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564 as the nature of the subject will allow, and sufficiently accurate for every-day use. (Macmillan & Co. Price, $3.75.)

Helen Gilbert Ecob makes a plea for rational dress in The Well-dressed Woman, which she designates as a study in the practical application to dress of the laws of Health, Art, and Morals. The study is made in the light of scientific investigations of the injurious effect of certain features of modern dress upon the vital organs. Of these features the tight corset is the worst and most formidable; and several chapters are devoted to the exhibition of the ills it causes on the breathing, the liver, heart, circulation of the blood, stomach, and pelvic organs; while the feet and the proper fitting of the shoes are not forgotten. Physical culture is commended as authorized by the laws of our being, and as teaching muscular economy as well as muscular development; and "one great step toward physical restoration will be taken when women adopt a style of dress which allows diaphragmatic breathing and muscular freedom." But "the failure of reformers who have appealed only to the conscience of women shows that correct dress will be adopted only when it is made beautiful." The latter part of the book is therefore devoted to showing how this may be done. (Fowler and Wells Company, New York. Price, $1.)

The Bureau of Education has issued a Circular of Information on Shorthand Instruction and Practice, by Julius Ensign Rockwell, which is in part a revision of a similar circular issued in 1884, but with some new matter. One important addition is a digest of legal decisions in regard to shorthand writers. The statistics of the new volume are for the scholastic year ending June 30, 1890. We can not see why any part of the taxes paid by the people of the United States should have been used for publishing this book. In justification of the outlay it is stated in the letter submitting the publication to the Secretary of the Interior that of the earlier circular "an edition of twenty thousand was soon distributed, and was followed by another of equal size, which was exhausted in a few years, and for the past three years I may say that there have been more frequent calls for this circular than for any other published by the Bureau of Education." Now the people, represented by the Government, are supposed to publish only such useful books as have no money in them for private enterprise. But a book of which over forty thousand gratis copies are called for would doubtless sell to half that number at a price covering cost, royalty to the author, and a fair profit to the publisher. The persons to whom the book has value would pay for the copies, and those who have no interest in it would not be forced to contribute to the cost of producing it. In no case should a second or a revised edition of an inexpensive book for which there is a large demand be published by the Government.

Part XXIV of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (Paul, 3,s. 6d.) contains three papers. Mr. F. W. H. Myers furnishes two chapters in continuation of his series on The Subliminal Consciousness, the first of which describes phenomena that seem to indicate the existence of a double personality, and the second brings together a considerable number of cases of thoughttransference, under the head of Motor Automatism. The defense which the theosophists have made agamst the adverse verdict of the society upon their operations and claims is reviewed by Dr. Richard Hodgson. There is also a joint paper by A. T. Myers, M. D., and F. W. H. Myers on Mind Cure, Faith Cure, and the Miracles of Lourdes. Their provisional judgment on this class of cures is that no evidence of their being miraculous has been furnished, but that they produce, "by obscure but natural agencies, effects to which no definite limit can as yet be assigned." Dr. Hodgson, 5 Boylston Place, Boston, is the agent of the society in America.

Professors James Harkness and Frank Morley have published a Treatise on the Theory of Functions (Macmillan). The earlier chapters are made complete in themselves by including indispensable theories which are given by some, but not all, recent writers on algebra, trigonometry, the calculus, etc. The authors have aimed at a full presentation of the standard parts of the subject, with certain exceptions. Thus the theory of real functions of a real variable is given only so far as they deem necessary as a basis for what follows. In the account of Abelian integrals