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. Inthe 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 ina 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 beborn.” 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 FoLtk Lore. By G. L. Gomme. [‘‘ Modern Science’’ Series, 
edited by Sir John Lubbock.] 8vo. Pp. 200. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 
Tribner & Co., 1892. Price 2s. 6d. 
Tuis 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 
