Miscellaneous Intelligence. 241 



has been admirably done and presents a full and interesting 

 account of the early beginnings of science and its development 

 to recent times. It might well be studied carefully by every 

 intelligent student. The reader will be again impressed with 

 the remarkable acuteness of the great minds of the past in 

 developing mathematical principles and their application to 

 mechanics and astronomy. At the same time, of the science of 

 the natural world but little was learned beyond the accumulation 

 of certain obvious facts and observations. Even a mind so keen 

 and original as that of Aristotle failed to realize what could be 

 obtained from experience and as remarked by Bacon, "he first 

 settled his system to his will and then twisted experience around 

 and made her bend to his system. ' ' 



This early history of science occupies the first two hundred 

 pages, then follows the discussion of the birth of the new 

 astronomy and the beginnings of modern natural science with 

 the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centu- 

 ries. The reader thus passes on to the period of the eighteenth 

 century when the foundations of much of our present science 

 were laid. The marvelous developments of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury are so recent and so definitely involved in all study of 

 science that the authors have naturally allotted only a single 

 brief chapter to this part of the subject A series of appendices 

 present some definite matters of particular interest and the 

 work closes with a convenient classified list of books of ref- 

 erence ; this is highly valuable, although its value would have 

 been increased by the addition of the date of publication in 

 each case. 



4. The Mastery of Nervousness, based upon the Re-education 

 of Self; by Robert S. Carroll, M.D. Pp. 346. New York, 

 1917 (The Macmillan Co.). — This book, recommended to per- 

 sons suffering from nervous debility as "a practical help in the 

 way back to health," is evidently an attempt to express in the 

 guise of scientific truths a variety of experiences gained by a 

 physician in an empirical way in the management of patients. 

 The author exhibits an unusual facility in turning phrases ; 

 and it must be admitted that there are many grains of approved 

 scientific wisdom hidden in the midst of semi-scientific platitudes. 

 As a characteristic illustration of the verbosity the following 

 will suffice : "What is the effect of such masses of high potency 

 foods in the undeveloped digestive organism of the brain- 

 working girl but to waste digestive force, to clog the organs of 

 elimination, to slowly but surely corrode the vital machinery?" 

 (p. 83). The author's psychological tenets may be questioned 

 in more than one place by an expert in mental science ; yet 

 there are many clever suggestions in the volume. It may be 

 doubted whether a truly nervous person could ever acquire the 

 mastery to absorb the prolixity represented in these chapters. 



L. B. M. 



