l2 2 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 



visitor. Progress, continuity, and a definite system or scheme of 

 arrangement, should be ensured to every museum. Arrested growth 

 or stagnation is fatal to any such institution. 



The second division of the volume is entitled " General Biology/' 

 and under it are included eight essays upon a variety of subjects of 

 biological interest. The doctrine of evolution supplies the main text 

 of most of the lectures and addresses, and the theory and facts are 

 dealt with in a simple, straightforward manner which will commend 

 itself to the general reader, although the subject as discussed has now 

 lost the charm of novelty which it possessed at the time when the 

 essays were written, the history and progressive work of the 

 Zoological Society affords one theme, and the account of one of our 

 most successful societies, which has managed in the happiest manner 

 to combine valuable scientific investigation with popular instruction, 

 is very acceptable from the pen of the president of the Society. In 

 siime respects the two chapters which complete the biological section 

 may claim to be the most interesting. In them the natural history 

 of the Cetacea is discussed in some detail. This group of Mammalia 

 has always been a favourite one with the author. One would have 

 welcomed a more detailed comparative account of the various methods 

 of pursuit and capture adopted in the different ' fisheries,' but the 

 limits of time imposed on a lecture have not permitted this. These 

 two essays, while giving an excellent resume of the subject, point also 

 to the serious incompleteness of our knowledge of this most interesting 

 and specialised mammalian group. The habits alone of these animals 

 offer a grand field of investigation to naturalists who have time and 

 means at their disposal, our information relating to them being 

 singularly defective. A vigorous research into the foetal development 

 of some of the apparently more primitive species would be a work of 

 great importance. The new gallery at the Natural History Museum, 

 devoted to the Cetacea, and due to Sir William's own energy, should 

 supply a stimulus to further active research. 



Under "Anthropology" we find five essays, three being in the 

 form of presidential addresses. The study of Man is dealt with from 

 a general standpoint, and the history and present position of the 

 science are gone into. The author lays much stress upon the import- 

 ance of the comparative study of the various races of Man, and it is 

 quite clear that long and laborious research will yet be necessary 

 liefore we are in any position to lay down an even approximately satis- 

 factory classification of the human species. The investigation is beset 

 with difficulties, and even the terminology will require frequent revision. 

 The classification is discussed on a primary basis of three main groups 

 -the black, yellow, and white races— which have hitherto proved the 

 most reliable wide divisions. Much of importance could be added to 

 the scheme of classification as suggested in 1885, but the main points 

 would lie left unaltered. An interesting lecture on pygmy races deals 

 with a number of, for the most part at any rate, very primitive peoples, 

 more or less sharply marked off from the races among which they are 

 situated, and from whom they keep aloof. Pygmy races enjoy a wide 

 geographical distribution, though homologies can be traced in even 

 widely separated groups, particularly amongst those referable to the 

 1 (lack ' primary race-division. The essay on " Fashion in Deformity," 



