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Analyses of Books. [June, 
from further efforts at improvement, or if this period (? point) 
comes too late in his life his children do it after him. Some 
vice speedily removes him, and clears the ground for another 
man to come to the front, who is also removed summarily when 
he becomes obstructive.” This, if true, would be a very sad 
picture of the world. The best and noblest work has little, if 
any, direCt influence on the social position of those who execute 
it. There are, we are thankful to say, men not a few who, if 
only in such a position that their time is at their own disposal, 
entertain worthier aims than becoming “ plutocrats or aristo- 
crats.” Such has been the career of the Darwin family since 
the time of the Great Rebellion. We devoutly hope, if the world 
grows wiser, that wealth and title will be less exclusively 
worshipped, and, in consequence, less generally sought for than 
they are at present. 
Dr. F. L. Oswald completes his suggestive dissertation on the 
“ Curiosities of Superstition.” He makes the significant and 
perfectly true remark that “ mental aberrations can become 
epidemic.” The writer sarcastically declares that : “ The pre- 
cipitate follower of Bacon has noticed the coincidence of cold 
weather and catarrhs, and jumps to the conclusion that a low 
temperature deranges the functions of the respiratory organs.” 
Might we remind him that in the severest Siberian cold respira- 
tion is so much interfered with that every breath is painful ? On 
the subject of alleged forebodings we find a startling utterance. 
“ Apollonius of Tyana foresaw even the great aphanasia , the 
fifteen hundred years’ eclipse of common sense and reason. 
* Woe be to our children ! ’ he exclaimed on awakening from a 
trance ; ‘ I see a shadow approaching ; a great darkness is going 
to cover this world.’ ” If these words were really uttered they 
seem a strange prediction of the decay of the ancient classical 
civilisation, of the relapse into barbarism, and of the dirt, the 
asceticism, and the unreason of the Dark Ages. 
Dr. W. A. Hammond communicates a paper on “ Perceptional 
Insanities ” — hallucinations far more common than is generally 
supposed. 
Certain “ Speculations on the Nature of Matter,” by Mr. H. 
H. Bates, will be reserved for future consideration. 
Under the heading “ Editor’s Table ” some noteworthy remarks 
are made on the new weekly American journal which has recently 
appeared. Whether it is to be regarded as a resuscitation of a 
former journal bearing the same name, which we used to read 
with both pleasure and profit, we do not find stated. We note 
the plan of our new contemporary and the important functions 
which it is to perform, which, however, will not include advo- 
cating the interests of a “ Science and Art Department.” Its 
enunciations on “ The Future of American Science ” seem to us, 
however, as well as to the Editor of the “ Popular Science 
Monthly,” open to criticism. That future is proclaimed to be 
