670 



NATURE 



[May 27, 1922 



on religious grounds are doing their best to discredit 

 the religion they profess. We cannot believe that sane 

 opinion in any civilised country would regard the 

 success of such a proposal with anything but the 

 strongest disapproval, and would not heartily commend 

 the utterance of one of the Kentucky representatives 

 who said in the course of the discussion, " I am ashamed 

 of this day in the Kentucky Legislature." If the pro- 

 posal which was defeated by so narrow a margin had 

 been carried, it would have meant that the State of 

 Kentucky chose deliberately to stand aside from the 

 stream of modern progress, and was content in scientific 

 matters to revert to the intellectual conditions of the 

 dark ages. Some excuse may possibly be alleged for 

 the attitude of the authorities of the time towards the 

 discoveries of Galileo, and even for the distrust with 

 which the work of the early geologists and of Darwin 

 himself was generally received. No such palliation can 

 be pleaded to-day, but the astonishing fact remains 

 that Mr, Rudyard Kipling's imaginary " Village that 

 voted that the Earth was Flat " has been all but 

 paralleled by a State of the American Union, 



It would be well if this outburst were a solitary 

 instance of the absurdities that may result from placing 

 the decision of important educational questions in the 

 hands of those entirely incompetent to deal with them. 

 But it is unfortunately the case that the same, or a 

 similar spirit of ignorant intolerance has manifested 

 itself in other quarters besides Kentucky. In the State 

 of South Carolina, a provision has passed the Senate, 

 apparently without opposition, to the effect that " no 

 moneys appropriated for public education or for the 

 maintenance and support of state-supported institu- 

 tions shall be used or paid to any such school or in- 

 stitution teaching, or permitting to be taught, as a 

 creed to be followed, the cult known as ' Darwinism.' " 

 It is true that this provision was ultimately rejected 

 by the action of a joint committee of the House and 

 Senate, but it is said that another attempt will prob- 

 ably be made to pass it on a future occasion. In 

 explanation of the somewhat curious wording of the 

 proposal, it was stated by its promoter that it was 

 intended to apply only to Darwinism, and not to the 

 theories of Lamarck, Bergson, Le Dantec, Baldwin, or 

 Osbom ; further, that it only attempted to penalise 

 Darwinism when taught or permitted to be taught " as 

 a creed to be followed." 



It is, of course, true that many convinced evolu- 

 tionists cannot properly be described as Darwinians ; 

 but even if Darwinism, defined as the theory of the 

 origin of species by natural selection, were far more 

 generally discredited among evolutionists than is actu- 

 ally the case, there would seem to be no reason for 

 making a special exception in its disfavour, while 

 NO. 2743, VOL. 109] 



allowing teachers to inculcate any of the theories of 

 Lamarck, Bergson and the rest " as creeds to be fol- 

 lowed." Whatever may be the ultimate fate. of the 

 Darwinian theory, which it is not our present purpose 

 to discuss, it will remain in history, as a recent writer 

 has said, " as the working hypothesis which has led to 

 the establishment of the fact of organic evolution." 

 The attempt, on any ground, to exclude the broad 

 doctrine of evolution or an adequate presentation of 

 the Darwinian theory from the education of the young, 

 is a piece of folly comparable only to the futile en- 

 deavour of Mrs. Partington with her mop to stay the 

 advance of the Atlantic Ocean. F. A, D. 



Endocrines in Excelsis. 



The Glands Regulating Personality : A Study of the 

 Glands of Internal Secretion in Relation to the Types 

 of Human Nature. By Dr. L. Berman. Pp. vi-l- 

 300. (New York : The Macmillan Co. ; London : 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 18^. net. 



AS we watch the progress of history as unfolded by 

 the daily press we often find it hard to say 

 whether the event just brought under our notice is an 

 affair of John Smith being sold up because he has 

 failed to pay his rates — a merely local matter — or one 

 of a John Hampden being distrained on account of 

 ship-money — an event destined to be wide reaching 

 in its effects. It is so in the progress of science ; of 

 this one is forcibly reminded in the chapters of this 

 book, wherein its author. Dr. Louis Berman, traces the 

 rise and progress of our knowledge regarding the action 

 of internal secretions on the growth, health, and 

 behaviour of the animal body. He duly notes that in 

 the eighteenth century Bordeu of Paris explained the 

 effects of castration on a theory of internal secretions, 

 and he might also have recorded the results of John 

 Hunter's experiments in transplanting the genital 

 glands as well as the spurs of cocks and hens. He 

 notes the very decisive experiments made on cocks 

 by Berthold of Gottingen in 1849. He gives Dr. 

 Thomas Addison full credit for showing, in 1856, that 

 disease of the adrenals was followed by definite changes 

 in the human body. Brown-Sequard has full justice 

 done to him ; in 1889, at the age of 73, it is related how 

 he put his theory of internal secretions to the test of 

 practice by seeking for rejuvenescence of his body and 

 brain by the help of testicular extracts. By pooling 

 the experience of Gull, Ord, Kocher, Reverdin, Schifi, 

 and Horsley, the late Sir Felix Semon, as our author 

 notes, was able in 1888 to convince medical men that 

 the ductless thyroid gland had a most potent action 

 on the health and appearance of the body. 



That the pituitary gland has an influence on the 



