AmMay?Sarm'}    Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.  267 
A  Defence  of  Electrolysis  in  Urethral  Strictures,  with  Documentary  Evidence.  By 
Rob.  Newman,  M.  D.,  New  York,  etc. 
Reprint  from  the  Medical  Register,  January  5,  1889. 
The  Debt  of  Medical  and  Sanitary  Science  to  Synthetic  Chemistry.    By  Prof. 
Saml.  P,  Sadtler,  Ph.  G. 
Reprint  from  the  Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute,  March,  1889. 
The  Psychic  Life  of  Micro-Organisms.  A  Study  in  Experimental  Psychology. 
By  Alfred  Binet.  Translated  from  the  French  By  Thomas  McCormack, 
with  a  preface  by  the  author  written  especially  for  the  American  edition. 
Chicago  :  1889.  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company.  Cloth,  75  cents. 
Paper,  50  cents. 
Tne  author  is  a  collaborator  of  Ribot  and  Fere\  and  one  of  the  most  emi- 
nent representatives  of  the  French  school  of  Psychology.  In  the  above 
work  he  presents  the  most  important  results  of  recent  investigation  into  the 
world  of  micro-organisms,  which  branch  of  comparative  psychology  is  little 
known,  as  the  data  lie  scattered  for  the  most  part  in  isolated  reports  and 
publications,  and  no  attempt  has  hitherto  been  made  to  collate  and  present 
them  in  a  systematized  form.  The  field  covered  by  this  book  may  be  seen 
from  the  headings  of  the  various  chapters,  which  relate  to  the  motory  organs 
and  the  organs  of  sense ;  to  nutrition  and  the  psychology  of  nutrition ;  to 
colonies  and  psychology  of  minute  organisms ;  to  fecundation  in  low  and 
higher  animals,  and  in  plants,  and  to  the  physiological  function  of  the  nu- 
cleus. Perhaps  the  most  interesting  chapters  are  those  on  fecundation, 
which  demonstrate  sperm atozoids  to  have  instincts  and  vital  powers  analo- 
gous to  those  found  in  animals  of  higher  organization.  The  various  sub- 
jects are  illustrated  by  eighteen  cuts.  M.  Binet's  researches  and  conclusions 
show,  that  psychological  phenomena  begin  among  the  very  lowest  classes 
of  beings  ;  they  are  met  with  in  every  form  of  life  from  the  simplest  cell  to 
the  most  complicated  organism,  and  that  there  is  an  aggregate  of  properties 
which  exclusively  pertain  to  living  matter,  the  existence  of  which  is  seen  in 
the  lowest  forms  of  life  as  well  as  in  the  highest. 
College  Botany,  including  organography,  vegetable  histology,  vegetable  physi- 
ology and  vegetable  taxonomy,  with  a  brief  account  of  the  succession  of 
plants  in  geologic  time,  and  a' glossary  of  botanical  terms.  By  Edson  S. 
Bastin,  A.  M.,  F.  R.  M.  S.,  Professor  of  Botany,  Materia  Medica  and  Mi- 
croscopy in  the  Chicago  College  of  Pharmacy.  Chicago  :  G.  P.  Engel- 
hard &  Co.  1889.  8vo.,  Pp.  XVI,  and  451. 
The  first  edition  of  this  work  appeared  two  years  ago  under  the  title  of 
"  Elements  of  Botany,"  and  was  welcomed  as  supplying  a  long-felt  want. 
The  second  edition,  which  is  now  before  us,  has  been  almost  entirely  rewrit- 
ten, and  is  considerably  enlarged,  the  most  copious  additions  being  in  Part 
IV.,  "  Vegetable  Taxonomy,/  and  in  Part.  II.,  "  Vegetable  Histology."  But 
the  parts  treating  of  Organography  and  Physiology,  as  well  as  the  Glossary, 
