584 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



printed, and can be recommended for all readers from boyhood even to the mature 

 years at which the scientific mind is supposed to reach its zenith of power. The 

 account of the flora and fauna of the ocean, however, would have been somewhat 

 clearer if the various groups had been considered in some better biological order. 



The Meaning of Evolution. By Samuel Christian Schmucker, Ph.D, 



[Pp. 298.] (London : Macmillan Co., 1913. Price 6s. bd. net.) 

 A very clearly written popular exposition of evolution. The book begins with 

 a history of the development of our ideas on the subject from the time of the 

 Greek philosophers up to Cuvier and Lamarck, and then gives in much greater 

 detail the life and work of Darwin. Next the various strands of thought which 

 make up the total conception are well analysed and explained, with many examples 

 which will be of interest to all readers. The work also contains numerous 

 references to interesting special discoveries, and has an excellent chapter on 

 evolutionary theories since Darwin. This would have been much better, how- 

 ever, if there had been some account of Mendelianism. The book concludes 

 with a theistic chapter. It is a very sane and lucid abstract of the subject, and 

 will be useful to all general readers. 



Life, Light, and Cleanliness. A Health Primer for Schools. Published under 

 the Director of Public Instruction, Punjaub. [Pp. 126.] (Lahore : Rai 

 Sahib M. Gulab Singh & Sons, 191 2. Price 8 annas.) 

 This little book is perhaps the very best primer ever published for teaching 

 sanitation in Indian schools, or even in any schools in the tropics. Although it 

 has been published anonymously, it is written by Major E. L. Perry of the Indian 

 Medical Service. A large number of primers of this kind are on the market ; but 

 Major Perry's booklet has the great advantage that it is put in the form almost 

 of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. The story is that of a conversation 

 between a Rajah of India, "who ruled over a very fine country," and various indi- 

 viduals, such as merchants and physicians. In consequence of these conversations 

 the Rajah sent his eldest son to investigate matters of health in a neighbouring 

 country, where the people " were a fine sturdy race because from childhood up 

 they obey the rules of health." The details of this journey are so interesting 

 that children will read them with pleasure, and will learn everything about 

 sanitary matters en route — mosquitoes and malaria, the taking of quinine, the 

 causation of plague by rat-fleas, and the mode of spread of cholera. These 

 become fixed in the mind of youth in a manner which, we fear, is not done by 

 the much more stately but less effective works of formal sanitation which are 

 usually disseminated amongst the public. We should like to see this work 

 translated into many languages, and cast broadside throughout the schools in 

 the tropics. The Director-General of the Indian Medical Service pointed out 

 in Science Progress for October, 191 3, the difficulties with which sanitation 

 in India is confronted in consequence of the ignorance of the native population — 

 and the European population is not always very much better. This little book 

 ought to do much to remove that ignorance. R. ROSS. 



Panama: The Creation, Destruction, and Resurrection. By Philippe 



Bunau-Varilla. With Portrait of Author and numerous other portraits, 



plates, and figures referring to the Panama Canal. [Pp. xx + 568.] 



(London: Constable & Co., 1913. Price 12J. 6d.) 



We have space only to refer briefly to this great book — written in English and in 



French by the author himself, who was one of the principal moving spirits in the 



