SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



561 



vulsions, coma, wounds, and burns are dis- 

 cussed in detail. Nervous diseases and in- 

 sanity receive considerable attention. Bath- 

 ing, massage, the administration of medicine 

 and food, children's diseases, signs of death, 

 and care of the dead bring us to the last 

 four chapters, which treat of pregnancy, 

 childbirth, and gynaecological nursing in gen- 

 eral. The work is intended as a text book, 

 for use in a school or hospital, and should 

 be supplemented by clinical study. 



In the preparation of his Slory of the 

 Earth, Dr. HeUprin * has sought to present 

 briefly, forcibly, and in a more popular form 

 than in most books of a similar nature, the 

 general facts of geology. Avoiding the re- 

 capitulation of numberless details with which 

 authors are easily tempted to burden a work 

 on this science, and making his account nar- 

 rative rather than adopting an analytical 

 method, he has endeavored to make the book 

 comprehensive enough to meet the needs of 

 the average student, and enlist the attention 

 of readers who would pass by a difficult 

 technical work and would yet not be satisfied 

 with an ordinary elementary one. He has 

 made it a model of compactness, simplicity, 

 lucidity, and readableness, touching upon 

 all essential points, and dwelling on them 

 long enough to make them understood, yet 

 without tiring the reader. The illustrations 

 are numerous, all photogaphs from the 

 things themselves, largely American, and 

 represent clearly what it is intended to show. 

 First, the rocks are described as a whole ; 

 then " what a mountain teaches " is told ; 

 the operative forces in geology are present- 

 ed snow and glaciers, underground waters, 

 the forces in the earth's interior, volcanoes 

 and earthquakes, and corals and their island 

 products; three chapters are given to the 

 description of fossils ; the physiognomy of 

 the land surface is delineated ; and the more 

 useful metals and minerals, building stones, 

 soils and fertilizers, and some of the com- 

 moner rock-forming minerals and minerals 

 occurring in rocks are described. 



The great interest which Prof. Weis- 

 mann's theories regarding the problems of 

 heredity have excited has led to the transla- 



* The Earth and its Story. By Angelo Heil- 

 prin. Boston, New York, and Chicago : Silver, 

 Burdett & Co. Pp. 267, with SLsty-four Plates. 

 VOL. L, 41 



tion of a work by Dr. Oscar Hertwig, The 

 Biological Problem of To day* which was 

 published last year in Germany. The book 

 is practically a criticism of Weismannism, 

 Dr. Weismann being the most prominent 

 upholder of what is called the Praeformation 

 theory. The main question at issue is a pure- 

 ly biological and very technical one namely, 

 the process by which organic development is 

 carried on. The Prajformationists believe 

 that the future organism exists in the germ, 

 with its various parts differentiated, but of 

 course so extremely minute as to render any 

 physical appreciation of this fact quite im- 

 possible. The upholders of what is called 

 Epigenesis, on the other hand, insist that in 

 the beginning there is no such differentia- 

 tion, but that the original germinating mass 

 is practically homogeneous, and the subse- 

 quent specialization is " impressed " on dif- 

 ferent portions of similar material. Dr. 

 Hertwig's book consists of a statement of 

 his reasons for believing in epigenesis. Most 

 of them are based on data gained during in- 

 vestigations of cell structure and growth, 

 and by means of experiments on the lower 

 forms of organized matter. Dr. Hertwig's 

 name is associated with many of the most 

 important advances in our knowledge of cells 

 and embryology, and his views on the ques- 

 tion in di>pute are of the utmost value. In 

 his introduction the translator has given a 

 brief general statement of the early stages 

 in the development of the vertebrate, which 

 is intended as a help for readers not familiar 

 with the subject of embryology. 



We have just received a third edition of 

 Dr. Brinton's MijtJis of the New World. The 

 first edition, which appeared so long ago 

 as 1868, has been somewhat superseded by 

 later publications, and, while many of the 

 recent contributions to the subject are not 

 considered by Dr. Brinton to be as satisfac- 

 tory as the work of the earlier writers, 

 many of the opinions put forward in the 

 original work as theories have now been ac- 

 cepted by most students of mythology, and 

 require a restatement in more emphatic 

 form. In its original edition the work was 

 intended more for the thoughtful general 



* The Biological Problem of To-Day. By- 

 Prof. Dr. Oscar Hertwig. New York : The Mac- 

 millan Co. Pp. liS, 18mo. Price, $1.25. 



