192 



KNOWLEDGE. 



May, 1913. 



farms, water supply and ponds, is of special value. The re- 

 maining chapters describe the soils and subsoils derived from 

 each of the various geological formations in Great Britain, and 

 in this part of the book a large amount of practical informa- 

 tion has been brought together. At frequent intervals there 

 are appended good lists of references, and the book is illus- 

 trated by excellent plates and text- figures. r ... _. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates. — By J. S. Kingsley. 



401 pages. 346 illustrations. 9-in. X 6-in. 



(John Murray. Price 12/- net.) 



With such a multitude of works on the anatomy and 

 anatomical evolution of the vertebrata already before the 

 public, it might well have been thought that there was 

 scarcely even standing room for a new one. Such, however, 

 is evidently not the opinion of Professor Kingsley, who 

 occupies the chair of Biology in Tuft's College. Apparently, 

 as a reason for the new venture, it is stated in the preface 

 that the modern method of teaching biology in the laboratory, 

 by means of dissection, does not constitute a science, and 

 that it is consequently essential that the facts so collected 

 " should be properly compared and correlated with each other, 

 and with the condition in other animals. It is the purpose 

 of the author to present a volume of moderate size which may 

 serve as a framework around which these factors may be 

 grouped, so that their bearings may be recognised, and a 

 broad conception of vertebrate structure obtained. In order 

 that this may be realized, embryology is made the basis, the 

 various structures being traced from the undifferentiated egg 

 into the adult condition." 



That Professor Kingsley has done his work thoroughly and 

 in first-rate style every student who has cause to make use of 

 the book can scarcely fail to admit : the amount of informa- 

 tion which has been crammed into such a small space being 

 little short of marvellous, especially when the number and, in 

 some instances, the relatively large size of the illustrations are 

 taken into consideration. For excellence of execution, clean- 

 ness of detail, and suitability to their respective purposes 

 these illustrations can scarcely be surpassed. In the legend 

 to Figure 92, we notice, however, that the American fashion of 

 applying the term "turtle" to a fresh-water "tortoise" is 

 retained ; and we cannot approve of the practice, as 

 exemplified in the same illustration, of referring the reader 

 to a figure twenty pages earlier for an explanation of most 

 of the lettering. Neither do we like the Americanism of 

 spelling the name of the European pond-tortoise Emys 

 europea. Save for trivial criticisms of this nature, we have 

 nothing but unqualified praise to bestow upon Professor 

 Kingsley's book, which ought to have a wide circulation among 



university and other students. 



K. L. 



Heredity. — By Professor J. Arthur Thomson, M.A. 



627 pages. 47 illustrations. 8|-in.X6-in. 



(John Murray. Price 9/- net.) 



Professor Thomson is to be heartily congratulated on the 

 issue of a second edition of this volume, which forms the best 

 semi-popular text-book on this interesting and important 

 subject, and is long likely to maintain this enviable position. 

 Apparently, the new edition has not required much alteration, 

 with the exception of the correction of a few errors ; but the 

 author has taken the opportunity of adding references to 

 papers embodying discoveries made since the appearance of 

 the first edition. 



Doubtless many of our readers are familiar with the work 

 in its original form, and to these anything like a review would 

 prove wearisome ; those who have not yet made its acquain- 

 tance are recommended to remedy the omission with the 

 least possible delay. For heredity is a subject in which we 

 are all nowadays more or less practically and directly interested 

 in — or, if we are not, we ought to be ; and whether we 

 believe or disbelieve in eugenics as a potential factor in 

 modern life, we ought at all events to be acquainted with the 

 arguments in favour of the new doctrine. 



To the general reader, perhaps, the most interesting part 



of the work is contained in the concluding sections, where 

 the author reviews the effects of heredity on the present 

 population of our country. After referring to the well- 

 ascertained fact that while the children of exceptionally gifted 

 parents are not infrequently worse than commonplace (as if 

 nature had exhausted herself in the special mental development 

 of the former), those of parents of a low type are often very 

 fair examples of the human species, Professor Thomson pro- 

 ceeds to discuss the question whether modern therapeutic and 

 hygienic methods tend to prevent the elimination of weaklings, 

 and thus lead to the deterioration of the race as a whole. 

 Here it is pointed out that insanitary surroundings, and the 

 consequent epidemics, affect the strong as well as the weak, 

 while the latter may in some cases develop mental character 

 not vouchsafed to the former. On the other hand, the 

 question whether bodily weaklings should be permitted to 

 transmit their failings presents a more serious question. 



Whether the relatively unfit should be allowed to multiply 

 is another serious question of the same nature, which the 

 author answers unhesitatingly in the negative. The burden 

 of militarism, and the consequent destruction from time to 

 time of the flower of our manhood, is also discussed at some 

 length, with the suggestion that certain kinds of deterioration 

 may be due to this cause. With this we take leave of a 

 fascinating volume, on which the reading and thinking world 

 has already bestowed its imprimatur of appreciation. 



R. L. 



Problems of Life and Reproduction. — By Marcus Hartog. 



362 pages. 41 illustrations. 8J-in. X 5if-in. 



(John Murray. Price 7/6 net.) 



We learn from the preface that the author, when incubating 

 the idea of this volume, had in his mind to write a general 

 treatise on reproduction suited to the needs and capacity of 

 the non-scientific reader. Further consideration indicated 

 the existence of certain reasons against such a mode of 

 procedure, and these reasons — to our thinking, unfortunately — 

 ultimately prevailed. The author found, however, that he 

 had already written certain articles on reproduction — one so 

 long ago as 1892 ; and these, with others on more or less 

 distinct subjects, have been collected and reproduced, with 

 such alterations as were deemed essential, in the present 

 volume, which is consequently a kind of scientific olla 

 podrida, and a very mixed one at that. For it includes such 

 diverse topics as reproduction and fertilisation, the trans- 

 mission of acquired characters, mechanism and life, the 

 biological writings of Samuel Butler, the teaching of nature 

 study, and — what we venture to suggest will prove a regular 

 stumper to the man in the street — the new force, mitokinetism. 

 But whatever Professor Hartog writes, even if it be a bit 

 unduly technical and in a somewhat involved style, is worth 

 reading; and those readers of "Knowledge" who wish to 

 have even a bowing acquaintance with some of the up-to-date 

 subjects of modern scientific thought, will do well to at least 

 dip into his pages. 



With such a multitude of subjects before him, the unfortu- 

 nate reviewer who is expected to give something like a 

 comprehensive notice of the book, within the compass of a few 

 short paragraphs, must be completely and hopelessly non- 

 plussed. Personally, we have been most interested in the 

 article on the inheritance of acquired characters ; but we are 

 somewhat disheartened by a footnote at the commencement 

 to the effect that another author has collected a number of 

 facts in favour of this theory since the first appearance of the 

 article, which ought surely to have afforded sufficient reasons 

 for rewriting. Among Darwinists who hope to attain the 

 Valhalla of orthodox followers of their doctrine, anything 

 approaching recognition of the possibility of inheritance of 

 acquired characters (for what these are we must refer our 

 readers to the pages of our author) is anathema, but Professor 

 Hartog, being a bold spirit, runs a-tilt at the objectors, and 

 demonstrates to his own satisfaction, at any rate, that such 

 characters can, at least in some instances, be transmitted to the 

 offspring. Whether he will have succeeded in convincing the 

 orthodox Darwinists of the error of their ways is quite another 

 matter. ., . 



