IOO 



NA TURE 



[May 31, 1S83 



for the protecting sheets of basalt in Antrim, probably no 

 fragment of Lias or Oolite would now have been left in 

 the island. Prof. Hull submerges his country a little 

 more in the Cretaceous period, but still keeps the high 

 grounds as islands. Can he produce any evidence that 

 they were so? Has he sounded the Cretaceous Ocean 

 about which he is so precise? The denudation of Ireland 

 has been unquestionably enormous, but had the country 

 been above water as long as the Director of its Geological 

 Survey imagines, we fear that every geological formation 

 would have been worn off its surface down to the very 

 platform of its fundamental or Laurentian gneiss. In 

 fact the continued survival of the country above water 

 could only have been maintained by repeated uplifts that 

 in some measure at least compensated for its superficial 

 degradation. 



The chapters accompanying the maps furnish the 

 reader with some of the information he requires to be 

 able to estimate the extent of the data on which the 

 restorations have been constructed. But they do not give 

 him nearly enough of it. Some of their statements more- 

 over will provoke criticism not less than the maps them- 

 selves. . The author asserts, for instance, as if it were an 

 established fact, that what he regards as the " essentially 

 oceanic" conditions under which the Chal'c was formed 

 prevail from Ireland to the shores of the Caspian, and 

 from Belgium to North Africa. We can hardly suppose 

 him to be ignorant of the fact that the Chalk is but a local 

 <!evelopment of calcareous matter confined to the western 

 1 art of the European area. Yet the author not only 

 spreads the Chalk across mo^t of Europe and into Africa 

 and Asia, but proceeds to infer from this asserted exten- 

 sion that " according to all the laws of terrestrial 

 mechanics" the site of much of the North Atlantic must 

 have been then dry land. In other words, he first infers a 

 wide deep ocean, and then creates a continent to keep it 

 company. 



One of the chapters, with the sounding title of " The 

 Genesis of the North Atlantic Ocean,'' will be read with 

 amazement by those who have watched the progress of 

 recent research on this question. The author begins it by 

 the following oracular announcement : "I date the genesis 

 of the North Atlantic Ocean, properly so called, from the 

 close of the Carboniferous period ; and, consequently, from 

 the same period, that of the British Isles and Western 

 Europe." One is disposed at once to ask what may be 

 his " exquisite reason " for this extraordinary statement, 

 and he frankly volunteers it. It appears to be somewhat 

 as follows : — The Carboniferous rocks of Western Europe 

 were much disturbed at the close of the Carboniferous 

 period, being thrown into east-and-west ridges. Similar 

 movements took place over the eastern States of North 

 America, the direction of the ridges being there more 

 nearly north and south. It may be concluded, therefore, 

 that the formation of the basin of the Atlantic Ocean 

 formed part of these terrestrial movements ! 



In his Preface the author tells us how he had long 

 entertained the idea of preparing such a series of maps 

 as he has now published, and how he was deterred by 

 the cost of publication. At last, in what we venture 

 to think was an evil hour for his reputation, the Royal 

 Dublin Society generously agreed to bear the expense. 

 The maps were therefore prepared and published in the 



Society's Transactions, and a fresh impression has been 

 printed off from the plates for the volume just issued. 

 Fortune would have been kinder to one whose long 

 services entitled him to gentle treatment at her hands 

 had she induced him still to keep his restorations in the 

 privacy of his own portfolio, at least for some years to 

 come, or, if they must be published, had she insisted on 

 greiter accuracy in the statement of what is known and 

 greater precision in the expression of what is con- 

 jectured. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Die Verivandlungen der Tiere. Von Dr. Otto Taschen- 

 beig, Privat-duzent in Halle. Pp. 268, with 88 Illus- 

 trations. Small 8vo. (Leipzig: G. Frey tag, 1882.) 



This forms the seventh volume of the series known as 

 " Das Wissen der Gegenwart," the object of which is to 

 give, in an attractive and popular form an outline of the 

 "science of the day." Metamorphosis and development 

 are always interesting subjects, and we are of opinion that 

 Dr. Taschenberg has contrived to place them before his 

 readers in a specially clear manner by choosing a few 

 types in each class of the animal kingdom upon which to 

 dilate, leaving the blanks to be filled in by more advanced 

 students than those for whose instruction this elementary 

 treatise is intended. The author goes in this manner 

 through the entire animal kingdom, and so far as we can 

 see he is well posted up in most of the latest discoveries 

 and theories bearing upon his subject ; we miss, however, 

 any allusion to the disputed position of Limttlus, although 

 the metamorphoses of that remarkable animal are not 

 entirely overlooked. A work such as this is naturally to 

 a large extent a compilation, and in all such works the 

 good or bad influence exercised depends upon the acumen 

 of the author in his choice of subjects and authorities. 

 In the present instance our author seems usually to have 

 consulted the best and most modern authorities. The 

 numerous illustrations are mostly very good ; some of 

 them are superlatively so. In these, as in the text, various 

 works have been laid under contribution ; and probably to 

 no work is the author under greater obligation than the 

 text-book on embryology by the lamented F. M. Balfour, 

 but due acknowledgment is always made. 



The concluding chapter is devoted to a sketch of the 

 " evolution of species," in which, in a few pages, the 

 author has contrived to give succinct historical informa- 

 tion, winding up with a definition of " protoplasm,'' in 

 connection with which a German translation from well- 

 known English lines is given, and perhaps the definition 

 was so modelled as to fit the lines. We reproduce them, 

 just to show what latitude may be allowable in transla- 

 tion : — 



" Der grosse Casar tot nnd Lehm geworden 

 Verstopft ein Loch wohl vor deni rauhen N 01 den. 

 O das.-, d e Erde, der die Welt gebebt, 

 Vor Wind und Wetter eine Wand verklebt." 



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 rcqutsts 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 



I am very glad to find from Trof. Asa Gray's la>t communica- 

 tion (Nature, vol. xxviii. p. 78) that the result of our " amicable 

 discussion " has been that of coming to an agreement on all 



