ANIMAL EVOLUTION 239 



intellectual worth of royal and other individuals. In the Ught of 

 this Biologico-Historical research, we must as a nation recast our 

 too prevalent modern ideas, and in regard ahke to Democracy, 

 Aristocracy, and Royalty, seek to place our recent and developing 

 national policy upon a sounder and more rational basis. We 

 shall learn that oui" oldest traditions, fast losing their hold upon 

 a people who have passed through the stage of being a nation of 

 shopkeepers and are fast becoming a nation of slaves — slaves to 

 democratic demands of rights and neglects of duties and to con- 

 ceptions of the equality of men, and to the system of the propping 

 up of weaklings by the steel props of officialism — -have been more 

 firmly and truly based on the sohd ground of Nature than we at 

 present conceive. Good blood first, good blood last, good blood 

 always, that is the lesson we can gather from Dr. Adams Wood's 

 research. Degeneracy in Royalty like the same quality in lower 

 social classes, is due to bad blood. Greatness and nobleness in 

 Royalty is due to good blood. Good stock may be spoiled by 

 contamination with bad blood is the lesson engraven in deep-set 

 inscriptions on almost every page and every pedigree in Dr. 

 Adams Wood's book. No greater lesson exists to be learned by 

 any nation. For what is true of Royalty is true of humbler 

 classes. The nation which shall first learn the lesson and apply 

 its knowledge, pressing forward ruthlessly and fearlessly to the 

 goal of a worthy Manhood, an efficient and noble Kingship, and a 

 patriotic Citizenship, is the nation that will win and hold the 

 world. G. P. M. 



Herbert Spencer and Animal Evolution.— ?^/^^ Herbert 



spencer Lecture, deJivered at the Museum on the 2nd 

 December, 1909, b;/ Gilbert Charles Bourne, M.A., D.Sc, 

 Oxford, at the Clareftdon Press, MCMX. Price \s. %d. net. 



This booklet contains the substance of the first Herbert 

 Spencer lecture which is to be annually delivered at Oxford 

 University. Professor Bourne, who is the Linacre Professor 

 of Comparative Anatomy at Oxford, has in a very interesting 

 way brought some of Herbert Spencer's conceptions into the light 

 of modern biological knowledge. ]\Iore especially has he dealt 

 with that clearer light which experimental Embryology throws 

 upon some of the most fascinating problems of Biology, and 

 incidentally upon Sociology. 



The first part of the Lecture, among other things, deals with 

 Herbert Spencer's belief in the transmission of acquired characters. 

 This is followed bv an account of Weismann's refutation 



