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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the work of these men and giving a general view of their relations to each 

 other both intellectual and personal Mr, Clodd has performed a valuable 

 service. He seems to be solicitous perhaps more so than becomes one of 

 a victorious party to refer to the obstacles that theologians have vainly 

 thrown in the path of the evolutionists, and to point out the positive state- 

 ments in the Bible which modern l^'nowledge no longer permits to be ac- 

 cepted literally. His chapter on the Arrest of Inquiry is, for the most 

 part, an effort to show that the Christian religion was " an arresting force 

 in man's intellectual development the chief barrier to the development 

 of Greek ideas." We can not accept this view. Christianity is no more 

 the cause of the dark ages than it is of the enlightenment that has fol- 

 lowed them. Both are stages in tlie evolution of mankind in which Chris- 

 tianity has degenerated and has achieved a new birth side by side with 

 science and philosophy and art. He takes unnecessary pains also to state 

 the religious views, or the lack of them, of the men whose work he de- 

 scribes. This will seem to many a blemish on an otherwise instructive 

 and attractively written book. Excellent portraits of Darwin, Wallace, 

 Spencer, and Huxley add to the value of the volume. 



GENEEAL NOTICES. 



No attempt to solve fundamental ques- 

 tions is indulged by the author of this book.* 

 His efforts are devoted to exposing the falla- 

 cies of those who become ingulfed in bio- 

 logical theory. He examines their methods 

 critically, and generally disapproves of them. 

 There is inner confusion in the science of 

 biology on account of its form, which em- 

 braces numbers of independent systems, each 

 with a core of facts. There is outer con- 

 fusion, because of its ambiguity of terms. 

 The structure of to-day is the function of 

 tomorrow. The favorite inquiries Are ac- 

 quired characters inherited ? or, Is variation 

 purposive ? are misleading. He asks what 

 quality is not inherited, or not acquired ; or, 

 find anything organic not purposive. For 

 the discussion he defines biology not as an 

 encyclopaedia of facts about organisms, but 

 as including the systems of explanation of 

 the forms, functions, and origins of animals 

 and plants. He finds twenty good theories 

 of the development of the individual, not any 

 one better or worse than the rest. All bio- 

 ogical systems are considered as involving 

 three postulates the independence of quali- 

 ties, the doctrine of agents, and theories of 

 the use and adaptation of structure. Under 



* Problems of Biology. By George Sande- 

 mann. New York : The Macmillan Company. 

 London : Swan, Sonnenscliein & Co. Pp. 213. 

 Price, $2. 



the first head we are confronted with the 

 fact that gi'oups of qualities are inherited 

 together. The theories, however, ignore what 

 they call the correlation of qualities and escape 

 by means of terminology ; two qualities in- 

 variably combined are one. So, in regard to 

 the cell theory. The fact that every thing 

 living is a ceil, or a colony of cells, is usually 

 so stated as to evade the problem of the in- 

 dividual. " Functionless parts" and "latent 

 qualities " are also biological bewilderment, 

 and " a mathematical, chemical, or physio- 

 logical formula for the character of a species 

 is an attractive but vain dream." According 

 to the second postulate, the qualities of the 

 organism are related to one another through 

 an agent. This may be " a material vehicle 

 of hereditary qualities," or a " quasi-psychical 

 principle." The epigenetic theory avoids both 

 of these suppositions, and is deemed by the 

 author the critical point of view. He gives 

 an outline of the theories of the preforma- 

 tionists, or " biologists of hypothesis " as he 

 terms them De Vries, Spencer, Weismann, 

 Naegali, and Brooks and pronounces Jlr. 

 Spencer's, in two respects, the most serious 

 and credible of all. Yet this contains a self- 

 contradiction on the point of identity and 

 fails to give us individuality. The third 

 postulate supports the adaptation and trans- 

 formation of species and cruder forms for 

 the doctrine of design. " As ridiculously 



