342 



NA TURE 



[February 12, 1903 



wanted in a criticism of Mr. Balfour is some recognition 

 of the philosophic position which led " a man of Mr. 

 Balfour's intellectual power and high social standing " into 

 a position which our author thinks "in many respects 

 absurd and in all respects untenable" (p. 221). What is 

 the author's philosophy? He thinks "ali knowledge 

 is science" and "science is all knowledge" can be 

 interchanged ; no explanation or defence is given ; he 

 considers sense-perception "the sole foundation of know- 

 ledge" (p. 149), and elsewhere asks whether Mr. Balfour 

 has any channels of knowledge other than t"he senses 

 and the intellect — an addition not without significance. 

 Science (p. 26) is based on the evidence of the senses ; 

 theology is vitiated by having no such immediate contact 

 with the evidence of the senses ; yet "science is the only 

 reasonable foundation on which Mr. Balfour's theology 

 could be built " (p. 25). 



The author considers Mr. Balfour has " uprooted the 

 fabric of science " (p. 26). The careful reader will re- 

 member that the passage from which the author quotes 

 the words " habitually mendacious " (p. 23) occurs in 

 "Foundations of Belief," part ii., chap. 1, § iv., and that 

 there Mr. Balfour does not argue that "we are unable to 

 prove the reliability of the senses or the existence of an 

 external world" (p. 147), but only that the "immediate 

 experience " upon which so much has been said is really 

 mediate, and that science now refutes the philosophy 

 which shelters its bad psychology under so good a name. 

 This may be enough to save the unphilosophic reader 

 from thinking that the author writes from an assured 

 position. His discussion of the cardinal questions of 

 "cause," " uniformity " and the like is inadequate ; he is 

 equally unfortunate in labouring to disprove (p. 132) a 

 theory which in Mr. Balfour appears as an example of 

 individual bias and is put into the mouth of "the third of 

 our supposed jurymen" ("Foundations of Belief," ed. 

 1895, p. 314) ; while the chapter on " Ethics," in itself 

 good, is equally irrelevant ; to say that by " religious 

 truths Mr. Balfour means ethical truths" is a gratuitous 

 assumption. The book has far too few references, always 

 inverted and sometimes inaccurate. The index is de- 

 signed to be amusing ; occasionally it is useful. 



G. S. B. 



La Vie dcs Animaux illustrie. By E. Perrier. Pp. 



xxviii+124. (Paris: Bailliere et Fils, n.d.) Price 



Fr. 6. 

 If we may judge by the first number, of which we have 

 received a copy from the publishers, this new natural 

 history bids fair to eclipse all publications of a similar 

 nature by the number and beauty of its coloured plates. 

 The name of the Director of the Paris Museum of 

 Natural History is a sufficient guarantee that the text 

 will be all that it should be ; while the fact that the 

 coloured plates are from sketches by Herr W. Kuhnert 

 testifies that from both the artistic and the realistic 

 points of view they will have few rivals The authorship 

 of the sections devoted to mammals and birds has been 

 entrusted to Dr. H. Menegaux, who, in the part before 

 us, treats in a popular, but at the same time exact, 

 manner of the apes, monkeys and lemurs. No less than 

 eighty coloured plates, as we learn from the title-page, 

 are to be assigned to the illustration of the mammals, 

 and of these, nine appear in the present part of 124 

 pages. All are first-class examples of three-colour print- 

 ing, and we believe that such a wealth of illustration has 

 never before appeared in a popular natural history. In 

 addition to the coloured plates, the part before us con- 

 tains a large number of text-figures, all reproduced from 

 pen-and-ink sketches by Herr Kuhnert. As the pub- 

 lishers state in their prospectus, such illustrations are 

 far superior, both from the artistic and the zoological 

 aspects, to reproductions from photographs drawn from 

 miscellaneous sources, which are generally out of har- 



NO, 1737, VOL. 67] 



mony with one another and too often fail to display the 

 characteristic features of the animals they represent. 

 We notice that the author refuses to accept modern 

 innovations in nomenclature, retaining, for instance, the 

 familiar Mycetes (in place of Alouatta) for the howling 

 monkeys. One of the main arguments used by the 

 advocates of such changes was that it would conduce to 

 uniformity ; but experience seems to suggest that it will 

 have exactly the contrary effect, and if so, where is the 

 justification for such changes? 



The work, so far as we can at present judge, is worthy 

 of all commendation, and ought to obtain a large circula- 

 tion on the other side of the Channel. The price is six 

 francs per part. R. L. 



Das biomechanisc/ie [neo-vitalistische) Denken in der 

 Medizin und in der Biologie. By Prof. Moriz Benedikt. 

 (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1903, published 1902.) Pp 57. 

 Price 1.50 marks. 



Prof. Benedikt protests against the distinction often 

 drawn between mental and natural sciences. Mental 

 science should have an experimental basis ; natural 

 science cannot complete itself apart from philosophical 

 psychology. Physical and chemical formulas do indeed 

 apply to vital phenomena, but they are inadequate for a 

 complete interpretation; " Biomechanik" requires to be 

 supplemented by a " Seelen-mechanik." Every " manifes- 

 tation" (M) or expression of vital activity! Lebensausserung) 

 is a function of the inherited "nature" or heritage (N) ; 

 of the "second nature" or external "nurture" of appro- 

 priate environment, psychical as well as physical (N') ; of 

 less essential developmental or environmental influences 

 (E) ; and of incidental or occasional interruptions (O). 

 Thus we reach the vital equation 



M =/(± N, ± N', ± E, ± O). 



This does not strike us as particularly novel, but Prof. 

 Benedikt works it out in an interesting essay— an 

 apologia for neo-vitalism — in which he discusses cell- 

 life, action at a distance among cells, nervous activities, 

 circulation-phenomena, growth and reproduction. The 

 author hopes that "der feinfuhlige Leser" will appreciate 

 his effort at simplicity ; but we must condemn ourselves 

 in confessing that we have found his essay exceedingly 

 difficult. It suggests a half-revealed secret, but what the 

 secret is we have been unable to discover. J. A. T. 



Monographic dcs Mutillides oV Europe et d'Algdrie. Par 



Ernest Andre, Membre de la Societe entomologique 



de France. Pp. 478. Avec 15 planches coloriees et 



noire. Forme le Tome viii. du " Species des Hymen- 



opteres." (Paris : Hermann, 1903.) 



It is only a short time since we had the pleasure of 



noticing the first half of vol. vii. of this important work, 



which contained the commencement of the Cyiiipidae, 



and already vol. viii. lies before us, containing the 



Mutillidae, edited by Ernest Andre, the brother of 



Edmond Andre, the founder of the work, to whose 



memory this volume is dedicated. 



The Mutillidas are an interesting family of insects, 

 which were thus named by Linnseus because the females 

 of the commonest species are apterous. They were 

 formerly called solitary ants and were placed near the 

 Formicids, but are now more properly regarded as 

 forming a family of the Fossores, or burrowing wasps. 

 There are only three species in Britain, which are not 

 very common ; but in warmer countries, and even in 

 the Mediterranean region, they are much more numerous. 

 About 120 species are discussed in the work before us, 

 besides very numerous varieties. The total number of 

 described species is estimated at 1600. The family is 

 divided into four tribes, or subfamilies, Fedschenkiinas, 

 Apterogynina:, Methocina; and Mutillinae but only 



