BOOK REVIEWS 
In this section are reviews of new, or particularly important and interesting books 
in the fields of natural science. Books dealing with botany or kindred subjects should 
be sent to the Editor, the University of Notre Dame. All other books for review 
should be sent to Carroll Lane Fenton, at the Walker Museum, the University of Chi- 
cayvo, Ill. Publishers are requested to furnish prices with books. 
LIFE OF ALFRED NEWTON: By F. R. Wollaston. E. P. Dutton. $7.00 
To hold one position in a great university for 41 years is something 
of an achievement, but it does not provide a great deal of spectacular 
material for a biographer. No matter how interesting the work, or 
how enthusiastic he may be, the scientist who spends his years in 
a laboratory or class-room cannot be the splendid, gilt-rimmed figure 
that we are accustomed to look for in biographies. All of this Mr. 
Wollaston admits at the beginning of his book, and in the absence of 
adventures in the life of his subject, he goes to the letters which the 
great professor wrote, as well as those he received. This move, a neces- 
sity rather than a choice, has, however, considerable advantages, for 
it gives the book almost the character of an autobiography. 
Alfred Newton entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1848. Six 
years later he received the Norfolk Traveling Scholarship, and by 
means of it conducted ornithological field work in Lapland and Iceland, 
and visited the United States and the West Indies. In 1863, after 
having done a great deal of work with birds, he moved to Cambridge, 
making it his permanent home. In 1866 he was appointed professor 
of zoology and comparative anatomy in the University, and at once 
began to improve the zoological museum, and to enter into the general 
life of the university. Mr. Wollaston bears most effective testimony of 
the fine influence which Professor Newton exerted among students, and 
numerous letters quoted show that he was equally popular among gath- 
erings of scientists. This association with undergraduates as well as 
with specialists is an all-important thing for a college instructor who 
would be something more than research specialists or teaching machines, 
yet it is neglected, in America at least, by a great number of worth- 
while men. 
Professor Newton was a staunch Tory, and in all things a conserva- 
tive. Old things were best; new ones should always be opposed. In 
politics, while against such men as Gladstone, he did not make any 
public efforts in the way of campaigns-or speeches. Professor Newton 
showed no such reticence about college affairs. He strenuously opposed 
such minor affairs as singing at chapel, and the building of a pipe 
organ where no instrument of any type had been before. But despite 
his fierce intolerance and violence of prejudice the Professor was a good 
