70 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Mabch 1, 1897. 



action of this wonderful subduer of agonising pain, and 

 the whole subject of the pathogenesis of rheumatism, is 

 expounded in the volume under notice. Primarily, the 

 book is of interest to medical students and practitioners, 

 but there is a lot of readable matter in it upon the cause 

 and nature of rheumatic troubles. 



EUmenUiry Practical Phi/siolopt/ and Histology. By M. 

 Foster, F.EiS., and -T. N. Largley, F.E.S. (Macmillan c<t 

 Co., London, 1696.) A very few words sufiBces in drawing 

 attention to a new edition of this well-known practical 

 guide to physiology and histology. Prof. Michael Foster 

 is too well kno'wn to require any arguments from a reviewer 

 on the merits of his book. It is now twenty years since 

 the first edition was published, and thousands of students 

 in all parts of the world must have appreciated the accu- 

 racy of the instruction and minutife of detail which the 

 authors have embodied in their text-book. The present 

 edition contains many additions which increase its value. 



Ia/\ ill Ponds and Sinain.s. By W. Fumeaus, F.E.G.S. 

 (Longmans.) Illustrated. 123. Cd. This is one of the 

 "Out-Door World '' series for young naturalists, and forms 

 a companion volume to Mr. Hudson's book on British 

 birds, which was reviewed in our columns a short time 

 ago. The collecting and studying of life in ponds and 

 streams are specially adapted to the young naturalist. 

 Every ditch is teeming with varied and interesting 

 creatures which can easily be obtained, and the study of 

 these creatures is open to everyone to a certain extent, 

 even without the aid of a microscope. Mr. Furneaux 

 goes fiJly into the subject. He gives sound and practical 

 advice to the would-be collector and student, telling him 

 how and where to obtain the different species, and how 

 to preserve and study them whether alive or dead. A 

 great number of the species of protozoa, worms, leeches, 

 molluscs, crustaceans, spiders, iish, insects, and amphi- 

 bians, which can be found in this country, are described, 

 and their haunts and habits depicted. The illustra- 

 tions are numerous and, on the whole, excellent, and 

 altogether the volume forms a good first guide to the 

 study of pond-life. 



Eleinentarij Gcolofjij. By G. S. Boulger, F.L.S., F.G.S. 

 (Collins.) Illustrated. Is. 6d. A text-book which has 

 circulated to the extent of thirty-six thousand copies may 

 fairly be regarded as having met a want, but it does not 

 necessarily follow that a book designed for the requirements 

 of the early days of the Science and Art Department is still 

 a desideratum, even when " well brought down to date," 

 as Mr. Boulger, the reviser of Mr. Davis' well-known little 

 text-book, says in his preface. The work still bears, to a 

 great extent, its original features, and the limited space of 

 one hundred and sixty pages, in these days, is altogether 

 inadequate to deal with the ever-expanding subject of 

 geology. Twenty years ago, when concise handbooks on 

 geology at a low price were not available, there was 

 some excuse for this sort of thing ; but an all-round 

 advance since that time demands something more in 

 keeping with the spirit of enterprise and progress which 

 now obtains. 



Problems of Biology. By George Sandeman, M.A. 

 Pp. 213. (Swan Sonnenschein & Co.) Gs. Science is 

 now so highly specialized that it is difficult for a worker 

 in one branch to understand the significance of the facts 

 accumulated in another ; and the result is the enunciation 

 of theory upon theory, which, though able to fully account 

 for a set of observations made from one particular aspect, 

 entirely fails when applied to more extended views. The 

 author of this book expresses this separation very neatly 

 in the following words, with which we are in entire agree- 

 ment ; " The outstanding evil is that every science sufiers 



from an insular ignorance of what is meant by the others ; 

