Miscellaneous Intelligence. 331 



The great value of the book lies in the fact that the author 

 combines in his own personality the highest training, knowledge 

 and practical comprehension of modern science with a profound 

 and reverent Christian faith. 



In the first part a general survey of the progress of human 

 knowledge is presented, precise and exact in its criticism. It is 

 shown how step by step the crude fancies of a timid, ignorant 

 and superstitious people have been replaced by the exact and 

 demonstrated facts and laws of science : — a flat world, with the 

 mountain pillars supporting the roof of heaven, has become a 

 globe whirling free in space ; geocentric astronomy, the seven days 

 of creation, miracles, spontaneous generation and a carpenter idea 

 of, and an interfering God, have become the heliocentric solar sys- 

 tem, the illimitable spaces of the universe, the millions of years 

 of geologic time, the orderly evolution of worlds, of the structure 

 of the earth and of organisms, the conservation of energy and the 

 unerring sequence of cause and effect. These advances of knowl- 

 edge have seemed to take away the very foundation upon which 

 the old systems of theology rest. 



In the second part, with the same calm, scientific method, the 

 author shows how religious ideas have become clarified and their 

 essential truths brought out more distinctly, as the world has 

 advanced. We find in his terse, but sufficiently full, portrayal 

 of the modern conceptions of the personality of man and of God, 

 the scientific conception of providence, of prayer and the nature 

 and meaning of the bible, an admirable and sufficient answer to 

 his original question. 



The conclusion reached is that, although, as in science " cer- 

 tainty in natural science is demonstrated to be absolutely unat- 

 tainable ;" so " no claim of certainty can be maintained in regard 

 to Christianity as a system or in regard to any particular doctrine 

 of Christianity." Nevertheless, it is a fact, that, " The generation 

 in which we live — the generation which has accepted the doctrines 

 of modern science — is more strongly influenced by the teachings 

 of Christianity than any previous generation, and multitudes of 

 men and women find that the acceptance of scientific teachings in 

 no wise disturbs their personal religious life," and " our partial 

 knowledge justifies the prophetic hope that no scientific discovery 

 will contradict the essence of Christianity, and that the end of all 

 questioning will be the reestabiishment of faith." h. s. w. 



2. Beitrage zur chemischen Physiologie ; herausgegeben von 

 F. Hofmeister. IV. Band, 9-12 ; Braunschweig, 1903 (Vieweg 

 u. Sohn). — The closing parts of this volume contain a number of 

 important papers among the fifteen contributions. These include 

 extensive studies on the occurrence, of albumoses in the blood, 

 by O. Schumm ; two papers on glycolytic ferments ; an elaborate 

 investigation of the antecedents of the fibrin ferment, by Mora- 

 witz ; and several contributions pertaining to the chemistry of 

 the proteids. The possibility of transforming albumins into 

 globulins is emphasized in detail by L. Moll ; and Embden and 

 v. Fiirth have demonstrated that the rapid disappearance of typ- 



