io8 Analyses of Books. [February, 
in the ground, or a whale attempting to walk on land.” Would 
it not have been more satisfactory to have read “ the habits fol- 
low from the structure ” ? 
The fact that moles can swim is by no means generally known, 
the author quotes a letter from a Mr. Clark, who, whilst justly 
protesting against the extermination of the rook and the mole, 
pleads for the sparrow also. If he would shoot and open every 
sparrow he comes across, he would find that during the greater 
part of the year these little pests feed not upon destructive in- 
serts, but upon grain and fruits. This, joined to the war which 
they wage against the harmless and useful swallow and martin, 
should surely settle their doom. 
“The Modern Nebuchadnezzar,” by A. H. A. Hamilton, is 
certainly a psychological curiosity. The author tells us that he 
met in Italy with a self-exiled Englishman who, according to his 
own account, had as a punishment for his vices, especially 
cruelty, been transformed into a horse, though retaining a clear 
recollertion of what he had been. After seven years he was 
suddenly restored to human shape. He expresses the opinion 
that “ experiences similar to his own have been the lot of many 
human beings.” It need scarcely be said that the alleged phe- 
nomenon bears no resemblance to the “ re-incarnations ” of 
which the Occultists tell us. Nor can the hero of the story be 
fairly likened to Nebuchadnezzar, who is not stated to have lost 
the human form during his alienation. If such transformations 
are not uncommon the world is evidently a theatre of anarchy. 
This fevered tale is not free from the poison which writers of 
firtion, on the principle of the blind leading the blind, so com- 
monly instil into their more ignorant readers. The man-horse is 
put into the hands of a veterinary surgeon, who, he says, “lanced 
me and blistered me, and almost viviserted me.” Here it is 
falsely insinuated that the pain inflicted upon animals under phy- 
siological examination is something altogether exceptional in its 
intensity. Even the Bestiarian leaders know better than this, 
though it suits their purpose to hoodwink the public. 
Among the strange utterances to be found in this story is the 
assertion that “ many persons have been placed in a position 
similar to mine, but the power of speech has been allowed to 
them only in a very few instances. Some of these are recorded 
in the early history of Rome, but the case of Balaam’s ass is 
perhaps the best authenticated.” 
No. XV. January, 1884. 
In a somewhat flippant article on the “ Decay of the British 
Ghost ” a Mr. F. Anstey, though evidently acquainted with the 
Psychical Research Society and its doings, and presumably not 
ignorant of the existence of Spiritualism, Occultism, and Theo- 
sophy, strangely misinterprets the tendencies of the time. The 
