1893.] Psychology. 173 
but she admired nothing. Had she dreamed, perhaps, during that 
long night of six years more and better things than the realities which 
unfolded themselves before her eyes? 
It is a fact that the persons who have lost their sight, and recovered 
it through an operation, have shown more pleasure at seeing again 
their relations, their friends, and their coffee-mills than did Julie D. 
at seeing for the first time all the objects of which she could have had 
only a feeble and imperfect idea gained either through the sense of 
touch or from descriptions given her by others—H. Boéns, Revue 
Scientifique, Oct. 29, 1892. 
ARCH ZOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. 
Area and Population of European Countries.—M. E. Lav- 
asseur, in a communication to the Academie des Sciences on March 
21, 1892, calls attention to the diversity usually to be found in statis- 
tics of area and population in standard works of reference. Consider- 
ing only such high class publications as “ Die Bevölkerung der Erde,” 
the “Almanach de Gotha,” and the “Statesman’s Year-Book,” he 
points out that diversity does not necessarily convict any of error, as 
the approximation to the exact figures may be arrived at in different 
ways; that, in fact, absolute agreement in statistics is a sign that they 
have been copied by one writer from another. In some cases the areas 
of countries are officially derived from cadastral surveys, which, as a 
matter of fact, often do not include the whole land and water area of 
a country, geographers not being agreed as to what water areas should 
__ be reckoned along with the land. In other cases official or semi-offi- 
cial measurements are made on large-scale topographical maps, and the 
degree of approximation must vary with the scale, and with the tech- 
nical skill of the computor. Some countries are content with meas- 
urements or estimates made by individuals, such as those of Strel- 
bitsky and of Perthes’ Institute. The calculation of population is 
still more uncertain, being dependent on census returns (themselves 
imperfect), calculated to any given intermediate date by eeguesemnaes 
derived from registers of births, deaths, immigration and emigration. 
In a table brought down to the end of 1890 M. Levasseur gives a con- 
Spectus of the area, population, and density of population of the 
countries of Europe, classed in four groups, as follows : 
