532 



NATURE 



[April lo, 1890 



What do the authors mean? Their erudite and care- 

 ful statements of the position of many foreign writers 

 emphasize their failure to represent the position of the 



author of the " Origin of Species." 

 The authors think that the problems and questions re- 



ating to sex, problems and questions carefully and in- 

 geniously analyzed by them, "are in final synthesis all 

 answerable in a sentence." Morphological questions are 

 at base, they say, physiological ; and physiological ques- 

 tions are ultimately referable to the metabolism of proto- 

 plasm, as Prof. Burdon-Sanderson pointed out last autumn. 

 This metabolism is double : it consists on the one hand of 

 anabolic, constructive, elaborative processes — processes 

 attended with the storage of energy ; and on the other 

 hand of katabolic, destructive, disintegrating processes- 

 processes attended with the liberation of energy. These 

 processes are complementary ; in living protoplasm they 

 seem for the most part coincident. Losing sight of the 

 coincidence the authors have seized on the antithesis ; the 



dea has grown upon them till they see a rhythm of 

 anabolism and katabolism swinging through organic 

 nature and producing — well, producing nearly everything. 

 Take, for instance, secondary sexual characters. Males 

 are frequently lithe, active, aggressive, gorgeously coloured 

 and decorated. Females are often sluggish, vegetative, 

 passive, and soberly coloured. These characters, according 

 to Cleddes and Thomson, occur because males have a male 

 or katabolic diathesis, because females have a female or 

 anabolic diathesis. 



" Brilliancy of colour, exuberance of hair and feathers, 

 activity of scent glands, and even the development of 

 weaports, are not and cannot be (except teleologically) ex- 

 plained by sexual selection, but in origin and continued 

 development are outcrops of a male as opposed to a 

 female constitution " (p. 22). 



It is impossible to follow in detail and state the in- 

 numerable objections to this explanation. Do the authors 

 suppose a male diathesis explains the ascending series of 

 horn and antler development ? Can it in any way account 

 for " interference " colours, which play so large a part in 

 the adorning of males .' Are women less female when they 

 have radiant complexions and abundant tresses ? What 

 physiological reason is there for believing that skeletal 

 weapons and scent glands, or the crystals in anthers, are 

 due to the katabolism of " exuberant maleness," while 

 menstruation and lactation are means of getting rid of 

 " anabolic surplus?" 



Parthenogenesis occurs in groups of animals where the 

 anabolic rhythm is dominant. Sex itself appears when 

 katabolic conditions preponderate. And this is why 

 flowers so often are situated at the end of the vegetative 

 axis ; this is furthest from the source of nutrition ; the 

 flower occupies a katabolic position, and is often the 

 plant's dying effort (p. 226). Alternation of generations 

 is a special example of the rhythm. Thus, but the authors 

 do not cite this example in this connection, the tiny sexless 

 and spore-bearing stalk parasitic on the moss-plant is the 

 anabolic vegetative generation, while the conspicuous 

 moss-plant is the sexual or katabolic generation — the 

 generation peculiarly connected with starvation ! It is 

 obvious that the authors are nothing if not original. But 

 the real value of the book must not be lost sight of in 

 quotations from it. The chapters on the " Determination 



of Sex," on " Sex Elements," and on " Growth and Re- 

 production," are very suggestive. But indeed, to biolo- 

 gists the greater part of the book and its theories must be 

 useful and suggestive. It is only the general public that 

 must be warned off. 



It is very much to be regretted that the authors have 

 included a discussion of certain social and ethical 

 problems absolutely unconnected with the title of their 

 book. If such matters are to be discussed coram popi/h, 

 it is only fair that explicit information should appear on 

 the title-page. P. C. M. 



THE QUICKSILVER DEPOSITS OF THE 

 PACIFIC SLOPE. 



Geology of the Quicksilver Deposits of the Pacific Slope- 

 By G. F, Becker. Pp, 486, and Atlas of xiv. folio 

 Plates. (Washington : Government Printing Office, 

 1888.) 



AMONG the numerous mineral treasures of California 

 none are of more interest than the deposits of 

 mercury ore which occur at intervals along the greater 

 part of the Coast Range from the Mexican boundary to 

 Clear Lake, in lat. 39° N., a distance of more than 200 

 miles. This region, together with the district of Steam- 

 boat Springs in Nevada, has been carefully examined by 

 the division of the United States Geological Survey under 

 the charge of Mr. G. F. Becker, and the results are now 

 presented in another of the handsome qu arto series of 

 monographs published by Major Powell, the head of the 

 Survey. 



The discovery of mercury in California preceded that 

 of gold ; the most productive locality. New Almaden, near 

 San Jose, at the south end of the Bay of San Francisco, 

 having been known for about 65 years, while the actual 

 mining was commenced under a grant from the Mexican 

 Government shortly before the cession of the country to 

 the LTnited States. In its earlier years the mine was 

 extremely profitable, and the long judicial controversy 

 that ensued before the title was satisfactorily established 

 occupies a prominent place among the records of 

 American mining litigation. The maximum production 

 of 47,194 flasks of 76^ pounds each was realized in 1865, 

 but in 1886 it was reduced to 18,000 flasks, the total for 

 the period 1850-86 being 853,259 flasks, or about two- 

 thirds of the produce of the Spanish Almaden. The 

 total produce of the Californian mines, which was about 

 80,000 flasks in 1877, declined to 30,000 in 1886, 



The second mine in point of importance, known as 

 New Idria, is about 70 miles in a south-easterly direction 

 from New Almaden, the ore, cinnabar, occurring under 

 conditions similar to those in the latter mine — namely, m 

 very irregular groups of fissures in metamorphic strata, 

 which pass into others containing Neocomian fossils of 

 the genus Aucclla. These were succeeded by other Cre- 

 taceous and Tertiary formations up to the Miocene, the 

 close of the latter period being marked by an upheaval ■ 

 and the commencement of volcanic activity. The ore ! 

 deposits are closely related to the latter, and are probably 

 nearly all, if not entirely, of jxvst-Pliocene origin. 



In the Clear Lake region, in lat. 39° N., which ad- 

 joins the group of volcanic cones known as Mount 



