May 4, 1900.] 



SCIENCE, 



705 



of the Coast Lines ; the Laurentian Highlands ; 

 Glacial Action ; the Appalachians ; Rocky- 

 Mountain System ; the Great Plains ; Climate ; 

 Rainfall and "Vegetation ; Aboriginal People ; 

 and History. The plan followed in reference 

 to the United States is characterized by the 

 editor as novel, and ' perhaps the most instruc- 

 tive in the book.' Surely it is not too much to 

 say that in the sixty-three pages devoted to the 

 United States we have the best existing sum- 

 mary of the present geographical features of 

 our Republic, causally considered. In the re- 

 gional description of the United States the area 

 is divided into physical provinces, and in each 

 the effect of the physical features in shaping or 

 determining the social and economic conditions 

 in the present or past is well brought out, and 

 so skillfully done that the political phase seems 

 a necessary part of the physical phase, as is, 

 perhaps, best shown in the section on] New 

 England. 



The chapter is accompanied by an outline 

 map of the United States, which is particularly 

 graphic and usable. It will be noted from the 

 map that the author's division of the United 

 States into physical divisions differs very mate- 

 rially from the divisions previously published 

 by our workers in geomorphology. The scheme 

 here used is simple and accurate, and equally 

 well suited to those who know the several re- 

 gions personally, and to those who do not. 

 This chapter should be read by all who desire 

 a clear, interesting, and faithful account of the 

 United States. 



As a whole, the volume deserves a place 

 among the necessary reference books, at ready 

 call in all libraries, public and private. There 

 are few inaccuracies and few typographical 

 errors ; the book being printed in a pleasing 

 and attractive manner on paper that, though 

 thin, is good, so that the volume is not un- 

 wieldy in spite of its length. This volume 

 will, undoubtedly, be the standard one volume 

 reference book for years to come, and the edi- 

 tor deserves great praise for his skill and care 

 in carrying to successful completion a compli- 

 cated and difficult enterprise. 



Richard E. Dodge. 

 Teachers College, 



Columbia University. 



A Manual of Psychology. By G. F. Stout, 

 M.A., LL.D. London, University Corres- 

 pondence College Press. 1899. Pp. 643. 

 The psychological world has been anticipat- 

 ing this book with lively interest since the ap- 

 pearance of the author's Analytic Psychology 

 in 1896. In the preface to that work Dr. Stout 

 writes as follows: " When I first planned the 

 present work, it was my intention to follow the 

 genetic order of treatment. But I found myself 

 baffled in the attempt to do this without a pre- 

 paratory analysis of the developed conscious- 

 ness. * * * I therefore found myself driven to 

 pave the way for genetic treatment by a pre- 

 vious analytic investigation ; and the result was 

 the present work. It must, therefore, be re- 

 garded, even in respect to my own plan of pro- 

 cedure, as a fragment of a larger whole. * * * 

 I may say that my strongest psychological in- 

 terest lies in certain genetic questions, and 

 especial^ in those on which ethnographic evi- 

 dence can be brought to bear." In judging the 

 Manual, then, one must keep in mind its pre- 

 decessor which is, in a certain sense, also its 

 complement. It is, however, necessary to ob- 

 serve, at the same time, the distinct offices of 

 the two works. The first is a general, syste- 

 matic treatise ; "its aim is to bring systematic 

 order into the crowd of facts concerning our 

 mental life revealed by analysis of ordinary ex- 

 perience : " the second is a text-book. Many 

 divergences in the two which one is inclined, 

 at first sight, to lay to a change in standpoint 

 are undoubtedly to be ascribed rather to a dif- 

 ference in the manner of exposition. 



There is no doubt that the wave of psycho- 

 logical enthusiasm which has been advancing so 

 steadily for a quarter of a century is tending to 

 eddy into a series of specific, but profound in- 

 terests. The change is natural ; it might have 

 been read beforehand from the history of any 

 one of the older disciplines. Systematic think- 

 ing reorganizes itself by concentrating at criti- 

 cal points, as really as does matter by the 

 redistribution of its functions. Just now one 

 of the currents of psychological thought is 

 flooding towards the genetic center of activity. 

 Is it not time, many psychologists are asking, 

 to construct a paleontology of consciousness 

 upon the basis of collected fragments ? Can we 



