SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



273 



the general public, and also of the majority of medical men, who, "while 

 observing the effects of disease on man the individual, have signally failed 

 to observe its effects on man the species." While he accepts evolution in 

 its widest and most absolute sense as a certainty, the author differs from 

 the usual views, in that in his opinion acknowledged authorities have not 

 recognized or have not laid sufficient stress on certain processes of evolu- 

 tion which appear to him of the greatest importance. The book is intended 

 to lead up to the presentation of these processes, and is divisible into two 

 parts, in the first of which the problem of evolution in general is briefly 

 considered, w T ith an attempt to penetrate somewhat deeper in certain direc- 

 tions than has hitherto been done, and in the second part the conclusions 

 arrived at are applied to the problem of man's present evolution, with an 

 endeavor to show that this evolution is proceeding in a direction hitherto 

 altogether unexpected. The processes of evolution are supposed to be 

 singly, inappreciably minute, and all as still going on even spontaneous 

 generation, which we do not discover, because the really earliest forms of 

 life are beyoud all devisable means of observation. The inheritance of 

 acquired qualities as a factor of evolution is rejected, and the process is held 

 solely dependent on the survival of the fittest. Yet the variations acquired 

 by every normal individual have a magnitude and importance far beyond 

 that which is commonly attributed to them by biologists. The present 

 evolution of man, while development in bodies and brains is an element in 

 it, is mainly an evolution against disease. The stage of evolution reached 

 by European races is the result of a long process of selection against certain 

 classes of diseases to which they have become comparatively proof. The 

 natives of other regions into which European civilization is extending itself 

 have this immunity yet to acquire. Hence the deadly influence of our 

 civilization upon them when they are subjected to it. Other agencies 

 which are the causes of the elimination of the unfit are the narcotics. The 

 influence of these two classes of factors, and the nature and extent of the 

 modifications affected by them in physical and mental conditions, are the 

 subjects of the second part of the book. 



GENERAL NOTICES. 



To the American Lectures on the His- 

 tory of Religions, given under the direc- 

 tion of an association representing a number 

 of co-operating institutions and local boards, 

 Dr. Daniel G. Brinton has contributed a 

 course on Religions of Primitive Peoples* 

 which were delivered during the winter of 

 1896-'97 at Boston, Brooklyn, Ithaca, New 

 Haven, New York, Philadelphia, and Provi- 

 dence. By primitive peoples are meant those 

 of the earliest stage of culture of which 

 trusty information exists, while religion, 

 hardly susceptible of a limited definition, is 

 regarded as in some form or other universal 



* Religions of Primitive Peoples. By Daniel 

 G. BTinton. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 Pp. 2G1. Price, $1.50. 



VOL. LII. 22 



in the human race. The study, of which these 

 lectures present the fruits, undertaken with- 

 out bias or partisanship, but looking upon all 

 religions alike " as more or less enlightened 

 expressions of mental traits common to all 

 mankind in every known age," is pursued 

 by the historic, the comparative, and the psy- 

 chologic methods. Laying down his postu- 

 lates in the first lecture, Dr. Brinton dis- 

 cusses in the five succeeding lectures The 

 Origin and Contents of Primitive Religions, 

 Primitive Religious Expression in the Word, 

 in the Object, and in the Rite and The 

 Lines of Development in Primitive Religions. 

 All the religions are regarded as uncon- 

 sciously directing and impelling the mind 

 toward the abstract stage, when the idea 



