504 



NA TV RE 



[April 29, 1875 



independent of prior conditions, in which case it is 

 removed from the sphere of law altogether, and becomes 

 miraculous ; or it may mean a distinct tendency to varia- 

 tion inherent in the offspring, and impressed upon it by 

 the parent. In the latter case, however, spontaneity is 

 really hereditary ; and only appears to be spontaneous 

 because it is the disclosure of a previously hidden power. 

 M. Ribot fails, so far as I can find, to discriminate these 

 meanings. He rejects the notion of spontaneity as wholly 

 unscientific, but does not observe that the original life- 

 germ must have contained inexplicable powers enabling 

 it to develop into many forms. The seven hundred or 

 more crystalline forms in which calcite is said to be 

 foimd, must be explained partly by the intimate constitu- 

 tion of a molecule of carbonate of lime, partly by the 

 environment in which it became crystallised. So we must 

 attribute the almost infinitely varied forms of animal life 

 f.irtly to environment, but partly to the inexplicable 

 powers of development impressed upon certain particles 

 of protoplasm. 



M. Ribot's reasoning is of doubtful soundness, again, 

 when he speaks of heredity as the cause of decline in 

 nations, or the cause of the production of new instincts. 

 So far as the child is like its ancestors, there cannot on 

 the average be either progress or decline. If certain indi- 

 viduals have, from unexplained causes, deviated from the 

 previous type, it is impossible that their offspring should 

 resemble completely both the previous and the new type. 

 The contradictory features of different ancestors cannot 

 possibly be made manifest in the same child ; therefore the 

 law of heredity must appear to fail in one way or the other. 

 When a superior race intermarries with an inferior one, 

 and becomes degraded, heredity simply perpetuates the 

 inferior type by what Mr. GnrviXncaWs frepotcticy ; a term, 

 by the bye, which M. Ribot should have adopted. 



It cannot be said that M. Ribot is alone responsible for 

 the want of consistency in his views of heredity. There 

 are still some who believe in spontaneous generation ; 

 there are others who would have us believe that ordinary 

 chemical agencies have developed a lifeless particle of 

 protoplasm into a living particle, which became the germ 

 of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Mr. Darwin, so 

 far as 1 remember, nowhere goes back to such insoluble 

 questions. Sir W. Thomson suggests that the germ 

 came from other parts of space. How far Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer's philosophy affords a real solution of the ques- 

 tion it must probably remain for another generation to 

 decide. All that 1 wish to point ^out is, that so highly 

 intelligent and careful a student of all that has been 

 written on the philosophy of evolution as M. Ribot has 

 certainly failed to acquire clear notions concerning the 

 relations of [heredity, spontaneity, and the influence of 

 environment. 



The most important result of M. Ribot's arguments 

 is perhaps the support which he brings to Mr. Spencer's 

 views of the origin of moral sentiments and rules. The 

 last few chapters in which he treats of the moral con- 

 sequences of heredity are particularly interesting. It 

 becomes evidently impossible to uphold any longer the 

 vie\\s of the older utilitarians, from Locke down to the 

 two Mills and Buckle. As M. Ribot remarks, it is sur- 

 prising to find a writer such as Buckle attributing little 

 importance to psychological heredity. It is impossible 



any longer to look upon the mind and moral nature of 

 the child as a tabtda rasa, which can be marked by edu- 

 cation at our will. If so, Mill's views of the philosophy 

 of morals fall to the ground, and the doctrine of the 

 moral sense in a modified form must be again taken in 

 hand. 



As a general rule, M. Ribot appears to acknowledge 

 with sufficient candour his indebtedness to various au- 

 thors. An exception is to be found in the case of Mr. 

 Galton. It is true that Mr. Gallon is quoted from time 

 to time, but sometimes in a slighting manner ; whereas 

 the extensive obligations under which M. Ribot lies 

 towards Mr. Galton will be apparent to anyone who is 

 acquainted with the work on " Hereditary Genius " of the 

 latter author. W. Stanley Jevons 





OUR BOOK SHELF 



Animal Physiology. By John Cleland, M.D., F.R.S. 



Advanced Science Series. (Wm. Collins, Sons, and 



Co.) 

 Human Physiology being in a great measure based 

 upon investigations conducted on the lower Vertebrata, 

 all works on the subject may, in a certain sense, be consi- 

 dered to be on " animal " physiology. The small treatise 

 before us agrees, as far as the nature of the points treated 

 of, very much with most works of the same size on 

 human physiology. Incidental mention is no doubt made 

 of the most important peculiarities of the nervous, circu- 

 latory, digestive, and other sj'stems in the lower Verte- 

 brata, but these are incomplete, and sometimes inaccu- 

 rate. As an introduction to physiology, Dr. Cleland's 

 work, however, possesses many advantages. It is written 

 for readers previously unacquainted with anatomical de- 

 tails, and this class of students is daily becoming more 

 numerous, although it is generally felt that no consider- 

 able progress can ever be made in the subject except on 

 an anatomical basis. The illustrations are also numerous, 

 whilst many are original and e.xcellent. The manner of 

 expression is particularly simple and clear, all the techni- 

 cal terms employed being carefully explained. In the 

 earlier part of the work, in the chapter on alimentation, 

 there is an argument on which particular stress is laid, 

 which is, that as animals have no power of manufacturing 

 organic matter from the materials found in organic 

 nature, but feed either directly on the vegetable world or 

 on other animals which have fed on vegetables ; and as 

 in plants the power of building organic matter is confined 

 to the green parts, " the statement may therefore be ven- 

 tured on that, so far as observation has yet proceeded, it 

 would appear that the presence of chlorophyll is as neces- 

 sary for the production of organic matter in organisms as 

 the presence of protoplasm is necessary for growth." The 

 full bearing of this fact is, no doubt, not yet fully under- 

 stood. On the whole, we think that the author has fully 

 succeeded in producing a work which, from the grouping 

 of its facts, is decidedly more than a mere collection of 

 details. 



Fifth Aintual Report of the Association for the Itnprove- 

 inetit of Geometrical Teachitig. (January 1875.) 



The Association, it may be remarked, is almost coeval 

 with this journal, for it was in the early numbers of 

 Nature that a correspondence was started on the 

 subject of Geometrical Teaching. This resulted, as our 

 readers are aware, in the formation of the Association. 

 After four years of continuous work, two of which have 

 been devoted to the difficult subject of Proportion (as 

 we learn from the Report), the Syllabus of Plane Geometry 

 is now complete ; and, after a few verbal alterations 



