August 30, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



155 



in no way prevents my cordial appreciation of his work as a whole. 

 Indeed, with the exception of those differences from Mr. Darwin, 

 which it has been my object on the present occasion to consider, it 

 appears to me that Mr. Wallace's latest work is one of the most 

 interesting aud suggestive in the whole range of Darwinian litera- 

 ture. And even these points of difference, it will be remembered, all 

 arise out of the single difference before stated, namely,whether natural 

 selection is to be regarded as the main, or as the exclusive, means 

 of modification. Therefore, notwithstanding all that I have said 

 on the Darwinian side of this momentous question, the fact that it 

 still remains an open question compels us to recognize that Mr. 

 Wallace's views with regard to it may eventually prove to be right ; 

 while, in any case, he is certainly to be congratulated on having 

 lived to see the great movement which has recently taken place in 

 the direction of those views. But to many of us it still appears 

 that Mr. Darwin's judgment on this matter is the sounder one to 

 follow. When a great generalization has been fairly established, 

 there is always a tendency to exaggerate its scope ; and, perhaps, 

 in no respect was the wonderful balance of Mr. Darwin's mind so 

 well displayed as it was in the caution with which he abstained 

 from assigning to his vast principle of natural selection a sole pre- 

 rogative. Moreover, as previously stated, the longer that he pon- 

 dered the question, the more he became persuaded that the prob- 

 lem of organic evolution as a whole was too complex and many- 

 sided to admit of being resolved by the application of a single 

 principle. This conclusion, I believe, will eventually be justified by 

 the advance of biological science ; and, therefore, until some better 

 reason is shown than has yet been shown for departing from it, I 

 cannot help feeling that naturalists will do well to suspend their 

 judgments, even if they are not so sure as they used to be touching 

 the doctrines of " Darwinism," as these were left by Darwin. 



George J. Romanes. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



Stellar Evolution and its Relation to Geological Time. By James 

 Croll. New York, Appleton. 12°. $1. 



The basis of the theory advanced by Mr. Croll is that it is just 

 as possible for the universe to have been created with a given 

 amount of energy due to the motion of the created masses of mat- 

 ter, as with a given amount of matter ; i.e., Mr. Croll would have 

 the initial state that of a great number of cold bodies moving with 

 high velocities. No one can deny the possibility of the truth of 

 such a hypothesis, and many will find in Mr. CroU's deductions 

 much that is suggestive. As it is not so probable that such initially 

 moving bodies would collide as it is that bodies would if possessed 

 only of motion of translation due to gravity, Mr. Croll thinks he 

 sees in this universe created in motion a universe the better pro- 

 vided against the dissipation of its energy. 



If we are to criticise the book, we would call attention to the un- 

 satisfactory nature of all discussions of problems in mechanics, — 

 and many of those in stellar physics are such, — by one who makes 

 no pretence of being a mathematician. Yet as the mathematicians 

 have not given the geologists all the time they call for that the 

 solar system may have reached its present state with at least one 

 planet built up of well ordered crystalline and fossiliferous rocks, it 

 is to be expected that some flaw may be found in the calculations 

 of the one or the theories of development of the other ; and such 

 suggestions as Mr. Croll has to offer will help in bringing the two 

 parties to an agreement. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



A. S. Barnes & Co. announce that the long-promised " The 

 Three Germanys," by Theodore S. Fay, has now been issued. 



— Callaghan & Co. will publish, on Oct. i, Vvol. 6 of Von 

 Hoist's " Constitutional History of the United States." 



— " King's Annotated Vest-Pocket Map of Massachusetts " is 

 the most perfect small map of the State that has ever appeared. 



— John C. Yorston & Co., Cincinnati, have just ready Henry A. 

 Shepherd's " The Antiquities of Ohio," reprinted from the " Popu- 

 lar History of the State of Ohio." 



— The Pacific Press Publishing Company have just issued 

 " The Federal Government of Switzerland," by Bernard Moses, 

 professor of history and political economy. University of Califor- 

 nia. 



