May 30, 1884.] 
gantly tattooed with charcoal made from cornstalks. 
In his ears are large cylinders of wood. He is rather 
idle, and does not cultivate the ground. His hands 
are so soft, that, if required to use an axe, he will 
blister them. The female Toba is strong, and of an 
agreeable aspect. Both are clothed in ponchos, with 
a breech-clout and sheepskin for warmth. ‘They are 
much given to drinking a fermented liquor made 
from native grain, which is, however, denied to the 
women; and in each encampment there is always 
one Toba who does not drink, and whose business it 
is to preserve order and make up quarrels. They 
have several games with balls, etc., which they play 
for prizes, such as a sheep or horse. The women are 
very jealous of one another, and fight bitterly among 
themselves on the slightest occasion. Armed with 
sharp fish-bones, the combats, which the males regard 
with indifference, often end fatally. They believe 
in a good and in an evil spirit, and in ghosts of the 
dead.”’ 
Thouar had two hundred men put at his disposi- 
tion by the Bolivian government, and with these 
undertook to traverse the Grand Chaco, and follow 
the course of the Pilecomayo. More than once he 
was obliged to give battle to hostile natives of various 
tribes, and, but for his Remington guns, might have 
been routed. The party was also annoyed by numer- 
ous jaguars, which prowled about the camp, and fre- 
quently stampeded the horses. The river is reported 
at that season to be fifty metres wide, but flowing 
between banks eighteen hundred metres apart, and 
twelve or fifteen metres high. The trees were like 
acacias, of delicate foliage, growing twenty or thirty 
feet high. On either side stretch immense plains 
covered with rich pasturage. Numerous large lakes 
were observed. On the 10th of November, pale, 
hungry, worn with fatigue, their clothing in rags, the 
party reached the Rio Paraguay and civilization. 
The gallant explorer has been crowned by the acad- 
emy, and has received the gold medal of the Société 
de géographie. It is probable that he will be enrolled 
in the Legion of honor, as a distinction fairly won. 
Wo. D. 
COUES’S BIOGEN. 
Biogen: a speculation on the origin and nature of life. 
By Exuiotr Covers. 2d ed. Boston, Estes & 
Lauriat, 1884. 66p. 12°. 
Tus little book contains a lecture on some- 
thing to which the author gives the name that 
stands first on his titlepage. But the princi- 
pal doctrine of the book, apart from the new 
thoughts to be suggested in its support by the 
author, needs no new name ; being, as Professor 
Coues himself insists, nothing but the ancient 
doctrine that there is an immaterial basis for 
mental life, and that physical life itself is main- 
tained by a peculiar ‘force.’ The author has 
previously privately printed his lecture, which 
was delivered to the Philosophical society at 
Washington; but the present edition is the 
SCIENCE. 
661 
first one actually published. In it the author 
adds a preface and an appendix. ‘The discus- 
sion has plainly grown on his hands; and he 
expects to follow up this publication with other 
essays, since he now feels himself ‘‘ in position 
to express himself more fully, freely, and ex- 
plicitly on the subject ’’ than he could do at 
first. 
Not all of our author’s readers will find it 
easy to take him very seriously, and for the 
benefit of such he has given in his preface a 
very entertaining collection of amusing things 
that have been said to him about the lecture 
since its delivery. Yet, if the little book will 
be diverting enough to many people, it is not 
to be regarded as merely a diversion: for Pro- 
fessor Coues has certainly enriched the ancient 
controversy with several new words, and with 
several misuses of old words; and the serious 
critic must accordingly look carefully to see 
whether this is all, and whether, in fact, phi- 
losophy has come out from under our author’s 
pugnacious treatment with any addition save a 
swollen vocabulary. 
It is in the appendix that Professor Coues 
undertakes to define the terms that are to be 
used in discussions about the nature of the soul 
of man. His definitions are of this sort: ‘* A 
man’s ‘mind,’’’ he begins, ‘‘ is not a thing in 
the ordinary sense of the word ‘ thing:’ itis a 
relation between two things. These two things 
are his soul and his body.”’ 
But what, then, we ask, is the soul? ‘* The 
soul,’’ we learn, is a thing, ‘‘ an actual entity, 
a living being of knowable and recognizable 
qualities, attributes, and potencies.’’ ‘* It con- 
sists of a kind of semi-material substance.’’ 
This substance is ‘‘ animalized astral fluid; 
that is to say, some quantity of the universal 
ether, modified by vital force.’’ To this ‘ soul- 
stuff’ the name ‘ biogen’ is applied. It corre- 
sponds closely to the recently famous ‘ fourth 
state of matter.’ It is the ‘od’ of Professor 
Reichenbach. It exists in all animals and 
plants while they live. This stuff helps the 
spirit to act upon matter. As for spirit, it is 
the immaterial element in the world. Soul 
and spirit are, therefore, not the same thing. 
Soul is ‘ semi-material:’ spirit is not material 
at all. Spirit cannot act directly on matter: 
soul is the body of the spirit, and helps it 
to act on grosser matter. This semi-material 
soul persists after death, and is then all of a 
man that remains, besides his immortal spirit. 
Under earthly conditions, the gross material 
body is added, and interaction between this 
body and the spirit is made possible by the 
presence of the semi-material soul. The soui- 
