760 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 307. 



scribed and illustrated in the Bulletins and 

 Memoirs of the Museum by Messrs. Os- 

 born, Wortman, Matthew (W. D.), and 

 Earle. 



A description of this department of the 

 Museum would be very incomplete without 

 mention of the life-like water-color restora- 

 tions of mammals and reptiles which have 

 been made by Charles E. Knight, under the 

 direction and with the advice and assistance 

 of Professors Osborn, Cope and Scott. These 

 pictures are, without question, the best at- 

 tempts that have ever been made to repre- 

 sent the animal life and the scenery of 

 Mesozoic and Cenozoic time in this country 

 or Eui'ope. The collection is very thor- 

 oughly labeled, with elaborate descriptive 

 as well as individual labels and photo- 

 graphic transparencies of many of the west- 

 ern fossiliferous localities occupy some of 

 the windows. 



Edmund Otis Hovey. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Evolution by Atrophy in Biology and Sociology. 

 By Jean Dbmoor, Agr6g6 of the Free Univer- 

 sity of Brussels ; Jean Massart, Charg6 de 

 Cours of the Free University of Brussels ; 

 Emilb Vandeeveldb, Professor at the Insti- 

 tute des Hautes Etudes of Brussels, translated 

 by Mrs. Chalmers Mitchell. The Interna- 

 tional Scientific Series. New York, D. Apple- 

 ton & Co. 1899. 



An eminent American economist has declared 

 the bankruptcy of biological sociolog5^ The 

 authors of 'Evolution of Atrophy,' have as- 

 sumed the receivership of a section of biological 

 sociology, namely, that dealing with degenera- 

 tion. Realizing that " biosociological investi- 

 gations have hitherto been conducted either by 

 naturalists with a limited knowledge of social 

 questions, or by sociologists whose training was 

 incomplete and superficial," their researches on 

 degeneration " have been made separately from 

 the social side and from the biological side, and 

 have now been coordinated and combined." 

 The volume is divided into three books, dealing 

 respectively with ' Universality of degenerative 



evolution,' 'The path of degenerative evolu- 

 tion,' and ' Causes of degenerative evolution.' 

 Each book is divided into three parts, the third 

 of which gives a summary and conclusions of 

 the first two. The result of the collaboration 

 of several authors has resulted in a well-systema- 

 tized arrangement of topics and an attempt at 

 balancing a part, chapter, or section in Biology 

 with a similar one in Sociology. Thus Part I. 

 of Book I. deals with ' Degeneration in the de- 

 velopment of institutions and organs. ' Chapter 

 I. ' In the evolution of organs all modification 

 is necessarily attended by degeneration. ' Chap- 

 ter II. ' In the evolution of institutions all 

 modification is necessarily accompanied by de- 

 generation,' and of Part I., Chapter I., 'All 

 organisms exhibit rudimentary organs.' Chap- 

 ter II. 'Survivals exist in all kinds of societies.' 

 Or in Book II., Part II., Chapter I., we have : 

 Section I. 'Disappeared organs.' Section II. 

 ' Disappeared institutions. ' There is thus a 

 constant interlarding of fat with lean. 



Book I. is essentially a statement of facts from 

 which the authors conclude that " degenerative 

 evolution exists everywhere * * * in the evo- 

 lution of organs certain facts may disappear 

 completely * * * in the evolution of organisms 

 certain organs may also disappear. * * * Not 

 only may a larval stage or an adult stage 

 be completely suppressed, but a multicellular 

 organism may even lose its power of dying." 

 Degeneration is not an accident and is not con- 

 fined to unusual, abnormal or pathological cases. 

 Living and superior civilizations drag behind 

 them a trail of debris from dead civilizations. 



Book II. is an examination of the question 

 whether the degeneration of individuals and 

 of organs proceeds by successive atrophies oc- 

 curring in the order opposite to that of ontolog- 

 ical formation. In considering the series of 

 pineal eyes offered by various animals they 

 "cannot refrain from the conclusion that in 

 this series degeneration retraces to a large ex- 

 tent the steps of original advance." This, 

 however, is not a universal application, and 

 " although the most recently acquired features 

 may disappear first, degeneration is not an 

 actual retracing of steps until the point of de- 

 parture is reached. The degenerate condition 

 is a new point, and reallj' the term retrogres- 



