146 NATURAL SCIENCE. Feb., 



into the volume." With this idea before him, he deserts the ordinary 

 empirical method of the text-books, and attempts to group the 

 " Problems " and the Ideas which are prevalent in Biology at the 

 present time. In the later part of the book, especially in Part III., 

 where the author falls back on the Empirical method, and takes up, 

 in this fashion, subjects such as " Quarantine," " Isolation," &c., we 

 have him at his best. Here he discusses the subjects in an entirely 

 practical manner, and does not attempt to justify his conclusions on 

 other than practical grounds. 



It is with the earlier part of the book that we are inclined to- 

 find fault. The conception of evolution has hitherto not been found 

 of much service in the sciences of Physiology and Pathology. It is 

 chiefly of value to Morphologists. To try to introduce it into 

 Hygiene, which depends on Physiology and Pathology for the basis 

 of its doctrines, is a much more serious matter than can be under- 

 taken in a small text-book. The chapter on " Heredity," for example, 

 is not very conclusive. The author tells us that in Pathological 

 changes the organism passes beyond the limit of Physiological 

 adaptation. In this fact we are to find the origin of Disease and 

 Death. The extreme character of Pathological modifications pro- 

 duces such an effect on the germ-plasm that they are inherited more 

 readily than Physiological modifications (13). To supplement this 

 position, which he does not prove, he tells us how we may hope to obtain 

 " amelioration in the fitness of the generations yet to be born." Suffi- 

 cient knowledge is to be imparted to the rising generation that when 

 the time comes the members of it may select mates so as "to counteract 

 injurious or to supplement deficient characteristics." " Indirect as it 

 may appear, the individual possesses distinct power of adaptation over 

 the offspring. The weakness of a system, such as the nervous or 

 respiratory, in the one parent may be counteracted by the other, and 

 any neglect to take cognisance of such a weakness on both sides more 

 surely results in disease in the children " (25). 



How is this "counteraction" brought about? It is surely not 

 by both sides taking cognisance the neglect of which is here blamed. 

 The author's belief in education is unbounded, and leads him to the 

 following extraordinary conclusion : " For the future citizen the 

 earliest teaching of the school must be how to live healthily and have 

 healthy offspring," p. 28. The rest of Part I. claims more or less 

 similar criticism. The style in which it is written is awkward, as if 

 the author were unfamiliar with the subjects. Occasionally, as in 

 the account of carbonic acid, the author shows himself unacquainted 

 with recent work upon the questions at issue. 



Ethnology in Folk Lore. By G. L. Gomme. ["Modern Science" Series, 

 edited by Sir John Lubbock.] 8vo. Pp. 200. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, 

 Triibner & Co., 1892. Price 2s. Cd. 



This volume, by the president of the Folk-Lore Society, aims to set 

 forth the principles upon which the subject may be classified, in order 

 to arrive at some of the results which should follow from its study. 

 Old races disappear while old customs last — carried on by successors, 

 but not necessarily by descendants. Many customs and beliefs exist 

 uselessly in the midst of civilisation, but their true meaning may be 

 gathered if they can be traced to other countries where they occur in 

 harmony with the manners and ideas of the people. The author 

 maintains that the records of uncivilisation are as real as those of 



