370 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



is the prize in the school of evolution, and he therefore desires to prove that 

 successful organisms are organisms of higher moral value. 



He has much to say about the web of life and the interdependence of 

 organisms. Green plants build up nutrient substances far in excess of their 

 own wants, and the surplus is used in the first place as an altruistic " love-store," 

 the elaborate chemical compounds that are to form the food of the next generation, 

 and partly as a source of food for animals. Green plants in fact are successful 

 in so far as they are altruistic, and the selfish parasites, moulds, and fungi not only 

 do not attain so high a grade of chemical perfection, but become degenerate in 

 structure. Vegetarian, or as Mr. Reinheimer calls them, "out-feeding" animals 

 co-operate with green plants in various ways and are rewarded by attaining a higher 

 grade of organisation, the vegetarian monkeys, for instance, culminate in man, 

 but "in-feeders" or carnivorous animals do little good in the world and offt-r 

 examples of lop-sided, blind-alley development. It is hardly necessary to allude 

 to what Mr. Reinheimer has to say about animal parasites ; possibly it might be 

 compared with the views of an extreme Calvinist as to the prospects of a baby 

 dead before it had been baptized. 



We do not happen to agree with what we infer to be Mr. Reinheimer's 

 conception of morality or with his system of applying it to animals and plants. 

 That, however, is an unimportant side-issue. What is obvious is that to command 

 due attention to his thesis, the author must develop it on different lines. He must 

 take animals and plants, family by family, genus by genus, species by species, 

 and endeavour to show that in fact there is some connection between place 

 in the scale of organisation and altruistic or selfish habit. Let him begin with 

 a single group. The carnivora, for instance, present almost every variety of diet ; 

 they range from carrion feeders, lithe and aggressive killers of the living, to purely 

 frugivorous and vegetarian forms. A very great deal is known as to their 

 systematic relations, structure, reproductive habits, and general success or failure 

 in holding their own in the struggle for life. If Mr. Reinheimer could work out 

 some correlation in this case between what he thinks ought to happen on his 

 theory and what seems to have happened, he would at least secure a patient 

 and attentive hearing. 



The Principles of Biology. By J. I. Hamaker, Ph.D. [Pp. x + 459, with 

 267 illustrations.] (Philadelphia : P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1913. Price 

 $1.50.) 



The plan of this book is certainly attractive. Part I deals with plants and has 

 an appendix on classification, Part II treats in the same way but more fully of 

 animals, and Part III is devoted to the consideration of general principles. The 

 printing, most of the illustrations, and the general " get-up " are creditable to the 

 publishers. 



Preceding Parts I and II are series of laboratory exercises. However useful 

 these may be to students attending the author's courses they are of practically 

 no value to the ordinary reader. Indeed, the exercises under Vertebrata do 

 not appear to be arranged in any order whatsoever and follow neither the ordinal 

 arrangement of the types nor the classification of the organs into systems that 

 is given on p. 139. As an introduction to vertebrate symmetry why take Perca in 

 which the pelvic fins have such an atypical position below or even slightly in front 

 of the pectoral fins ? 



Questions of classification will always form ground for discussion, and one does 



