424 



NA TURE 



[February io, 1910 



one but what I have spent some months in his corn- 

 pan v. And then (alas! that it had not been sooner) 

 I undertook to photograph him." 



The book commences with an account of the early 

 history of the species, as given by Lewis and Clark 

 and subsequent writers; and the author discusses 

 whether the animal ought to be called the grisly 

 (meaning fierce) or grizzly (grey) bear. He decides in 

 favour of the latter, although admitting that Lewis 

 and Clark used grisly (perhaps in the sense of grey), 

 and that Ord gave the name horribilis as the Latin 

 equivalent of grisly in its proper sense. In our own 

 opinion this usage ought to be followed. 



To follow the author through his bear-hunting and 

 "bear-snapping" experiences is, in our limited space, 

 impossible, and we must be content in directing atten- 

 tion to the beauty and interest of his photographs of 

 grizzlies in their native wilds. Very interesting, too, 

 are his pictures of the slots of the grizzly and the 

 black bear, showing how widely they differ from one 

 another. The front claws of a grizzly are generally 

 described as being whitish and nearly straight; but 

 the author shows that the latter definition is incorrect, 

 and that they are better described as narrower and 

 less sharply curved than those of other bears. 



The book is teeming with interest, and may be 

 cordially recommended to naturalists and sportsmen 

 as a trustworthy account of a disappearing species. 



(2) Commendation of a like nature can, we regret 

 to say, scarcely be accorded to the second of the two 

 works forming the subject of this notice. Mr. Percival 

 Westell is a voluminous writer on the fauna of Britain 

 and various groups of invertebrates, but has hitherto, 

 we believe, not tried his hand on mammals as a whole. 

 In the present volume he has attempted to give an 

 account of a selection of the more interesting types of 

 the class, especially those represented in the London 

 Zoological Gardens, arranged according to the nature 

 of their environment, and illustrated with a number of 

 photographs and coloured plates. The photographs 

 are for the most part w-orthy of all praise, while the 

 execution of the coloured plates is also good, although 

 it is a pity that in some instances — notably the one 

 of the w-apiti — the artist was furnished with such poor 

 models. 



The volume is confessedly a compilation, largely 

 made up of extracts from the writings of Mr. Soxus 

 and two well-known works on natural history — one, 

 by the way, somewhat out of date. When he con- 

 fines himself to direct extracts from these Mr. 

 Westell does not wander far from the right path, 

 but when he draws material from his own mind 

 the result is disastrous. We are calmly told, for 

 instance, on p. 245, that, in consequence of the 

 domestication of the species, there are probably 

 no wild yak in Tibet ; while from the text and 

 figure on pp. 245 and 246 the author would ap- 

 pear to be labouring under the impression that the 

 cows are hornless. On p. 139 we are informed that 

 it is the brindled, instead of the white-tailed, gnu 

 that is verging on extinction; while from the state- 

 ment on p. 314 it would appear that the author is 

 quite unaware of the existence of the white rhino- 

 ceros in Lado and the Bahr-el-Ghazal, where it is not 

 NO. 2102, VOL. 82] 



in the least danger of extermination. Striped e'ands' 

 (p. 174) are said to occur in northern Africa, where 

 there are no elands at all; Grevy's zebra (p. 114) is 

 stated to have been discovered by Grant and Speke ; 

 and the roebuck is affirmed to be a near ally of the 

 muntjac (p. 113). As instances of carelessness we may 

 mention (p. 267) Kabern for Kaberu, and (p. 220) arin 

 for ami. To quote Mr. IngersoU (p. 242") as the 

 authority for the absence of deer from Ethiopian 

 .\frica is about equivalent to referring to Sir Robert 

 Ball as sponsor for the rising of the sun to^norrow 

 morning; while the statement on p. 304 with regard 

 to the distinctness or identity of the European and 

 American beavers is absurd. 



Many other blunders and instances of carelessness 

 might be quoted, but the foregoing are sufficient to 

 indicate the untrustworthy nature of Mr. Westell's 

 book. R- L. 



RELIGIO PHYSICI. 

 Man and the Universe: a Study of the Influence of 

 the Advance in Scientific Knowledge upon our 

 Understanding of Christianity. By Sir Oliver 

 Lodge, F.R.S. Pp. viii + 356. (London: Methuen 

 and Co., n.d.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 



IN this vigorous and attractive work Sir Oliver. 

 Lodge has gathered into a more or less system- 

 atic whole his well-known views upon the relation 

 betw^een science and religion. The result is a " Religio 

 Physici " w'hicb recalls its famous prototype as much 

 by contrast as by similarity. Sir Oliver Lodge, like 

 Sir Thomas Browne, is at once a man of science and 

 a sincere and candid friend to religion, but his 

 apology for this position is far from a mere demon- 

 stration that a whimsical temperament can (by a credo 

 quia impossibile est) hold incompatibles in conjunction. 

 Nor does he follow the dangerous precedents of later 

 apologists, who have strained analogies to prove that 

 science and orthodox Christianity, so far from being 

 at loggerheads, are really in perfectly amicable agree- 

 ment. There is, admits Sir Oliver, "an outstanding: 

 controversy " between orthodox men of science and 

 orthodox theologians, "although active fighting has 

 been suspended." The reason for this controversy is 

 "that the attitudes of mind appropriate to these two 

 classes" are "at present fundamentally diverse." 

 Such being the case, the only hope of reconciliation lies 

 in the admission on the part both of man of 

 science and of theologian that neither is in occu- 

 pation of the sole point of view from which truth is 

 visible. In particular, the man of science must learn 

 "that it is a sign of unbalanced judgment to conclude, 

 on the strength of a few^ momentous discoveries, that 

 the whole structure of religious belief, built up 

 through the ages bv the developing human race from 

 fundamental emotions and instincts and experiences, 

 is unsubstantial and insecure." 



In place of such partisan exclusiveness w^e must 

 cultivate the conviction that science and religion both 

 contain systems of truth which must ultimately prove 

 to be congruent: "the region of true religion and 

 the region of completer science are one." 



In pursuance of this plan of reconciliation. Sir 



