December 20, 1900] 



NATURE 



175 



•establishments, our notice will be restricted to the section 

 •connected with natural science. 



It may be as well to mention, before going further, 

 that in a work dealing with such a variety of subjects as 

 is the case with the one before us, it would be a practical 

 impossibility to review it critically within any reasonable 

 space ; and we must accordingly content ourself with a 

 brief survey of its principal contents. 



Quite apart from the general interest of the book, as 

 dealing with some of the most important biological and 

 social topics of the day, there can be no question that, 

 from the point of view of the working naturalist, the 

 author has been well advised in publishing the essays of 

 which it is composed in a collective form. Several of 

 them are replies to criticisms on some of Dr. Wallace's 

 views, while others, such as the one on the affinities and 

 origin of the Australian and Polynesian races, contain 

 ■entirely new views and theories. Before their publication 

 in their present form it was, consequently, exceedingly 

 difficult for a writer on any particular zoological subject 

 to be sure that he had seen Dr. Wallace's last words on 

 that subject. Indeed, the writer of this notice feels that 

 he owes an apology in that, when writing an essay in 

 favour of the Caucasian affinities of the Australians, he 

 was unaware that Dr. Wallace had previously urged the 

 same view. In one respect, the omission may perhaps be 

 regarded as fortunate, as it permitted the same conclusion 

 to be reached independently. 



From the fact that some of the articles are more or 

 less recent while others are of considerable antiquity, it 

 will, of course, be evident that they have by no means all 

 an equally important bearing on disputed questions of 

 the day. The one on the evolution and distribution of 

 animals, for example, dates from the early days of the 

 study of that subject, whereas that on the distinction 

 between the Palccarctic and Nearctic regions deals with 

 a proposed amendment of the author's classification. 



The first five essays deal mainly with the agencies that 

 have modified certain parts of the surface of the globe, the 

 alternations that have taken place in the distribution of sea 

 and land, and the state of the interior of the globe. In the 

 main. Dr. Wallace is a strict uniformitarian, and his account 

 •of how even the deepest and steepest mountain valleys have 

 been eroded by the ordinarydenuding agencies will be read 

 with interest. He is fully convinced of the important 

 part played by ice in the modelling of the earth's surface 

 during the Pleistocene period, and pays no heed to the 

 arguments that have been urged of late years against 

 the former existence of an ice age. Whether his ad- 

 herence to the theory of the erosive action of ice as the 

 dominant factor in the formation of lake-basins will com- 

 mend itself to many modern geologists may be doubtful ; 

 and the denial by some that such a thing as a true rock- 

 basin exists would, if fully confirmed, to a great extent 

 ainnul several of his arguments. 



In the essay on the permanency of ocean-basins the 

 author, in the main, pleads in favour of his original views, 

 and offers some objections to the theory of large con- 

 tinental and ocean changes which demand respectful and 

 serious attention on the part of those who differ from him 

 in this respect. Nevertheless, in granting the possibility 

 that such alternations of sea and land may have extended 

 to such parts of the ocean as lie approximately within the 

 NO. 1625, VOL. 63] 



limits of the two thousand fathom line, he has conceded 

 much that is demanded by his opponents. Indeed this 

 extension of the limits (formerly fixed at the looo fathom 

 line) would practically admit of a land connection, at 

 least by way of Antarctica, between South America and 

 Africa, if not also between South America and Australia. 

 And to learn how strong is the evidence in favour of such 

 connections, the reader need only consult the paper 

 recently read by Prof. Scott before the British Associa- 

 tion. 



Among the essays on descriptive zoology, attention may 

 be confined to the one on monkeys and their affinities, 

 which originally appeared (without the illustrations) in 

 the Contemporary Review for 1881. It is an interesting 

 and well written survey of the leading groups of these 

 animals, in the course of which the author raises the 

 question whether the Primates, other than man, are 

 rightly regarded as the head of the animal kingdom. In 

 this article, as in several others, we think it a pity that 

 the author has not seen fit to adapt his nomenclature to 

 that now current among systematic zoologists, and that 

 he clings to such discarded names as Cynocephalus, 

 Mycetes and Cuscus. Moreover, we notice on page 156 

 the misprint babuino for babuin ; and we venture to 

 affirm that the statement on the following page to the 

 effect that the mandrill in size and strength is not much 

 inferior to the gorilla is scarcely consonant with the facts 

 — certainly not so far as size alone is concerned. 



Of the articles on geographical distribution, two deal 

 with North American flowers and trees and their differ- 

 ences from those of Europe, a third treats of the beetles 

 of Madeira and the inferences to be drawn from them, 

 while to the other two a brief reference has been already 

 made. 



Five essays are devoted to the theory of evolution, 

 among which special attention maybe directed to the one 

 dealing with the question of the possibility of acquired 

 characters being inherited, which appeared in the Fori- 

 nightly Review for 1893. At the conclusion of this 

 article Dr. Wallace remarks "that no case has yet been 

 made out for the inheritance of individually acquired 

 characters, and that variation and natural selection are 

 fully adequate to account for those various modifications 

 of organisms which have been supposed to be beyond 

 their power.'' 



To many readers the three essays on anthropological 

 subjects will perhaps prove the most interesting in the 

 whole book. The first of these deals with the Polynes- 

 ians and their migrations, the second gives an account 

 of New Guinea and its inhabitants, and the third treats 

 of the affinities and origin of both Polynesians and, 

 Australians, In the title of the second member of this 

 trilogy the author has scarcely done himself justice, 

 since, in addition to describing the Papuans, he gives a 

 most interesting summary of the leading features of the 

 mammalian and avian fauna of the largest island in 

 the globe. The illustrations of some of the recently dis- 

 covered types of birds of paradise in this article are 

 among the most exquisite examples of photogravure 

 that have come under our notice. Well selected, too, 

 are the anthropological photographs with which these 

 articles are illustrated, and especial attention may be 

 directed to the juxtaposed portraits of an Australian 



