1899] HISTORY OF NATURAL SCIENCE 465 



giving a series of representative extracts from the writings of prominent 

 workers, from Aristotle to Humboldt, sixty-two in all. To criticise these seems 

 hardly fair without making a better selection of sixty-two, and this we have 

 no desire to attempt. Just as in the case of a " Golden Treasury of Lyrics," 

 one misses some old favourites, and wonders what possessed the editor to put 

 others in, one misses anything from Harvey, Buffon, Lamarck, or von Baer, 

 and how many others ! — but room had to be found for Euler and Galvani, 

 Wohler and Carnot. Our disappointment is softened too when we come across 

 Swammerdam and Trembley, Goethe, and Sprengel, (Schwann and Schleiden. 

 In short, though I daresay a man might have made a better selection of sixty- 

 two samples, the fact is that no one ever did. Dr. Dannemann speaks in a quiet 

 way in his preface of the book being useful to pupils in the upper forms of 

 high schools, but shall we not be frank and admit that there is none of us — 

 Herren Professoren, Doctoren, Privat-Docenten, and Gelehrten in general — who 

 would not be the better of reading a book like this, and renewing our youth 

 thereby. 



The second volume is more ambitious and more open to criticism, to which 

 we are averse. Its title is " The Development of the Natural Sciences," and we 

 doubt whether the theme is within any one man's grasp, though Mr. Merz made 

 a brave beginning in the first part of his " History of Scientific Thought in the 

 Nineteenth Century" (1897). Dr. Dannemann divides his history into four 

 chapters : — Ancient Times, The Middle Ages, The Later Times, and Modern 

 Times. 



In regard to the last — the scientific Plistocene — he notes especially the 

 results of the theory of combustion and atomicity ; the discovery of electricity 

 and its consequences ; the influence of Laplace and Herschel on astronomy ; 

 the further progress of chemico-physical research ; the institution of the 

 " natural system " in zoology and botany ; the results of the establishment of 

 the doctrine of the conservation of energy ; the influence of chemico-physical 

 research on biology and geology ; and the evolution-doctrine. But this is far 

 too much for about 100 pages ; and although the author faces up manfully, we 

 are afraid that it won't do. There should at least have been a separate volume 

 for the Darwinian era, for with Darwin all things became new. We liked the 

 book very much until we reached what we have called the Plistocene period, 

 and then, if the erudite author -will forgive us, we liked it very little. The 

 task was too big for the pages. May we hope for a second edition in three 

 volumes? The publisher, who has already the gratitude of the historically- 

 minded by his issue of Ostwald's " Klassiker," should see to this. 



J. A. T. 



ENGLISH EDITION OF VEBWORN'S GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



General Physiology : An Outline of the Science of Life. By Max Verworn, 

 M.D., Ph.D., A. 0. Professor of Physiology in the University of Jena. 

 Translated from the Second German Edition, and edited by Frederic 

 S. Lee, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Physiology in Columbia University. 

 8vo, pp. xvi. + 615, with 285 illustrations. London : Macmillan and 

 Co., 1899. Price 15s. 



As the first and second German editions of this important work have been 

 already reviewed in Natural Science, we must restrict ourselves to welcoming 

 the book in its English dress. And this welcome should be a hearty one, for 

 the volume occupies an almost unique place as an introduction to the problems 

 of general physiology, and has been widely appreciated for its lucidity and 

 suggestiveness. As Mr. Lee says in his prefatory note, " Many of the special 

 views of the author have encountered opposition — a fact that perhaps is indi- 

 cative of their value — yet, however much we may agree or disagree with him 



