LITERARY NOTICES. 



131 



Evolution of To-Day : A Summary of the 

 Theory of Evolution as held by Scien- 

 tists at the Present Time, and an Ac- 

 count of the Progress made by the Dis- 

 cussions and Investigations of a Quarter 

 of a Century. By H. W. Conn, Ph. D., 

 Instructor of Biology at Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity. New York : G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons. Pp. 342. Price $1.75. 



The greater evolution of ideas precipi- 

 tated with such unparalleled rapidity dur- 

 ing the lat generation by the promulgation 

 of the sceneral doctrine of evolution and 

 the wide-spread interest in the subject 

 which has followed have brought us, as 

 was inevitable, to a stage of popular lit- 

 erature upon the question which shows 

 plenty of signs that it is no longer the 

 scientific world that is chiefly addressed. 

 The number of those who think themselves 

 competent to explain evolution to ordinary 

 people is largely increasing, but, while their 

 efforts are undoubtedly commendable, it 

 must be admitted that much of their work 

 is inferior and unsatisfactory. The subject 

 itself is extensive, complex, and unsettled, 

 and it requires a good deal of sound infor- 

 mation, careful habits of thinking, and ex- 

 cellent scientific judgment, so to present it 

 as not to convey to uninstructed minds about 

 as much error as truth. 



The present volume, although not with- 

 out merit, belongs nevertheless to this un- 

 satisfactory class of books upon evolution. 

 In the first place, the title is mischievously 

 misleading. It would lead us to expect a 

 discussion of the subject in its full breadth 

 and latest developments and applications ; 

 whereas it is confined, we might almost say, 

 strictly to one branch of the subject organic 

 evolution ; and the book might much better 

 be named a treatise on Darwinism than an 

 exposition of the evolution of to-day. While 

 dealing with the details of biological devel- 

 opment, Dr. Conn writes with tolerable 

 clearness ; but when he tries to expound 

 the fundamental conceptions of his volume, 

 as presented in its title, he writes neither 

 clearly nor correctly, and betrays consider- 

 able confusion of mind over the larger re- 

 lations of his subject. In his introduction, 

 Dr. Conn says : " Evolution is not Darwin- 

 ism. We have now reached the conclusion 

 as to what is now ordinarily meant by evo- 

 lution" (derivation of species by descent, 



Ed.), " and such was Darwin's understand- 

 ing of the term. But it must not be con- 

 founded with Darwinism. Evolution is sim- 

 ply a theory as to the method by which 

 species have been introduced into the world, 

 entirely independent of any idea as to the 

 causes which have brought about their in- 

 troduction. Darwinism is evolution, but it 

 is more than this ; it is at the same time an 

 attempt at an explanation of the causes of 

 evolution.' ' Again, he says, " Darwinism 

 proper, then, is not evolution, but its ex- 

 planation." 



Now, these views are probably original 

 with Dr. Conn ; at any rate, we have never 

 met them before, and they are certainly far 

 from representing the "evolution of to- 

 day." Evolution, as now most generally 

 held, is a law of Nature a law of trans- 

 formation by which phenomena undergo 

 changes, passing from one form to another, 

 by which the past has given rise to the pres- 

 ent, and the present determines the future 

 through the agencies of the natural world. 

 Evolution is a phase of the order of Nature 

 of great comprehensiveness, or it is noth- 

 ing ; it has its large divisions, of which or- 

 ganic evolution is one. Mr. Darwin devoted 

 himself to the study of one of the elements 

 or factors of organic evolution the origin 

 of species by means of natural selection. 

 To define evolution as excluding the study 

 of causes, and then to define Darwinism 

 as a study of causes, or as explanation of 

 evolution, is simply absurd. As a matter of 

 science, evolution is essentially, and indeed 

 solely, a problem of forces and causes, and 

 Mr. Darwin did what he could to trace them 

 out in the line of his special work ; but he 

 never made even an attempt to study the 

 theory of evolution as a general law of Na- 

 ture, to analyze, formulate, or reduce it to 

 scientific expression. 



The Sun. By Amedee Guillemin. Trans- 

 lated from the French, by A. L. Phipson. 

 New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 

 Pp. 297. Price, $1. 



This book forms one of a series termed 

 " The Illustrated Library of Wonders," of 

 which Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons are 

 now publishing a new and revised edition. 

 Inviting his readers to join him in a lit- 

 tle trip of the imagination a trifle of some 



