140 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[April 1, 1887. 



oddly-carved post displaying the totem of the owner, are 

 grouped into more or less permanent settlements near the 

 great fishing-grounds, every village being governed by its 

 unwritten code, disobedience to which lays the offender open 

 to reprisals by the offended. Though the forests teem with 

 animal life, goats, deer, and grouse, the natural indolence 

 of the native limits him to the easier work of fishing, except 

 where the high prices offered by the white traders for the 

 prized skins of the rapidly-diminishing sea-otter tempt the 

 hunters to its exciting and hazardous pursuit. The most 

 interesting and valuable chapters are those which describe 

 the fur-bearing animals of the Priliylov Islands, a volcanic 

 group in Bering Sea. The most highly organised of these 

 creatures is the fur-seal, " indeed, when land and water are 

 weighed in the account together, there is no other animal 

 known to man which may be truly classed as its superior 

 from a purely physical point of view." Mr. Elliott writes 

 with the authority of an expert, and the account which he 

 gives of the several species of pinnipeds found in the seas 

 round Alaska is very complete, while his chapter on the 

 struggle between the males for possession of the breeding- 

 grounds, or " rookeries," as they are called, supplies im- 

 portant evidence in favour of Darwin's theory of sexual 

 selection. We regret that space prevents quotation from his 

 graphic account of the terrible combats between the bulls 

 for the few feet of rock on which they await the coming of 

 the cow-seals, the average number of which in the harems 

 is from twelve to fifteen. Altogether, this is an honest and 

 veracious book, though somewhat laboured in style, and 

 with illustrations of unequal merit. It should be read in 

 conjunction with Dr. Guillemard's volumes as dealing with 

 countries in close contiguity. 



The Factors of Organic Evolution. By Herbert Spencer. 

 (Williams k Norgate.) — This is a reprint, with additions, 

 from the ±{ineteenth C'enlur)/ of April and May last. It is 

 intended to be supplemental to Mr. Darwin's theory, and 

 we may call special attention to the sections treating of the 

 general and constant operation of surrounding agencies on 

 the organism, and of the direct action of the medium as the 

 primordial factor of organic evolution. The following 

 extract gives the gist of Mr. Spencer's argument : — ■ 



In the primorrlial units o£ protoplasm, the step with wliich 

 evolution commenced must have been the passage from a state of 

 complete likeness throughout the mass to a state in which there 

 existed some unlikeness. Further, the cause of this step in one of 

 tliese portions of organic matter, as in any portion of inorganic 

 matter, must have been the ditferent exposure of its parts to incident 

 forces. What incident forces ? Those of its medium or environ- 

 ment. Which were the parts thus differently exposed ? Necessarily 

 the outside and inside. 



Sonnets on Nature and Science. By S. Jefferson. 

 (Fisher Unwin.) — Among the many themes which inspire 

 the author's limping muse are the Amicba, Seismic force, 

 the Equinoctial gales, the Nebular Hypothesis, and the 

 Luminiferous Ether. Concerning this last the poet sings : — 



No chemist knows of what this gas consists, 

 The physicist its minute waves may count. 



And trace their course across the deep profound. 



For science can but say that it exists, 

 That, almost infinite in its amount. 



It fills the wide extent of Cosmos round. 



Slightly altering a quotation from Lord Byron, we may 

 safely predict that Mr. Jeffer.son's .sonnets will be re.ad 

 when Wordsworth and Shelley are forgotten — but not till 

 then. 



Evolution and Creation. By H. J. Hardwicke, M.D. 

 (Purton Lodge, Sheffield; published by the Author.) — Dr. 

 Hardwicke is for the most part his own printer and artist, 

 and the result is more or less a hotch-potch. The un- 



attractive look of this volume should not, however, afTect 

 our judgment of its contents, the essays on " Man's Anti- 

 quity " and the " Evolution of Mind " bsing well and clearly 

 written. In his remarks on the " Evolution of the God 

 Idea " Dr. Hardwicke is a less tru.stworthy guide, his 

 philology, e.g. the discussion on the word God, being un- 

 sound, and his leading authorities more or less discredited. 



Essentials oj Ilistologi/. By E. A. Schafer, F.R.S. 

 (Longmans.) — Histology is the science which treats of the 

 minute structure of tissues and organs, and Prof. Schiifer's 

 work is written with the double object of serving as an 

 elementary text-book of histology and of supplying the 

 student with directions for microscopical examination of 

 tissues. The work, in onr judgment, is complete both in its 

 exposition of the subject and in its instructions to students, 

 while the illustrations, both borrowed and oi'iginal, are 

 admirable. 



Societij in the Elizabethan Age. By Hubert Hall. 

 (Swan Sonnenschein & Co.) — Mr. Hall has made indus- 

 trious use of his official connection with the Public Record 

 Office to collect material from its stores for social sketches 

 of England three hundred years ago. But, in place of a 

 broad sketch of the town and counti-y life of that period, 

 such as the title of his book leads us to expect, Mr. Hall 

 gives a series of representative portraits, comprising the 

 landlord and tenant, the courtier and bishop, the civil 

 servant, lawyer, and burgess of the time. On the whole, 

 this method of isolation is disappointing, causing the work 

 to lack both cohesion and perspective. With such materials 

 to work upon, Mr. Hall could not fail to bi-ing together 

 many curious and interesting items, from which the pens of 

 more ready writers may elaborate a worthy picture of the 

 England of Elizabeth. The volume is prefaced by an 

 admirable map of London from Cheapside to " St. Jemes 

 Park." 



The Folk Songs of Itahj. By Miss B. H. Busk. (Swan 

 Sonnenschein & Co.) — The accomplished authoress of " The 

 Folk Lore of Rome " — of which scarce book a reprint would 

 be welcome — now brings from her treasury, in which the 

 collections of twenty years are garnered, specimens of folk 

 songs from all parts of Italy, the place of honour being 

 given to the songs of Sicilj'. Like the Volhdieder in 

 Germany, they fill the Italian air, although Miss Busk 

 utters the old lament that the songsters of every degree, 

 from the prima donna to the peasant, are daily becoming 

 rarer. " The old folk rhymes, which are nearly always 

 the utterance of pure and holy affection, are now only met 

 in counti-y nooks ; the townspeople, if they sing at all, 

 are provided with another class of songs which wo should 

 not care to read." The more important .and praiseworthy, 

 therefore, is the task which INIiss Busk has valorously under- 

 taken — a task the difficulty of which, in the face of the 

 .seven hundred dialects in which the songs exist, is enormous. 

 The principles which have governed her in selecting and trans- 

 lating are set forth in the Preface, which explains the 

 leading features of the several classes of songs, and is 

 enriched with a pathetic sketch of Beatrice Bugelli, one of 

 the latest peasant poets. Miss Busk has earned the 

 gratitude of all lovers of lyrical verse and folk-lorists for 

 this delightful and daintily-printed little volume. 



Tales of the Caliph. By Al Arawiyah. (Fisher Un- 

 win.) — A series of ingenious tales relating adventures sup- 

 posed to have happened to the C'aliph Haroun Al Raschid, 

 or to persons whom he met in his usual night i-ambles 

 incognito. No claim of derivation from original Oriental 

 sources is made on behalf of these tales, hence the absence 

 of strict fidelity to local colouring. The last story is 

 amusing, although the idea is not novel. The unlucky 



