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REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 
The World of Life. By Alfred Russel Wallace. London: Chapman 
& Hall, 408 pages, 6s. net. Most naturalists will remember the reception 
given to Wallace’s ‘ World of Life’ when it appeared in 1910. It was 
“A manifestation of creative power, directive mind and ultimate purpose.’ 
In that volume Wallace summarised his half-century of thought and work 
on the Darwinian theory of evolution. He also brought many views 
forward which he had obtained during the last few years of his long and 
busy life; views which were not accepted with the unanimity which 
greeted his earlier work. In any case a book by Wallace has a value 
and a charm, and the purpose of this note is to draw our readers’ attention 
to the fact that an edition, well printed and illustrated, and occupying 
over 400 pages, can now be obtained for the small sum of six shillings. 
In The Birth-Time of the World, Professor J. Joly follows the example 
set by other geologists, and brings together a dozen essays on varying 
subjects (T. Fisher Unwin, xvi. + 307 pages, tos. 6d. net), the first of 
“which gives the title to the volume. A few years ago he paid a visit to 
the Alps, which much impressed him, and Alpine views illustrate most of 
his lectures, though we hardly see how views of the Aletsch Glacier and 
of Perched blocks assist his essay on Skating ! The Birth-Time of the 
World refers to Professor Joly’s work on the age of the earth as based upon 
the amount of salt in the ocean ; ‘ Denudation ’ naturally follows ; ‘ Moun- 
tain Genesis’ and ‘ Alpine Structure’ have reference to the geological 
intervention of radioactivity. ‘The Abundance of Life’ and ‘The Bright 
Colours of Alpine Flowers’ deal with the same area; in ‘ Other Minds 
than Ours,’ the author explains the canals in Mars, not as artificial, but 
as formed by the near approach of satellites to the planet in former times. 
In ‘ Skating’ Professor Joly shows that we do not skate on ice, but on water. 
Other essays are on ‘The Latent Image’; ‘ Pleochroic Haloes,’ which is 
an account of a beautiful phenomenon of the rocks which finds explanation 
in the most subtle fact of radioactivity ; ‘The Use of Radium in Medicine’ ; 
and ‘ A Speculation as to a Pre-Material Universe.’ All are well written 
and readily understood. 
Vigour and Heredity. By J. Lewis Bonhote. London: West, Newman 
& Co., 263 pages, tos. 6d. net. 
If you have a little ‘ Zoo’ and you don’t know what to do 
Do not publish lists of visitors and trash 
But experiment in breeding, observing, crossing, feeding, 
Results will be much better ‘than mere cash. 
Read of spermatozoa, the zygote and the ova, 
The part that each one plays on this life’s stage 
And keep your eye on ‘ vigour,’ zt really is the trigger 
That scores the bulk of bull’s eyes in this age. 
When the reviewer read it he said Vigouwy and Heredity 
By Bonhote (J. L.) was a thoughtful book ; 
But whether it will mend all the deficiencies of Mendel 
And of Darwin is quite another crook. 
Statistics of his dogs and cats, 
And pedigrees of ducks and rats 
Literally abound among the pages. 
The secret of success in lives 
Which he has watched (like bees in hives) 
Undoubtedly is ‘ Vigour,’ not in ages.* 

* We must apologise to our readers for this. We fear it is the result 
of our reviewer devoting too much attention to Mr. Bonhote’s statistics.— 
ED. 
Naturalist, 
