did their utmost 

 by brilliant hospitality and constant kind- 

 ness to make the visit of the English physi- 

 cians and their friends a memorable one ; 

 and not the least delightful of their mem- 

 ories will be that of the sanatorium and its 

 grounds illuminated by myriads of lamps 

 and hundreds of men with torches as they 

 steamed away from the harbor on the night 

 of their departure. 



It is urged on behalf of the Villa Igiea 

 that Palermo is the nearest place to the 

 Continent of Europe where so delightful a 

 climate is to be had, where there are so 

 naany resources for quiet cheerfulness and 

 so much charm for the eye and imagination. 

 But it is needless to add that residence in a 

 fairy place, with a French cook and a yacht 

 at command, can be no cheap cure. The 

 sanatorium when finished will accommo- 

 date about 100 patients, who must neces- 

 sarily belong to the wealthiest class of 

 society. 



In respect of finance I must add that Com - 

 mendatore Florio did not issue his generous 

 invitation with any eye to commercial ad- 



vertisement. He has built the Villa Igiea 

 with no intention of personal profit ; after 

 providing a fund for repairs and contingen- 

 cies, all surplus is to be set aside for build- 

 ing a sanatorium or sanatoriums for the 

 poor. He was also wishful that English 

 physicians should see at work a method 

 of inhalation of the vapor of formaldehyd 

 which Professor Cervello believes will prove 

 a very valuable ally in his treatment of 

 pulmonary phthisis. This method the PrO' 

 feasor has used for some time in the con- 

 sumption wards of his hospital with, as it ap- 

 pears to him, satisfactory results. Whether 

 this method turns out to be valuable or not, 

 and this time only eau show, there can be 

 no doubt even now that the Villa Igiea 

 ofiers incomparable advantages as a sana- 

 torium for the modern system of cure of the 

 most grevious of all pests of man. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Social Laws. An Outline of Sociology. By G. 

 Tarde. Translated from the French by How- 

 AED C. Warren, Assistant Professor of Ex- 

 perimental Psychology in Princeton Univer- 

 sity, with a preface by James Mare Baldwin. 

 New York, The Macmillan Company. 1899. 

 Small 8°. Pp. xii+213. 

 This little book consists of a collection of 

 lectures delivered by M. Tarde at the College 

 Libre des Sciences Sociales in Paris during the 

 month of October, 1897. The French edition 

 appeared in 1898 under the title, Les Lois So- 

 ciales ; Esquisse d'une Sociologie. It has now 

 come forth very opportunely in an English 

 dress, which enables those who do not keep a 

 close watch for important contemporary for- 

 eign literature to acquaint themselves with the 

 views of one of the leading thinkers of our 

 time. It does not claim, as the author is at 

 pains to say, to give a summary of his three 

 principal works, The Laws of Imitation, Uni- 

 versal Opposition, and Social Logic, but rather 

 to show what there is in common in these 

 works, and how they together constitute a sys- 

 tem of social philosophy. 



There is one respect in which Tarde may be 



