Fjebeuabt 26, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



343 



negie Lyceum, February 3, 8 p.m.) to sustain your 

 assertions against its accuracy. Miss Lind-af- 

 Hageby will be glad to show you that you are in 

 great error. Very truly yours, 



Diana Belais 

 New York, January 31. 



We have received a similar letter from a 

 woman who says she wrote the leaflet. She 

 shall be nameless. It is typical of the light- 

 hearted irresponsibility of the anti-vivisec- 

 tionists that neither the woman who is respon- 

 sible for the publication of the leaflet nor the 

 woman who boasts of having penned it offers 

 the least defense of her part in the matter. 

 Instead we are told that a certain young 

 woman from England "will be very pleased 

 to meet any one in debate." This young 

 woman, we may remark, was joint author 

 of a scandalous publication entitled " The 

 Shambles of Science," which the publisher 

 was compelled to withdraw from circulation 

 several years ago, with a public expression of 

 " sincere regret for having printed and pub- 

 lished the book in question." We have no de- 

 sire to enter into any controversy with this 

 woman, who confesses that she has some diffi- 

 culty in finding opponents at debate in the 

 country of her adoption — a circumstance which 

 does not astonish us in the least. 



Mrs. Belais boldly proclaimed the other day 

 that no " unjustified assumptions or allega- 

 tions " were published by her precious society. 

 We picked up a leaflet and extracted this 

 single passage: "Pasteur and his followers 

 increased a very rare disease called rabies, 

 and are making fortunes out of the anti-rabic 

 virus." To call this an " unjustified assump- 

 tion " is to state the case mildly. It is noth- 

 ing less than an infamous and malicious lie. 

 And we maintain that it is a disgusting spec- 

 tacle to see so great a benefactor of the human 

 race as Pasteur treated in this frivolous man- 

 ner by a parcel of Tmscrupulous women. — New 

 York Evening Sun. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Biology and Its Makers. By Wm. A. Loot. 

 With portraits and other illustrations. 

 New York, Henry Holt & Co. 



It was the purpose of the author of this 

 book to give "an untechnical account of the 

 rise and progress of biology" which "would 

 be of interest to students, teachers, ministers, 

 medical men and others"; "to bring under 

 one view the broad features of biological 

 progress and to increase the human interest 

 by writing the story around the lives of the 

 great leaders." "The portraits [82 in num- 

 ber] with which the text is illustrated em- 

 brace those of nearly aU the founders of 

 biology." The scope of the volume is best 

 seen from its table of contents: 



Part I.— The Sources of Biological Ideas Except 

 Those of Organic Evolution. Ch. I. An Outline of 

 the Rise of Biology and of the Epochs in its 

 History. Ch. II. Vesalius and the Overthrow of 

 Authority in Science. Ch. III. William Harvey 

 and Experimental Observation. Ch. IV. The In- 

 troduction of the Microscope and the Progress of 

 Independent Observation. Ch. V. The Progress 

 of Minute Anatomy. Ch. VI. Linnaus and Scien- 

 tific Natural History. Ch. VII. Cuvier and the 

 Rise of Comparative Anatomy. Ch. VIII. Bichet 

 and the Birth of Histology. Ch. IX. The Rise 

 of Physiology— Harvey, Haller, Johannes Miiller. 

 Ch. X. Von Baer and the Rise of Embryology. 

 Ch. XI. The Cell Theory— Schleiden, Schwann, 

 Schultze. Ch. XII. Protoplasm and the Physical 

 Basis of Life. Ch. XIII. The Work of Pas- 

 teur, Koch and others. Ch. XIV. Heredity and 

 Germinal Continuity— Mendel, Galton, Weismann. 

 Ch. XV. The Science of Fossil Life. 



Part II. — The Doctrine of Organic Evolution. 

 Ch. XVI. What Evolution is : The Evidence upon 

 which it Rests, etc. Ch. XVII. Theories of Evolu- 

 tion-Lamarck, Darwin. Ch. XVIII. Theories 

 Continued — Weismann, De Vries. Ch. XIX. The 

 Rise of Evolutionary Thought. Ch. XX. Retro- 

 spect and Prospect. Present Tendencies in Biol- 

 ogy. Reading List. Index. 



This book is of much value and should be 

 placed upon the shelves of all school libraries. 

 Biologists wiU find it a convenient book of 

 reference. Few readers wiU be so weU in- 

 formed that they wiU gain no information 

 from its pages. Of especial value are the 

 portraits, many of which are rare and un- 

 familiar. 



The volume is a compilation. Its author 

 makes free use of other studies in the same 

 field, and accepts, for the most part, the gen- 



