27 JANUARY 1883, Page 27

There are several articles of popular, or at least of

lay, interest in the new half-yearly part of The Journal of Psychological Medicine, such as the papers on suicide, lunacy, and lunacy-law reform. Dr. Winn, who writes on Darwin, might, however, have attacked the evolu- tion theory without losing temper, and speaking of contributors to one of our quarterlies " imagining that the use of obscure and pedantic phraseology is adding to our knowledge of the operations of the human mind." It is not humorous, it only savours of flippancy, to write in this fashion :—" Darwin's account of sexual selection is very amusing, but we prefer his grandfather's poem on 'The Loves of the Plants."