Genre:

Regular Feature, Abstract

Publications abstracted:

Maitland 1896 Maitland, Edward 1896. Anna Kingsford, Her Life, Letters, Diary and Work, 2 vols, London: G. Redway
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Subjects:

Supernaturalism, Psychical Research, Periodicals, Medical Practitioners, Gender, Vivisection, Soul, Mesmerism

    Notes that the more mystical elements of the book are dealt with 'at considerable length in the new number of Borderland Borderland (1893–97) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>', to which 'all readers who wish to know about' such matters are referred, and promises that into 'those lofty and mystic, not to say misty regions, I do not take the readers of this REVIEW Review of Reviews (1890–1900+) Waterloo Directory
Close   View the register entry >>' (75). Describes how, when she was a young medical student in Paris, Anna Kingsford's Kingsford (née Bonus), Mrs Anna (1846–88) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'antipathy to vivisection became a consuming passion' (80). After various experiments with hypnotism, she also became convinced that one 'can kill with the will', and she came to believe that, in this way, she 'had slain Claude Bernard Bernard, Claude (1813–78) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and Paul Bert Bert, Paul (1833–86) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>. She did her worst to slay Louis Pasteur Pasteur, Louis (1822–95) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>. He became very ill; but he recovered, and she died' (83). Also records that Kingsford 'proposed to Madame Blavatsky Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna Hahn (1831–91) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> a scheme for uniting a number of occultists in a band for the purpose of exercising their will-power on the vivisectors with a view to [their] destruction'. Concludes that this is 'one of the weirdest and most bewildering books that I have read for many a long day'. (84)

Genre:

Regular Feature, Abstract

Publications abstracted:

Wells 1895c, Wells, Herbert George 1895c. The Stolen Bacillus: And Other Incidents, London: Metheun & Co.
Close   View the register entry >> Housman 1896 Housman, Clemence 1896. The Were-Wolf, London: J. Lane at the Bodley Head; Chicago: Way and Williams
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Subjects:

Science Fiction, Invention, Imagination, Monstrosities

    Explains that in his works of science fiction Herbert G Wells's Wells, Herbert George (1866–1946) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'method is calmly to impose just as much pure invention into the picturesque side of research as it will bear without transcending the region of the apparently possible' (90).

Genre:

Editorial

Subjects:

Steam-power, Electricity, War, Fear

    Pleads that all possible steps must be taken to avoid 'a fratricidal war between one hundred millions of English-speaking folk' on the two sides of the Atlantic (99), and warns that the 'shrinkage of the world beneath the potent hands of Electricity and Steam [...] render friction at many points inevitable in a constantly increasing ratio' (100).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Editorial, News-Commentary

Subjects:

Imperialism, Disease, Sanitation

    Reports the successful completion of the British expedition to Coomassie in West Africa, but advises that it 'would be well if Mr. Chamberlain Chamberlain, Joseph ('Joe') (1836–1914) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> could devise some method of overcoming the malaria of the West Coast as expeditiously as he has overwhelmed the opposition of King Prempeh Prempeh, King of Ashanti (d. 1931) CBD
Close   View the register entry >>. Every precaution was taken to guard the expedition against the attack of fever, but, notwithstanding the employment of all the resources of modern sanitary science, the fell disease smote more than one member of the expedition' (112).

Genre:

Introduction; Reportage

Relevant illustrations:

photo. [2]

Subjects:

Wonder, Photography, Light, Electromagnetism, Ether, Physics, Nomenclature, Metallurgy, Medical Treatment, Theory

People mentioned:

James C Maxwell, Maxwell, James Clerk (1831–79) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> Heinrich R Hertz Hertz, Heinrich Rudolf (1857–94) DSB
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    The brief introduction states that a 'scientific friend of mine has written at my request the following description' of the 'scientific sensation of the month': the 'final establishment [...] that it is possible to photograph objects without exposing the sensitive plate to the light'. Describes how 'a peculiar kind' of the cathode rays first produced by Phillip Lenard Lenard, Philipp (1862–1947) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> has been used by Wilhelm C Röntgen Röntgen, Wilhelm Conrad (1845–1923) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> to create 'shadow photographs' of objects such as coins that were at the time obscured by 'a volume of a thousand pages, [...] a pack of playing cards, an inch of fir plank or of vulcanised rubber, and—much less easily—through glass'. (175) These 'X-rays, as he designates them', have been used by Röntgen to discern 'internal flaws in metals', and, in addition, 'a Vienna surgeon Exner, Siegmund (1846–1926) RLIN
Close   View the register entry >> has located a grain of shot in a hand, and has successfully examined a fractured bone in a foot' (175–76). Insists, however, that although the 'discovery will undoubtedly lend itself to the most fruitful and wide application', its 'theoretical bearing is far more important' (176).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Abstract

