January 3, 1907] 
NA TORE 
237 
ownership.. When he goes on to assert that plants have 
property, that a plant ‘* possesses a definite territory,’’ he 
- seems to be playing with words. In the organ-pipe coral 
he finds an example of collective ownership, the individual 
polype also having something in the way of private pro- 
perty. In animals of a higher class, e.g. in ants, the 
notion of property does undoubtedly show itself. This 
paper is illustrated, and some of the pictures are excel- 
lent, but a picture of the nest of Formica rufa does not 
help us to understand the subject of property. 
The fourth paper (by L. Wodon) is brief, and deals 
trenchantly with some sociological theories, notably with 
those of Karl Biichner, who maintains that primitive man 
was a non-social being. This creature of theory lived in 
lands where the abundance of natural products made any 
large output of energy on his part quite unnecessary. Our 
author satisfactorily disposes of this primitive lotus-eater. 
Dr. E. Houzé has contributed a distinctly able paper 
(fascicule No. 5) on the Aryan and anthroposociology. 
He has a thorough grasp of his subject, his style is clear, 
and he has a fine sense of humour. The wonderful theories 
of the comparative philologist he sends to the limbo to 
which such theories must sooner or later find their way. 
He goes rather too far when he maintains that the Aryans 
were the creatures of the philologists. It is true, no 
doubt, as he argues, that no race has ever maintained its 
purity for any length of time unless it happened to be 
geographically secluded. The pure-bred Aryan stock that 
we were taught to picture to ourselves ranging over great 
part of Asia and all of Europe is a myth. But it is 
difficult to believe that the people who spoke the Aryan 
tongue in different parts of the world had not a fairly 
strong strain of kindred blood in them, though they inter- 
married freely with the tribes and peoples among whom 
they found themselves. Still, far too much has been made 
of the Aryans as a separate type, and Dr. Houzé is right 
to laugh at what has been called ‘‘ Anglo-Saxon pandolicho- 
cephalism,’’ a term invented to describe “‘ the skull which 
has the honour of sheltering the brain that has guided the 
world.’’ M. de Lapouge, the champion of the ‘‘ dolicho- 
cephalic blond Aryan,’’ is very severely dealt with. Dr. 
Houzé is a strong believer in natural selection. He keeps 
quite clear of the untenable view that it goes on in the 
organic world generally, whereas among men it has some- 
how become a thing of the past. ‘‘ When the sun has 
baked the grass,’’ he remarks, ‘‘it forces innumerable 
troops of antelopes to migrate: is not this the same cause 
that drives the Germans to embark at Hamburg for 
America? It is a question of food.’’ Archzwology, he 
holds, supplies the firmest foundation for anthropology, 
and he speaks with great respect of such men as 
de Morgan, Arthur Evans, and Flinders Petrie. Anthropo- 
metry he puts in its proper place. Nothing can be more 
absurd, as he says, than to make size of skull alone an 
absolute measure of brain capacity. When he discusses 
existing populations and their characteristics, Dr. Houzé 
shows great soundness of judgment. As to the question of 
town and country life, he holds that the commonly held 
opinion that towns ‘“‘ devour their inhabitants with 
rapidity’’ is at any rate an exaggeration. On the 
modernism of Teutonic civilisation he makes some very 
sensible remarks. The Teutons appeared late on the 
stage of history, and it was only their contact with Gallo- 
Roman civilisation that enabled them to reduce their 
legends to writing. 
The last of the papers we are reviewing (by R. Petrucci) 
takes pains to prove that animal associations were de- 
veloped independently of one another. They do not form 
a series culminating in human communities. In tracing 
the descent of birds and of men from simpler forms of 
life, the author shows a thorough understanding of the 
subject. About animal societies he has much interesting 
information—about the sociability of reptiles, about the | 
form the family takes among fish, birds, and mammals. 
Apparently he does not point out (a curious omission) the 
interesting fact that the pairing instinct is strong only in 
those species in which the energy of both parents is re- 
quired for the feeding or protection of the young. 
regret that we have not space to deal more fully with this 
last paper. Those who are interested in animal associations 
would do well to study it. 
