78 



NA TURE 



{May 24, 1883 



the scheme of a general education, and the publication of 

 such books, as the one now before us, as guides to a 

 practical knowledge of the structure of animals, will 

 break up the conservative instincts of the purely human 

 anatomists, and will lead in time to the adoption of a 

 more scientific nomenclature. 



To turn now to the descriptive part of this book. The 

 impression we have derived from its perusal leads us to 

 say that it is well adapted to the purpose for which it has 

 been written. The authors have evidently studied the 

 anatomy of the cat, not from the dissection of a single 

 animal, but from numerous specimens. The methods of 

 displaying structure, and preserving the parts for future 

 observation and study are workmanlike and practical. 

 The descriptions are clear and concise. Though at times 

 terms are employed, such as ectal for external, ental for 

 internal, trochiter for the great tuberosity of the humerus, 

 and trochin for the lesser tuberosity, which are novel, 

 and at first require a little thought to gather their mean- 

 ing, they soon become familiar, and without doubt conduce 

 to give clearness and accuracy to the description. 



We ought not to omit to say that, as preliminary to the 

 description of the cat's brain, the authors give an account 

 of the dissection of the brain of the frog and the 

 Menobranchus. 



The work is illustrated with 130 figures in the text, and 

 with four lithographed plates of the brain of the cat. The 

 plates are neatly executed ; but the figures in the text are 

 in many cases coarse and inartistic. Surely in the United 

 States, where the art of engraving on wood, as is shown 

 in the illustrations to Scribner's and other monthly maga- 

 zines, has attained such a high order of excellence, the 

 authors ought to have been able to procure a draughtsman 

 and woodcutter who could represent muscles, more like 

 nature, than is given in say Figs. 66, 67, and 72. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Magyarorsz&g Asvdnyai, Kulbnds tekintettel termohelyeik 

 megallapitdsdra. (The Minerals of Hungary, with 

 Special Regard to the Determination of their Occur- 

 rences.) By Michael Tdth, S.J., Professor at the 

 Gymnasium, Kalocsa. (Budapest, 1882.) 



We have here a contribution to science which reaches us 

 from the far east of Europe, from Hungary. The author 

 has aimed at nothing less than to give a complete cata- 

 logue of all the minerals that occur in that country, 

 noting the exact place of the occurrence of each, and 

 adding such statistical and other information as may enable 

 the reader to form a judgment as to the economic value of 

 the subject of the article. Special attention is given to 

 such minerals as are of recent discovery or of such im- 

 portance as to be likely to affect the future history of the 

 district in which they are found. 



Prof. Tdth is, we believe, the first writer who has 

 attempted a complete account of the minerals of Hungary. 

 His work would have been more widely useful had he 

 seen fit to employ some language that is more widely 

 known than his native Hungarian. But in the case of a 

 work like this, which consists largely of names of places 

 and of those technical names of species which are 

 common to all the civilised world, the unfamiliar tongue 

 does not render the book altogether useless. The author 

 would seem to have looked forward to his work being 

 used in England, for he has prefixed an English title- 

 page, and frequently refers to the collections in the 

 British Museum and the Museum of Practical Geology. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return^ 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 



[The Editor urgently requists correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 

 of communications containing interesting and novel facts, .] 



Natural Selection and Natural Theology 



The amicable discussion between Dr. Romanes and myself, 

 " endeavouring to help in determining the true position of an' 

 important question," has now (in Nature, vol. xxvii. p. 527) 

 reached a critical point, one seemingly capable of settlement by 

 scientific inquiry, and upon which a brief note may be pertinent. 



I take Dr. Romanes now to agree with me that the physical 

 distinction of the less fit organisms, or, more generally, that the 

 action of the environment, is not in a proper sense the cause of 

 the advantageous variations of surviving organisms ; also that 

 natural selection does not explain and has no call to explain the 

 cause of variation. As to this, he says, the theory merely sup- 

 poses that variations of all kinds and in a' I directions are con- 

 stantly taking place, and that natural selection seizes upon the 

 more advantageous. Now if variation in animals and plants is 

 lawless, of all kinds and in all directions, then no doubt the 

 theory of natural selection may be " the substitute of the theory 

 of special design," so as to efface that evidence of underlying 

 intelligence which innumerable and otherwise inexplicable 

 adaptations of means to ends in nature was thought to furnish. 

 If it is not so, then the substitute utterly fails. For omnifarious 

 and purely casual variation is essential to it in this regard. 

 F y is it said that "the theory merely supposes " this. For 

 omnifarious variation is no fact of observation, nor a demonstra- 

 ble or, in my opinion, even a warrantable inference from ob- 

 served facts. It is merely an hypothesis, to be tried by 

 observation and experiment. I am curious to know how far the 

 observations and impres-ions of the most experienced naturalists 

 and cultivators conform to my own, which favour the idea that 

 variations occur, in every degree indeed, but along comparatively 

 few lines. That the investigator of any flora or fauna should 

 so conclude as to actual and acconplished variation, is natural, 

 but may go for little, the theory of course supposing that 

 numberless non-occurring forms have failed in the struggle and 

 disappeared. But there is no evidence that all sorts of varieties 

 ever appeared or tended to ap, ear, and there is a musty maxim 

 about " de non apparentibus el de non exislenlibus " which is not 

 devoid of application. 



Moreover, as to the vegetable kingdom, it would seem that 

 this question of omnifarious variation may be tested in the seed- 

 bed and the nursery, from which Darwin took the idea and the 

 term of natural selection. These indeed are actual experiments — 

 very numerous and extensive — for the te-ting of incipient varia- 

 tion. If experienced nurserymen, gardeners, and others who 

 raise plants from seed in a lar>je way, usually with eyes watchful 

 for variation, would give their testimony in this regard, they might 

 materially contribute to the settlement of an interesting question. 



We need not hold Dr. Romanes to the terms of his funda- 

 mental supposition, "that variations of all kinds and in all 

 directions are constantly taking place." He probably means 

 only that incipient variations are wholly vague and irrespective 

 of ends — are as likely to occur in the direction of unfitness as of 

 eventual fitness to the environment and to use, the divinity that 

 shapes the ends — if ends there be — acting only through the sur- 

 roundings. And we all understand that the particulars in which 

 progeny differs from parent are potential in the germ, or in the 

 cells of which the germ consists, and therefore wholly beyond 

 observation. The up-hot is, that, so far as ob ervation extends, 

 it does not warrant the supposition of omnifarious and aimless 

 variation ; and the speculative assumption of it appears to have 

 no scientific value. Asa Gray 



The Fauna and Flora of the Keeling Islands, 

 Indian Ocean 



I have only recently been able to obtain my copy of Mr. 

 Wallace's "Island Life," in which I find an estimate of the 

 fauna and flora of the Keeling Atoll in the South Indian Ocean. 

 I had the fortune to visit that outlying spot in the year 1879, 



