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186 THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 
articles that compose it have been published at various times in diverse 
British periodicals and newspapers, and were re-written and enlarged 
for publication in book form. “Secrets of Earth and Sea” is modern, 
interesting and reliable, and is easily the best thing in popular science 
that has appeared in several years. “ 
Ciia 2Be 
THE A-B C oF EVOLUTION. By W. J. McCabe. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 
1920. $1.50. 
In a book altogether too small to deal adequately with so extensive 
a subject as evolution Mr. McCabe has done remarkably well. By 
judicious selection of material he has _ managed to get into 124 pages 
of text an outline of the history of the earth, the development of 
animals and plants, and something about the peculiar evolutionary ~ 
problems of man. The story is told in plain but*attractive English, 
and there are numerous references to other works in which more elab- 
orate discussion of various points may be found. 
As is almost invariable in books that attempt to popularize science, 
there are some respects in which this volume is hardly to be relied 
upon. McCabe’s preference for the lon-disproved Laplacian hypothesis 
of an originally gaseous and molten earth, and his doubts regarding the 
reliability of Mendelism indicate that he has an imperfect acquaintance 
with the literature of modern geology and biology. His explanation of 
the causes of glacial periods, while an approach to the truth, hardly 
agrees with present geologic knowledge. But these errors form a very 
small part of the book, and do not detract greatly from its general 
value. As a primer for the man unacquainted with the elementary 
facts of biology “The A B C of Evolution” is not only useful, but good. 
Cy ek: 
ZOOLOGY. . By T. D. A. Cockerell. World Book Company, 1920. $3.00 
To the person accustomed to the dryness of the average zoology text 
Dr. Cockerell’s book comes as both a surprise and a relief. Although 
intended primarily for use in college classes, it will be of value to any- 
one who desires a comprehensive, reliable, and at theesame time inter- 
esting account of the many divisions of the science of animals. There 
is no such thing as a good all-round natural history; it is well that 
there is a zoology that in a measure meets the need of the man who 
does not care for the “nature study” book, and who has no great 
interest in the anatomical details on which taxonomy is based. 
The book begins with a consideration of some of the fundamental 
characters of life—reproduction, -heredity, sex, nourishment, breathing. 
There follow an excellent chapter on the history of life, a biography of 
Darwin, another of Linnaeus, and then a clear and interesting dis- 
cussion of the whys and hows of classification. To the every-day man 
the zoologist’s complicated system of Latin and Greek names means 
just about nothing; to the average college student it is merely a use- 
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