REVIEWS 657 



There is much food for thought in Dr. Bastian's volume. It would be wrong 

 to say seriously that it is full of absurdities— and yet such an expression is almost 

 the only one that does justice to its argument. The immensity of the problem 

 considered is patent : Dr. Bastian's failure to appreciate the gravity of the issues 

 his contributions raise is only too obvious. Psychologically his attitude is one 

 that deserves most careful consideration— it illustrates both the difficulty that 

 attends the interpretation of the complexities of nature and our human tendency 

 to take ourselves seriously as capable exponents of her workings. Dr. Bastian 

 claims to have produced Torultz in his latest experiments from solutions con- 

 taining only, to each ounce of distilled water, either a few drops of a dilute solution 

 of sodium silicate together with about three times as many drops of liquor ferri 

 pernitratis or a few drops each of a dilute solution of sodium silicate and dilute 

 phosphoric acid together with a few grains of ammonia phosphate. In his latest 

 experiments, he used pure colloidal silica prepared by Graham's method in 

 place of the silicate. 



In opposing Dr. Bastian, Huxley doubtless was influenced mainly by his 

 feelings but sustained argument may now be substituted for his sledge-hammerism. 

 In the interval, we have learned much regarding the structure of the constituents 

 of the protoplasmic complex — the nature and functions of enzymes have been 

 made more or less clear to us — even simple organisms such as Dr. Bastian asks 

 us to believe were produced de novo in his tubes have been shown to be of 

 extraordinarily complex structure and capable of exercising both the synthetic and 

 analytic operations characteristic of organisms far higher in the scale — the chemist 

 has also discovered that Nature has developed extraordinary powers of selecting 

 out a certain limited set of materials for use in her building operations : those who 

 understand these things feel that it is simply inconceivable that life can ever arise 

 from materials such as Dr. Bastian has used and during times such as were 

 covered by his experiments. Bacteriologists have accumulated a vast fund of 

 experience : if the calling of living things into being were the easy process he 

 imagines, his observations would have been corroborated and his contentions 

 admitted over and over again. 



With regret we must conclude that Dr. Bastian has never been a competent 

 critic of his own proceedings but he is in no way singular. Much of the so-called 

 research work of our time would never see daylight if those who perpetrate it were 

 better informed and sufficiently modest to be conscious of their inability to deal 

 with the tasks which they have had the temerity to undertake. This is the coming 

 difficulty in science ; the rank and file will continue to do good hoe and spade 

 work so long as they are prepared to subordinate themselves to competent leaders 

 but it will be possible to trust but the very few to deal with the more compre- 

 hensive problems or to base generalisations upon the scattered observations of the 

 multitude. It is in this direction, we may hope, a regenerate and virile Royal 

 Society will be able to serve the State — in promoting Natural Knowledge by 

 judiciously organising, criticising and controlling the exercise of scientific effort. 



The Growth of Groups in the Animal Kingdom. By R. E. Lloyd, M.B., D.Sc. 

 (Longmans, Green & Co.) 



Under an unassuming title this book conceals a most ambitious aim, no less than 

 an attempt to solve one of the root-problems of zoology, for the term " group," 

 as defined by the author, is used to include everything from a sport represented 

 by two or three specimens to a new species and the question discussed under the 



