122 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 
visitor. Progress, continuity, and a definite system or scheme of 
arrangement, should be ensured to every museum. Arrested growth 
or stagnation is fatal to any such institution. 
The second division of the volume is entitled “ General Biology,” 
and under it are included eight essays upon a variety of subjects of 
biological interest. The doctrine of evolution supphes the main text 
of most of the lectures and addresses, and the theory and facts are 
dealt with in a simple, straightforward manner which will commend 
itself to the general reader, although the subject as discussed has now 
lost the charm of novelty which it possessed at the time when the 
essays were written. The history and progressive work of the 
Zoological Society affords one theme, and the account of one of our 
most successful societies, which has managed i in the happiest manner 
to combine valuable scientific investigation with popular instruction, 
is very acceptable from the pen of the president of the Society. In 
some respects the two chapters which complete the biological section 
may claim to be the most interesting. In them the natural history 
of the Cetacea is discussed in some detail. This group of Mammalha 
has always been a favourite one with the author. One would have 
welcomed a more detailed comparative account of the various methods 
of pursuit and capture adopted in the different ‘fisheries, but the 
limits of time imposed on a lecture have not permitted this. These 
two essays, while giving an excellent résumé of the subject, point also 
to the serious incompleteness of our knowledge of this most interesting 
and specialised mammalian group. The habits alone of these animals 
offer a grand field of investigation to naturalists who have time and 
means at their disposal, our information relating to them being 
singularly defective. A vigorous research into the foetal development 
of some of the apparently more primitive species would be a work of 
great importance. The new gallery at the Natural History Museum, 
devoted to the Cetacea, and due to Sir William’s own energy, should 
supply a stimulus to further active research. 
Under “ Anthropology” we find five essays, three being in the 
form of presidential addresses. The study of Man is dealt with from 
a general standpoint, and the history and present position of the 
science are gone into. The author lays much stress upon the import- 
ance of the comparative study of the various races of Man, and it is 
quite clear that long and laborious research will yet be necessary 
before we are in any position to lay down an even approximately satis- 
factory classification of the human species. The investigation is beset 
with difficulties, and even the terminology will require frequent revision. 
The classification is discussed on a primary basis of three main groups 
—the black, yellow, and white races-—which have hitherto proved the 
most reliable wide divisions. Much of importance could be added to 
the scheme of classification as suggested in 1885, but the main points 
would be left unaltered. An interesting lecture on pygmy races deals 
with a number of, for the most part at any rate, very primitive peoples, 
more or less sharply marked off from the races among which they are 
situated, and from whom they keep aloof. Pygmy races enjoy a wide 
geographical distribution, though homologies can be traced in even 
widely separated groups, particularly amongst those referable to the 
‘black’ primary race-division. The essay on “ Fashion in Deformity,” 
