June 9, 1904] 



NATURE 



clearly explained. A distinct and valuable feature of 

 the book is the list of references at the beginning of 

 each test to the principal text-books and papers dealing 

 with the subject of the test. The book is well illus- 

 trated, and there is a useful chapter at the end on com- 

 mercial shop tests. 



The two books by Mr. Baum and M. dc la Tour 

 cover, in a satisfactory manner, two very important 

 branches of alternating-current work on which not very 

 much has yet been written in the way of text-books. 

 This is especially the case with M. de la Tour's treatise 

 on the induction motor, which is very comprehensive 

 and certainly the best book as yet written on this 

 >ubject. Mr. Baum's book is not so full, but it con- 

 tains an excellent discussion of the theory and construc- 

 tion of transformers, which should prove very useful to 

 students. It is difficult to understand why chapter ii. 

 has been included at all, since the method given in it 

 is not only unsatisfactory but, even in the author's own 

 opinion, " always produces confusion in the mind of 

 the student." There is a good final chapter on com- 

 mercial transformers. M. de la Tour also leavens his 

 theory with a little practical application of it, the last 

 chapter but one being devoted to the design in very 

 careful detail of three different induction motors. A 

 word of praise is also deserved by the translator for the 

 excellent way in which he has performed his task of 

 presenting M. de la Tour's book to the English public. 



M. S. 



YROM BUFFON TO DARWIN. 



Controverses Transfonnisies. By Alfred Giard. Pp. 



viii+178. (Paris : C. Naud, 1904.) Price 7 francs. 



THIS is an interesting book, written, like nearly 

 all French scientific books, in transparently clear 

 stvle. It assumes, however, that the reader has a fair 

 knowledge of zoology, so that it hardly appeals to the 

 reading world in general. It is intended rather for 

 those who have made some study of comparative 

 anatomy, and who wish for light on the various 

 theories of evolution. In France Darwinism has not 

 had the triumphant progress that it has had in 

 England and, still more, in Germany. Even evolu- 

 tion, quite apart from the specially Darwinian inter- 

 jjretation of it, has been very slowly accepted, so that 

 the earlier part of M. Giard's book deals with con- 

 troversies that for us have long been buried. The 

 second chapter, which originally appeared as an article 

 in the Revue scienlifique in 1874, discusses at length 

 the question whether the ascidians are really near 

 allies of the vertebrates. A figure of the larva of a 

 typical ascidian is giv'en, but it would have been well 

 to give also a figure of Appendicularia, in which the 

 notochord persists in the adult. Throughout, the book 

 would have gained by being more amply illustrated. 

 The chapter on ascidians combats von Baer's now- 

 exploded theory of them, perhaps at rather unnecessary 

 length. But the author has deliberately adopted the 

 plan of reprinting his essays written during the last 

 quarter of the nineteenth centurv so that the reader 

 may appreciate the difficulties against which the 

 evolutionist has had to contend. 

 NO. 1806, VOL. 70] 



Chapter iii. deals with systems of classification that 

 have had their day, systems which accepted each type 

 of organism as an existing fact without attempting to 

 account for it. M. Giard is heart and soul an embr}'- 

 ologist. Kowalevsky is to him a far greater man than 

 the greatest master of anatomy pure and simple who 

 has had no grand hypothesis to guide him. 



In chapter iv. , on the factors of evolution, we enter 

 on more controversial ground. M. Giard is a 

 Lamarckian. He has a great reverence for Darwin, 

 but Lamarck is put on a loftier pedestal. Lamarck, 

 he holds, made known the great primary factor of 

 evolution. Darwin introduced an important factor, 

 but still a secondary one. In some cases M. Giard 

 owns that the Lamarckian principle will not account 

 for everything, e.g. for all the characters of a new- 

 born mammal. Darwinism must then be called in. 

 In chapter v. (1898) Weismann appears as a con- 

 spicuous figure on the stage. M. Giard will not 

 allow Weismann to send Lamarckism to the limbo of 

 worn out theories. He refers to the experiments of 

 Brown-Sequard on guinea-pigs as proof that Lamarck 

 was right. He accepts telegony as a fact telling 

 strongly in Lamarck's favour, though men of science 

 are coming to regard it as a breeder's superstition. 

 Throughout his discussion of the question of acquired 

 characteristics there is a certain confusion of thought. 

 He draws a marked distinction between the characters 

 that result from external conditions and those which 

 spring from forces at work within the animal. Yet 

 external influences can only stimulate the organism 

 to show the stuff that it is made of. It responds to a 

 stimulus. New characters become apparent, but are 

 not, strictly speaking, acquired. F. W. H. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



A Text-book of Quantitative Chemical Analysis. By 

 Frank Julian. Pp. 604. (St. Paul, Minn. : The 

 Ramsey Publishing Co., 1902.) Price 255. net. 

 The book is so excellent as far as it goes, except in 

 the quality of the paper and the print, that it seems a 

 pity it goes no farther. .A little more elaboration 

 would have converted it into a really serviceable 

 manual. The reviewer has failed to discover any im- 

 portant omission among the special methods with 

 which he happens to be familiar, but there is an 

 absence of detail, which, it cannot be too often insisted 

 on, deprives any treatise on analysis of much of its 

 practical value. The chemist whose business it is to 

 analyse cannot afford the time to elaborate methods 

 for himself. The fact, of course, is not overlooked that 

 the book is written for students, and no doubt the 

 student is expected to supply any gaps which may 

 occur. But apart from a chapter of typical exercises 

 in analysis, it is difficult to see in what sense the book 

 can be called a student's text-book, unless, indeed, the 

 student is qualifying for the post of analyst. 



And this raises the interesting question, into which 

 there is no occasion to enter here, of how far analysis 

 should be carried as a part of a general chemical train- 

 ing as distinguished from a specialised studv. There 

 can be little doubt that the kind of skill and knowledge 

 which a public or works analyst requires must be met 

 by a special training in a laboratory set apart for the 

 purpose. 



\Vhat a student of general chemistry needs, after 



