Dec. 17, 1885] 



NA TURE 



149 



iibergegangen ware. Da Sie sicherlich eine grosse Rolle 

 in der Wissenschaft spielen werden, so erlauben Sie mir, 

 als alterem Mann, Sie ernstlich zu bitten, uber das 

 nachzudenken, was ich zu sagen gewagt habe. Ich weiss, 

 dass es leicht ist zu predigen und scheue mich nicht, zu 

 sagen, dass, wenn ich das Vermogen besiisse, mit 

 treffender Scharfe zu schreiben, ich meinen Triumph 

 darin setzen wiirde, den armen Teufeln das Innere nach 

 aussen zu kehren und ihre ganze Albernheit blosszustellen. 

 Nichtsdestowenigerbin ich iiberzeugt, dass dies Vermogen 

 nicht gut thut, sondern einzig Schmerz verursacht. Ich 

 mochte hinzufiigen, dass es mir, da wir taglich Manner 

 von denselben Voraussetzungen zu entgegengesetzten 

 Schliissen komnien sehen, als eine zweifelhafte Vorsicht 

 erscheint, zu positiv liber irgend einen komplizierten 

 Gegenstand zu sprechen, wie sehr sich auch ein Mensch 

 von der Wahrheit seiner eigenen Scliiusse uberzeugt 

 fiihlen mag. Und nun, konnen Sie mir meine Freimtitigkeit 

 vergeben ? Obgleich wir einander nur ein einziges mal 

 begegnet sind, schreibe ich Ihnen, wie einem alten 

 Freunde, denn das sind meine Empfindungen Ihnen 

 gegeniiber." 



The chief vahie of the German biography consists in 

 its setting forth the early recognition, the rapid spread, 

 and the present acceptance of Darwinism in Germany. 

 Dr. Kraus has always an easy case where he is display- 

 ing the old truth about a prophet among his own kindred. 

 It was not until after v/e had well stoned our prophet that 

 the nation began to recognise the reality of his mission ; 

 and, as Dr. Kraus remarks, it was not until after we had 

 lost him that England was awakened to the true magni- 

 tude of her greatest son. So it was that, Samson-like, 

 he slaughtered his enemies even in his death, and this on 

 a scale which would have astonished no one more than 

 himself, could he have lived to see it. 



Dr. Kraus's narrative everywhere glows with an enthu- 

 siastic admiration of Mr. Darwin's character, and on this 

 account he deems no trait of thought, expression, or even 

 of movement, too trivial for the purpose of rendering a 

 mind's-eye portrait to his reader. On the whole, this 

 word-painting is accurate, and the workmanship in good 

 taste. As he himself remarks, however, exception may 

 perhaps be taken in the latter respect to his having 

 entered upon the religious opinions of the naturalist. 

 But as he has only collected material upon this subject 

 which had already been published, and as he re-publishes 

 this material in an excellent spirit of toleration towards 

 all varieties of religious belief, we do not ourselves think 

 that he can be justly said to have overstepped the limits 

 of good feeling. 



From this brief notice it may be gathered that Dr. 

 Kraus's book is both a thorough and an interesting piece 

 of biographical work ; and we must not forget to add 

 that its interest is enhanced by two portraits of Darwin 

 (one, the last that was taken, and the other a likeness of 

 him as a young man), a picture of his house in Kent, and 

 a facsimile of one of his letters. 



George J. Romanes 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



British Zoophytes ; an Introduction to the Hydroida, 

 Actinozoa, and Polyzoa found in Great Britain, Ire- 

 land, and the Channel Islands. By A. S. Pennington, 

 F.L.S. (London : L. Reeve and Co., 1885.) 

 The object of this book is to furnish a handy, and at the 

 same time reliable, manual of British zoophytes, using 



this term in somewhat the same sense as Dr. Lands- 

 borough did ; and the author aims at making it do for the 

 present generation of students what the reverend doctor's 

 " Popular History of British Zoophytes" did for those of 

 a former one. 



In so far as the object of the author has been to furnish 

 a catalogue of the Polyzoa and most of the Ccelenterata 

 of the British Isles, this has been fairly fulfilled, and, as 

 far as we have been able to judge, the catalogue is in 

 most instances a reliable one ; but the student will not 

 find it a ready help to the determination of the species ; 

 for though in most cases the diagnoses of the genera are 

 given, yet it is but rarely that there is enough of a hint 

 given as to the specific characteristics of a form to enable 

 its name to be even guessed at ; so that the working bio- 

 logist interested in naming the species he collects must 

 still have by him the works of Gosse, Hincks, and Busk. 

 The usefulness of this volume would undoubtedly have 

 been vastly increased if the labour had been gone through 

 of giving analytical tables of both the genera and species, 

 and it seems to us very undesirable that new species 

 should be introduced into a work like this without de- 

 tailed diagnosis. The size of the volume need not have 

 been greatly increased if a uniform diagnosis of the 

 species had been attempted, for then no doubt would 

 have been curtailed the quotations, often of no scientific 

 value, from the writings of Dalyell and others. 



We have also to regret that the list of the habitats seems 

 to us not to liave been judiciously selected. Thus, in the 

 case of some of the rarer forms, it is not unusual to find 

 the exact English localities given, but these followed by 

 such indefinite indications as " Irish " or " Scotch " 

 coasts. 



In the introductory chapter we find a somewhat am- 

 bitious attempt to write the history of the progress made 

 from 1599 to the present time in our knowledge of "zoo- 

 phytes." We have no wish to be critical on the facts 

 mentioned, but to find the writings of Trembley, Peyson- 

 nel, Reaumur, Ellis, and Fabricius quoted, and the name 

 of Esper, emphatically the eighteenth-century authority 

 on this "group," not even alluded to, strikes us as 

 curious. 



As long as the author had the writings of Hincks, Busk, 

 or Gosse to depend on, there he has been at his ease ; 

 but in the few cases where he has had to go unaided, as 

 among the Alcyonaria, it is evident that he would have 

 been the better for sotne help. In such instances, as 

 indeed all through his work, he would have found more 

 assistance from " Carus Prodomus Fauna; Mediterraneje " 

 than from isolated papers in our scientific journals. 



The bibliography in Appendix A is quite unworthy of 

 the name. From it alone no student would, without 

 assistance, find out even what the authors wrote about. 

 Fancy bibliographical re.'"erences in these modern days, 

 and in a work written for the present generation, of this 

 style : — 



1742. Rdaumur, " Histoire des Insectes." 



1821. Deslongchamps, "Encyclopedic Me'thodique." 



1838. Milne-Edwards, " Recherches sur les Polyps." 



1864. Rev. A. M. Norman, " Contributions to 'Ann. of 

 Nat. Hist.,'"&c. 



1884. Andrds, " Die Actinien." 



In Appendix B — the glossary — many words are given 

 without any explanation of their meaning ; thus, while 

 we learn that aperture is " an opening or orifice," and 

 that orifice is an " opening," that ape.r is " the top of 

 anything," &:c., we have such words as the following left 

 unexplained : avicularia, bathymetrical, calyx, epistome, 

 funiculus, and so on. 



It is just on such matters as we criticise that we have 

 a right to expect in a compilation that care should be 

 taken. The general usefulness of such a volume depends 

 on the way in which each detail is worked out. Motives 

 that the reader of the preface will understand make us 



