53° 



NA TURE 



[April 9, 190; 



followed in due course by the " Fertilisation of 

 Orchids," the "Movements of Climbing Plants," 

 "Variation under Domestication," the "Descent of 

 Man," " Insectivorous Plants," the " Expression of 

 the Emotions," " Cross and Self Fertilisation in the 

 Vegetable Kingdom," the " Different Forms of 

 Flowers," the " Power of Movement in Plants," and 

 the " Formation of Vegetable Mould through the 

 Action of Worms," besides new editions of some of 

 them and of the " Origin," with sundry miscellaneous 

 papers. This period is dealt with in tin- second volume 

 of the present work, and the editors have grouped 

 the letters (which in some cases go back to 

 much earlier dates) under three principal heads : Man, 

 Geology and Botany, with a short concluding chapter 

 containing some on the Vivisection Controversv and 

 miscellaneous subjects. In that controversy — needless 

 to say — Darwin showed no favour to the noisy fanatics 

 who set more store by a dog than by a man, though, 

 as he writes to Lord Playfair, he strongly objected to 

 " useless vivisection," namely, that undertaken for 

 lecture-room experiments and without employing anaes- 

 thetics. That opinion had been also expressed fullv 

 in the "Life and Letters," but in view of "anti- 

 vivisection tactics " the editors have been prudent in 

 not omitting some reference to it in the present work. 



The letters on geological subjects are very interest- 

 ing, lor with this science, though diverted from it in 

 later life by pressure of other work, he never lost 

 touch. As the volume of " Geological Observations " 

 is still constantly in the student's hands, we need not 

 enlarge upon its value, but the present work preserves 

 lor us numerous letters to Lyell and others on earth- 

 movements, ice action, and the connection of cleavage 

 with foliation, subjects in which Darwin's views may 

 still be read with profit. In the first group he main- 

 tains that, as a rule, movements of elevation and de- 

 pression generally affect large anas of the earth's crusi, 

 an opinion which has of late been gaining ground. 

 Those on ice form a commentary on the views 

 of its action, which were in process of change 

 during his lifetime. Some of them relate to the noted 

 Parallel Roads of Glenroy, on which he once wrote. 

 He had then regarded them as old sea beaches, but 

 abandoned this opinion in favour of the lake-side 

 and ice-dam hypothesis. It would have been interest- 

 ing to have seen how he would have dealt with the 

 serious difficulty of the absence of glaciers from Glen- 

 roy, though an enormous dam is called into existence 

 in neighbouring valleys. Perhaps this would have 

 made him doubtful whether second thoughts are always 

 best. As to cleavage and foliation, Darw in maintains 

 that they have, as a rule, the same origin, instead of 

 the latter being a result of stratification. That view 

 is now accepted in a large number of cases, and his 

 remarks on the connection of foliation with fluxion 

 in igneous rocks show how acutely he observed and 

 reasoned. 



We are tempted to linger over these and the im- 

 portant group of letters on botanical subjects, but must 

 hasten to a conclusion. It only remains to thank the 

 editors for the way in which they have executed their 

 task, and for these interesting volumes. They are 

 NO. 1745, VOL. 67] 



most valuable, not only as a contribution to the history 

 of science, but also as placing in clearer light the man 

 himself. They were written currente calamo, as he 

 rested in his armchair during the earlier afternoon, by 

 way of relaxation from his more serious labours, so 

 such slips of the pen as are indicative of fatigue or 

 weakened health were not uncommon, yet they are 

 often admirably expressed, and always attractive 

 in their simplicity. Full of suggestive remarks, many 

 oi which will not readily become obsolete, they bring 

 into clear relief Darwin's marvellous steadfastness 

 of purpose, unflagging industry and patient endurance 

 of the burden of chronic ill-health. This alone would 

 have rendered many a man fretful or despondent; the 

 letters, no less than the testimony of his family, prove 

 that Charles Darwin had learnt the hardest of all 

 lessons, " to suffer without complaining." We find in 

 them repeated evidence of his freedom from acrimony 

 or resentment, of his sympathy with other workers, 

 and of that grand combination of a genuine humility 

 with an almost unconscious intellectual strength, which 

 impressed itself so deeply on all younger men. The 

 fife and the letters of Darwin have an ethical as well 

 as a scientific value, for he was one of those who wore 

 " the white flower of a blameless life." and could have 

 faced without shrinking " that fierce light which beats 

 upon a throne." T. G. Bonney. 



CAN THESE BONES LIVE? 

 Grundrisz dcr Mineralogie und Geologic, zum 



Gebrauch beim Unterricht an hoheren Lehranstalten 



sowie zum Selbstunterricht. Bv Prof. Dr. Bernhard 



Schwalbe. Edited by Prof. Dr. H. BSttger. Pp. 



xviii + viii + 766. (Braunschweig : Vieweg und Sohn, 



1903.) Price 13.50 marks. 

 TT was in the forest-country south of Greifswald, 

 -L where the wind sweeps down the highway from 

 the grey-green Baltic, and crashes the pine-stems one 

 against another, and blots out the shafts of a cold 

 sunlight in sudden sheets of rain — it was hen' that we 

 took shelter in a little wayside inn, and meditated on 

 the vast uniformity of the Pomeranian plain. And 

 here our host was a quiet old gentleman, a Vorsteher 

 of something that demanded the imperial regard, the 

 headman of a hamlet of five houses, and of finer educa- 

 tion than the average- burgess of an English country 

 town. 



He found out where we came from, and read to us 

 from the English Bible, commenting on its archaic- 

 style. He then turned to Shakespeare, and finally 

 left us with a copy of Carlyle's " Frederick the Great." 

 When asked where he acquired this learning, he replied, 

 " In the gymnasium at Greifswald." 



And the work the full title of which stands above is 

 also a product of gymnasia. In the hands of an in- 

 spired teacher, pupils might even become fond of it; 

 but we are lost in admiration, tempered with sorrow, 

 for those who would enter on it with a view to "Selbst- 

 unterricht." Our host in the Pomeranian flatland 

 was probably capable of such greatness. House after 

 house, moreover, throughout Germany boasts a " Con- 



