October 15, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



529 



derived, with the plant, the animal, the earth 

 and the stars." Professor Edward B. Poulton 

 discusses the progress of biology in the " Fifty 

 Years of Darwinism." Professor John M. 

 Coulter discusses natural selection from the 

 standpoint of the botanist, with an ingenious 

 treatment of the " non-adaptive adaptations " 

 that natural selection does not readily erplain. 

 Professor David S. Jordan discusses isolation 

 as a factor in species making, taking the 

 ground, as stated by Dr. Ortmann, that " the 

 four factors, variation, inheritance, selection 

 and separation (isolation) must work together 

 to form different species. It is impossible 

 that one of these should be by itself, or that 

 one could be left aside." 



The cell, in relation to heredity and evolu- 

 tion, is discussed as by one having authority, 

 by Professor Edmund B. Wilson. Professor 

 D. T. MacDougal speaks of the " Direct Influ- 

 ence of Environment " ; Professor W. E. Castle 

 of " The Behavior of Unit Characters in 

 Heredity." Professor Charles B. Davenport 

 treats of " Mutation," finding " certain evident 

 elements of truth " in the speculations arising 

 from the experiments of de Vries. Dr. Carl 

 H. Eigenmann discusses "Adaptations," recog- 

 nizing the fact stated by Weismann, that they 

 " arise whenever needed if they are possible," 

 considering the question of their origin as 

 " the problem of problems," and giving to the 

 whole a suggestion of a " Lamarckian " trend. 



Professor Henry F. Osborn discusses Dar- 

 win and paleontology, with a leaning toward 

 orthogenesis, a theory which needs only to be 

 defined to receive general acceptance. Evolu- 

 tion and psychology are treated by Professor 

 G. Stanley Hall, who finds that the psychic 

 powers of man are but " new dispensations " 

 of those of the lower animals, and that the 

 debt of psychology to Darwinism is not one 

 whit less than that of zoology or botany. 

 Without the idea of descent through natural 

 processes, all biological sciences are without 

 meaning. 



The Cambridge volume covers a wider range 

 of subjects, including the influence of Dar- 

 winism on astronomy, philology, philosophy 

 and theology, which last subject is taken more 

 seriously in England than in America. 



The veteran botanist. Sir Joseph Dalton. 

 Hooker, furnishes an introductory letter to the 

 editor. Professor A. C. Seward. Professor J. 

 Arthur Thomson discusses Darwin's predeces- 

 sors and their relation to evolution. Professor 

 August Weismann discusses the selection the- 

 ory, which is fundamental to " Weismann- 

 ism," as to Darwinism. Professor Hugo de 

 Vries discusses variation from a point of view 

 of experimental botany. " Heredity and Vari- 

 ation in Modem Lights " are treated by Pro- 

 fessor W. Bateson. In this able essay is a 

 footnote on " the isolation of the systematists " 

 as " the one most melancholy sequela of Dar- 

 winism." " Should there not be something 

 disquieting in the fact that among the workers 

 who come most in contact with specific differ- 

 ences are to be found the only men who have 

 failed to be persuaded of the unreality of these 

 differences ? " This strikes the writer as not 

 at all just. Those systematic workers worthy 

 of the name, in all countries, were among the 

 first converts of Darwin. Not that Darwin's 

 arguments persuaded them, but that their own 

 studies showed that species can not be perma- 

 nently separated as categories from races and 

 varieties. But to the systematists is entrusted 

 the bookkeeping of zoology and botany. With- 

 out the rules and the minute discriminations 

 of taxonomy, all biological science would be 

 lost in a maze. However impertinent the dis- 

 tinction between a variety and a species, a 

 difference is a difference, and each term repre- 

 sents a degree of variation which has become 

 hereditary and relatively permanent, and 

 hence to be discriminated by those who deal 

 with the details of organic being, from indi- 

 vidual variation, and from alterations due to 

 mutation or environment. The supposition 

 that systematic zoologists and botanists are 

 essentially dullards who do not know what is 

 going on outside, and do not know what spe- 

 cies are, is one frequently made by theorists 

 or experimenters, who do not appreciate the 

 methods of precision necessary in this par- 

 ticular field. 



Systematists are not deceived in the mat- 

 ter of the despised species of British brambles 

 but it is as legitimate and it may be as fruit- 



