1 66 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The Origin and Evolution of Life. By Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sc.D., 

 Research Professor, Columbia University. [Pp. xxi + 322.] (London: 

 G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., 1918. Price 25^. net.) 



This book is " some of the initial steps toward an energy conception of Evolution 

 and an energy conception of Heredity, and away from the matter and form 

 conceptions which have prevailed for over a century." With this introductory 

 remark the reader expects to find something new, but what he does find is a 

 wearisome reiteration of the words " action, reaction, and interaction of energy," 

 which Prof. Osborn evidently believes is the key to a solution of the problems 

 surrounding life phenomena. The effect of this interpretation of life phenomena 

 in "terms of energy" is, to say the least, fruitless. On the one hand, the author 

 disclaims himself to be either materialist or mechanist, while in a later part of his 

 book he proceeds to give an unconvincing explanation of how life began "by the 

 assemblage one by one of several of the ten elements now essential to life. ..." 

 Before beginning this physico-chemical explanation of the inception of life, 

 Prof. Osborn postulates the presence in living substance of a hypothetical 

 undiscovered life element "bion," and his several conceptions of life phenomena 

 are contradictory ! One does not expect a palaeontologist to write a very 

 illuminating essay on chromatin, but one must remark that the author's state- 

 ment that " Boveri has demonstrated that all body-cells lose a portion of their 

 chromatin, and only the germ-cells retain the entire ancestral heritage," is 

 preposterous. It is a pity that such ill-informed statements should be made by 

 one whose writings are rightly taken by some to be of prime importance. 

 Boveri, it is true, showed that in Ascaris there is a chromatin-diminution process, 

 but this is an exception to the rule that the nuclei in the segmenting egg are 

 equipotent at the time to which Prof. Osborn refers. 



Exactly what the author means by distinguishing between "heredity- 

 chromatin " and " body-chromatin " is hard to ascertain. Possibly his mis- 

 interpretation of Boveri's views accounts for the attempt to distinguish between 

 the nuclei of the germ-cells and those of the so-called body-cells. The author's 

 use of the term "heredity-chromatin " instead of Weismann's "germ-plasm" is 

 bound to find favour in some quarters. The reader leaves the first part of this 

 book with mixed feelings, but above all with the opinion that the author's "energy 

 concept" of the origin and evolution of life leads to a cul-de-sac, and is not likely 

 to produce any satisfactory result. The second part of Prof. Osborn's book deals 

 with evolution from a palaeontological aspect, and here the author is dealing with 

 his own subject. He gives a beautifully illustrated and clear description of 

 various well-known lines of evolution in vertebrates, from materials collected 

 mainly by American authors ; while one cannot stint admiration for the valuable 

 work of the latter observers, one is bound to say that Prof. Osborn does not give 

 due acknowledgment to the work of British palaeontologists. In his conclusion 

 and elsewhere Prof. Osborn clearly recognises the importance of hormones or 

 chemical messengers in their possible relationship to heredity, especially from the 

 aspect of Lamarckism. The book is well illustrated, and contains a bibliography 

 at the end. J. B. G. 



The Evolution of the Earth and its Inhabitants. Edited by R. S. Lull, Ph.D. 



[Pp. xi + 208, with frontispiece, 4 plates, and 38 figures.] (Yale University 



Press ; London : Humphrey Milford, 1918. Price $2.50, or lay. net.) 



The contents of this pleasing volume are a series of lectures delivered before the 



Yale Chapter of the Sigma XI during the Academic Year 1916-17. The following 



