240 



The Journal of Heredity 



greater ease with which attention is 

 called to the individual subjects under 

 discussion by this means. Still we 

 cannot but have a lingering regret that 

 the demand of present-day readers 

 does not require the artistic touch 

 which beautifies the works of Walton 

 and Gilbert White. The book, how- 

 ever, is entertaining to a high degree 

 and its greatest attraction, perhaps, is 

 the spirit of sympathetic understand- 



ing which is the outcome of the writer's 

 close association with his subject. If 

 such a spirit were more common among 

 men, an era of good will toward animals 

 might bring about more peace upon 

 earth, for the fear of man, the most 

 terrible of all enemies, keeps alive in 

 animals the passion of hate which is 

 the seed of war. There. is reason in the 

 old motto, "Live and let live." 



A. C. C. 



The Dependent Organism 



Organic Dependence and Disease: 

 Their Origin and Significance. 

 By John M. Clarke, D.Sc. L.L.D. 

 New York State Paleontologist. 113 

 pages. Yale l^niversitv Press, New 

 Haven, 1921. 



The author's thesis is that depend- 

 ency of one organism on another, 

 including mutualism beneficial to both 

 parties, is a perturbation of normal 

 living which spells inevitably increas- 

 ing degeneracy for the dependent 

 organism. Normal living is defined as 

 "full activity of an unimpaired physi- 

 ology, inclusive of the function of 

 locomotion or mobility." The author's 

 point of view may be gathered from 

 selections from his conclusions. "If 

 dependence has affected and sealed 

 the fate of one great division of 

 the Kingdom of Life, so that it is 

 and must remain subsidiary to the 

 larger purposes of nature, dependence 

 also has entered upon, probably the 

 major part of the other, the animal 

 world." "It is thus emphatically true 

 in Nature's program, that physical 

 sah'ation is of the few, and is the reward 



only of righteous living." "For de- 

 pendent races of life, there has been no 

 rescue or return." 



The thesis seems to approach 

 perilously close to a truism. If progress 

 is defined in terms of mobility, it is 

 hardly likely that specialization in a 

 form of dependency which involves 

 fixation will lead to progress. De- 

 pendency which does not involve loss 

 of mobility is apparently not looked 

 upon as unrighteous and is not dis- 

 cussed. The whole animal kingdom 

 is, of course, dependent on the plant 

 kingdom having an unimpaired physi- 

 ology with respect to the synthesis of 

 organic compounds which involve stor- 

 age of energy. 



The greater part of the book is 

 taken up a with discussion of the cases 

 of symbiosis and parasitism among 

 invertebrates which are revealed by 

 the paleontological record. The se- 

 quences of increasing specalization 

 and dependency illustrated by numer- 

 ous photographs are of great interest 

 apart from the ethical conclusions 

 drawn from them. 



S. W. 



BOOKS RECEIVED 



Mysticism, Freudianism, and Scientific Psychology, by Knight Dunlap, C. V 

 Mosby Company, St. Louis, Mo.,' 1922. 



Personal Beauty and Racial Betterment, by Knight Dunlap, C. V. Mosby Com- 

 pany, St. Louis, Mo., 1922. 



Elements of Scientific Psychology, by Knight Dunlap, C. V. Mosby Company, 

 St. Louis, Mo., 1922. 



Plain Facts, by J. H. Kellogg, Modern Medicine Publishing Company, Battle 

 Creek, Michigan, 1921. 



Cancer, the Monster Malady, by J. H. Kellogg, Good Health Publishing Com- 

 pany, Battle Creek, Michigan. 



