Reviews and Book Notices. 215 
the one and only key to evolution, but regarded it as ‘the most 
important, but not the exclusive, means of modification.’ 
Further, we must remember that Darwin never attempted to 
explain “ow the variations arise upon which Natural and Sexual 
Selection work. He simply assumed that organisms do vary, 
and that these variations take place in all directions. As has 
been tersely said, ‘ Natural Selection may explain the Survival 
of the Fittest, but it cannot explain the arrival of the fittest.’ 
(To be continued). 
———— 
Animal Artizans and other studies of Birds and Beasts, by C. J. 
Cornish, M.A., F.Z.S. Longmans Green & Co., 1907, 274 pp., 7/6 net. 
This volume, on account of the thickness of the paper on which it is printed, 
is very massive. It contains a collection of the late C. J. Cornish’s contri- 
butions to the ‘ Spectator,’ ‘Country Life,’ etc., and in this form will be very 
welcome to the admirers of that writer. In her preface his widow has 
reason to believe ‘that some account of his life and work might be welcome 
to those of his readers who never knew him personally and to others who 
admired his often unsigned writings without being aware of the identity of 
their author. And it seemed appropriate that such an account should be 
embodied in the preface to this book.’ In her memoir Mrs. Cornish describes 
the life and doings of her late husband, with details of trivialities which are 
perhaps pardonable in the circumstances. There are thirty-five essays 
gathered together in the book, on a great variety of subjects, and some are 
very suggestive. The illustrations, however, are not quite as successful as 
one might wish. The artist has not grasped the full value of light and 
shade, and the pictures have consequently a ‘thin’ appearance; the flight 
of swans on the plate facing page 82 seems to represent their ‘ghosts’ 
rather than the birds themselves. 
The Stone Implements of South Africa, by J. P. Johnson. 
Longmans, Green & Co., 1907. 53 pp-, price 7/6 net. In this volume, which 
is illustrated by 258 line drawings of implements, the author has given an 
account of his researches amongst the stone implements of South Africa. 
Some idea of the nature of the work may be gathered from the following 
extract from the preface :—‘ The object of this little volume is to co- 
ordinate the various discoveries of stone implements I have made during 
the last four years—discoveries that I venture to think mark a new era in 
our knowledge of the Stone Age of South Africa. No attempt will be made 
to review the abundant, but unsatisfactory, literature already in existence.’ 
Notwithstanding this, there is evidence that the author is fairly familiar 
with the recent contributions to our knowledge of man’s early weapons, not 
only in Africa, but much nearer home. He uses typical Palzeolithic 
(Acheulian) implements as his datum line; earlier types are ‘ primitive’ and 
later are ‘advanced.’ He recognises Eolithic, Palzolithic, and Neolithic 
types, but takes them as stages in the general progressive evolution from 
very primitive to advanced forms. He describes ‘ pigmy’ implements, and 
also the ostrich-egg shell beads for the manufacture of which these 
diminutive forms were used. We were relieved to find that he did not wish to 
invent a special pigmy race of men to account for their presence. His study 
of the stone implements of South Africa shows that ‘the sequence is the same 
as in Britain and other parts of the Old World, though it is not so complete, 
having lagged behind somewhat.’ There is no index, and the price is quite 
sufficient. 
1907 June 
