RENDU AND HIS EDITORS. 447 



then it is not at all difficult to account for the resemblance of our 

 little fox to a monkey, or of certain monkeys to dogs, upon the suppo- 

 sition that both groups of animals, the Quadrumana and the Car- 

 nivora^ are divergent branches from a common stock, resembling the 

 lemurs more than either of them. 



But, aside from such speculations as to the reason for the differ- 

 ences above alluded to, their existence is undeniable ; and it is sur- 

 prising to find how very few are the figures and descriptions of young 

 mammals ; the last scientific letter written me by Prof. Agassiz (Sep- 

 tember 10, 1873) strongly urged the importance of including, within 

 the embryology of domesticated animals, the changes which they 

 undergo a/ifer birth ; and he particularly requested that the dogs, and 

 the wild canidoe as well, should serve as the starting-point. Enough 

 has been said to show that these changes are very great in the fox, 

 and that they may furnish suggestions at least, as to origin and natu- 

 ral relationships. 



ee:^du axd his editoes. 



By JOHN TYNDALL. 



" Some have blamed me, and some have praised me, for th^part I have acted toward 

 Rendu. In one distinguished, but not disinterested quarter, I am charged with prejudice 

 and littleness of spirit, to which charge I make no reply. But let it be shown to me that 

 I have wronged any man by false accusation, and Zaccheus was not more prompt than I 

 shall be to make restitution." — (" Mountaineering in 1861.") 



TO review a book is an unusual occurrence with me : other duties 

 jDutting in a prior and peremptory claim. Still I could not, when 

 honored with a request to do so, decline making the few observations 

 which the brief time allowed me renders possible, on a volume just pub- 

 lished under the joint auspices of Prof. George Forbes, Prof. P. G. 

 Tait, Prof. John Ruskin, and Mr. Alfred Wills. 



Science and Art here unite in denouncing a small book of mine en- 

 titled the " Forms of Water," to which reference has been already 

 made in these pages.^ Putting certain of its sentences into what they 

 call " straightforward English," they draw the inference that my object 

 in writing it was, in a more or less mean arid underhand way, to " dim 

 the lustre " of the late Principal Forbes's glacier-discoveries, to filch 

 his laurels, and to dishonor his memory by fixing on him the charge 

 of plagiarism." Other friends of the late Principal cannot, however, 

 discover in the book any wickedness of this kind, while no friend of 

 mine can discover it. 



In the preface to the fourth edition of the " Forms of Water," pub- 

 lished a few days ago, I state its origin, object, and spirit, and my atti- 



J Vol. xxii., pu 484. 



