562 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Having given illustrations of the way 

 Agassiz, in the heat of controversy, was led 

 on to untenable positions so that at last 

 he denied even the filiations of languages, 

 Professor De Quatrefages proceeds : " Agas- 

 siz, when he had arrived at this point, must 

 have felt that he had lost himself, and that 

 in trying to harmonize the idea of a single 

 human species with that of several races of 

 distinct origin he was entering an endless 

 labyrinth. His last work betrays the signs 

 of this embarrassment only too clearly. It 

 is probably in the hope of escaping from 

 it that the author has finally even denied 

 the existence of species. After having 

 again rejected the criterion drawn from 

 crossing and degrees of fertility, he adds : 

 ' With it disappears in its turn the pre- 

 tended reality of species as opposed to the 

 mode of existence of genera, families, or- 

 ders, classes, and branches. Reality of ex- 

 istence is in fact possessed by individuals 

 alone.' Thus from adhering solely to mor- 

 phology from a disregard of the physiologi- 

 cal side of the question, from having al- 

 lowed themselves to be guided by a logic 

 which is only founded upon incomplete 

 data, Agassiz and Darwin have arrived at a 

 similar result. Both have disregarded this 

 great fact intelligible to common sense, 

 demonstrated by science, and which gov- 

 erns everything in zoology as it does in 

 botany, the division, namely, of organized 

 beings into elementary and fundamental 

 groups which propagate in space and time. 

 Eut Darwin, starting from the phenomena 

 of variations which are presented by these 

 beings, considers species only as races. 

 Agassiz, entirely preoccupied with the phe- 

 nomena of fixity, finally considers individ- 

 uals only as existing in living nature." 



This is the proper place to suggest that 

 De Quatrefages himself is perhaps open to 

 criticism from the point of view of studies 

 that disturb the judgment. While there is 

 force in the point he makes against Darwin- 

 ism, that natural selection is insufficient to 

 account for evolution, the same thing is 

 pointed out by eminent evolutionists, and 

 Darwin himself has admitted that he at 

 first made too much of the principle. De 

 Quatrefages makes the common mistake 

 of considering Darwinism and evolution as 

 the same thing. We should say that the 



logical fault of De Quatrefages is that he 

 does not allow sufficient weight to that 

 already overwhelming consensus of proofs, 

 and which is every day becoming stronger, 

 that evolution is a great fact of nature, 

 which must be accepted in its interpretation 

 whatever outstanding difficulties remain yet 

 to be cleared up. 



Book V., on the " Peopling of the Globe," 

 deals with the interesting subject of the mi- 

 gration of populations by sea and land. Book 



VI. takes up the " Acclimatization of the 

 Human Species," and deals with the influ- 

 ence of conditions on life and race. Book 



VII. discusses " Primitive Man Formation 

 of the Human Races." In Book VIII. four 

 interesting chapters are given to "Fossil 

 Human Races." Book IX. considers the 

 " Physical Characters of Present Human 

 Races," anatomical, physiological, and pa- 

 thological. Book X. closes the work by 

 an " Analysis of the Psychological Charac- 

 ters of the Human Species," including its 

 intellectual, moral, and religious characters. 



To those in want of a well-digested 

 summary of anthropological science, done 

 in a most readable form, this volume may 

 be freely commended. 



A Practical Treatise on the Combustion 

 of Coal, including Descriptions of 

 Various Mechanical Devices for the 

 Economic Generation of Heat by the 

 Combustion of Fuel, whether solid, 

 liquid, or gaseous. By William M. 

 Barr. Indianapolis : Zohn Brothers. 

 Pp. 306. Price, $2.50. 



This seems a very well-digested com- 

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 and Mr. Barr's volume goes over it in a 

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 gained than by giving an inventory of its 



