NCV. 2 2, 1888J 



NATURE 



77 



say that in every case these replies appear to us com- 

 pletely satisfactory, and are everywhere rendered in a 

 manner the courtesy of which not many English naturalists 

 could nowadays emulate. But, besides answering criti- 

 cisms, he has in several cases important criticisms to 

 make. For instance, we have a tolerably full republica- 

 tion of his research upon the colour-sense of Daphnia, 

 whereby he so completely overturned the results previously 

 published by the late M. Paul Bert. The following is a 

 good example of the application of his criticism in another 

 direction : — 



" With reference to the power which insects possess of 

 determining form, Plateau has recently made some 

 ingenious experiments. Suppose a room into which the 

 light enters by two equal and similar orifices, and sup- 

 pose an insect set free at the back of the room, it will at 

 once fly to the light, but the two openings being alike, it 

 will go indifferently to either one or the other. That such 

 is the case Plateau's experiments clearly show, and, more- 

 over, prove that a comparatively small increase in the 

 amount of light will attract the insect to one orifice in 

 preference to the other. It occurred, then, to Plateau to 

 utilize this by varying the form of the opening, so that, the 

 light admitted being equal, the opening on the one side 

 should leave a clear passage, while that on the other should 

 be divided by bars large enough to be easily visible, and 

 sufficiently close to prevent the insect from passing. . . . 

 The insects seem to have gone most often to the trellised 

 opening. M. Plateau concludes that insects do not dis- 

 tinguish differences of form, or can only do so very badly. I 

 confess, however, that these experiments, ingenious as 

 they are, do not seem to me to justify the conclusions 

 which M. Plateau draws from them. Unless the insects 

 had some means of measuring distance (of which we 

 have no clear evidence), they could not tell that even the 

 smaller orifice might not be quite large enough to afford 

 them a free passage. The bars, moreover, would prob- 

 ably appear to them somewhat blurred. Again, they 

 could not possibly tell that the bars really crossed the 

 orifice, and if they were situated an inch or two further 

 off they would constitute no barrier. I have tried some 

 experiments, not yet enough to be conclusive, but which 

 lead me to a different conclusion from that of M. Plateau. 

 I trained wasps to come to a drop of honey placed on 

 paper, and, when the insects had learnt their lesson, 

 changed the form of the paper. ... It certainly seemed 

 to me that the insect recognized the change." 



In the remaining portion of the book, or the portion 

 which deals with " Instinct and Intelligence," we have 

 three chapters. The first is an admirable discussion of 

 one of the most wonderful instincts in the animal kingdom, 

 viz. that of the Sphex stinging only the nerve-centres of 

 the spiders, insects, or caterpillars, which she thus 

 paralyzes without killing, before inclosing them with her 

 progeny, whosa food they are afterwards to constitute. 

 Sir John has some good critical remarks to offer on the 

 subject, and also some shrewd speculations upon the 

 possible origin of the instinct. His hypothesis very 

 much resembles that which was arrived at independently 

 by the late Mr. Darwin, and which, therefore, is now in 

 par: quoted by Sir John. The quotation runs : — 



" I suppose that the sand-wasps originally merely 

 killed their prey by stinging them in many places, and 

 that to sting a certain segment was found by far the most 

 successful method, and was inherited like the tendency of 

 a bull-dog to pin the nose of a bull, or of a ferret to bite 

 the cerebellum. It would not be a very great step in 



advance to prick the ganglion of its prey only slightly, 

 and thus to give its larvae fresh meat instead of only 

 dried meat." 



Here, by the way, we have an excellent instance of the 

 difficulty which we so often encounter in the domain of 

 instinct, when we relinquish the so-called Lamarckian 

 principle of the inheritance of acquired characters. The 

 hypothesis in question goes upon the supposition that 

 some of the ancestors of the Sphex were intelligent enough 

 to notice the peculiar effects which followed upon stinging 

 insects or caterpillars in the particular regions occupied 

 by nerve-centres, and that, in consequence of being 

 habitually guided by their intelligence to sting in these 

 particular regions, their action b'ecame hereditary, i.e. 

 instinctive. But if, in accordance with post-Darwinian 

 theory, we relinquish this possible guidance by intelli- 

 gence, and suppose that the whole of this wonderful 

 instinct was built up by natural selection waiting for 

 congenital {i.e. fortuitous) variations in the direction of a 

 propensity to sting, say, the nine nerve-centres of a 

 caterpillar — then it surely becomes inconceivable that 

 such an instinct should ever have been developed at all. 



A chapter on the supposed sense of direction among 

 the Social Hymenoptera, and another on his now well- 

 known experiments in teaching a dog the use of written 

 signs, bring to a close one of the most instructive and 

 entertaining of the works which have been produced 

 even by Sir John Lubbock. 



George J. Romanes. 



MASSAGE. 



Massage and Allied Methods of Treatment. By Herbert 



Tibbitts, M.D. (London : J. and A. Churchill, 1888.) 



IT is seldom that a medical book of such inferior quality 

 has been issued from the press, and the fact that it 

 has found any purchasers is a striking proof how a 

 catching title and an attractive exterior can still mislead 

 the public. Anyone even slightly acquainted with the 

 subject will at once perceive that the writer, whilst pro- 

 fessing to teach massage, has not mastered the first 

 principles of the treatment. His modest refusal to accept 

 the office of "high priest of massage" has, indeed, 

 complete justification. 



It is not easy to adopt any method in criticizing a work 

 devoid of all attempt at arrangement, but from the chaos 

 of thought and diction we will select a few samples of 

 what the writer has considered suitable food for the minds 

 of his readers. 



At the outset the author attempts to define massage, 

 and with a dim consciousness that he has somehow failed, 

 he plaintively declares that his definition is misty. Out 

 of this verbal fog he never emerges, and as he pursues 

 his erratic course it rapidly thickens around him. He 

 has introduced illustrations and quotations from other 

 writers, an I in mercy to his readers also gives references 

 to standard authors, who may be read with advantage. 

 Unfortunately he at times becomes bold even to rashness, 

 and launches out on his own account, A few samples 

 of the inevitable result will suffice. On p. 27, whilst in 

 the midst of giving directions for treating the lower 

 limbs, he intercalates the following sentence : " You then 

 massage the muscles from the waist downwards, working 



