April 27, 1905J 



NA TURE 



605 



Mr. Elliot's system, the other in the fashion followed 

 by any reasonable farmer in the district. In fact, the 

 book proves nothing more than that Mr. Elliot, by 

 using good seed and looking carefully after his grass 

 land, has improved his farm in his own opinion and 

 in that of various of his visitors ; otherwise the book is a 

 farrago of irresponsible talk, of hard words for agri- 

 cultural chemists and science generally, of diatribes 

 against the Board of Agriculture and everyone else 

 who does not see eye to eye with Mr. Elliot ; it bears 

 every mark, in fact, of the work of the man with one 

 idea. 



SOCIOLOGX. 

 Sociological Papers Published for the Sociological 

 Society. Pp. xviii + 2g2. (London : Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price los. 6d. 



THESE papers, the Transactions of the Sociological 

 Society, make known to the world what work 

 the society has done during the first year of its 

 existence, and explain the aim and scope of the work 

 it hopes to do in the future. 



The first paper recounts the history of the word 

 sociology. After that we get to the fundamental 

 question of eugenics, " the science which deals with 

 all the influences that improve the inborn qualities of 

 the race; also with those that develop them to the 

 utmost advantage." Mr. Francis Gnlton, the author 

 of this paper, would have the principles of eugenics 

 " introduced into the national conscience, like a new 

 religion," that so a fine race may be bred. The dis- 

 cussion that followed was very interesting. The 

 view held by most medical men who have reached 

 middle age was put without any qualification, tlie 

 view that we cannot attempt to deal with " a mass of 

 scientific questions affecting heredity," but that we 

 must concentrate our attention on more practical 

 questions, such as the feeding of infants. Mr. 

 Archdall Reid, on the other hand, in a written 

 communication, brings out with admirable lucidity 

 the distinction between degeneracy properly so called 

 and the defective development of the individual. 

 These questions, both of them urgent, we must face. 

 " In the first place we must improve the conditions 

 under which the individual develops, and so make 

 him a fine animal. In the second place we must 

 endeavour to restrict as far as possible the marriage of 

 the physically and mentally unfit." Mr. Reid might 

 have gone on to say that the former method without 

 the latter, the improvement of external conditions 

 without any check upon the multiplication of the 

 unfit, would merely hasten degeneration, as any 

 slackening in the stringency of natural selection must 

 inevitably do. Mr. Bateson declines to join in 

 investigations carried on by the " actuarial " method, 

 preferring experimental breeding with its more 

 definite results. But is it possible to experiment with 

 human beings? 



Prof. Geddes, in his "Civics," recommends to 



students a geographical survey of some river basin 



in which is displayed the evolutionary process which, 



beginning with " hunting desolations " on the hill- 



NO. 1852, VOL. 71] 



tops, culminates in some great manufacturing city 

 that darkens the heavens with its smoke. It is doubt- 

 ful how far this method can afford definitely practical 

 help in solving the problems of modern industrial, 

 society. Still, the historical method is capable of 

 imparting an interest to a science which to not a few- 

 men is dismal, and certainly anything that can make 

 our great cities interesting is to be welcomed. Dr. 

 E. Westermarck investigates the position of woman 

 in early civilisation, showing that she was by no 

 means, as a rule, a slave and a nonentity, but he 

 owns that " the condition of women or their relative 

 independence is by no means a safe gauge of the 

 culture of a nation." Mr. P. H. Mann follows with 

 a paper on " Life in an Agricultural Village in 

 England," an investigation of the economic condition 

 of the inhabitants. He follows the method of Mr. 

 Charles Booth and Mr. Rowntree in the study of 

 city populations. Prof. Durkheim and Mr. Branford 

 discuss the relation of sociology to the social sciences 

 and to philosophy. Prof. Durkheim contends that 

 sociology is not a mere organisation of more 

 specialist sciences, but that it is capable of remodelling 

 them. Historians, for instance, and political' 

 economists have already had to " reorient their 

 studies." 



In conclusion, we must congratulate the Sociological 

 Society on its first year's work. Beyond the work 

 which can be definitely gauged there has been the 

 bringing together of men who hold very different 

 views, and of men who are attacking the same great 

 problem from different sides. F. W. H. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 First Report of the Wellcome Research Laboratories 

 at the Gordon Memorial College, Khartoum. By 

 the Director, Andrew Balfour, M.D., B.Sc, &c. 

 (Khartoum : Department of Education, Sudan 

 Government, 1904.) 



The Wellcome Research Laboratories of the Gordon 

 College, Khartoum, which were equipped by the 

 munificence of Mr. Henry S. Wellcome, have certainly 

 justified their existence, judging by the record of work 

 done during the year February, 1903, to February, 

 1904, as detailed in the report of the director, Dr. 

 Andrew Balfour. 



The volume commences with a brief description of 

 the laboratories, after which follows an account of the 

 various researches that have been carried out in them. 



Any medical director stationed where malaria is en- 

 demic and mosquitoes plentiful would at once direct 

 his attention to the distribution of the latter, and in- 

 stitute measures to diminish their prevalence. This 

 has been done by Dr. Balfour, and the first article is 

 devoted to a description of his observations and ad- 

 ministration in this respect. Of mosquitoes three 

 species are particularly numerous, C. faligans, an 

 anophelina, P. costalis, and Stegomyia fasciata. Mos- 

 quito brigades have been organised, and anti-malarial 

 measures conducted on the lines recommended by Ross, 

 and there appears to be every probability that the 

 prevalence of mosquitoes will be greatly diminished in 

 Khartoum in the near future. Collections of mos- 

 quitoes have been received from various parts of 

 Egypt, the Sudan, and Abyssinia, and have been ex- 

 amined and named by Mr. Theobald, who contributes 

 an article descriptive of the species, many of which 



