Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/868

850 forms a useful contribution to the history of medical progress in the nineteenth century.

popularity of this text-book is evidenced by the fact that a few months after the final part of the fifth edition was published the author presents the first part of the sixth edition. We find but few changes in the present volume except in the chapter on the vascular mechanism, in which descriptions have been introduced of the membrane manometer of Hürthle, of Stolnikow's method for determining the quantity of blood ejected by the ventricle, and of the cardiometer of Roy and Adami. In a number of sections the text has been rearranged, but with no additions that are of signal importance.

are the first volumes of a series intended to include the collected essays of Mr. Huxley. The first contains a brief but characteristic autobiography, and nine essays that were published between 1866 and 1890. The author states that while they are neither free from repetitions nor, perhaps, deficiencies, yet as far as their substance goes he finds nothing to alter in them. This, we opine, is rather an evidence of the soundness of his opinions than of failure to make progress in wisdom during the last quarter of a century.

The essays include that on the advisableness of improving natural knowledge, that on the progress of science, on the physical basis of life, on Descartes's discourse touching the method of using one's reason rightly and of seeking scientific truth, on the hypothesis that animals are automata, on administrative nihilism, on the natural inequality of men, on natural and political rights, and on government.

The second volume contains essays on the ancient doctrine of evolution, rehabilitated and placed upon a sound scientific foundation, since and in consequence of the publication of the Origin of Species. These essays meet the criticisms imposed upon Mr. Darwin's great work, and sum it up and indicate its enduring influence on the course of scientific thought. The volume includes three essays—on Charles Darwin, on the Darwin memorial, and an obituary of Darwin—that record the impressions left by that scientist on his friend for thirty years, the author of this volume.

The third volume contains seventeen essays that were published between 1854 and 1887, all of which refer to the value of science in education.

Some of these essays have appeared in pages of the Monthly, but the many admirers of Prof. Huxley will be glad to welcome this permanent collection of his writings that have done so much to advance the scientific spirit of our age.

In this work the author has sought to find out, so far as is to-day possible, the actual beliefs and teachings of Jesus. Then, having, as he has supposed, had this teaching, he has considered it as relating to the preceding thought of the world, and specially of his own people. After that he has tried to find out how much of this teaching is vital to-day, and how it bears on the problems, religious and other, with which we must deal. "Only in some such way as this," he assumes, "can we really find out to what extent and in what sense Jesus is a present leader and inspiration."

this book the Bible is considered in the light of the modern or "higher" criticism, by which, the author holds, the theories of our fathers respecting its origin, growth, and character have been swept aside. As a result, "we see with greater clearness the impulse and purpose which produced these writings. We understand the