Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/668

660 from knowledge; and on analysis, the latter is found to possess three fundamental 'certitudes': self, other selves and the external world. Science comes under review next, and a most interesting and, in the main, sensible, account is given of its nature, as of its self-imposed limitations. This fills about 180 pages. Modern psychology is next brought to book. Here Mr. Turner cannot be said to achieve the same success. He makes certain good points. For example, he proposes the question, 'In what is called physiological psychology, what share of the discoveries belong to psychology proper?' In replying he shows that, ultimately, a very narrow line separates psychology from philosophy—a truth which some recent developments in psychology make patent. We do not think that in his chapter on 'Psychological Analysis' Mr. Turner preserves his customary reserve and balance. This appears plainly in the portion devoted to Wundt, where sympathy with the historical position of this psychologist lacks decidedly. The First Book, which is much the longer, concludes with a review of philosophy. Here the author manages to say some fresh and pertinent things: "Philosophy is necessary monistic. If philosophical speculation leads to dualistic conclusions, these really conduct to the sceptical conclusion—that the problem is insoluble." He infers that philosophy has no better or higher 'Knowledge' than the sciences. In this connection, his treatment of scientific conceptions in philosophy deserves praise. Book Second deals with 'Real Knowledge,' knowledge of 'ends'; concludes with a summary of negative inferences, and a final proof that all knowledge is, ultimately, belief. The work is to be commended as an original expression of its writer's own views and difficulties. Its reception in certain circles of dogmatic philosophy ought to be watched with interest. No scientific man will be disposed to find much fault with its sober methods.

by Dr. Eyre of Professor Celli's interesting book upon 'Malaria' has recently appeared and is most timely. The treatise admirably illustrates the revolution that has been recently wrought in the theories of the epidemiology and prophylaxis of the disease. Professor Celli not only describes the parasites causing the various kinds of malaria afflicting vertebrate animals, but also considers with great fulness the general causes of predisposition to malaria and the various methods that have been suggested for preventing the access of malaria germs to the human organism. The fact that the mosquito has been proved guilty of inoculating human beings with this terrible disease has revealed many opportunities for public sanitation. Not the least interesting part of Professor Celli's book is the portion dealing with the economic and social aspects of malaria in Italy. The great influence of the disease upon the welfare of the Italian people has never been more strikingly portrayed. The mean mortality from malaria in Italy is about 15,000 per year, and it is said that from 1877 to the end of 1897 more than 300,000 cases of malaria occurred in the army alone. A specially interesting section deals with the relation of rice fields to the particular kind of mosquito responsible for malarial infection. It is shown that the rice fields, with their clear and slowly running waters and their typical swamp vegetation, afford peculiarly favorable localities for the breeding of Anopheles, the malaria-bearing mosquito, and that the cultivation of rice has done much to render malaria endemic in certain regions. The author discusses very frankly certain social conditions that expose unduly a large class of the population to malaria. The pictures of the huts in which the peasants of the Campagna live (pp. 174-6) are a striking witness to the truth of his strictures. Taking the book as a whole, it can be fairly claimed that the latest researches upon