Apbil, 1902.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



87 



consisted of short-necked and thick-skinned iirimitivo 

 herbivora) b_v stabliiug or ripping them in positions where 

 Urge arteries could easily be reached. It is pointed out 

 that this mode of attack is iu harmony with the weakness 

 of the lower jaw in the sabre-tooths and the stren;,'tli of 

 their fore-limbs, which acted as fulcruras. Althoui,'h the 

 explanation seems at first sight strange and almost in- 

 credible, it seems to suit the peculiar circumstances of the 

 case better than any other yet offered. 



At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, held 

 on March Mh, Dr H. L. Jameson discussed the origin of 

 pearls, especially those produced by the common mussel. 

 It has long been a matter of uncertainty how these con- 

 cretions were first started, but the author showed that they 

 are primarily due to the presence of the larva of a parasite 

 allied to the liver-fluke. This larva incysts itself in the 

 mantle of the mussel, where, if it die, it becomes calcified, 

 and thus forms the nucleus of a pearl. The parasite 

 commences its life in the common cockle and the bivalve 

 known as Tapes, and apparently concludes it in the diges- 

 tive tract of certain ducks, such as the scoter and eider. 

 Similar parasites appear to be the cause of pearls in cer- 

 tain of the pearl-oysters ; and the author holds out hopes 

 that by means of these parasites the production of pearls 

 may be artificially induced. 



Tbe menagerie in the Regent's Park has recently 

 received two important additions, one a young specimen 

 of the snow-leopard {Felis uneia) and the other a Hima- 

 kyan or long-tailed panda {.Eluriiii fulgewt). Of the 

 latter animal only two examples have been previously 

 exhibited, one in 1869 and the other in 1876. Till recently 

 the Himalayan panda was considered to be the only Old 

 World representative of the raccoons, but, as already 

 noticed iu these columns. Prof. Ray Laukester has shown 

 that .Eliirupus melanolecus of Tibet is a member of the 

 same group. 



Tbe Royal Society has issued its sixth series of Reports 

 to the Malaria Committee, the present fasciculus dealing 

 with the relation of malarial endemicity to species 

 of Anophdes, with certain points in the biology of the 

 Bengal representatives of the latter, and with the relation 

 between enlargement of the spleen and parasitic infection. 

 A second contribution in connection with the subject 

 appears in the Proceediiufs of the Society, where Mr. F. V. 

 Theobald writes on the gnats and mosquitoes of India, 

 and describes certain new species of Anopheles. He 

 remarks that since only certain species of the latter genus 

 are malaria-producers, it is quite possible that certain 

 kinds of Culejc may be capable of communicating the 

 disease. 



jptottc ca of IS oofeg. 



" L.VMARr K, THE FOU.SDER OF EVOLUTION, HIS LiFE AND 



WoKK." By Alpheus S. Pack.-ird, m.I)., ll.d. (Longmans, 

 Green & Co., New York.) 9s. net. This book possesses a 

 variety of interest. The life of Lamarck did not follow an 

 entirely even and commonplace tenor. Born in 1744. he began 

 practical life as a soldier, and in the field showed an obstinate 

 courage and sense of duty. As a man of science he had to 

 support himself and a large family on a meagre income. Iu 

 IVJi he obtained a botanical appointment at the Natural History 

 Museum at Paris. Till the age of forty-nine he was a systematic 

 botanist ; but when a professor of invertebrate zoo'lo"v was 

 wanted, he volunteered to take that class of unknown or half- 

 known formii, as it then was, under hi.s care. In the elat 

 of persons attached to the National Museum of Natural llLstory 



he IS thus described :-'■ Lamarck, , fifty vearsold : married 



for the second time : wife enciente : six children : professor of 

 zoology, of insects, of worms, and microscopic animals." Thus 



at an age when many men are thinking of giving up .serious 

 work, and taking life easily, L:imarck beg.m labours greater than 

 any he had undertaken hitherto, though from his youth up ho 

 had been a man of strenuous energy. For some years previous 

 to his death he was totally blind, and had it not been for the 

 devotion of his daughter, the last volume of his anhnaui- mns 

 vert^hres, and part of the sixth, would never have seen tbe light. 