— John Ireland, 1197 Broadway, has the market for a new cook- 

 book, " What One Can Do with a Chafing-Dish," just published 

 by the author, H. L. Sawtelle. Experimenters in "light- house- 

 keeping " will find the book just the one they have been in search 

 of for so many years. 



— Fords, Howard, & Hulbert have ready a new contribution, by 

 a new writer, to the present all-absorbing discussion of the future 

 of the negro in America, entitled " An Appeal to Pharaoh." The 

 author confidently indorses it as " a radical solution of the negro 

 problem." 



— - " Recollections of the Court of the Tuilleries," by Madame 

 Carette, is a recent book of reminiscences of the court of the last 

 Napoleon, which is being widely read in France. It contains many 

 inemoirs of the Empress Eugenie. A translation is in hand, and 

 will be published immediately by D. Appleton & Co. 



— P. Blakiston, Son & Co., Philadelphia, have just ready a re- 

 vised and enlarged edition of " Obstetric Nursing," by Theophilus 

 Parvin, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and 

 Children in the Jefferson Medical College, and Obstetrician to the 

 Philadelphia Hospital. 



— 'X\\e. Journal of Pedagogy ^nXexsvc^an its third volume with 

 the September issue. Dr. A. D. Mayo of Boston, the well known 

 educational lecturer, stated in the annual address at the Ohio Uni- 

 versity, June 20, 1889, that "the Journal of Pedagogy \% one of 

 the two or three real educational papers in this country." It is 

 published at Athens, Ohio. 



— The author of the " Rise and Fall of the Confederate Govern- 

 ment," Mr. Jefferson Davis, is not satisfied with the limited sale 

 his work has had. He has complained so loudly of its failure as 

 compared with the works of Grant and Sherman, that D. Appleton 

 & Co., his publishers, have gained his consent to the appointment 

 of arbitrators to decide the points at issue between them. The 

 Messrs. Appletons attribute the slow demand made in the North 

 for the book to the intense sectional spirit in which it is written. 



— The Lounger writes in The Critic : " I heard the other day 

 from an authority which I cannot dispute that ' The Century Dic- 

 tionary ' has cost the Century Co. over $500,000, and my informant 

 added parenthetically that when the undertaking was begun, the 

 company had no idea that it would swallow up a sum approxi- 

 mating this. But like Topsey it ' grow'd.' It has taken nearly 

 seven years of the time of some of the best experts and specialists 

 in the country, at an annual expense of not very much less than 

 $100,000. This, I believe, is the first time the cost of making this 

 great dictionary has been stated with any degree of accuracy." 



— Mr. Paul Leicester Ford, whose address is No. 97 Clark 

 Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., will have ready in September " American 

 Bibliography : A Check-List of Bibliographies, Catalogues, Refer- 

 ence Lists, and Lists of Authorities of American Books and Sub- 

 jects," a quarto volume printed on alternate pages, and containing 

 1,070 titles, arranged by subject under 19 divisions and 150 subdi- 

 visions, with a classification of contents and an author's index. At 

 the same time Mr. Ford will bring out his " Franklin Bibliography : 

 a List of Books written by or relating to Benjamin Franklin," an 

 edition of 500 copies uniform in size with Bigelow's octavo edition 

 of Franklin's Works. No fewer than 1,500 titles and references 

 are promised, the list of works wholly or in part written by Frank- 

 lin numbering 600, and his pseudonyms amounting to 60. There 

 will be chronological, classical, and general indices, and mention of 

 the libraries where the works may be consulted. 



— " The Dominion of Canada is a device to keep the peace be- 

 tween those to whom Nature has allotted an irrepressible conflict." 

 So says the writer of an article called " La Nouvelle France " in 

 the September Atlantic, which will be the subject of discussion in 

 the United States, and of something more than discussion in 

 Canada. It shows how the French Canadian party is steadily 

 gaining Canada to itself, and how by its consummate organization, 



