i894. SOME NEW BOOKS. 229 



Moreover, the offspring, with respect to this character, are in a posi- 

 tion in which it is impossible to judge of what, in their case, is 

 inherited and what is acquired, for they are subjected to the new 

 influence from their earhest birth. As in this instance, so in many 

 others. Professor Packard walks round the point at issue. All 

 instances of the power of environment to mould the individual are 

 of the greatest value ; and Professor Packard and others have done 

 service in directing attention to a side of nature perhaps neglected. 

 But, for this particular controversy, what is wanted is proof of the 

 inheritance of the result of the moulding. 



The actual occasion of this publication is a careful and valuable 

 account of the complicated metamorphoses of many insects, accom- 

 panied by suggestions of causes in the environment which might have 

 produced the characters of the stages in question. Students of evolution 

 and of natural history will find this valuable, but we submit that none 

 of it has a direct bearing upon the controversial problem placed as the 

 title of the paper. In every case the argument goes no further than 

 to suggest that, if acquired characters be transmitted, and if the 

 Lamarckian factor in modification of organisms have the value assigned 

 to it by Professor Packard, then the characters in these stages of 

 larval history might be explained as due to the inheritance of acquired 

 modifications. But all this, although it has a place, and a useful 

 place, in scientific writing, takes us no further towards a solution of 

 the problems in question, and gives support to the uneasy suggestion 

 made at the recent discussion at the British Association that many of 

 the opponents of Natural Selection do not understand the nature of 

 the problems about which they write. 



Zoology for Farmers. 



Agricultural Zoology. By Dr. J. Ritzema Bos, Lecturer in the Royal 

 Agricultural College Wageningen, Holland. With an Introduction by Miss 

 E. A. Ormerod ; Translated by J. R. Ainsworth Davis, B.A., Professor in the 

 University of Wales. Pp. 256 and xx., with 149 illustrations. London : 

 Chapman & Hall, 1894. Price 6s. 



Dr. Ritzema Bos is so well known as a competent scientific naturalist 

 who has specialised on what is called economic zoology, that we 

 welcome an English rendering of his little book. It is designed to be 

 a handy book for the practical farmer, and it deals with the animal 

 kingdom in such a way that the private student shall have an 

 intelligent idea of the general structure and organisation, and of the 

 place in the scale of life of those animals that are harmful or helpful 

 to agriculture. Reference to the domesticated farm animals is omitted, 

 " for these are treated not by the zoologist but by the lecturer in 

 stock-breeding." The translator, in his preface, says that he has made 

 a few small additions and alterations, to adapt the book for those who 

 live in England. Miss Ormerod, in her introduction, gives the book 

 her blessing, and commends it to agriculturists. 



The English is easy and intelligible. The illustrations, especially 

 those dealing with insects and eelworms, are well adapted for their 

 purpose. So far as the make-up of the book goes, we have praise for 

 everything but for the lamentable absence of an index. The book 

 ought to go into other editions. We hope that the technical instruc- 

 tion committees of County Councils will make large use of it for their 

 teachers and for their students, but in another edition an index must 

 be added — an index containing the common English names of all the 

 animals referred to. 



