Siippleynent to '' Nat lire" April 24, 1902. 



evolution is very difficult for an English reviewer to 

 judge. The author deals with the subject in a way that 

 has been made familiar by the writings of Haeckel, and 

 we cannot say that he sheds any new light on the various 

 questions or that his treatment is particularly lucid. Here 

 and there Dr. Laloy lets fall a suggestive analogy or 

 makes a remark which shows that on many of the 

 fundamental questions of modern biology his views are 

 at any rate sound. If he admits of being pigeon-holed 

 at all, we should say that as regards the origin of life he 

 is a neo-vitalist. His suggestion that protoplasm may 

 have arisen in the first place by the direct combination of 

 rarbon with water and the subsequent combination of 

 the carbohydrate with nitrogen under the influence of the 

 electric discharge (p. 28) is based upon a statement of 

 Herthelot's — that cellulose and dextrin can " fix " nitrogen 

 under the influence of the silenf electric discharge. This 

 view is not likely to find favour, we imagine, until we 

 have some more substantial basis of fact to support it. 



Concerning the descriptive part of the book, in which 

 the various groups of animals and plants are dealt with 

 from the point of view of evolution in ascending order, 

 there is little to be said. The chief interest for the student 

 of evolution is really concentrated in the seventh chapter, 

 in which the author reveals his position. After putting 

 forward the well-known arguments from rudimentary 

 organs and embryology in favour of some doctrine of 

 evolution being necessary. Dr. Laloy proceeds to con- 

 sider the factors of evolution. He considers " la lutte 

 pour la vie et la selection " of Darwin to be inadequate 

 and he accordingly assigns to natural selection a quite 

 subordinate part in the formation of species. It is diffi- 

 cult, however, to find out precisely what is, according to 

 the author, the prime factor of species formation. So 

 far as can be gathered from the text, he appears to 

 favour a kind of sudden and spontaneous variation of all 

 the individuals simultaneously in the direction required to 

 adapt them to new conditions (p. 104). He relies for 

 this remarkable factor upon the experiments of Bonnier 

 and the observations of De Vries, and he adds : — 



" Ce serait selon moi cette variation brusque et totale, 

 cet etat de mutation, comme s'exprime De Wies, qui 

 serait la veritable cause de la formation des espcces. La 

 lutte pour la vie et la selection ne seraient plus c|ue des 

 facteurs secondaires, qui n'entrent en jeu que pour fixer 

 et rendre stables Ics variations acquises en bloc et sur- 

 tout, pour supprimer les differenciations facheuses. Ellc^ 

 maintiennent les especes dans leur caract^re normal, 

 niais ne sauraient en former de nouvelles. Ainsi, comme 

 cause principale de revolution, nous retrouvons encore 

 cette finalite du protoplasma qui lui permet de s'accom 

 moder aux circonstances les plus divcrses." 



This is the key to the author's position as an evolu- 

 tionist. It is not likely that many adherents to these 

 views will be found in this country. Pure Lamarckism 

 however inadequate we may regard it — seems, on the 

 whole, to have something more tangible about it than the 

 variation " brusque et totale" of all the individuals of a 

 species in order to meet any emergency in the conditions 

 of life. It is remarkable that a countryman of Lamarck's 

 should go out of his way in order to introduce a factor 

 which receives such very slender support from the 

 observed facts of nature. R- i\L 



NO. 1695, VOL. 65] 



OUTLINES OF PHYSIOLOGY. 

 A Primer of Physiology. By Alec Hill, author of " An 

 Introduction to Science," &c. Pp. x + 105. (London : 

 J. M. Dent and Co.) 



IN this tiny primer of roj pages the author attempts 

 to give a general sketch of the subject of physiology, 

 treating especially of those parts which may be sup- 

 posed to be of most interest to a reader who is not con- 

 templating the profession of medicine, and has not the 

 appliances of a laboratory at his command. 

 As the author truly remarks in his preface ; — 



''The subject is so vast that a series of primers would 

 be needed to approach its several departments through 

 the elements of physics, chemistry, anatomy, and the 

 other sciences upon which they are based."' 



Mr. Hill does not state whether these needed primers 

 are subsequently to appear from his pen, but should they 

 do so there is little doubt that they will prove quite as 

 interesting to the student of physiology as the one now 

 under consideration. 



Although the space at his disposal is so exceedingly 

 limited, yet the author finds room to dip occasionally 

 into the realms of medicine. Here is an example ot 

 such an application taken from p. 14 : — 



"The expression to ' purify the blood ' is a vestige of 

 a long-abandoned theory of medicine. In the sense in 

 which it is used, to imply that carbuncles, boils and 

 pimples are due to 'bad blood,' it is absurd and mis- 

 leading. It is none the less true, however, that health, 

 as shown by muscular vigour and perfect freedom from 

 neck-ache, pains in the limbs, and other ' gouty' symptoms 

 depends upon the blood being fully charged with oxygen, 

 and sufficiently free from nitrogenous waste products to 

 keep the juices of the body in a pure state." 



Then in a few cogent words the author deals with the 

 rationale of massage, the eff'ect of hot baths, and the 

 therapy of diuretics such as "sweet spirits of nitre'' or 

 "salts of various kinds"; and all this is done in one 

 short half page. 



Terseness is naturally the characteristic of this little 

 primer throughout, but we scarcely agree with the 

 tacitly assumed idea of the author that by the judicious 

 use of leaded type the necessity for wasting precious 

 space in giving definitions can be avoided. For example, 

 the hitherto uninstructed person in physiological matters 

 will scarcely understand at a first glance what is meant 

 by lymph, epithelium and protoplasm, unless some 

 explanation, other than that mentioned above, be given 

 him. 



The book opens with a four-page account of the struc- 

 ture, given necessarily in hasty outline, of the mammalian 

 body ; there follow eight or nine pages on minute 

 anatomy, in which half a page is found for a description 

 of "caryokinesis,'' and then, in less than forty pages, the 

 blood and vascular system, the neuro-muscular system, 

 digestion, absorption, dietetics and respiration are rapidly 

 reviewed. Rather more than half the space is thus left 

 over for the central nervous system and special senses, 

 and here in his own special domain the author is pecu- 

 liarly at home, and his imageries and analogies are at 



