views are which are so deeply influencing scientific thought 

 at the present day may safely be referred to Mr Lock as a 

 guide. He touches most of the problems at present actively 

 under discussion, and those who have read and digested 

 his book will be in a position to understand the position of 

 thinkers of to-day. Weismann, it is true, he passes over 

 with what some would call rather scant notice, but that, 

 we may take it, means that he, in common with many of his 

 scientific brethren, is totally unable, whilst endorsing the 

 verdict of the world as to the great and continuing value of 

 many of Weismann's discoveries, to follow him into the 

 region of theory and scientific romance in which he has 

 wandered of late years. 



The word romance reminds us that this term might 

 without impropriety be applied to the history of Mendel 

 and his discovery, a discovery which Mr Lock, in an out- 

 burst of enthusiasm, describes as " of an importance little 

 inferior to those of a Newton or a Dalton." Mendel lived 

 his life as a monk and died as an Abbot (by the way why do 

 all scientific writers call him Abbe instead of Abbot ?) 

 without having reaped the slightest atom of credit for his 

 discovery, which indeed lay completely unheeded in the 

 pages of a remote journal until it was recently redis- 

 covered. Yet it is revolutionizing biological thought and 

 may exercise an extraordinary influence on cattle and 

 horse breeding and on farming generally. 



Perhaps it ought to be added that Mr Lock's book is not 

 of a purely popular character: it goes very fully into the 

 matters with which it deals, and probes them to the 

 bottom. But with the aid of the Glossary it can be read 

 by any intelligent person, and may be particularly com- 

 mended to those who are engaged in teaching not only bio- 

 logy but philosophy in seminaries and colleges, B. C. A. 