 philosophy, for instance, at present knows little of animals 

 and plants but what it has learned through the biology of 

 hypothesis, and accepts the results of the latter for obser- 

 vation ; and biology is content to find the true differences 

 of organisms in the structure of small particles within 

 them, through an inadequate knowledge of physics. In 

 a word, one science is only too ready to accept the 

 abstractions of others as answering to the nature of the 

 matter studied " (p. 13). Many statements of like 

 character will be found in other parts of the book, and 

 they will be especially appreciated by students of synthetic 

 philosophy. What Mr. Sandeman aims at in his essay 

 is to define the right method and the limits of biology, 

 and thence to derive a criterion wherewith biological 

 theories may be judged. His work is thus a con- 

 tribution to the philosophy of nature, and an attempt 

 to supplement and interpret biological theory by a critical 

 method, and as such it is commendable. To him, biology 

 is not a mere encyclopaedia of facts about organisms — not a 

 science of form or of function, but the science of the union 

 of these aspects. He scouts the idea that science and 

 philosophy are independent, and goes so far as to remark : 

 " The problem of philosophy as regards organisms is the 

 problem of biology." This aphorism, indeed, may be 

 regarded as the metaphysical mirror to which the author 

 holds up the hypotheses of Stahl, Darwin, Weismann and 

 Naegeli, de Vries, Galton, Spencer, and Koux, and which 

 reveals their deficiencies. 



SHOET NOTICES. 



T/if Elemenls of Fliiisics. By Edwanl L. Nichols and Win. S. 

 Franklin. (Macmillan.) Illustrated. Cs. This -n-ork, in the complete 

 form, consists of three rohimes, the one before us being Vol. II., 

 which deals with magnetism and electricity. It is purely a students' 

 book, and, sooth to say, profitable only to those who do not quail 

 before a vast array of mathematical formuht of the higher order. To 

 those, however, who can infuse life into such dry bones, the book will 

 be welcome, for the enimciations are clear, the reasoning close and 

 well sustained, and the deductions logical and conTincing. 



Structural Bofari)/. Fart II. — Ftou-erlexs Plants. By Dunkinficld 

 Henry Scott, Ph.D., F.E.S. (A. & C. Black.) Illustrated. 3s. Cd. 

 Unless one studies living plants in the field, and follows up the study 

 with practical work in the laboratory, all attempts at learning botany 

 are of but little real value. The needful appliances for pi'actical work 

 are not expensive, and a very simple outfit will serve for any student 

 to thoroughly confu-m all Dr. Scott advances in this essentially 

 practical handbook. Out of the immense variety of cryptograms 

 some twenty-three types have here been selected, and the morphological 

 treatment is such as to invest the whole with an admii-able continuity 

 W'hieh imparts a connected idea of the great groups of plants. The 

 author has, as far as possible, followed a descending order, proceeding 

 from the complex to the simpler plants, beginning with Sela'/iaella 

 and ending with the Mj/xomi/cetes. While tlie book, as a wliole, is 

 good, the illustrations are excellent as mediums for elucidating the 

 points intended. 



T/ie Bioloqical Problem of To-Day. By Dr. Oscar Hertwig. 

 Translated by P. Chalmers Mitchell, M.A. (Heinemaun.) Illustrated. 

 3s. Gd. Pi'cformation or epigenesis ? This, it would appear, is the 

 problem of to-day as far as Dr. Hertwig's book is concerned, and hence 

 we find here an attempt to explain that exceedingly complicated 

 process — the way in which the fertilized egg-cell gives rise to the 

 adult organism. That the highly-developed types of animal and 

 vegetable life have a very lowly origin we do know ; but as to the 

 nature of the inherent forces— if we may so express it — in the simple 

 cell, w-hich govern, as it were, the behaviour of the cleavage cells in 

 the formation of the organs of embryos, we can do little more than 

 offer a little intelligent speculation. However, it is something to be 

 able to say to those interested in the problem that here is a book 

 which sets forth in intelligible terms a well-reasoned account of the 

 possible process of organic development. Nevertheless, as one reads 

 th s book, it is clear that the evolutionist, as he applies his intellectual 

 powers to the study of the so-called r/ermplasm, is practically at the 

 cud of a blind alley ; he may throw much intellectual light on the 

 structure, but when that sti-ucture is an opaque wall it is Bomething 

 more than difficult to see tluougb it after all. 



