April 12, 1906] 



NA TURE 



557 



stand the author aright, he believed not merely in a 

 " cosmic plan," not merely in a " will behind pheno- 

 mena," but that " processes are directed by an 

 external power. " 



Prof. Young seems to have taken the evolution 

 theory cum grant, salis; he thought that the origin 

 of variations is left unaccounted for, that natural 

 selection is an over-rated factor, that it is a modal, not 

 a causal principle, "subordinated to something other 

 than itself," that the Lamarckian interpretation can- 

 not be disregarded, and that far too little attention 

 is paid by naturalists to the individuality of the 

 organism itself. But apart from his insistence on 

 the necessity of recognising " the regulating influence 

 of plan of some sort," his book is critical rather than 

 constructive. It is matter for regret that he did not 

 live to work out the positive part of his thesis, that 

 " many facts in various fields of inquiry point to the 

 existence of a plan." 



The value of the book is increased by an able in- 

 troduction by the editor, Mr. William Boyd, who also 

 supplies an admirable synopsis of each chapter. It 

 i-. evident that the essays were not intended by Prof. 

 Young to be given to the public in their present form, 

 for in some parts the argument is neither accurate 

 nor clear. Thus, in regard to Weismann's conception 

 of the germ-plasm, the author wrote : — 



" Romanes makes the difficulty more obvious by 

 showing that Weismann's view requires us to believe 

 that the germ plasm is independent of and unaffected 

 by what happens to the parent. It is impossible, 

 therefore, for acquired characters to exist, far less to 

 be transmitted; for no variation, however favourable, 

 can take place unless it was foreshadowed in the 

 ancestral protoplasm. This protoplasm was the com- 

 ponent of the first simple forms which came into 

 being. It is immortal. On its characters depend 

 those of its most remote descendants. Now on this 

 view these characters must be represented by particles 

 of some sort, certainly of some magnitude. What is 

 tliis but to declare design in its most authoritative 

 form ? " 



Still more perplexing is the comparison of the sea- 

 urchin's pedicellarias with young Crinoids, and the 

 avicularias of Polyzoa with Brachiopods. 



OUK BOOK SHELF. 

 Heat and Steam (Elementary). An Introductory 

 Supplement to a Text-book of Marine Engineer- 

 ing for the Use of Naval Officers, 6-c. By 

 Engineer-Commander Tompkins, R.N. Pp. 54. 

 (Portsmouth : J. Griffin and Co. ; London : Simpkin, 

 Marshall and Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price is. 6d. net. 



The author is instructor in steam and marine engineer- 

 ing at the Royal Naval College-, Greenwich, and has 

 prepared a text-book on marine engineering, primarily 

 for the use of naval officers. This text-book has 

 reached a second edition. In connection with recent 

 changes in the training of cadets and junior naval 

 officers, a new syllabus of instruction in heat and 

 steam has been issued by the Admiralty. As a con- 

 sequence, Commander Tompkins has found it neces- 

 sary to modify certain portions of his text-book, and 

 has done so in the present pamphlet, which he terms 

 an " Introductory Supplement." Young naval officers 



no. 1902, VOL. 72>] 



will be enabled to use this at once, in association 

 with the text-book, and as soon as arrangements can 

 be made the new matter is to be incorporated in the 

 second edition. 



The supplement follows the text-book in clearness 

 and simplicity of treatment, and should be of great 

 value to the classes for whom it has been chiefly 

 prepared. It embraces a brief historical review of 

 the development of steam engines ; an excellent sum- 

 mary of the principles of thermodynamics, written in 

 simple language; and a sketch of the applications of 

 those principles to engine design. The work is well 

 up to date ; it contains explanations of the types of 

 steam turbines introduced by Parsons and De Laval, 

 and of approved types of water-tube boilers. Measure- 

 ment of power, the mechanical equivalent of heat 

 the sources and conservation of energy, and estimates 

 of efficiency are dealt with in a manner that makes 

 the subjects intelligible to readers possessing only 

 moderate mathematical knowledge. Some of the 

 illustrations are based on most recent practice, in- 

 cluding results obtained by the cruiser Amethyst 

 fitted with turbine engines, and the sister ship Topaze 

 fitted with reciprocating engines. Commander 

 Tompkins has taken great pains to meet the require- 

 ments of the readers for whom the work has been 

 primarily undertaken, and he has succeeded. Outside 

 the officers of the Navy, however, there are many 

 persons who may benefit by his work, especially those 

 who desire to understand the principles of the steam 

 engine and whose mathematical knowledge is limited. 



Atlas of Japanese Vegetation. Edited by Dr. M. 



.Miyoshi. Sets i.-iii. ; plates 1-24. (Tokyo : Z. P. 



Maruya and Co., Ltd., 1905.) 

 These are the first three parts of an atlas depicting 

 various types of Japanese vegetation, and containing 

 twenty-four plates, accompanied by an explanatory 

 text in English and in Japanese. The plates are 

 reproductions from photographs, and it is remark- 

 able, considering the skill and cheapness of artistic 

 labour in Japan, to find that the plates of the third 

 part bear the legend "printed in Germain." 



The plates are of varied interest. Those in the 

 first part will prove attractive to owners of gardens 

 in this country. Plate vi. is a view of a garden laid 

 out in Japanese style, and shows a scene entirely 

 different from the so-called Japanese garden which 

 is often seen at great houses in England, and where 

 there is nothing characteristically Japanese in the 

 arrangement of the plants or in the general effect 

 produced by the laying out of the ground. A view 

 of an iris garden is very pretty. Mr. Miyoshi states 

 that the Japanese have evolved nearly 400 varieties 

 of Iris laevigata var. Kaempferi, which show marvel- 

 lous diversity in the size, shape, and colour of the 

 flowers, and even in the character of the leaves. 

 Primus mume, also figured, is a Chinese species, so 

 long cultivated in Japan that it is now generally 

 known as the Japanese plum, and of it there are now 

 more than 300 distinct varieties. 



The second part consists mainly of forest scenes, 

 the most peculiar of which is one of the Japanese 

 beech (Fagus Sieboldi), with a dense undergrowth of 

 Sasa nipponica, a small broad-leaved bamboo. The 

 Japanese larch, the Hondo spruce, and some other 

 trees are also figured. The third part is of great 

 interest, showing pictures of plants in the little-known 

 Loochoo Islands, and of these the most curious is 

 a scene representing Cycas rcvoluta dotted over an 

 extensive landscape. There is also a good picture of 

 the screw-pine, Pandanus odoratissimus. the leaves 

 of which are now being made into hats by the 

 Japanese in Formosa. Areas 1 ink Henry. 



