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SCIENCE PROGRESS 



be developed to various degrees of intensity but no development can bring out a 

 non-existent detail. A so-called "acquired character" may well be nothing more 

 than a developed character and not in any true sense one that is acquired. It is 

 as if a man found himself the possessor of various factories full of machines of 

 which he has little understanding : he sets to work and learns gradually to make 

 use of them ; sooner or later he is able to use some of the machines efficiently, 

 others he never makes use of, either because he cannot understand them or 

 because they were imperfect when they came into his possession or because he is 

 never called upon to set them in action, there being no demand for the articles 

 which can be made with their aid. He is even able to turn out new machines like 

 the old ones but is strictly limited to copying these, as the only templates at his 

 disposal are those from which they were made : willy-nilly therefore he is forced 

 to copy. 



To be frank, we are of opinion that the author lacks not only the borderland 

 knowledge but also the critical power that is needed in writing such a book — the 

 power to take himself to task on every page and ask himself if he be not making a 

 fool of himself in stating this or that : without this, no one, in these days, should 

 attempt to write for babes and sucklings. Far too much is attempted and what is 

 written is put together far too loosely. 



If the book were deprived of the cheap attempts at " philosophy " which 

 disfigure it and reduced to a common-sense account of the things which are 

 really known to zoologists, it would doubtless be of value — as the technical 

 descriptions are usually well written and well illustrated. As it stands, however, 

 it is a most misleading work — the student who had swallowed it as gospel would 

 only be a thing of shreds and patches, full of bombast and loose jargon but entirely 

 lacking in true understanding of the subject. 



The book convinces us, in short, that educational authorities will be right in 

 giving but little encouragement to the teaching of general biology until it can be 

 placed on a logical footing. Loose scrappy talk must at all costs be kept out of 

 the schools. 



It may be, however, that we are blaming the author for the faults of his 

 class and that what we have to object to is the way in which the biologists of our 

 time are prone to talk big of things of which they have no real understanding. By 

 wrapping up an endless number of factors in terms such as environment — by 

 speaking of stimuli without giving the least idea what a stimulus is and how it 

 acts — it is easy to produce a great impression of learning. It is noteworthy that 

 John Stirling, in a letter he wrote to the author on the appearance of Sartor Resartus, 

 took exception to various new words Carlyle used — among others " environment " : 

 soul-satisfying as such epithets are, when analysed they amount to little : in the 

 end we must admit that we cannot yet ask a single clear question, let alone answer 

 one, about life. 



