308 
NATURE 
[JUNE 3, 1915 

immorality; blindness and deafness; consanguin- 
ity; neuroses, etc. This chapter cannot be ab- 
stracted but, in the succeeding chapters, the 
author discusses the Mendelian law and its rela- 
tionship to feeble-mindedness. 
Dr. Goddard appears to be disappointed with 
his conclusion that general intelligence is a unit 
character, although several psychologists (Burt, | 
Hart, Spearman and others) have amply demon- 
strated this truth from other points of view; and 
his figures agree so closely with Mendelian views 
that he feels justified in stating that “normal- 
mindedness is, or at least behaves like, a unit 
character ; dominant and is transmitted in 
accordance with the Mendelian law of inherit- 
ance.” From this it is to be inferred that feeble- 
mindedness obeys the law as a recessive char- 
acter. 
Then comes a chapter on eugenics, in which 
the author states, in opposition to Mott, that 
feeble-mindedness does not tend to run itself out 
of a family, and considers that the stock might be 
improved if something were done on eugenic prin- 
ciples. Colonisation and vasectomy he regards as 
generally impracticable, and is rather inclined to 
some form of control of matings. Most people 
will regard this also as impracticable, at least in 
this country. 
The book contains a mass of information to 
which no reference has been made in this review, 
and we have no hesitation in saying that it should 
be on the shelf of every statesman and asylum 
medical officer in the country. 
is 
There are some curiosities in spelling, such as 
“thot,” ‘“thotless,” “thru,” “thruout,” “altho,” 
and ‘‘tho’’; but the book is good, the illustra- 
tions are good, the index is good, and we com- 
mend the author on an admirable production. 
The volume is well got-up and presents a digni- 
fied appearance, but it possesses the common 
American fault of being rather heavy for its size. 

SYSTEMATIC NATURAL HISTORY. 
(1) Flora of Jamaica, containing Descriptions of 
the Flowering Plants known from the Island. 
By W. Fawcett and Dr. A. B. Rendle. Vol. 
iil. 
Dicotyledons: Families Piperaceae to Con- 
naraceae. Pp. xxiv+280. Plates i-v, text- 
figures 1-113. (London: British Museum 
(Natural History) and Longmans, Green and 
Co:, 9145)) Pnicemncse 
(2) The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon 
and Burma. Mollusca, ii. (T'rochomorphidae to 
Janellidae.) By G. K. Gude. Pp. x1i+ 520, text- 
figures 1-164. (London: Taylor and Francis, 
1914.) Price 20s. 
{3) Catalogue of the Amatidae and Arctiadae | 
NO, 2379, VOL. 95| 

(Nolinae and Lithosianae) in the Collection of 
the British Museum. By Sir G, F. Hampson. 
Pp. xxviii+ 858, text-figures 1-276. (London: 
British Museum (Natural History) and Long- 
mans, Green and Co., 1914.) Price 25s. 
HE verse which Catullus describes the 
three volumes of Chronica written by his 
friend Cornelius Nepos may well be applied to the 
three works above named, “Doctis, Juppiter, et 
laboriosis.” Though by different authors, they 
agree in displaying the unwearied industry with 
which modern naturalists of eminence examine 
and re-examine, compare and classify, name and 
(occasionally) re-name, the objects which Nature, 
their patroness, offers in seemingly endless 
variety. 
(1) The botanical volume is usefully illustrated 
by detailed figures for one species in each genus, 
and provided throughout with helpful keys for the 
discrimination of families, genera, and _ species. 
Here and there economic and other untechnical 
notes are introduced, as in the Annonacezw, on 
what is good to eat or otherwise. A bibliography 
occupying several pages with more than two hun- 
dred entries is some evidence of exhaustive re- 
search, and credit is given to fifty-six collectors 
and contributors of specimens. This interesting 
list covers a period of more than two centuries, 
beginning with H. Barham as earliest and longest 
in the field (1680-1726), and concluding with Mr. 
and Mrs. N. L. Britton (from 1906) and Mr. J. R. 
Bovell (from 1914) down to the present time. As 
might be expected, there are many well-known 
names in the intermediate group; for example, 
Sir Hans Sloane in the seventeenth century, 
Patrick Browne in the eighteenth, Philip Henry 
Gosse in the earlier half of the nineteenth, and in 
the latter half Sir Daniel Morris (1879-1886), and 
William Fawcett (1887-1908), the last-named by 
his former position as director of public gardens 
and plantations in Jamaica being exceptionally 
qualified for the joint-authorship of the present 
flora. Charles Kingsley’s visit to the West Indies 
did not include Jamaica, but his attractive volume 
“At Last” offers an observation that may well 
apply to it. Referring to West Indian weeds, he 
says :— 
in 
“So like home weeds they look: but pick one, 
and you find it unlike anything at home. That one 
happens to be, as you may see by its little green 
mouse-tails, a pepper-weed (Peperomia), first 
cousin to the great black-pepper bush in the 
gardens near by, with the berries of which you 
may burn your mouth gratis. So it is, you would 
find with every weed in the little cleared dell, some 
fifteen feet deep, beyond the gravel. You would 
not—I certainly cannot—guess at the name, 
seldom at the family, of a single plant.” 
