July 28, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



109 



whether he used the cold process with NaOH or 

 the boiling process with soda. Such a plant 

 would necessarily be of considerable size since 

 straw is light and considerable quantities of 

 liquid (eight times the weight of the straw) 

 must be used. Besides the treatment, the pro- 

 cessed straw must be washed to remove the 

 alkali. All of this involves labor and increases 

 the cost of the process. Besides it seems prob- 

 able that in America it will always be possible 

 to grow corn or sorghum for feed much more 

 cheaply than to process straw even if the latter 

 were wholly a waste material, which is not the 

 ease. 



Without doubt the attention of experiment 

 stations should be and probably has been called 

 to this process but it seems unwise even to sug- 

 gfst it to the average farmer. 



A. J. PlETBES 



OrncE OP FoBAGE Crop Investigations, 

 U. S. Department op Agriculture 



DOES THE BIBLE TEACH EVOLUTION? 



The creation of man according to the story 

 in Genesis is placed by chronologists at about 

 4004 B.C. The acceptance of this date or 

 indeed of any variation from it that has been 

 suggested carries the imperative implication 

 that all existing types of man — white, yellow, 

 red, brown and black — Englishman, Japanese, 

 Malay and Negrito — have all descended from 

 Adam and Eve. It matters not what anthro- 

 pological characters may be assumed for Adam 

 and Eve, the diversity of their supposed 

 progeny illustrates what the 'biologist means by 

 evolution. The Biblical story with its logical 

 implications stamps every believer in it as an 

 evolutionist. However, no serious scientific 

 man will admit for a moment that human evo- 

 lution has proceeded as rapidly as the story in 

 Genesis necessarily supports. Viewed from the 

 evolutionist's standpoint, the theory involved in 

 the Biblical story makes Darwin's ideas seem 

 exceedingly conservative. Eeally Mr. Bryan 

 ought to attack Darwin as a hide-bound reac- 

 tionary whose notions regarding the slow rate 

 of modification in species seriously challenges 

 the truth of evolution as taught by the Bible. 

 Chaeles V. PiPEK 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



A History of the Whale Fisheries, from the 

 Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to 

 the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the 

 Present Date. By J. T. Jenkins, D.Sc, 

 Ph.D. London, H. F. and G. Witherby, 326 

 High Holborn, W. C, 1921. 336 pages, 

 with reproductions from photographs and 

 old engravings. 



In the preface to this book, the author tells 

 us that no attempt has hitherto been made to 

 give within a brief compass a detailed history 

 of the whale fisheries : to the best of our knowl- 

 edge and belief, this statement is in the main 

 correct and the volume under consideration 

 may be looked upon as an effort to remedy this 

 lack of information. Parts of the story have, 

 it is true, been told, and told very well, par- 

 ticularly that relating to the United States, 

 and these Mr. Jenkins has passed over some- 

 what lightly, devoting much time and care to 

 bringing together and making available for 

 the reader who knows only English the story 

 of the early days of the fishery and especially 

 the important part played by the Dutch who, 

 having practically dispossessed the English, 

 for more than a century successfully prose- 

 cuted the chase of the whale about Spitz- 

 bergen or, as it was constantly called, Green- 

 land. At the height of this fishery, the decade 

 from 1680-89, nearly 2,000 vessels sailed to 

 Spitzbergen — 1,966, to be exact — and the catch 

 of whales was 9,487, but from that time, with 

 certain spurts, the industry gradually de- 

 clined, coming to an end about 1800. 



Mr. Jenkins has been at great pains to give 

 us the details of this whaling, the size of the 

 vessels — often much larger than the average 

 American whaler of the fifties — their crews, 

 equipment, even provisions and the manner of 

 capture and trying out. All of this is interest- 

 ing and important, to most of us it is new, and 

 for this information we are most grateful. In 

 one detailed list of equipment is noted "150 

 hogsheads of eidar and four tunnes of wines, 

 eight kintals of bacon and six hogsheads of 

 beefe," proportions that might have met with 

 the approval of Falstaff. 



One point is surprising — the comparatively 



