July 13, 1911] 



NATURE 



3*3 



beyond his reach. Rather more or rather less mathe- 

 mathics would probably suit a larger class of students. 

 A second weakness of the book, and one which robs 

 it of some value as a systematic treatise, lies in the 

 somewhat arbitrary way in which certain branches of 

 geophysics have been neglected, while others have 

 been accorded very full treatment. 



In general, however, the ground has been very 

 thoroughly covered. Many valuable references are 

 given throughout, and save for the last few years 

 they seem very fairly complete. In his preface the 

 author refers with regret to several interesting inves- 

 tigations which have appeared too late to be made 

 use of in the text of the book. The reviewer has 

 found few instances of work overlooked. Taking the 

 work of this country alone — work which has in 

 general received a full and generous treatment — the 

 only important omissions that he has noted have been 

 some of the investigations on wave problems of Prof. 

 Lamb and the scientific results of Sir Ernest Shackle- 

 ton's last Antarctic voyage. But all students reading 

 the book must find many references which will be 

 new to them, and the book has been made more ser- 

 viceable by a useful index of authors and subjects. 



Throughout the whole range of subjects considered- 

 and there are included geodesy (practical and 

 theoretical), seismology, isostasy, and the theories of 

 tides, ocean currents, waves, seiches, rivers and 

 glaciers — the treatment is fresh and full. As a type 

 of the questions discussed in a most interesting 

 manner the winding form of a river-bed may be 

 selected for mention, also the problem of glacial 

 epochs and the differing views as to the nature of 

 the earth's interior. The general answer which Dr. 

 Rudzki gives to the solutions so far offered for most 

 of the problems he discusses is "Not proven," and 

 no fault can be found with him for adopting so 

 cautious a position. The book is replete with sug- 

 gestions of unsolved problems, and would supply fruit- 

 ful reading to many a student on the look out for a 

 piece of research off the ordinary lines. 



F. Stratton. 



THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



(1) Anthropogenic oder Entwickelungsgeschichte des 

 Menschen, Keimes- und Stammesgeschichte. By- 

 Prof. E. Haeckel. Sechste Auflage. Erster Teil, 

 Keimesgeschichte des Menschen. Pp. xxviii + 432 + 

 xvi plates. Zweiter Teil, Stammesgeschichte des 

 Menschen. Pp. x+ (433-992) + (xvii-xxx) plates. 

 (Leipzig : W. Engelmann, 1910.) 



(2) Tier Mensch: sein Ursprung und seine Entwick- 

 lung. By Prof. W. Leche. (Nach der zweiten 

 schwedischen Auflage.) Pp. viii + 375. (Jena : 

 Gustav Fischer, 1911.) Price 7.50 marks. 



(0 T)OTH these books are popular treatises dis- 

 J-^ cussing "man's place in nature" (to use the 

 title of their English prototype), his origin, and 

 development. They cover practically the same ground, 

 and both aim at presenting the results of highly tech- 

 nical biological investigations in a form that will be 

 intelligible to the educated layman. Nevertheless 

 NO. 2176, VOL. 87] 



there is a marked contrast between them, one that 

 in a measure reflects the influence of the difference 

 in the attitude of the educated public towards the 

 problems of evolution and the descent of man thirty- 

 seven years ago and now. One of them is a weapon, 

 forged in times of struggle, for the purpose of carrying 

 offensive operations into the camp of those who were 

 using every influence that casuistry and sentimentality 

 could arouse to discredit Darwin and all his works. 

 The other was written in more peaceful circumstances, 

 long after such foolish animosities were buried, as one 

 of the innumerable series of tributes which every 

 country and class united in paying to Darwin's 

 memory, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary 

 of the publication of "The Origin of Species," two 

 years ago. 



This is the sixth edition of Haeckel's famous book. 

 It first saw the light in 1874, in the days when the 

 mere suggestion of the idea of evolution, in reference 

 to man, was still regarded as "insulting" by many 

 people. Its author was the most ardent and com- 

 bative upholder of evolutionary ideas on the Continent, 

 and he made no attempt to soothe the susceptibilities 

 of his readers, preferring rather to set forth unpalat- 

 able views in the frankest and certainly not the least 

 distasteful way. The book was originally flung as a 

 challenge to the opponents of Darwinism, who replied 

 bv describing it as "a fleck of shame on the escutcheon 

 of Germany." 



Since then a vast change has taken place in the 

 attitude of educated men towards the problem of evolu- 

 tion ; but Haeckel has made surprisingly few changes 

 in his book. From time to time, in the various suc- 

 cessive editions, he has added liberally to the supply 

 of illustrations, and tacked on a variety of tit-bits of 

 new information, such as references to Pithecan- 

 thropus, the recent work on " the demonstration of 

 the blood-relationship" of apes and man, and the 

 results of investigations on the fate of the tail in 

 man ; but these are mere scraps of corroborative detail 

 — embellishments to the edifice built in 1874, without 

 altering the plan of the building or enlarging its 

 dimensions. The great modern movements of bio- 

 logical thought in reference to heredity and evolution, 

 and the results of recent morphological research, have 

 made little or no impression upon Haeckel's book; its 

 scope has not been enlarged to include the new learn- 

 ing; in spite of its veneer of modernity it is still a 

 typical product of thirty years ago. But it is a 

 wonderful tribute to its excellence that a book which 

 does not claim to represent the present state of know- 

 ledee should maintain its position in competition with 

 more recent works ; it has, in fact, now attained the 

 venerable rank of a classic. 



The present edition is little more than a reprint of 

 the fifth edition, which has appeared in an English 

 translation. Slight additions have been made to the 

 accounts of Amphioxus and the embryology of the 

 chick, and a few more illustrations have been inserted; 

 but these are mostly taken from old sources. 



The author does not even provide a new preface; 

 but in his introduction to the previous edition (1903) 

 he frankly admitted that the literature relating to the 

 problems discussed in his treatise had become so 



