AvucustT 6, 1914] 
the topography, with the antiquities, and with the 
“roll of honour.” Mr. Morris, for example, as- 
signs the magnificent examples of igneous sills, 
lava-flows, and tuffs, that contribute so much to 
the scenery of Merionethshire, to the Archean 
era. The great scarp of Cader Idris, appropri- 
ately figured, is ascribed to ash. The memoir of 
the Geological Survey on North Wales would have 
supplied accurate information. The wealth of 
historic features in the county is weli illustrated ; 
the noble roadways are properly extolled; and the 
charmingly printed landscapes should send many 
a visitor southward from the better-known dis- 
trict of Snowdonia. 
In Northumberland Mr. Haselhurst has a still 
more attractive field. We turn with equal pleasure 
to his descriptions of Bamburgh, the superb valley 
of the Tyne, and the Roman Wall, “as much a 
road as a wall,” as he well remarks. For us, 
Northumberland centres in Hexham, within shelter 
of the Wall, and the land beyond seems wild and 
Pictish. Others, however, will prefer Rothbury 
or Alnwick; and it is hard to remember that the 
rich lands from Coldstream to Berwick are part 
of the border country, equally with Cheviot and 
Carter Fell. Northumberland has preserved much 
of its ancient character; the women workers in 
the fields (p. 71), who are so noticeable to the 
stranger, may be a tradition from a time when 
every man was employed in arms. The smoke 
of Newcastle is merely a displeasing local episode 
in a county that includes Corstopitum and “the 
strength and help of Joyous Gard.” 
(4) The Cambridge University Press has placed 
a series of “Provincial Geographies of India”’ 
under the editorship of Sir T. H. Holland, which 
is in itself a sufficient guarantee. The mode of 
production and the illustrations are in every way 
worthy of the publishers, and make the low price 
seem more surprising. A feature of our age 
which too often passes unnoticed is that the cost 
of good books has steadily gone down. Such a 
volume as this on Madras should be in the library, 
not only of geographers, but of teachers of im- 
perial history. Anthropological details are abun- 
dant, and a tale of the suspension of two dacoits 
in iron cages, apparently under British rule, finds 
its way somehow into a chapter on mountains, 
while the demon Biraiya figures in that on rivers. 
The author has the power of sustaining interest ; 
he knows the country and the people, and we 
are glad to know them in his company. The 
quaint Ostracion cornutus (p. 33), the fish that 
was once a cow, until its grazing-ground was 
converted into an island, shows how legends may 
record actual earth-changes. Mr. Thurston has 
the invaluable gift of sympathy, which makes him 
NO. 2336, VOL. 93] 
NATURE 
a  —— —  ———e 
581 
write of “the delightful group of baby elephants ” 
in a seventh-century bas-relief, and allows him to 
touch on native customs without a trace of the 
old-time condescension. The modesty of the 
editor, to whom the term charnockite is due, may 
account for the absence of any explanation of the 
special characters of this rock (p. 57). 
on Gae Anas en 
GENETICS. 
(1) Elemente der Exakten Erblichkeitslehre mit 
Grundsiigen Biologischen Variationsstatistik. 
By Prof. W. Johannsen. Zweite Deutsche 
Ausgabe in 30 Vorlesungen. Pp. xi+723. 
(Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1913.) Price 13 marks. 
(2) Selektionsprinsip und Probleme der Art- 
bildung. Ein Handbuch des Darwinismus. By 
Prof. Ludwig Plate. Vierte Auflage. Pp. xv 
+650. (Leipzig and Berlin: W. Engelmann, 
1913.) Price 16 marks. 
(3) Einfiihrung in die Vererbungswissenschaft. By 
Prof. R. Goldschmidt. Zweite Auflage. Pp. 
xli+546. (Leipzig and Berlin: W. Engel- 
Maun, 19139.) ) Prices13 marks, 
(4) The Meaning of Evolution. By Prof. S. C. 
Schmucker. Pp. 298. (New York: The 
Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and 
Co:,; Ltd. 1914.) . Price,6s 4.605 net 
HE great interest taken at the present time 
in the subjects included under the compre- 
hensive term ‘genetics ”’ is illustrated by the fact 
that second or later editions of three standard 
works in German on the subject, each consisting 
of more than 500 pages, were published in 1913. 
It is inevitable that books of this kind should over- 
lap to some extent, but they do so much less than 
their titles might lead one to expect. That they 
are so different is due partly to the great extent 
of the subject, which makes it possible for books 
to deal with different sides ot it without encroach- 
ing on one another to any great extent, and partly 
to the wide differences of opinion which still exist, 
resulting in very different treatment of similar 
classes of facts. 
(1) The first German edition of Johannsen’s 
“Elemente der exakten Erblichkeitslehre ”’ (1909) 
was reviewed in NaturE of October 7, 1909, before 
the author’s work on inheritance in “pure lines” 
had received the widespread recognition which has 
since been accorded to it. The book is now 
generally known to students of heredity, and our 
account need only describe the changes in the 
second edition. It has been enlarged from twenty- 
five to thirty lectures (from 515 to 723 pages), and 
as the illustrations are confined to a few diagrams, 
it has become a very big book. New chapters 
