May 26, 1870] 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
The Bottom of the Sea. By L. Sonrel. Translated and 
Edited by Elihu Rich. Pp. 402, 67 Illustrations. (Lon- 
don: S. Low, Son and Co. 1870.) 
WE cannot do better than quote part of the translator's 
preface, wherein he states that the book “bears the same 
relation to the strictly scientific treatment of the subject 
as a popular lecture on art to instruction in the studio; a 
ramble through a museum to a lecture on science ; or a 
short pleasure-sail on the coast, with here and there an 
opening glimpse of the scenery,’ &c. M. Sonrel devotes 
the first portion of his book to submarine orography, 
with full explanations of deep-sea soundings, configuration 
of sea-bottom, submarine scenery, the various charts of 
the sea-bottom, and the like. The phenomenon of phos- 
phorescence is explained ; and the colour and temperature 
of the ocean are also dwelt on ; next comes submarine life, 
with a long description of wonderful sponges, polypi, 
and corals. He relates, also, many legends with regard 
to marine monsters. Then we have man, and his work at 
the bottom of the sea, divers, diving apparatus, raising of 
ships, construction of bridges, submersion of towns, sub- 
marine volcanoes—all are graphically described. The 
last part is devoted to the action of rivers and currents on 
the sea-bottom, the dunes of Gascony, and villages buried 
beneath them. M. Sonrel lastly illustrates the insignifi- 
cance of man compared with the ocean, by telegraphic 
cables, with an engraving of a fossilised cable. The fol- 
lowing passage ends this interesting volume :—“ If the in- 
telligence of man has placed him at the head of the crea- 
tion, the feeble influence that he can exercise over Nature 
ought to humble his pride. All that he can accomplish by 
physical labour is almost imperceptible by the side of the 
work effected by the microscopic infusoria; man, the 
giant, is dwarfed in results by the almost invisible atom !” 
This book is well illustrated throughout, and is admirably 
adapted to those who require light scientific reading. 
Lehrbuch der Chemie fiir Land und Forstwirthe. Von 
S. J. Moser. Large 8vo., pp. x. and 355. (Vienna: 
Braumiiller, 1870.) 
IN this work, which was written for agricultural 
students, Dr. Méser has made it his aim to supplement the 
educational deficiencies under which his German pupils 
labour ; and as the time which they can devote to purely 
chemical study is (he informs us) unduly limited, he 
brings into prominence in this manual only the more 
general and important facts, while the minor details, 
which are described in a smaller type, are kept somewhat 
in the background. The inorganic part is comprised in 
183 pages, inclusive of an appendix, in which we are 
pleased to notice special sections devoted to the formation 
of saltpetre and the soil. The organic part contains 202 
pages, and is consequently cut very short; but certain 
parts of it and its appendix are occupied very fully with 
physiological chemistry, and seem to have been ably 
executed,—perhaps more cov amore than the rest of the 
Lehrbuch. Dr. Moser offers an apology for adopting 
the old notation ; but we think his views on this subject 
are likely to alter with a new edition. 
La Chambre Noire et le Microscope : Photomicrographie 
pratique, ParJules Girard. (Paris: F.Savy. London: 
Williams and Norgate.) 
THIS little volume contains a useful description of the 
apparatus required for photographic representation of 
microscopic objects, and a detailed account of the various 
operations involved in this art. It also {describes the 
application of photomicrographic plates for lectures and 
educational purposes, by means of the oxyhydrogen light 
and the lantern. The book is illustrated with several 
well-executed woodcuts. A translation of it would be 
very useful to those engaged in this kind of work. 
NATURE 
65 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
( The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his Correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. | 
Oysters of the Chalk, and the Theory of Development 
THE interesting notice, in your last number, of M. Coquand’s 
“‘Oysters of the Chalk,” draws inferences unfavourable to the 
Theory of Development or Evolution which scarcely seem 
warranted by the facts. It need not be “difficult to imagine the 
creature as existing under such conditions, that one species, while 
engaged in ‘the struggle for existence,’ should starve out and 
extinguish another;” for however widely we may find a fossil 
species dispersed, it is not probable that it occupied the whole of 
its territory at one and the same time, and in the limited area 
occupied immediately before its extinction, new varieties may 
have prevailed over and displaced the old by some slightly 
superior adaptation to the food-supply of the region. The ex- 
tinction of any particular species may insome instances have been 
due to the extinction, or loss by other means, of its own appro- 
priate food. Again, it is not necessary to suppose that the hinge, 
or the internal or external structure of the shell of an oyster, 
has been altered by what may be called the direct action of 
“‘Natural Selection,” since by the well-established principle of 
“‘correlation” the variation in one part of an organism is nearly 
or quite certain to produce variations in other parts. ‘‘If any 
such change did occur,” it is argued, “it must have been cv 
saltum, since with these mollusks, numerous as they are, there 
are no forms that can fairly be recognised as transitional.” But 
this appeal to the evidence of facts is somewhat premature. The 
immense difference pointed out between the geological records of 
England and France in regard to these very oysters of the chalk, 
leaves it perfectly open for us to suppose that even the compara- 
tively full French record is itself exceedingly imperfect, and that 
the transitional forms have either not been preserved, or remain 
yet to be discovered. Mr. Darwin gives reasons for believing 
that when variation once begins it continues with some vigour ; 
hence, between two settled widespread species connected gene- 
alogically together we might expect a large number of transitional 
varieties, each represented by only a few individuals, so that the 
whole number of these transitional forms might well be lost to 
the geological record. 
Finally, the objection from the scarcity of oysters at the pre- 
sent day, compared with the great abundance of species in the 
past, does not really touch the theory of development, which is 
concerned to explain how species come into existence, not how 
they go out of it. That varieties, species, genera, have been 
superseded or extinguished, within longer or shorter periods, is 
a fact admitted on all hands. The general principle of natural 
selection will account for this in the rough, maintaining as it 
does, that fresh varieties, species, and genera better adapted 
to the surrounding circumstances have arisen, and by their 
superior adaptation, unavoidably ousted the older forms. Digging 
down into the records of history we find a time when the 
Romans were supreme in the civilised world ; no two consecu- 
tive years of the interval present any remarkable divergence of 
the prevailing conditions, yet now we may say of that Roman 
supremacy in the civilised world, that, ‘‘ like the Mastodon, it 
is athing of the past.” May it not be that both in races of men 
and every other race of creatures, there is a certain store of 
vitality and vigour, capable of very extensive and long- 
continued development, but capable also of exhaustion ? 
Torquay, May 14 TuHoMAS R. R. STEBBING 
Euclid as a Text-book 
THERE are many engaged in the work of education in this 
country, besides those who have come prominently forward in 
the matter, who feel strongly that Geometry as now taught falls 
far short of being that powerful means of education in the highest 
sense which it might easily be made. They find themselves, in 
the majority of cases, compelled to use in their classes a text- 
book which should long ago have become obsolete. 
We have lately had instances in abundance of the power of 
combined action. If the leaders of the agitation for the reform 
of our geometrical teaching would organise an Anti-Euclid Asso- 
ciation, I feel sure they would meet with considerable and daily- 
increasing supvort. 
We of the rank and file do not feel strong enough to act alone, 
