June 17, 1909] 



NATURE 



453 



evolutionary literature. The geological work of Dar- 

 win himself is passed over with the remark, " the 

 only fossil animals he had personally studied were the 

 Cirripedes." The post-Darwinian writers alluded to 

 are Gaudry, Neumavr, Cope, and Zittel. This sec- 

 tion will be of considerable interest to those who are 

 beginning palceontology. 



The second part of the work deals with the nature 

 •of variation both in recent time and throughout the 

 ages. The phenomena chosen are those exhibited by 

 certain helices, and the discussion is inadequate to 

 the extent and importance of the subject. The author 

 I subsequently passes on to another group of Mollusta, 



' the ammonites, .in order to discuss the relationship 



between species in successive formations. Through- 

 out this section and the following one, dealing chiefly 

 with the evolution of certain Ungulata, the author is 

 at pains Xa discriminate between the laborious work 

 of Neumayr in tracing out the branches of one phylum 

 from the parent stem, and the more brilliant but 

 (according to ' him) less permanent work of Gaudry 

 in piecing together the fragmentan,- records of several 

 phvla or orders into a continuous history. 



The two following sections give a short summary 

 of the factors that accompany extinction, and of the 

 events that constitute migration. Under the first of 

 these the questions of size and complexity, of 

 appendicular growths, and of seriility are illustrated 

 by examples, but are, of course, not answered. We 

 miss any reference to the suggestive work done by 

 Beecher on old-age problems in palaxjntology. 



Between the. discussion on extinction and that on 

 migrations the author has intercalated a couple of 

 chapters on the very kernel of his subject, i.e. the 

 relation between individual and racial development 

 and the nature of that variation which provides 

 material for the development of new species. The 

 treatment of these topics will probably be considered 

 as very inadequate to their importance. In regard to 

 mutations (for w'hich the author has the phrase 

 " explosions "), an extremely brief reference onlv is 

 given to de Vries and Nillson, and none whatever to 

 Mendel or to recent discoveries in genetics. 



The work concludes by suggesting that earliest 

 forms of fossils will be found at the poles, where " the 

 earliest sediments may have escaped metamorphism 

 by reason of their rapid incorporation into continents 

 and the absence of a heavy superposition of later 

 deposits." Let us hope that Lieutenant Shackleton 

 will confirm this supposition. 



As the quotation suggests, this book suffers from 

 inadequate translation. Not only is the rendering 

 obscure, but the author's use of terms such as poly- 

 phyletic, mutations, &c., to say nothing of strati- 

 graphical terminology, is not that accepted in this 

 country. Undoubtedly a general work of this kind fs 

 a need of the. times, but we fail to see that this 

 volume is an adequate rendering of the factors that 

 accompany evolution. The book suffers from entire 

 lack of references and illustrations, and in its English 

 dress it contains many serious mistakes, e.g.. " chir- 

 optera like the squirrel " (pp. 315, 351); " narrow cut- 

 ■ tings " (evidently intended for " thin sections," 

 NO. 206S, VOL. 80] 



p. 329); "eaters" (p. 315) is possibly intended for 

 "rodents." To those who are familiar with the 

 fossils and the authors referred to in the text, 

 the volume may be not unacceptable as an attempt to 

 deal in a continuous narrative with many and complex 

 problems ; but for the larger public that is anxious to 

 obtain the latest verdict of science on the mode of 

 origin of that splendid diversity that has accompanied 

 animal evolution, the author assumes, we fear, too 

 much detailed knowledge both of zoology and- of 

 geology. 



Tiro BOOKS ON THEORETICAL CHEMISTRY. 

 (i) ]'orJesiiiigen iiber cheitiische .Honiistik. By Dr. 



F. Willy Hinrichsen. Pp. viii+iq8. (Leipzig and' 



Berlin : B. G. Teubner, igoS.). Price 7 marks. 

 (2) First Principles of Chemical Theory. By Dr. 



C. H. Mathewson. Pp. viii-i23. (New York: 



John Wiley and Sons; London : Chapman and Hall, 



Ltd., 1908.) Price 45. 6d. net. 

 (i)T"\R. HINRICHSEN explains that in composing 

 L^ these lectures he has expanded and completed 

 two earlier works of his, (a) " Chemische .\tomistik " 

 (1906), and (b) " Uber den gegenwartigen Stand der 

 Valenzlehre " (1902). The main topics are the usual 

 ones of the atomic theory, the periodic system of the 

 elements, valency, solution, and the relations between 

 electricity and matter. Quite the best parts of the 

 book are those dealing with the subject of valency, on 

 which the author is an authority. 



The lectures were delivered to audiences which did 

 not consist entirely of chemists, and they begin and 

 end with the relation between science and philosophy. 

 In leading. up to the atomic theory, the author makes 

 a very suggestive quotation from Kant, of date 1786, 

 to the effect that chemistry could not become a genuine 

 science, and must remain a mere schedule of empirical 

 knowledge, until the possibilities by number and 

 measure of chemical action between different kinds of 

 matter should be deduced from a theory. The author,' 

 instead of pointing out that Dalton did arrive at the 

 law of multiple proportion by deduction from the 

 atomic theory, adopts the erroneous view that the 

 formation of the theory was a consequence of the 

 discovery of the law. 



J. B. Richter's work (1791-1802) is cited as a 

 response — intentional or unintentional — to the stipu- 

 lations of Kant. Actually Richter, with his hypothesis 

 that the equivalent amounts of different acids fall into 

 a geometric series, and of the different bases into an 

 arithmetical, was much less fortunate than Wilfiam 

 Higgins, who explained the composition of different 

 compounds of the same elements in terms of atoms. 

 For instance, he supposed that sulphur dioxide con- 

 sists of compound atoms, each made up of one atom 

 of sulphur and one of oxygen, whilst the compound 

 atom of the trioxide is made up of one of sulphur 

 and two of oxygen. Higgins published his ideas in 

 the year 1789. 



The author states that he regards the historical 

 development of chemistry as revealing the best order 

 for studying and teaching the subject. Quite a number 



