55^ 



NA TURE 



\_Fcb. 19, i ! 



in the face. Similarly, the average politician and the ordi- 

 nary elector, having but little knowledge of philosophical 

 experiments, or faith in them, will probably not believe in 

 their great practical value until national distress and 

 panic legislation ensue. The love of money also, and 

 the desire of acquiring it quickly without commensurate 

 sacrifice, fostered by our having so easily obtained it by 

 means of our coal and science, is so strong in this nation, 

 that probably nothing but the actual loss of wealth in the 

 form of diminished value of properties, will induce 

 capitalists and land-owners to perceive and examine the 

 scientific basis of their incomes. When, however, the 

 stern reality of gradually increasing scarcity of coal, and 

 consequent inability to pay for our great supplies of 

 foreign food by means of that coal, and of articles pro- 

 duced by its aid, comes upon us, perhaps the statesmen 

 and wealthy classes of this country will see the indis- 

 pensable necessity of new scientific knowledge, and be 

 more ready to promote experimental research, with a 

 conviction that its practical results are vast, though not 

 always direct or immediate. G. Gore 



MAMMALIAN DESCENT 

 On Mammalian Descent; the Hunterian Lectures for 



1884. By W. Kitchen Parker, F.R.S. (London: 

 Griffin and Co., 18S5.) 



AS far as we are aware, no attempt has hitherto been 

 made to popularise in any detail the science of 

 comparative embryology. It is therefore indicative of 

 the characteristic originality of Prof. Parker that, on de- 

 livering a course of Hunterian lectures upon the embry- 

 ology of the Mammalia, he should have aimed at charm- 

 ing a popular audience as well as at instructing a scientific 

 one. We confess that upon reading the first paragraphs 

 of his preface, in which he states his intention of handling 

 his subject in a popular way, we felt apprehensive that, 

 like sundry other lecturers with a similar aim and with 

 subjects better suited to the killing of two birds with one 

 stone, he was preparing for himself the misfortune of miss- 

 ing both his marks. But we had not got far into the first 

 lecture without finding that our lecturer very well knew 

 what he was about : he is provided with a double-shotted 

 weapon of the most modern construction, and takes a 

 genuine glee in knocking over some antediluvian tooth- 

 bearing bird on the one side, and the sentimental scruples 

 of a nineteenth-century audience upon the other. And 

 this is done with so much of the vigour of enthusiastic 

 science, as well as the genuine feeling of what we may 

 term unspoiled poetry, that we feel our thanks are due to 

 Miss Arabella Buckley who, it seems, first persuaded 

 Prof. Parker to adopt this delightful method of writing. 

 Moreover, it is obviously to him a natural method. We can 

 everywhere see that he is now writing in the lines of his 

 habitual thinking. The smallest details of his science 

 catch a living glow from the ardour of his imagination, 

 and as this imagination is everywhere charged with bibli- 

 cal thoughts and biblical metaphors, we are led by the 

 force of example to compare it to some quickening spirit 

 which makes all the dry bones of the skulls and skeletons 

 stand up around him as an exceeding great army. Well 

 it is for the cause of evolution that in Prof. Parker it has 

 not only so indefatigable a worker, but likewise so ele- 



vated a preacher ; and being thus as strong a champion 

 on the side of sentiment as he is on that of science, we 

 have only to congratulate him upon the wisdom of adopt- 

 ing Miss Buckley's advice, and appearing in the lists 

 armed with the weapons of feeling as effectually as with 

 those of fact. 



The course consists of nine lectures, and there are, 

 besides, extensive addenda. In the 229 pages to which the 

 book runs, we have presented an excellent epitome of 

 the author's work on the embryology of the Mammalia. 

 The perusal of this epitome cannot fail to strike us anew 

 with admiration at the prodigious amount of his labours, 

 and the great results which they have accomplished. 

 When future generations come to survey the work done 

 by the contemporaries of Charles Darwin in establishing 

 the doctrine of evolution, and in beginning the great task 

 of tracing out the main lines of descent in the animal 

 kingdom, the name of Parker will stand out as one of 

 the most conspicuousjjf the landmarks. 



Two or three quotations from the present volume will 

 serve to convey a general idea of the style, upon which we 

 have laid so much stress. Speaking of a remarkable 

 proboscidian Insectivore, about the size of a rat (Rkpicko- 

 cyon cernei), a ripe embryo of which he has obtained from 

 near Zanzibar, the lecturer says : — 



" I have, at present, merely worked out the skull of this 

 valued specimen, but it has rewarded and delighted me 

 more than any kind I have received for a long time past. 

 If nature had titurated together the germs of four or five 

 types of mammals, and had then made this mixture grow, 

 she could scarcely have developed a more curious and 

 composite creature than this long-nosed Insectivore. 

 When Prof. Huxley propounded his oft-quoted theory 

 of the evolution of the Mammalia, he might have known 

 the structure and development of this type by inward 

 sight. Nothing of the kind, however, is ever revealed to 

 biologists in this manner, we only get our facts by open- 

 ing out the fine folds of organic forms with needle and 

 scissors ; we do unroll a good number of the small 

 scrolls, but it is painful and patient work. I am satisfied 

 that no searcher after the evidences of evolution ever saw 

 anything more instructive than what I have found in this 

 small beast. I will make a catalogue of its characters. . . . 

 Thus this greatly specialised kind of Insectivore, whilst re- 

 taining the most marked characteristics of the Metatherian 

 skull, takes on two characters, one of which, had it become 

 dominant, would have landed it amongst the Proboscidea, 

 or elephants, whilst the other would have made it a Carni- 

 vore. It attempted too much at once, and thus, like a man 

 in doubt, it made but little progress ; moreover, in this 

 developmental shilly-shallying, it failed to drop the Mar- 

 supial, to take on the new Eutherian, nature, and was 

 thus in danger of going out of being with many of the 

 members of that much-extinguished type. Other types, 

 not thus confused in their ambition, worked out the old 

 strain of Metatherian degradation, and, taking to one 

 definite line of ascent, put on new specialisations in 

 harmony with their surroundings, and to this day their 

 descendants are the rulers of the forest and the field." 



Again : — 



" Supposing the theory of the slow secular transforma- 

 tion of the old general types into new special types to be 

 true, then the existing mole, in its perfection of adaptive 

 structure, has been as long in coming to its present per- 

 fection as the larger and nobler prone or erect types that 

 trample the earth over its head. In its own line, doing 

 its own dark work, it is as complete a creature as the 

 clear-eyed, super-terrestrial types ; as a mole, it is con- 



