JUNE 5, 1902] 
NATURE 
m3 
find its brightest motive and its permanency in an ethic 
based on sympathy.” 
Sympathy may explain the altruistic aspect of morality ; 
but I fail tosee how it accounts for the “renunciation” 
of the lower impulses which is characteristic of the 
highest ethical development. And how for practical 
purposes is “sympathy” to be infused? My experience 
of human nature inclines me to think that it requires a 
more powerful appeal to the-imagination than is afforded 
by a mere academic counsel of perfection of this sort. 
As I am writing these lines my eye falls on a speech in 
the daily paper by Viscount Goschen. I quote the 
following :— : 
““As a layman he wished, on behalf of the laymen, to 
express their admiration of the work which was being 
carried on, and which the clergy were doing in the East- 
end of London. Thirty years ago, when he was at the 
Poor Law Board, he made a special study of the statis- 
tics of poverty, ignorance and crime at the East-end, and 
he learned that the miserable breakages of civilisation 
resorted in their deepest despair to Bethnal Green, and 
hid themselves there amongst the very poor.” 
If we dispense with the clergy, have we at present 
any effective agency for dealing with this sort of problem ? 
I see none, and I am firmly persuaded that no abstract 
principles would have prevented Huxley substantially 
agreeing with Lord Goschen. 
Mr. Clodd frames a severe indictment against the 
theology of the last century. It did not lift its voice 
against the excessive use of capital punishment. I con- 
fess I do not see where theology comes in; it is a ques- 
tion of purely civil policy. Sentimentalism apart, the free 
use of hanging Is scientifically arguable. Huxley thought 
that for “ moral cripples and idiots . . . there is nothing but 
shutting up and extirpation” (“‘ Life,” ii. 306). Mr. Clodd 
complains that theology ‘‘ still wages bitter war to enforce 
the teaching of her discredited dogmas ; and, to her even 
greater shame, fans and fosters the spirit of militarism.” 
This would be all very well in a secularist pamphlet, but 
I fail to see its place in a life of Huxley, even if I thought 
it just. Huxley’s views about the Afghans (“ Life,” i. 
489) show that, right or wrong, he was not wanting in 
the virile instinct of the normal Englishman. 
From my point of view, which is that of a thorough- 
going evolutionist, I hold it unscientific to array one 
plane of theology against another which demands a 
higher ethical standard in practice. It would be as 
reasonable to complain that AmfAioxus was unable to 
take advantage of a Board School education. If we 
agree with Huxley that theology is “a natural product 
of the operations of the human mind” (“ Essays,” iv. 
288), Mr. Clodd is simply pointing his sword to his own 
breast. 
Huxley was so transparently honest that no prejudice 
would blind his eyes to the merit of any agency that 
made for good, however sceptical he might be as to the 
basis on which it rested. Orthodoxy could not desire a 
more touching appreciation than his of “the bright side 
of Christianity” (‘‘Essays,” v. 254). He had even a 
good word to say of Roman Catholicism in the past 
(“ Life,” i. 346). He was deeply impressed with the life of 
Catherine of Siena. Whatever may have been his own 
intellectual convictions, life still remained to him “a 
NO. 1701, VOL. 66] 
hopeless riddle” (“ Life,” ii. 134). That is the utmost 
positive outcome I can derive from his ethical teaching, 
and I do not see that Mr. Clodd carries us farther. 
W. T. THISELTON-DYER. 
A MONOGRAPH OF MOSQUITOES. 
A Monograph of the Culicidae of the World. By F. W. 
Theobald, M.A., F.E.S. 3 vols. Pp. xxvi+815; 42 
plates. (London: Trustees of the British Museum.) 
Price 32. 35. 
HIS work has been undertaken chiefly with the 
object of enabling “medical men engaged in 
tracing the connection between mosquitoes and human 
disease to identify and speak with precision of the 
species implicated.” A considerable knowledge of the 
principles of entomology has now become a necessity 
in such investigations, and the present work forms 
an excellent guide and help in the processes of identi- 
fication. 
The work in three volumes, of which the last consists 
entirely of coloured plates, has an introduction contain- 
ing notes on the mounting of mosquitoes, in which the 
author strongly urges the necessity of preserving speci- 
mens in 40 per cent. spirit for purposes of more complete 
identification. The first portion of the work is devoted 
to a short account of the external structure of the adult, 
pupal and larval conditions of the insects and of the 
bionomics of the different stages, and ends with a 
synoptic table of subfamilies and genera of the family of 
Culicidz and a list of species of Culicida, and a further 
list arranged according to the countries in which the 
species occur. 
The rest of the work deals with detailed descriptions 
of the members of the different genera. It is lavishly 
illustrated by many figures throughout the text, which 
serve to lighten very considerably the difficult task of 
identification. The coloured plates forming the third 
volume have been exceedingly well prepared, and their 
execution must have absorbed much time and labour. 
It is, however, much to be regretted that many of the 
drawings, in fact almost all those of insects collected in 
tropical countries, have been made from preserved 
specimens, and consequently do not reproduce at all 
exactly the colours of the insects in nature. It is well 
known how quickly their delicate colours fade after 
death and under the influence of the usually employed 
preservatives, so much so, indeed, that to investigators 
who are very familiar with the insects in their tropical 
surroundings the coloured representations in this work 
appear very untrue. 
Without in any way wishing to detract from the great 
value of the portion of the book which details the specific 
characteristics of the numerous species described, it is to 
be regretted that the earlier portion, dealing chiefly with the 
bionomics of the Culicidz, and for which the author has 
been largely dependent for his information on the 
authority of others who have studied the insects in the 
tropics, should occupy such a prominent position. In 
the short description of the parts of the proboscis of the 
mosquito, the author has shown himself unfamiliar with 
the minuter details of its structure. He advises the 
