NATURE 



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NATURE. 



.1 . I Prof. S. Meunier. 

 Pp. v.ii- 328. (Paris: I airie Felix Ucan, 

 3, dated km 4. 1 Pi 



In 1 Nature the \ ari- 



ous associations of li'>' ires work into 



one another's hands, so thai loving equilibrium 

 results. < >ni of the main ide; oi Prof. Meunier's 

 "Biological Geolog\ " is th nalogous associa- 

 tions have existed in the pa ■ in similar correla- 

 tions, the same biocosmic r6lt bi ins,'- discharge 



ssive types. After illustrating tin geological 

 activity of organisms in forming and weathi 



-:is, ami in the i easeless 1 1 illation ol matter, 

 the author takes .m interes rig survey of the 

 various haunts of life and their interrelations, 

 and i' nil evidence to show thai in pasl 



there was a somewhat similar biocosmic pat- 

 tern, with hydroplankton, hydronekton, hydni- 

 bentlion, aerial animals, terrestrial animals, even 

 commensals, symbionts, and parasites. 



Taking the sedimentary ro s in some detail, 

 the author shows the part that organisms have 

 played in the formation of calcareous, siliceous, 

 phosphatic, sulphurous, carbon ceoos, arid other 

 deposits, and in the erosion ol rocks which their 

 predeci d helped to form. The author's 



emphasis is all on continuity a continuity of 

 '■terrain," an ocean with thi same chemical 

 character since life began (as Silurian sail de- 

 mosphi i hout any greal 



tinuous biocosm since the pre- 

 Cambrian, with "a continuity ol rigupie. " Obvi- 

 ously the biocosm loses members, hut others take 

 their place, so that there is no change in general 

 equilibrium, or in what Prof. Meunier goes the 

 length of calling the "impeccable harmon; " ol 

 interrelations. In emp truth the author 



commits an exaggeration. 



It is strange that a naturalist h 1 lays so much 



stress on continuity should be a 1 hampion of the 



. that new forms appeal iddenly. Thus in 



speaking rice ol Cardiutn poru- 



• in the beds at G « rites : " What 



Nature seems to show us is ,: brusque pheno- 

 menon, without hint of a rtrecursof of any kind, 

 esult of which a living creature comes to 

 add itself to the series alread\ existing." What 

 occi. transformation ■ >! species, hut a 



replacement. A species has , ; i e and "person- 

 ality" like an Individual: it is ">rn, it develops, 

 it reaches its climax, it wane-, it exhausts its 

 share .-I " vital lone." and disappears, only to 

 have ii- place taken by anothi species, slightly 

 different, but likewise in harmonious relation with 



constant properties of the ei ronment. Prof. 

 Meunier recognises the profound changes which 

 the intervention of vital activity made in the 



lomy oi the earth, but onci organisms had 

 firmly established themselvi las been, he 



maintains, no environmental g( of moment, 



NO. 2553, VOl . [02 



only change in secondary features, such as the 

 distribution of surface tempei iture. It seems a 

 strange position to recognisi Ll a the appear* 



rganisms changed the "1 ye1 



io deny that the establishi isses and 



mammals, of dowering plant new ii 



\ isil. ,1 s, aial s, 1 1 in, has made 00 ' Me dil- 



ference in the animate environment. 



I be all! hoT sec Ills to us to has I 



dinal fact the evolution of the environi md 



io have failed to realise how complex a 

 relations the present-day environment of 

 bodied, active-minded animal is. Yet la 

 emphasis on what animals and men are continu- 

 ally doing in modifying their environment. I 

 modifying agencies seem to I'rof. Meunier to 

 show bow well adapted the general environment 

 is to the exigencies of organic life. The constancy 

 ol environmental influences, which we believe he 

 exaggerates, appears to him to form a "decisive 

 objection against every transformist doctrine that 

 supposes organismal transformations to have been 

 determined by external changes." But transform- 

 ist s are not restricted to any crude Lamarckism. 

 To I'rof. Meunier vital energy is a dynamic entity, 

 like crystallogenie energy, capable of passing 

 from one heavenly body to another like light or 

 heal, capable also of remaining for a long time 

 latent, but likewise of manifesting itself in favour- 

 able environment, and of expressing itself in a 

 " perfectionnement organique as time goes on. 



It seems to us that the day is past for half- 

 hearted evolutionists, and we have no sympathy 

 with Prof. Meunier's extraordinary view that evo- 

 Unionists are embarrassed by finding among 

 aquatic animals so many different solutions of the 

 problem of respiration, or by knowing that in the 

 course of ages cetaceans have shown no trace of 

 any transformation of lungs into gills. The 

 idea in the book is that the earth and sea and sky 

 and all that in them is form a sort of organism 

 that grows as a whole with continuity, keeping 

 up a harmonious correlation, a balance, a system'a 

 naturae, which changes from age to age, and yet 

 remains in principle the same. 



WATER SUPPLIES I OR RURAL 

 DWELLINGS. 

 Rural Water Supplnw and their Purification. By 

 Dr. A. C Houston. Pp. XV + 136.. (London: 

 John Bale, Sons, and Daniclsson, Ltd., K|iS.) 



Price ys. 6d. net. 



Till-; private isolated watei supplies of the 

 scattered rural population are often dan- 

 gerously polluted; and there are many who would 

 be glad to do what is possible 10 remedy matters, 

 if the) were informed of tin- dangers they run and 

 the best practical means ol escaping from them. 

 But this small work will not prove of great value 

 Io the majority of dwellers in rural districts, whose 

 is for some simple, detailed ex] cants tor 



easily reducing the risk and inconvenience at- 

 tendant upon a water supply which is unsuitable 

 ihe point of vie* of either quality or quantity 



F 