NO. 1940, VOL. 75 | 
We | 
IS THERE DETERMINATE VARIATION? 
N an article published in Science of November 16, Prof. 
Vernon L. Kellogg, of Stanford University, discusses 
the question as to the existence among organisms of deter- 
minate variation, that is to say, variation in the same 
or a similar direction in a large number of individuals of 
a single species. If such a factor does exist, one of the 
objections to the origin of species by natural selection— 
namely, that small individual variations would be elimin- 
ated in a generation or two—disappears. F 
Prof. Kellogg’s observations refer to variation occurring 
in the Californian flower-beetle, Diabrotica soror, inhabit- 
ing the Stanford University * campus.’’ Large series of 
this chrysomelid beetle, varying from 500 to 1500 in 
number, were collected on that area in the years 1895, 
1901, 1902, 1904, and 1905. Normally, the beetle shows 
six dark spots arranged in pairs on each wing-cover. 
Individuals show, however, a tendency to the transverse 
coalescence of the two middle or two lower spots on one 
or both elytra, or a longitudinal fusion of the three spots 
on each half of the elytron. In 1895 the majority of the 
beetles had twelve free spots on the two elytra, but among 
the variations there was a marked tendency to the trans- 
verse union of the two middle spots, either on one or both 
elytra, the percentage being 22-40. In the years 1901-5 a 
much larger percentage of this variation occurred, reach- 
ing 53-92 per cent. in one series in 1905, and 65-40 per cent. 
in 1904. 
After adducing arguments to show that the variation is 
neither ontogenetic (that is, determined for each generation 
during development by external influences) nor the result 
of natural selection, Prof. Kellogg falls back on deter- 
minate variation. ‘‘ If,’’ however, he writes, ‘° determinate 
variation is the explanation of this change in Diabrotica 
soror it is a determinate variation which is occurring only, 
apparently, in our particular locality. For in series of 
specimens of this beetle collected in other parts of Cali- 
fornia no such change seems to be going on, the old 
twelve-spots-free form being plainly the modal type... - 
Why the species should be changing on our university 
campus and not changing in the regions south and north 
of us is a mystery whose solution I do not even dare to 
guess at. This solution must have to do with the cause 
of the variation of the species on our campus. But if one 
asks what-is this cause, what it is that is producing deter- 
minate variation in Diabrotica, or in any other species, 
it must be mentioned that prior to any attempt to ex- 
plain how determinate variation might be produced it is 
advisable to attempt to determine if determinate variation 
really exists. Is there determinate variation? ”’ 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Lorp Curzon or KEDLESTON, who was appointed to be 
the Romanes lecturer at Oxford for 1906, but was prevented 
from delivering the lecture, has been appointed the 
Romanes lecturer for this year. 
Mr. Wirtram Smitu, of Geneva, has, says Science, given 
100,000l. to Hobart College to endow a college for women. 
It is also announced that Dr. Andrew Carnegie has offered 
to give 20,000]. to Queen’s University, Ontario, on con- 
dition that an additional sum of 80,000l. be collected. 
Mr. J. D. RockEFELLER has made a New Year’s gift to 
Chicago University of about 600,000l., which brings his 
total benefactions to the University up to 3,900,0001. The 
private gifts to universities and colleges in the United 
States, announced in these columns during last year, 
amounted to nearly 5,000,000l. 
Tue annual meeting of the Public. School Science 
Masters’ Association will be held at the University of 
London on Saturday, January 12. The presjdent, the Rev. 
the Hon. E. Lyttelton, headmaster of Eton, will take the 
chair, and will read a paper on the place of science and 
of literature in a general education. Other subjects of 
papers upon which it is hoped discussion will take place 
are :—* The Internal Economy of School Science,’* by Mr. 
Thwaites, and ‘‘The Best Method of Introducing the~ 
Atomic Theory in Science,”’ by Mr. F. R. L. Wilson. 
