238 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 249 



have a beneficial influence. Mr. Mills sees, as most of us do, the 

 evils attendant on caucuses and on party management generally, 

 but he does not suggest any thing new in the way of remedy. He 

 has also some good remarks on the folly of mere office-seeking and 

 the nobleness of disinterested statesmanship. We are sorry to 

 have to add that the typography of the book is very bad indeed. 

 Such misspellings as ' monopilies,' ' forsee,' ' weich ' for ' which,' 

 and ' ptofit ' for 'profit,' are frequent. On p. 159 there are three 

 words misspelled ; and on p. 73 is the following sentence : " A 

 party as a party cannot refuse to meet an issue squarly at the bal- 

 lot box, and then as a party squarly meet it anywhere else." Surely 

 American typography can do better than that. 



Crundriss der Psychologie. Von Dr. F. Wollny. Leipzig, 

 Thomas. 8°. 



It is difficult to classify this pamphlet. It is not an elementary 

 text-book, because it lacks all system, and treats special topics. 

 It is not a technical contribution, for it is full of commonplaces, and 

 has no definite end in view. Perhaps it is best to regard it as an ex- 

 pression of the author's interests, and as such it has little interest. 

 The author declares his atheistic tendencies, and introduces much 

 not very relevant ethical matter. After discussing in a very unsys- 

 tematic and eclectic manner the elementary mental powers, — sen- 

 sation, will, perception, memory, — both separately and in combined 

 action, he adds a few short chapters on sleep and dreams, on in- 

 sanity, on animal mind, and on alleged higher psychic powers. 

 About the only noteworthy passages are to be found in the preface 

 and in the appendix. The former announces that the author in- 

 tends to keep psychology and physiology distinct, and has no sym- 

 pathy with tedious and meaningless psychophysical experiments. 

 As a matter of fact, the topics treated often demand a physiological 

 treatment, and many of the chapters begin with the statement of 

 such a fact. Instead of taking it from a physiological text-book, 

 the author records it as his own experience. It is difificult to take 

 his objections seriously. The appendix contains a great ' discovery.' 

 The human body is susceptible to magnetic influence. Furthermore, 

 if one person in the neighborhood of a magnet concentrates his at- 

 tention upon another, a subtle connection between the two is made, 

 and one can read the thoughts of the other without sensory trans- 

 fer. To this so-called ' fact ' are added a host of fanciful notions 

 with much mysticism. It is queer in what various forms these un- 

 scientific notions arise. Finally, the book is written in orthodox 

 German style, — ponderous, ' baggaged ' sentences and involved 

 constructions. 



Itah'att Grammar. By C. H. Grandgent. Boston, Heath. 12". 

 In this volume the author, who is tutor in modern languages in 

 Harvard University, has attempted, and very successfully we think, 

 to put into convenient form and small compass sufficient of the 

 grammar of the Italian language to meet the requirements of the 

 ordinary student. The book, though representing Italian as at 

 present spoken and written, gives as many obsolete forms as may 

 be necessary for a student of the Italian classics. It is prepared 

 specially for use in colleges, but it will prove serviceable to any stu- 

 dent familiar with English grammar. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



A PARTY of forty engineers and their assistants, about a hun- 

 dred and fifty in all, will leave this city about the end of this month 

 for Nicaragua, to locate the exact route of the inter-oceanic canal, 

 and to obtain data from which to make accurate estimates as to the 

 cost of the work. The expedition will be in charge of Engineer 

 Perry, and will be joined a few weeks later by Chief-Engineer 

 Menocal. 



— A recent public test of the consolidated railway telegraph 

 system of train-telegraphy, made on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, 

 gave very satisfactory results. On a train moving sixty miles an 

 hour, messages were sent and received to and from other trains on 

 the road, and communication was had with this city and with dif- 

 ferent stations on the line. 



— We have received from the Clarendon Press the first number 

 of Annals of Botany, edited by Isaac Bayley Balfour, Sydney How- 



ard Vines, and William Gilson Farlow, assisted by other botanists. 

