Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/872

852 possible remove from a materialistic conception. The antithesis between matter and property is absolute." But, if the other view is accepted, that there is an element—mind, thought, or spirit—"that can detach itself from the personality to whom it normally belongs, or remain in space performing mechanical operations upon material objects," it is difficult to see how the charge of materialism can be avoided.

The Political Ethics of Herbert Spencer is the substance of a paper submitted to the American Academy of Political and Social Science, in which the author, Lester F. Ward, presents the results of his careful examination of Mr. Spencer's works, in a review criticising and impugning the more prominent features of his ethical system. His sociological system is declared to "proceed from so low and so narrow a standpoint as to constitute a protest against all attempts to deal scientifically with the subject," and it is pronounced "astonishing that the great exponent of the law of evolution in other departments should so signally fail to grasp that law in this highest department"; and, instead of carrying his system up symmetrically and crowning it with the science of man, he is said to have "tapered it off and flattened it out at the summit."

The Magazine of Travel is a new monthly publication which will be devoted to articles and discussions relating to travel in its broadest sense. The publishers promise that each number will be an improvement upon its predecessor. The first number, January, 1895, has articles on American and Foreign Travel Compared, by Hon. Chauncey M. Depew; Mexico: its Attractions for the Tourist, by E. H. Talbott; The New Education, by Edwin Fowler; A Summer in Alaskan Waters, by W. G. Cutler, United States Navy; Christmas on the Limited, a story, by Frank Chaffee; The Mountain Paradise of Virginia, by Charles D. Lanier; Hunting in the Cattle Country, by the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt; and In Southern California, by G. M. Allen. (The Magazine of Travel Publishing Company, E. H. Talbott, President and Manager, 10 Astor Place, New York; 25 cents, $3 a year.)

The results of M. H. Saville's studies of the Ceremonial Year of the Maya Codex Cortesianus, as summarized by him in a paper read before the American Association, are that there was a time series of two hundred and sixty days, divided into thirteens, beginning with 1 Imix, and making a sacred ceremonial year; that the glyphs in the part of the codex relating to this series are to be read from left to right through a series of pages in an alternating manner; that the pictures and glyphs accompanying this time series explain ceremonies that were to take place at intervals during the ceremonial year; and that the coincidence of a sinistral circuit of glyphs perhaps indicates the quarter in which ceremonies were observed during the last four days of the year. The author hopes that his paper may accomplish at least so much as to indicate a fruitful source of investigation for students of the Maya codices in studying the pictures and glyphs associated with this time series.

A Practical System of Studying the German Language is designed by the author. Dr. Albert Pick, for the use of physicians and medical students in self-instruction. It is observed that while one can learn by the aid of the usual text-books to converse in German about everyday affairs or to read literary German, or may become acquainted with the details of the grammar, none of them are competent to assist him in reading medical books, conversing with patients, or listening to medical lectures. The present system is for teaching the German medical language, and accustoming him to the long, coherent sentences used in medical treatises, talks, etc. It consists of short essays on anatomy, physiology, pathology, medical and surgical diseases, examination of patients, etc. Each lesson is in two parts; one being a short essay on the subject in "medical German," and the other a conversation on practical everyday subjects. A few lessons are given in applied or practical grammar alone. A key to the pronunciation and a translation accompany every word, wherever it appears. The work is in twelve paper parts, convenient to be put in the pocket, so that it may be carried along and consulted at any time or place. (Published by Pick & Tamier, Newtonville, Mass.)

The Sixth Annual Report on the Statistics of Railways in the United States of the Interstate Commerce Commission represents the year ending June 30, 1893, and is distributed