414 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ordinary stndent. Mr. GlazebrooJc tells the story of Maxwell's life in a 

 little less tlian the th-st half of the book before us, devoting the rest to an 

 account of his works. The first part is enlivened by a sprinkling of char- 

 acteristic incidents, while many extracts from his letters and addresses, 

 together with a few of his verses, help to show the real nature of the man. 

 His scientific work is grouped under three heads: Color perception, molec- 

 ular physics, and electrical theories. He made researches experimentally 

 as well as by mathematical processes, and a spinning top carrying various 

 colored disks of paper became in his hands a most etTective piece of appa- 

 ratus. His later views on the molecular theory are to be found in the 

 articles Atom and Diffusion in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but more 

 important than his achievements in the two foregoing subjects were his 

 theories as to electricity and magnetism. What these were our author 

 tells with considerable fullness, giving some history of the subject before 

 Maxwell, and quoting frequently from Maxwell's papers. A concluding 

 chapter shows how discoveries made since his death, esi>ecially those of 

 Hertz, have firmly established his views. Throughout the volume the 

 effort has been constant to give readers with little knowledge of mathe- 

 matics a realizing sense of the truths of physical science discovered by 

 Maxwell, but it was impossible to avoid some details which only adepts 

 will appreciate. 



In the two parts of his recent book * Prof. Zahm has performed two 

 services for Christians, especially Catholics, who are not quite clear as to 

 what evolution is, and are concerned about the alleged conflict between 

 this doctrine and religion. He first explains evolution with mi;ch fullness 

 of detail and in an entirely nontechnical manner. He corrects at the out- 

 set the common error which restricts evolution to Darwinism, although he 

 states that in this book he will deal especially with evolution in the organic 

 kingdoms. He finds some rudiments of the theory in the speculations of 

 the Greek philosophers, and traces its history down to the present time; he 

 tells of the fanciful notions concerning fossils and gigantic bones found in 

 the earth, which were held down to a recent period; he gives a sketch of 

 the spontaneous generation controversy ; and in two chapters he presents 

 the evidences of evolution and the objections that have been urged against 

 it. Then taking up the alleged conflict, which he everywhere treats as 

 unreal, he ascribes many of the misunderstandings on this matter to mis- 

 use of terms, especially the terms '' Creation '' and " Nature," which he 

 undertakes to define in accordance with Catholic theology. C.assifying 

 evolutionists as monists, agnostics, and theists, he discusses in succession 

 their several standpoints as regards religion. In discussing monism he 

 deals only with the utterances of Ernst Haeckel, whom he handles without 

 gloves. He is more moderate with the exponents of agnosticism, although 

 rating this view as worse than atheism, because the atheist will discuss the 

 existence of God, while the agnostic denies that there are any data for 

 such a discussion. He falls into the common error as to the source from 

 which Huxley obtained the word agnostic, but gives in a footnote a quota- 

 tion from a writer who evidently knew its real origin. He sees nothing 



* Evolution and Dogma. By Rev. J. A. Zahm, C. S. C. Pp. 4G1, 12mo. Chicago : D. H. McBride 

 & Co. 



