<6 NATURE 
[| MakcuH 21, 1912 
by Sanderson on various occasions. These add to 
the value of the whole book, since they afford a 
ready means of appreciating Burdon-Sanderson’s 
intellectual point of view in relation to biological 
problems. 
The last chapter of the memoir gains in interest 
because it is devoted to the consideration of his 
personal characteristics and opinions. Such con- 
sideration is the salt of most biographical writings, 
and derives the chief part of its piquancy from the 
necessary introduction of the biographer’s own 
view as to the nature of the opinions held by the 
subject of his account. It need scarcely be said 
that the essence of the piquant interest is the cir- 
cumstance that the biographer now treads on 
ground which is open to criticism. 
The present memoir offers, in its last chapter, a 
fair mark for comment when it implies that 
Burden-Sanderson came to regard _ biological 
phenomena from what in these days would be 
called the ‘“‘neo-vitalistic”” point of view. The 
writings of a sympathetic intellectual, like 
Burdon-Sanderson, must of necessity contain 
statements which might give some colour for this 
implication, but the memoir brings forward as 
pertinent to the matter a letter written by Sander- 
son a year before his death. In this he expresses 
the view that a biological excitatory process (i.e. 
the condition of tissue activity) is something 
“organismal,” by which he means “involved in 
organism.” It is by no means clear what this 
connotes, but at least it is clear what in his 
opinion it does not connote, for he goes on to say 
that organismal changes, as such, are not 
measurable, that is, cannot be stated in terms of 
physics and chemistry. The writers of the 
memoir infer from this that Sanderson 
“had come to the conclusion that physiological 
processes involve something which is_ neither 
physical nor chemical in nature, and which is not 
a mere mysterious accompaniment of these pro- 
cesses, but which is their essential part” (p. 169). 
But in the letter already referred to Sanderson 
explicitly states that in science ‘‘nothing that is 
not measurable is known”; and it may be con- 
fidently asserted that he would never have allowed 
the scientifically unknowable to be incorporated in 
the sum of what constitutes physiological or patho- 
logical science. An organismal or vitalistic essence 
may find a place in other realms of knowledge, 
but not in one which claims to be a branch of 
science. 
Burdon-Sanderson does not appear, therefore, 
to have departed fundamentally from the view 
which he expressed so often and so emphatically 
during his active scientific career and which is 
acknowledged in the memoir (p. 170). This view 
NO. 2212, VOL. 89] 
bases modern physiology on the introduction of 
physical and chemical methods of experiment and 
explanation. Some notes made by him as late as 
1903 upon ‘“‘ The Pathway to Reality’’ (the 
Gifford lectures of his nephew, the present Vis- 
count Haldane) show that he then still enter- 
tained the same opinion, since he wrote that ‘‘ all 
discovery in biology is the discovery of the 
operation, where before concealed, of mechanical 
and chemical principles ” (memoir, p. 168). 
Whatever may be the issue as regards the 
adoption of more vitalistic conceptions in the 
future, it seems clear that a rational point of view, 
such as was the mainstay of biological progress 
in the latter half of the nineteenth century, was 
one which Burdon-Sanderson deliberately adopted ; 
and it appears that he adhered to it throughout 
his life. 
The memoir contains a curious oversight on the 
first page as to the year of Sanderson’s birth, this 
being given as 1829 instead of 1828. It is em- 
bellished by at least one admirable and hitherto 
unknown likeness (p. 148), this being printed from 
a photograph taken by Miss Acland during San- 
derson’s later life in Oxford. 
GEOLOGY OF THE PARIS BASIN. 
Géologie du Bassin de Paris. By M. Paul 
Lemoine. Pp. vi+408. (Paris: A. Hermann 
et Fils, 1911.) Price 15 francs. 
HE author of this work is already known to 
ae us as one of the compilers of the geological 
map of France, as also for his valuable researches 
on the geology of Madagascar and Morocco. 
The present volume treats of an area which 
geologically has, perhaps, been more completely 
studied than any other part of the world by 
such eminent authorities as Lamarck, Cuvier, 
Brongniart, Orbigny, Deshayes, Hébert, Barrois, 
de Lapparent, G. F. Dollfus, Cossmann, H. 
Douvillé, and a host of others. Some eight 
hundred titles of books and papers arranged 
alphabetically under authors’ names form the 
bibliography, although, we are informed, this is 
by no means to be regarded as a complete list 
of the literature. 
Preliminary remarks are made on the subjects of 
stratigraphy, petrography, paleontology, and 
tectonics. These are followed by a full account 
of the various deposits extending from Triassic 
to Quaternary times, due recognition being given 
to all zonal subdivisions of the rocks, with their 
index and characteristic fossils, a matter of so 
much importance especially in the true history of 
the Mesozoic formations. All such details are well 
arranged under the numerous localities represented 
in the Paris Basin. 