 All this is excellently told by Prof. Packard. We no* proceed 

 to Prof. Packard's estimate of Lamarck as a man of science. 

 There can be no doubt that Lamarck did valuable work as a 

 systematist, both in botany and zoology. He had a good eye 

 for generic points. But his reputation depends upon his 

 theories, and we must try to estimate their value. His specula- 

 tions in chemistry and geology were crude, but he was then 

 travelling beyond his own metier. It is upon his theory of 

 evolution that we must focus attention. It was much that he 

 stoutly maintained that evolution had somehow taken place, at 

 a time when many men of science still clung to the doctrine of 

 fixity of species. Hut his ex[)lanation of tbe process by which 

 evolution was brought about— new organs by willing, the further 

 development of existing organs by excrci.se — originated in an 

 ignorance of facts. " Behold,'' he says, '' in our stout and clumsy 

 horses, habituated to draw heavy loads, and which constitute a 

 special race by always being kept together — behold, I say, the 

 difference in their form, compared with those of English horses, 

 which are all slender with long necks, hecauae for a long period 

 tliey have been trained to run sa-iftl// " (the italics are ours). Here 

 then is the origin of the Lamarckian hypothesis. He imagines 

 that the breed of racehorses has been produced by a system of 

 training. He has never heard of selection. The fact is that he was 

 a museum man, and was thus quite in the dark with regard to a 

 great deal that went on out of doors. Evidently it never 

 occurred to him to doubt that acquired characteristics are 

 inherited. Tbe great defect of his Fhilosophie zoologique is 

 that it is mere speculation without evidence. Darwin appealed 

 to the great results produced by artificial selection. Lamarck 

 went for evidence to the same quarter, but failed to get hold of 

 the facts. His Philosoiihic must be treated as a purely specula- 

 tive treatise on a level with the lucubrations of Erasmus Darwin, 

 and others. Charles Darwin produced much evidence, though, 

 of course, no positive proof, and his work, therefore, stands on 

 an entirely different footing. It is natural that a biographer of 

 Lamarck should mistake the little back eddy in the direction of 

 Lamarckism for the main current of scientific thought. Never- 

 theless, Lamarck is a very interesting figure. He did much solid 

 work, and he speculated in a bold untrammelled way that could 

 not fail to awaken men's interest in the subject. 



"Britain axd tue British Se.4S.'' By H. J. Mackiuder, 

 M.A., Reader in Geography in the University of Oxford. 

 (London : William Heinemann. 1002.) Pp. xvi. and 3'^8. — 

 This is not like other books on geogi'aphical subjects, and it is 

 encouraging to see such modern and scientific treatment of a 

 long neglected study coming from one of the ancient univer- 

 sities. If this volume gives a fair sample of the teaching of 

 geography in Oxford, undergraduates who take advantage of 

 their opportunities are much to be congratulated. The style of 

 the book no doubt suggests tbe platform rather than the study ; 

 there is a tendency towards great swelling words and a sonorous 

 roll in the sentences that would appeal, we think, more powerfully 

 to the ear than to the eye. However, the subject is treated in a 

 large way and a certain grandeur of language is not inappropriate. 

 The idea is to describe the great features of the country and 

 not to bother about details. Nothing is touched upon which 

 has not a special significance, and not only are the features of 

 the land and sea described, but a point is made of tracing their 

 origin from the earliest geological period. The evolution of the 

 British Islands is treated to some extent in the manner of 

 Mr. Jukes-Browne's "Building of the British Isles," only instead 

 of tracing the history stage by stage back into the past, Sir. 

 Mackinder begins with the earliest times and traces it down to the 

 present. Once the present surface of the land has been reached 

 by the carving out of their valleys by consequent, subsequent and 

 obsequent rivers, we are shown how tbe relation of the British 

 Isles to the Continent has affected the climate, vegetation, etc., 

 and how the various streams of immigration and conquest have 

 produced tbe present political condition of the country. The 

 racial, historical, htrategic and economic geography of the 

 Islands are treated in a series of chapters, and it is interesting 