 The contents are, ' On Some Points in the Histology and Physiol- 

 ogy of the Fruits and Seeds of Rhamniis,' by H. Marshall Ward ; 

 ' On the Structure of the Mucilage-secreting Cells of Blechtittm 

 occideiitale, L., and Osinicnda recalls, L.,' by W. Gardiner and 

 Tokutaro Ito ; ' On Laticiferous Tissue in the Pith of Manihot 

 Glaziovii, and on the Presence of Nuclei in this Tissue,' by Agnes 

 Calvert and L. A. Boodle; ' Anomalous Thickening in the Roots of 

 Cycas Seemanni, Al. Braun,' by W. H. Gregg ; notes; review of 

 Sachs's ' Physiology of Plants ; ' and record of current literature. 



— The fifth biennial report of the Kansas State Historical Society 

 shows the work of the society for the two years ending Jan. 18, 

 1887. The society was then eleven years old. The primary object 

 of the society is that of collecting, arranging, and cataloguing a 

 library of the materials of Kansas history, including books, pam- 

 phlets, newspapers, maps, pictures, and, in short, every thing which 

 contains information concerning and going to illustrate the history 

 of Kansas. Incidentally, so interwoven has been the history of 

 Kansas with that of the whole country, and so much has it enlisted 

 a general interest, its library has come to be the recipient, largely 

 by gift, of not only the materials of the history, but of ever)' thing 

 of a literary and scientific character relating to all parts of the 

 country. The total of the library in January last was, of bound 

 volumes, 8,352 ; unbound volumes, 21,103 ; bound newspaper files 

 and volumes of periodicals, 5,986 ; making the total of the library, 

 35,441. Its yearly accession of the files of local newspapers is no 

 doubt greater than that of any other library in the country. The 

 regular issues of all the local newspapers, daily and weekly, pub- 

 lished in every county in Kansas, are freely given the society by the 

 publishers, and are bound, and placed on the shelves of the library. 

 Thus is being preserved the best of all materials of the history of 

 every town and neighborhood in the State. The report, among 

 other lists and tables, contains a list of the newspapers at the pres- 

 ent time published in Kansas; viz., 72 dailies, 12 semi-weeklies, 722 

 weeklies, 38 monthlies, i semi-monthly, i bi-monthly, 4 quarterlies, 

 and 2 occasionals, numbering 852 in all. The library is the prop- 

 erty of the State, and is kept in rooms in the State Capitol. 



— Among the latest issues of the Clarendon Press (Macmillan & 

 Co.) is a batch of classical books that are worthy of careful exam- 

 ination. The list includes the ' Phormio ' of Terence, Cicero's Cati- 

 linarian orations, ' The Knights ' of Aristophanes, the ' Eclogues ' 

 of Vergil, the first book of Tacitus' ' Annals,' and, in the Elementary 

 Classics Series, the seventh book of Caesar's ' Commentaries.' 

 They are all gotten up in that attractive and elegant way that 

 characterizes the Macmillans' work. Particular attention is due, 

 perhaps, to Dr. Merry's careful and accurate edition of the 

 ' Knights ' of Aristophanes. Both introduction and notes are ex- 

 tremely well done. 



— A series of lectures (twenty to twenty-four in number) will be 

 given at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, by Pro- 

 fessor Whitney, on geographical methods and results. The course 

 will begin on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 3 P.M. Admission free ; but 

 tickets must be obtained of the lecturer, by application through the 

 mail or in person ; and in their distribution, since the accommoda- 

 tion is limited, preference will be given to teachers, for whom the 

 course is specially intended. 



— The frequently observed longevity of eminent English scien- 

 tists is again shown in the high ages at which recently deceased 

 fellows of the Royal Society have died. Of fourteen fellows, six 

 lived to more than eighty years, and only one was under sixty at 

 the time of his death. The average age at death of the fourteen is 

 no less than seventy-five years. 



— Oscar Harger, for eighteen years the chief assistant of Prof. 

 O. C. Marsh, died in New Haven, Nov. 6. Mr. Harger was born at 

 Oxford, Conn., and was graduated from Yale College in the class 

 of '68. He was one of the high-stand members of his class, and 

 was looked upon at graduation as a young man of exceeding great 

 promise. When he graduated, his health had been considerably 

 impaired in consequence of hard study and application to literary 

 and other work, which he did in order to secure money to pay his 

 expenses through college. In 1870 Mr. Harger became assistant 



