Supplement to '"Nature" April 24, 1902. 



in the present, and yet in some unexplained way " pro- 

 jected efficiency" decides the issue. When we look 

 facts in the face we find that our anti-materialistic 

 philosophy is not saviny us from entering upon the same 

 ruinous course on which the French nation has already 

 proceeded far. Our diminishing birthrate shows that 

 there has already begun among our people that artificial 

 limitation of fertility which must, if it continues, bring 

 national decline with it. 



Wc all wish that these evils should come to an end 

 and that the English-speaking peoples should have a 

 magnificent future before them. Towards this, no doubt, 

 an anti-materialistic philosophy is a help. Materialism 

 is incompatible with real greatness in an individual or a 

 nation. So far we may go with .Mr. Kidd. But we 

 cannot allow that he has found a formula in which all 

 our great problems—the problems of evolution, civilisa- 

 tion, religion — find their solution. The problems remain 

 as they were. F. \\. H. 



GALLS 

 Brilisli Vegetable Galls, an IntrodiictK n to their SiiiJy 

 By E. T. Connold. Pp. .\i-)-3i2, (London: Hutchin- 

 son and Co., 1901.) Price \os. bd. net. 



'T^'HIS beautiful book is a great disappointment. The 

 •*■ title, the nice paper, with its broad margin and 

 excellent print, and, above all, the majority of the one 

 hundred and thirty full-page plates paraded, and by no 

 means unjustly so, on the title-page, all promise so much, 

 and yet — on looking beneath the surface we find no 

 depth. Typical examples of the disappointments in store 

 for the reader are furnished by Plates 14 and 15; it 

 would be difficult to over-praise the beauty of the 

 process-work of the former plate, and yet practically all 

 the information the author gives is confined to a few 

 meagre lines on pp. 58 and 60, chiefly concerned with a 

 note as to where the specimen was found. True, more 

 careful search shows that Plate 47 is concerned with the 

 same subject, and somewhat more scientific hints are 

 appended to this on p. 126 ; but why, in the name of all 

 knowledge, are we not told something of the structure 

 and development of these galls and their contents ': 

 Unless we are mistaken, or misled by synonymy, the 

 very e.xample here referred to is a classical one. Did 

 not Dujardin describe the mite in the hazel-buds in 

 185 1 .' and did not Miss Ormerod and Schlechtendal 

 show that witches' brooms on the alder arise from the 

 irritation set up by similar species? In this connection, 

 also, e.\cellent illustrations of the witches' brooms them- 

 selves are given on Plates 1, 16, 17 and 18, with such 

 irritating gossip as "this \ery interesting tree stands 

 iust within the confines of the Park " — " Park," with a 

 capital P ; 



Now, if we may l^e permitted to direct the attention 

 of the author (who is the honorary general secretary to 

 the Hastings and .St. Leonard's Natural History Society) 

 to the grand opportunity he has missed, pointing out at 

 the same time that scientific experts rarely obtain the 

 chance of putting forth their text illustrated in the superb 

 style of this book, some service may be done in advo- 

 cation of the cause of that most useful branch of biology 

 NO. 1O95, VOL. 65J 



— good descriptive field-work in the domain of the border- 

 land between zoology and botany. 



It is scarcely too much to say of the present book that 

 if the text to these excellent plates had been nothing 

 more than even a fair account of the insect and its gall, 

 such as is given in a handbook like that of Frank, it 

 would have been one of the most worthy and useful 

 Ijooks on the subject— how much more so had the text 

 risen to the level of Adier's admirable study of oak-galls 1 

 If local natural history societies would only resist the 

 temptation to be popular, in the sense which implies being 

 merely attractive to superficial and " smart " people, 

 what an immense amount of valuable work might be 

 done along the lines suggested by the present volume, 

 which, disappointing though it is, is sufficiently good to 

 show that the author must be capable of far better work. 



We sincerely hope that in a second edition the author 

 will give such notes concerning the structure and develop- 

 ment of the galls, the habits of the insects producing 

 them, and their effects on the plants infested by them, as 

 could be obtained from such authors as we have quoted, 

 and from the works of, for instance, Kuster, Molliard and 

 other modern investigators ; such an account, added to 

 the more extensive notes on field-work which Mr. Con- 

 nold could evidently bring together — as may be judged 

 from the present samples— should be worthy of the 

 subject, and would be far more welcome to his fellow- 

 lovers of nature than these pages of desert margin with 

 their oases of meagre information, however excellent the 

 latter may here and there be in itself. We are the more 

 constrained to urge this because we understand that the 

 author contemplates a separate book on oak-galls. If 

 the illustrations are as good as these, and the text far 

 better, we shall anxiously look for that book. 



THE EyOLL'TIUN OF LIFE. 



V Evolution dc la Vie. Par le Ur. Laloy, Sous-Biblio- 

 th(fcaire de la Faculte de Medecine de Bordeaux. 

 Pp. xii -I- 240. (Paris : Libraire C. Reinwald ; 

 Schleicher Freres, 1902.) Price fr. 250. 



THIS volume is the third of a series being issued in 

 France under the designation of the " Petite 

 Encyclopedie du W' Siccle." The object of the work, 

 as set forth in the preface, is the very praiseworthy one 

 of spreading a sound knowledge of the achievements 

 of modern science among the intelligent public in a 

 popular way. As the author points out, the mental 

 equipment of the man of culture of the present time 

 consists of art, literature and belles-lettres. Of modern 

 science he knows nothing and cares to know nothing. 

 Even among scientific workers themselves the extreme 

 specialisation necessitated by original work often pre- 

 vents a general perspective of the whole subject being 

 gained. The trees prevent the individual hewer of wood 

 from seeing the forest as a whole. We have long recog- 

 nised the need for imparting scientific "culture" to the 

 reading and thinking public in this country, and many 

 excellent series of popular works by our foremost men of 

 science might be mentioned. How far the present work 

 is likely to give French readers a sound idea of modern 