Publications abstracted:

Romanes 1896 Romanes, Ethel 1896. The Life and Letters of George John Romanes, London: Longmans, Green
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Subjects:

Scientific Practitioners, Religion, Gender

    Praises Ethel Romanes Romanes (née Duncan), Ethel (1856–1927) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> for having 'wisely let her husband, as far as was possible, "especially in matters scientific, speak for himself"' (183).

Genre:

Editorial; Letter

Subjects:

War, Internationalism, Scientific Practitioners, Astronomy

    Reprints several letters from well-known supporters of the attempts at arbitration to prevent a war between Britain and America, including one from J Norman Lockyer Lockyer, Sir Joseph Norman (1836–1920) DSB ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> who states that 'All Englishmen of Science, especially of Astronomical Science, are united by the closest ties of sympathy with their more than cousins across the Atlantic. We have the same aims, and we work together. I have the honour of including among my friends on the other side such earnest workers as Langley Langley, Samuel Pierpont (1834–1906) DSB
Close   View the register entry >>, Holden Holden, Edward Singleton (1846–1914) WBI
Close   View the register entry >>, Young Young, Charles Augustus (1834–1908) DSB
Close   View the register entry >> and many others I might name, and I am certain they feel as I do that war is unthinkable as between two members of the same family' (262).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Abstract

Publications abstracted:

Sully 1895, Sully, James 1895. Studies of Childhood, London: Longmans, Green
Close   View the register entry >> Burnett 1895, Burnett, James Compton 1895. Delicate, Backward, Puny, and Stunted Children: Their Developmental Defects, and Physical, Mental and Moral Peculiarities Considered as Ailments Amenable to Treatment by Medicines, London: The Homeopathic Publishing Co.
Close   View the register entry >> Smith 1896 Smith, Gerard 1896. Our Growing Children: With Special Reference to the Physical Education of the Weakly, London: Bale
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Subjects:

Human Development, Psychology, Disability, Disease

    Asserts that 'Nothing more important or more interesting to the ordinary reader has been published in the way of science for many months' than James Sully's Sully, James (1842–1923) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> 'reasoned plea for the closer and more intelligent study of child-psychology. Addressed more particularly to parents and young teachers, its language is never unduly scientific [...]. Here certainly is a book which it behoves every parent to read, and not to read lightly' (279).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Editorial, News-Commentary

Subjects:

Animal Husbandry, Agriculture, Mesmerism

    Notes that the passing of the Diseases of Animals Bill means that 'Foreign beef and mutton henceforth are not to enter Britain on four legs', which is a considerable 'gain to the cause of humanity' because it will put an end to 'the hideous horrors of the cattle-ships'. Observes, however, that the legislation will be 'naturally resented by the exporters across the Atlantic', and suggests that 'Some day, when it is possible to hypnotise cattle and sheep into insensibility for a fortnight, the prohibition may be reconsidered'. (298)

Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Institutions, Politics

    Traces the history and describes the current organisation of the five separate academies that make up the Institut National des Sciences et des Arts Institut National des Sciences et des Arts, Paris
Close   View the register entry >>, noting that during the revolutionary era of the 1790s it was recognised that the old royal 'Academy of Science Académie des Sciences, Paris
Close   View the register entry >> had rendered good services to the Revolution with regard to "l'argenterie des églises supprimées, et la production du saltpêtre", etc.', although the revolutionary Convention was nevertheless still bent on 'reducing the Academies to free societies' (356).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Abstract

Publications abstracted:

Wells 1896 Wells, Herbert George 1896. The Island of Doctor Moreau, London: William Heinemann
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Subjects:

