1908] TWO BOOKS OF EVOLUTION 43 



TWO BOOKS ON EVOLUTION. 



There is a growing demand for elementary treatises upon the subject of Organic 

 Evolution, in which the more important theories are presented briefly and with rea- 

 sonable impartiality. President Jordan and Professor Kellogg have recently made 

 a welcome contribution^ to this class of literature. Teachers of Zoology will recognize 

 in "Evolution and Animal Life" many illustrations and passages of text which first 

 appeared in the school book "Animal Life," by the same authors; and will value 

 them more highly in their new setting. The new volume is fully twice as large as the 

 earlier one, and is meant for maturer readers, though admirably suited for use as a 

 reference book in secondary schools. The new title happily avoids confusion with 

 that of Karl Semper's classic work. 



Professor Kellogg's "Darv\'inism To-day"^ is a scholarly statement of evidence 

 and arguments for and against the Darwinian ideas of species-forming, designed to 

 sliov/ the place Vv^hich Darwinism holds in the growing pattern of modern biological 

 theory. Perhaps too solid a treatise to attract popular attention, it is nevertheless 

 most interestingly vvTitten, and must commend itself strongly to the educated layman 

 and the professional biologist alike. The notes and citations appended to the cha])- 

 ters give a convenient synopsis of literature dealing with Darwinism, on a scale 

 which has not been attempted in any other work of the kind. This feature is im- 

 menseb' A^aluable. Careful readers will lament the small size and occasional indis- 

 tinctness of the figures by v>^hich references to notes are made (those in the body of 

 the book are of the same size as the ones used in Psyche's foot-notes); but this is 

 a minor fault. There is scant room for lamentation in the midst of the enthusiastic 

 welcome v.'hich the book deserves. 



W. L. W. F. 



1 Evolution and Animal Life. An elementary discussion of facts, processes, laws and theories relating 

 to the life and evolution of animals. By David Starr Jordan and Vernon Lj^man Kellogg. New York: 

 D. Api)ieton & Co. 1907. 



- Darwinism To-day. -A. discussion of present-day scientific criticism of the Darwinian selection 

 theories, together with a brief accoiuit of the principal other proposed auxiliary and alternative theories 

 of species-forming. By Vernon L. Kellogg. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1907. 



