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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



forgotten that a cyclopaedia in a family, like 

 a piano, must be used to be good for any- 

 thing. It should be ready of access ; and, 

 instead of keeping it away in the library, or 

 locking it up in a stately bookcase, it should 

 be placed in a separate and open case in 

 the room most commonly occupied by the 

 family, and where the volumes can be 

 reached by the very smallest amount of 

 effort. By adopting this plan, a bright 

 family will soon find the Cyclopaedia among 

 the first of daily necessities, and a source 

 of constant pleasure and instruction. The 

 publishers have anticipated this want of 

 separate cases for their work, and supply 

 them when desired ; but any cabinet-maker 

 will manufacture them at a trifling cost. 



Darwiniana : Essays and Reviews pertain- 

 ing to Darwinism. By Asa Gray. New 

 York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 390. 

 Price, $2. 



The appearance of this volume will 

 take many people by surprise. Although 

 Prof. Gray is widely known in the world of 

 science for his botanical researches, and in 

 the world of education by his valuable text- 

 books, but few are aware that he is a pro- 

 nounced and unflinching Darwinian, or that 

 he has been an able and vigorous defender 

 of the doctrines that pass under this name, 

 ever since they were first promulgated. He 

 has written much upon this subject in vari- 

 ous periodicals, but, caring only to let the 

 arguments go for what they are worth, he 

 has modestly withheld his name from the 

 articles, the effect being that his position 

 upon the question has not been a matter of 

 notoriety. His contributions to the discus- 

 sion are varied and valuable, and, as col- 

 lected in the present volume, they will be 

 seen, to establish a new and unexpected 

 claim upon the thinking world, which we 

 are sure will be extensively felt and cor- 

 dially acknowledged. 



The history of what may be called the 

 Darwinian discussion, in some of its aspects, 

 is most curious and instructive. We com- 

 placently point back to those narrow and 

 prejudiced times, from which we have hap- 

 pily escaped, when novel scientific opinions 

 were rejected on the most frivolous and 

 puerile grounds, urged by those who knew 

 nothing whatever about them. But have 

 we really much improved on those old prac- 



tices, and do we even yet recognize that 

 plain rule of common-sense, to leave the 

 discussion of serious and difficult scientific 

 questions to those who are competent to 

 deal with them ? Our times are eminent 

 for just the contrary procedure. With all 

 our vaunted liberalization, we dare not leave 

 scientific questions to scientific men. In 

 the history of the scientific controversies of 

 the last three centuries there is no instance 

 that will compare with this of " Darwinism," 

 when the community has been so bewildered 

 and misled by irrelevant and childish dis- 

 cussion on the part of grossly incompetent 

 writers. The press has teemed with essays 

 and books by men who were not only unfa- 

 miliar with the problems involved, and ut- 

 terly ignorant of the sciences upon which 

 their solution depends, but who had no in- 

 telligent conception even of the issues to 

 be settled. Clergymen, lawyers, metaphysi- 

 cians, litterateurs, having no acquaintance 

 with natural history, and knowing nothing 

 of the requirements, difficulties, and per- 

 plexities of scientific investigation, have 

 rushed into the debate with a confidence and 

 pretension contrasting strongly with the spir- 

 it of those who have given their lives to the 

 study. Here comes another of these impu- 

 dent and worthless performances, " A Criti- 

 cal Examination of some of the Principal 

 Arguments for and against Darwinism," by 

 James Maclaren, M. A., barrister-at-law ; 

 and what are the claims of this writer to at- 

 tention ? Why, he has written a book on the 

 "History of the Curuency; " and, with the 

 mental equipment which such a work and 

 his professional education imply, he assumes 

 to deal with the greatest problem that has 

 ever presented itself to the mind of man, 

 a problem which belongs purely to science, 

 and is engrossing the severest scrutiny of 

 the most thoroughly disciplined scientific 

 minds of the age. 



Dr. Gray's book offers a refreshing con- 

 trast to this shallow strain of Darwinian lit- 

 erature. It comes of a direct, first-hand, and 

 thoroughly familiar knowledge of the ele- 

 ments and objects which enter into the in- 

 quiry, and outweighs whole libraries of such 

 productions as we have here referred to. 

 The author says, in his preface : "If these 

 papers are useful at all, it will be as show- 

 ing how these new views of our day are re- 

 garded by a practical naturalist, versed in 



