5o8 



NATURE 



[April 2, 1896 



A PHILOSOPHY OF MAN. 

 Die Schopfung des Menschen und seiner Ideate. Ein 

 Versuch zur Versohnung Zwischen Religion und 

 Wissenschaft. Von Dr. Wilhelm Haacke. Mit 62 

 Abbildungen ini Text. Pp. x + 487. (Williams and 

 Norgate, 1895.) 



AN author who claims for his book that it is, " in its 

 aim and substance, entirely new and original," does 

 not prepossess a reader in his favour; nor do the contents 

 of Dr. Haacke's book remove the prejudice. He seeks 

 to prove that the mechanical conception of nature leaves 

 room for faith in a moral order of nature, by showing that 

 natural bodies and organisms, and human ideals alike 

 follow a great law of tendency to equilibrium. The book is 

 popular in character, and it has the merit of being very 

 readable. It is partly and mainly biological, partly 

 philosophical, and throughout speculative. Dr. Haacke 

 will have nothing to do with Darwin or Prof. Weismann 

 — not merely that he rejects pangenesis or the continuity 

 of the germ-plasm, but natural selection as well. He 

 substitutes an epigenetic theory of gemtnce or crystals 

 of the germ-plasm, which have polarity and are united 

 into a gemmarium (or collection of gemma:) whose con- 

 figuration seems to be determined by every influence which 

 affects the organism. The theory, which is explained in 

 full in the author's work " Gestaltung und Vererbung," is 

 based on the assumed transmission of acquired characters. 

 How unclearly he conceives the problem is shown 

 by his description of an ideal test of that transmission 

 (p. 344), which is no test at all, and by the confused treat- 

 ment of inherited memory. Dr. Haacke thinks that in 

 consequence of the organic connection of every part of the 

 body, acquired characters may affec the configuration of 

 the gemmarium, but he does no explain how the male 

 gemmarium, when it passes from the parent body, should 

 retain this configuration. The philosophical portion of 

 the book is purely hypothetical. Each atom has sensa- 

 tion, and therefore, according to the sensori-motor law, 

 also motion, which it exhibits in the tendency to equi- 

 librium with other atoms. Schopenhauer's "will to Hve" 

 is replaced by the "will to equilibrate." It is not clear 

 whether the author supposes each brain-cell to have 

 consciousness (which is psychological atomism with a 

 vengeance). The most interesting portion of the book, 

 from a philosophical point of view, is the slight sketch in 

 which it is shown that art, morality, and religion exhibit 

 the tendency to unite various elements into an equi- 

 librium, that is, in simpler language, into an organic 

 system. It is not, however, quite original, nor is it 

 adequate. The author hopes to reconcile religion with 

 the materialistic conception of nature in half a page, 

 in which he declares the ideal of religion to be the 

 equilibrium of all other ideals, and God to reveal 

 himself everywhere as the tendency to equilibrium. 

 From a purely speculative point of view, the author's 

 doctrine is open to a grave objection. That every 

 organic form which can maintain itself exhibits internal 

 equilibrium is undoubted, and if Dr. Haacke had ex- 

 pounded this truth in its application to morality and 

 knowledge with anything approaching adequacy, he 

 might have done service. But it is quite another thing to 

 assume a " tendency to equilibrium." How much truer 

 NO. 1379, VOL. 53] 



is the simple doctrine of Spinoza, that everything tends 

 to " persist in its being " — itt suo esse perseverare — a real 

 tendency of which equilibrium is the result. Such a view 

 is perfectly compatible with natural selection, which is 

 the process by which bodies that cannot be in equilibrium 

 under their conditions are eliminated. But Dr. Haacke 

 apparently takes natural selection to be a force instead 

 of a mere process according to which forces act, dis- 

 misses it for this reason, and sets up in its place an unreal 

 striving after equilibrium, which equilibrium is only an 

 effect. Of his purely philosophical quality the sample 

 which the author gives in the concluding portion of his 

 book does not induce us to recommend the book to the 

 study of philosophers. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Roads and Pavements in France. By A. P. Rockwell, 

 A.M., Ph.B. Pp. 107. (New York : John Wiley and 

 Sons. London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1896.) 

 The title of this book is hardly broad enough to do justice 

 to the contents, which include general descriptions of con- 

 struction and maintenance of roads, and of other points 

 to be considered when building a new road or improving 

 one already built. At the same time, all who have to do 

 with road-making know that they can learn something 

 from an account of the methods adopted by the highly- 

 educated and able engineers whose work has resulted in 

 the excellent roads of France to-day, and whose ex- 

 perience as to the best and most economical systems 

 extend over more than a hundred years. The author 

 has brought together the results of this instructive 

 experience, and has thereby produced a work which will 

 be of great service to road contractors and engineers in 

 every country. 



Singte-Satt Analysis. By B. P. Lascelles, M.A. (London : 



Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd., 1896.) 

 This addition to the already too numerous sets of tables 

 for use in chemical laboratories, consists of fourteen cards 

 containing instructions what to look for, and what to con- 

 clude, when conducting the various operations involved 

 in the analysis of a simple salt. Five cards are devoted 

 to stating dry tests, and the remainder are taken up with 

 wet tests for a simple salt, soluble in water or acids. 

 The cards will be useful in elementary chemical labora- 

 tories, where test-tubing is the order of the day ; but we 

 hope for a time when their use will be limited to students 

 who intend to become analysts, for work conducted upon 

 the lines laid down in these and similar analytical tables 

 are of no educational value whatever 

 The West Indies and the Spanish Main. By James 

 Rodway. Pp. xxiv -\- 371. 48 illustrations. (London : 

 Fisher Unwin, 1896.) 

 The stirring events described in this latest addition to 

 the " Story of the Nations " series are sufficient to furnish 

 material upon which a score of romances might be built, 

 even though Marryat, Kingsley, Stevenson, and other 

 writers innumerable have made the Indies the arena of 

 all the incidents attractive to adventurous spirits. So 

 full of incident is the history of the West Indian Islands, 

 that Mr. Rodway has had a difficulty in compressing his 

 story within reasonable limits, and he has only been able 

 to do so by giving preference to facts referring to the 

 islands as a whole, and omitting events of interest chiefly 

 to the communities of particular islands and provinces. 

 Little is said about the islands from the scientific point 

 of view, but as a contribution to historical geography the 

 book is undoubtedly valuable ; for few persons are better 

 acquainted with the history of the progress and develop- 

 ment of the Indies than the author. 



