WATTS’S LITERARY GUIDE. B E I N G A M O N T H L Y R E C O R D O F L I B E R A L A N D A D V A N C E D P U B L I C A T I O N S ,

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No, 73.]

DECEM BER 15, 1891.

[Price One Penny.

N E W P U B L I C A T I O N S .

O U R L I B R A R Y S H E L V E S .

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A s e c o n d edition of “ The Liberty Annual ” is issued. The first edition was exhausted a few days after publication.

M e s s r s . W i l l i a m s & N o r g a t e have published an essay contrasting the pretensions of religion and Atheism to scientific truth, entitled “ Analysis of Theology, Natural and Revealed” (6s.). The author is Edward Garland Figg, M.D.

A n e w edition o f the late Mr. Bradlaugh’s “ Impeachment of the House o f Brunswick” (2s.) is announced. The work has already gone through nine editions.

“ S ic p u n i t ” is the superscription of a medal struck soon after the Plague and Fire of London. The ravages o f flame and disease were regarded as the operations of God’s sovereign finger chastising the sinful city. The theology of disease,, however, is now lapsing into the limbo whither all speculations not based on the nature o f things sooner or later go. We are getting less satisfied with connecting leprosy with God, and epilepsy with the Devil. Pathology is now regarded as a natural science. An excellent example of the modern rational attitude on the subject may be found in J. Bland Sutton’s

“ evolution and disease ”

T h e British and Foreign Unitarian Association has published a series of essays on “ Religion and Life ” (2s. 6d.). Religion is considered in relation to Theology, Science, Ethics, Trade, Citizenship, Amusement, Society, and Art ; and there is a special paper devoted to “ Modern Religious Developments.”

M r . F r e d e r i c H a r r i s o n has edited “ The New Calendar o f Great Men ” (7s. 6d.), consisting of biographies of the 558 worthies of all ages and countries in the Positivist calendar of Auguste Comte.

M e s s r s . W. B l a c k w o o d & S o n s have published a valuable work on “ Dogma and the Church of England ” (7s. 6d.). The object of the author, A. I. Fitzroy, is, after a preliminary sketch o f the English Church from the earliest times to 1800, to trace in the writings of her broad and liberal divines, from Sydney Smith to Edwin Hatch, the progress o f the decay o f dogma during the nineteenth century.

T h e new edition o f “ Religious Systems of the World’’ (15s.) will contain more than twenty additional articles, including one by Mrs. Besant on “ Theosophy.”

P r o f e s s o r H u x l e y has contributed an “ Introductory N o te ” to a condensed translation of Felix Rocquain’s “ Revolutionary Spirit Preceding the French Revolution ” (2s. 6d.).

M e s s r s . A r r o w s m i t h have published a little volume called “ The Supernatural ?” (3s. 6d.), by Dr. Lionel A. Weatherly and Mr. J. N. Maskelyne. The book, which reviews old-time beliefs and superstitions, and gives a succinct and popular description of the intellectual and emotional faculties and of the various deceptions to which they are subject, may be recommended as a useful exposure of so-called “ supernaturalism.”

M r s . F i s h e r , better known as Miss Arabella B. Buckley, has written a useful little book on “ Moral Teachings of Science ” (3s.).

A n e w work on Psychology, by Mr. J. Sully, in two volumes, will be published in January.

(Walter Scott; Contemporary Science Series; 1890; 136 illustrations; 285 p p .; 3s. 6d.). Mr. Sutton argues that similarity of structural plan in the animal world (including man) carries with it similarity of disease-processes; that “ there has been an evolution of disease p a r i passu with evolution of animal forms;” and that “ disease may in many instances be regarded as exaggerated function”— that is to say, that a phenomenon which is normal and healthy in one animal may be a monstrosity in another. The author does not ride his theories to death. The book is based on the lines just indicated, but is largely composed o f a long series of interesting cases, succinctly described in plain language. O f course there is an admixture of technical diction; but it will present no barrier to the reader who is familiar with the elements of physiology and anatomy, and the general doctrine of evolution.

Mr. Sutton, in the two first chapters, considers the effects of use and disuse on parts of the animal body, and, besides adducing some very singular instances among birds, etc., alludes to the origin of man from lower forms. “ That man has descended from ancestors which possessed tails,” he remarks, “ there can be little reasonable doubt....... In the new-born child soft mils about an inch in length have been observed.” And it is suggested that the ancient sculptors may have modelled their fauns upon abnormal human specimens, or upon traditions o f such peculiar individuals. The chapters on “ Vestigial Structure ” contain an account of the connection between certain unnatural fistula; and earlike prominences sometimes occurring in the necks of human subjects, and the gills by which long previous ancestors of man were enabled to breathe. These disagreeable features are found to arise over the spots once occupied by the opercula or gill-slits ; such openings being actually observable in the ordinary human embryo. Those who desire to learn the scientific doctrine o f such extraordinary phenomena as the “ Two-headed Nightingale” will have their curiosity fairly gratified in Mr. Sutton’s section on “ Dichotomy.” There are aspects o f “ Atavism,” or reversion o f organs and issues to an original type, which have a profound moral bearing ; but Mr. Sutton confines his examination to the physical structure alone, and many astounding facts he relates. Among other things, he tells how he has met with milk glands in a nippled mamma in diseased ovaries— “ a situation,” he adds, with dry humour, “ in which it would