CURRENT LITERATURE. 
BOOK REVIEWS. - 
Evolution. 
A COMPREHENSIVE account of the subject of evolution is at present a matter 
of considerable importance, but at the same time must be one of unusual diffi- 
culty because of the great activity incited by the work of DE Vries and others” 
who have within the last few years undertaken the study of variation, adaptation, — 
and heredity by experimental methods. Dr. J. P. Lorsyt has undertaken this 
most difficult task by the publication of a volume of lectures upon theories of 
descent with special reference to the botanical side of the question. He follows 
the method not infrequent among older writers but rare among writers of recent 
Scientific works, of beginning at the beginning. He first considers the nature 
of knowledge, and the supposed conflict between science and religion, pointing 
out that evolution will not explain everything, and that there is no conflict between 
religion and science éxcept as either or both attempt to explain dogmatically 
the unexplainable. Both science and religion come to the same’ conclusion 
when traced to their limit, namely, that there is a fundamental mystery incapable 
of investigation because none of the possible alternatives is even conceivable to — 
the human mind. 
as dominance and blending, atavism, kryptomery, pleiotypy, half races, etc., a : 
and one to the inheritance of acquired characters. me 
* Lotsy, J. P., Vorlesungen iiber Descendenztheorien mit besonderet Beriick- 
sichtigung der botanischen Seite der F rage, gehalten an der Reichsuniversitat 24 
Leiden. Erster Teil. 8vo. pp. xii+ 384. pls. 2. figs. 124. Jena: Gustav Fischer. 
1906. M 8; geb. M 9. 
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