Science Fiction, Monstrosities, Breeding, Sex

    Exclaims that 'No one admires the peculiar genius of Mr. Wells Wells, Herbert George (1866–1946) ODNB
Close   View the register entry >> more than I. He is a born psychic, with a marvellous gift of realistically rendering his psychic experiences'. Warns, however, that 'the frontispiece alone of his new story is enough to keep it out of circulation. The law against sex intercourse with animals may be, and is, unduly severe, but it is an offence against humanity to represent the result of the intermingling of man and beast. In Mr. Wells's story the hybrid monsters are not begotten: they are represented as the possible outcome of vivisectional experiment. But the result in the picture is exactly that which would follow as the result of the engendering of human and animal. It is loathsome' (374).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Editorial, News-Commentary

Subjects:

Transport, Machinery, Technology, Industry, Political Economy, Bacteriology, Electricity, Sanitation, Magic

    Remarks on the revival of economic confidence in the City of London, noting that the 'cycle industry has at last been firmly established on the Stock Exchange Stock Exchange
Close   View the register entry >>, and if Parliament Houses of Parliament
Close   View the register entry >> will but pass the Bill authorising the use of horseless carriages, there would be another great stimulus given to a form of enterprise, that could hardly fail to give new life to many a district which by the growth of great towns and great railways are left stranded high and dry' (485–86). Also reports that in 'the ceaseless battle which mankind wages with the invisible bacteria that are now held responsible for all manner of diseases, it would seem that electricity is destined to give the victory to man. By passing a current of electricity through sea-water, or through any water to which salt has been added, it is possible to destroy the bacteria which swarm sometimes to the extent of 10,000,000 per cubic centimetre. An experimental plant has been put up at Maidenhead, where the Maidenhead sewage has been treated with extraordinary results. If electrozone—for such is the name of the electrified sea-water—really accomplishes all that is planned for it, all existing disinfectants, from carbolic acid downwards, will vanish into limbo, and our cities will find the difficulty of dealing with their sewage vanished as by a stroke of a magician's wand' (486–87).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Biography

Subjects:

Heredity, Degeneration

    Asserts that Émile Zola Zola, Èmile (1840–1902) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> is 'the great prophet-priest' of the doctrine of heredity, which views man as being 'overwhelmed by monsters, which issue from the immensity of the past in order to reduce to impotent despair the generation of the present'. In all his novels, and the "Rougon-Macquart" series in particular, Zola describes the 'same appalling tragedy' of individuals and families 'throttled by the ever-constricting folds of what may be described as the antenatal influences of heredity and suggestion, reinforced enormously by the not less potent forces of environment and tradition'. (491) Notes that Zola 'prepared for his great work [i.e. the "Rougon-Macquart" novels] by reading up the question of heredity, finding [...] Doctor Lewis's Lewis, John Benjamin (1832–1914) WBI RLIN
Close   View the register entry >> work on the law of natural heredity particularly useful'. At this time the 'doctrine was much talked about and little understood', and Zola's 'theory was that if men knew how to master the influence of heredity, they would become rulers of the destiny of the human race'. (498) Comments that 'No one more than he has dwelt upon the terrible living power of heredity, the resurrection of the dead of yesterday in the men of to-day', but Zola's deterministic conclusions are 'not good news for the toil-worn, sin-laden, pain-scourged children of men' (507).

Genre:

Regular Feature, Abstract

Publications abstracted:

Le Plongeon 1896, Le Plongeon, Augustus 1896. Queen Móo and the Egyptian Sphinx, New York: published by the author
Close   View the register entry >> Nordau 1896 Nordau, Max Simon 1896. Paradoxes, London: William Heinemann
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Subjects:

Archaeology, Discovery, Heterodoxy, Degeneration

    Remarks that it will be 'interesting to see how the scholars take Dr. Le Plongeon's Le Plongeon, Augustus (1826–1908) RLIN
Close   View the register entry >> discoveries, which are sufficiently momentous and astonishing in all conscience, buttressed up as they are by a mass of evidence from old inscriptions'. Reminds readers that these discoveries have already been 'described at considerable length [...] in the REVIEW of last September' [see Anon D R O'Sullivan, 'A Fairy Tale of Central American Travel. How Cain and Abel were Found in the Lost Atlantis', Review of Reviews, 12 (1895), 271–81]. (564) Also notes that the 'Nordau Nordau, Max Simon (originally Südfeld) (1849–1923) CBD
Close   View the register entry >> "boom" has rather worked itself out' (565).