598 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 



drinking ; but what I must again object to is 

 drawing radically different conclusions as to tbe 

 nature of eating and drinking by chicks, and 

 even building theories of evolution on them. 



As I understand Prof Cope is to replj^ to Prof. 

 Baldwin's views on Consciousness and Evolution 

 through the medium of the American Naturalist, 

 I will only remark regarding his discussion in 

 Science, p. 438, on Heredity and Instinct, that, 

 while I find his views very interesting as illus- 

 trations of natural selection, the Lamarckiau 

 principle, the influence of environment, etc., 

 they seem, in the main, to fall within the range 

 of principles already recognized by the Darwin- 

 ians and Lamarckians, though perhaps not ade- 

 quately. But I fail to see that a single safe step 

 can be taken in explaining evolution either in 

 biology or psychology, if the effects of the en- 

 vironment and of use be ignored ; indeed, Prof. 

 Baldwin's very facts and illustrations are, to my 

 mind, only comprehensible by the introduction 

 of those factors ; and why there should be such 

 anxiety on the part of many to get rid of fac- 

 tors so obvious, and to substitute for them the 

 biological fatalism and reasoning in a circle of 

 Weismann, is a puzzle to me. 



I trust Prof. Baldwin will not insist on coin- 

 ing many new terms, or favor their adoption 

 as far as evolution is concerned. ' Social hered- 

 ity ' is about equivalent, is it not, to social en- 

 vironment, and the entire environment is one 

 into which, as a rule, the animal is born, so why 

 speak of ' social heredity ?' Technicalities have 

 their advantages, but they often conduce to 

 mental myopia, and hamper the comprehension 

 and progress of truth by binding it up in pack- 

 ages, so to speak — packages which all cannot 

 readily undo. Wesley Mills. 



McGiLL University. 



FOOTGEAR. 



Editor of Science : Apropos of the heel quar- 

 ters or heel bands on the feet of men shown on 

 Mexican and Maya sculpture and pottery Dr. 

 Fewkes calls my attention to the fact that among 

 the Tusayan Indians an embroidered heel band is 

 worn over the moccasins in all dances. In the 

 statuary shown by Maudslay and other authors 

 the footgear looks as though a man were wear- 

 ing a gaiter from which the vamp or front had 



been cut away. In this view the supposed 

 sole is the pedestal; what appears to be a stock- 

 ing is the moccasin, and the heel quarter is the 

 decorated ceremonial heel band fastened across 

 the instej) with lacings. O. T. Mason. 



Washington, D. C. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 Greenland Icefields and Life in the North Atlantic, 

 with a New Discussion of the Causes of the Ice 

 Age. By G. Frederick Wright, D. D., 

 LL. D., F. G. S. A., author of the Ice Age in 

 North America, etc., and Warren Upham, 

 A. M., F. G. S. A., late of the Geological 

 Surveys of New Hampshire, Minnesota and 

 the United States. With numerous maps 

 and illustrations. New York, D. Appleton 

 & Co. 1896. 12mo. pp. xv+407. 

 The immediate impulse to the preparation of 

 this volume arose in connection with a trip to 

 Greenland taken on the unfortunate steamer 

 Miranda in 1894. It will be remembered that 

 this steamship of eleven hundred tons' burden 

 started out with the intention of reaching 

 Peary's headquarters in Inglefield gulf, with a 

 complement of fifty-one passengers. Ten days 

 out she collided with an iceberg off Labrador 

 and returned to St. Johns for repairs. After 

 reaching Sukkertoppen, the largest Eskimo 

 settlement in Greenland, the steamer ran upon 

 a reef and received serious injuries, compelling 

 her to stop again for repairs and to start home- 

 ward as soon as possible. In less than two 

 days' time she foundered, and the passengers 

 and crew were safely transferred to the schooner 

 Eigel. The senior author had an excellent 

 opportunity to study icebergs in their legitimate 

 work of producing geological changes, and had 

 nearly a fortnight's time to explore the edge 

 of the ice sheet close to the Arctic circle. 



The authors have improved their opportuni- 

 ties by giving in this book an interesting re- 

 sume of what is known respecting the glaciers, 

 ice fields, explorations, icebergs in action, the 

 plants, animals, the Eskimo and the early 

 Norsemen of Greenland. Mr. Upham prepared 

 the chapters upon the plants, animals, explora- 

 tions, and the lessons taught by the Greenland 

 phenomena in the elucidation of the Ice Age. 

 Besides the test several excellent maps of 



