Apbil 27, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



669 



terpreted by those that have studied his 

 writings, is to be regretted, but is excusable; 

 that his views are judged upon without his 

 works being read, as is sometimes the case, is 

 inexcusable. 



Aside from the above objection to Dr. 

 Cook's use of the term ' evolution,' I wish to 

 emphatically object to his idea of the ' actu- 

 ating causes' of 'evolution' (or variation). 

 He believes that they are not to be sought in 

 the ' pressure of environment," but that they 

 are ' inner ' causes, supported by interbreeding. 



This view is not new at all, indeed we may 

 say that, by this time, it is venerable on ac- 

 count of its antiquity, for it is the view held 

 by the earlier Weismannian school, which 

 assumes that variation is due to inner causes 

 (germinal variation, spontaneous variation, 

 Keimvariation), aided by amphimixis (inter- 

 breeding). I have demonstrated" that this 

 view, which, as it is proper to state, is not 

 ield any more by Weismann himself, is en- 

 tirely illogical; but I do not see the necessity 

 of repeating here my arguments for Dr. Cook's 

 benefit. This much, however, may be said, 

 that the assumption that only inner causes are 

 ' actuating ' in the production of variation, 

 expressly excludes a class of causes which is 

 absolutely necessary for every process in this 

 world, namely the ' causse efficientes.' That 

 Dr. Cook has entirely forgotten what a ' causa 

 efficiens ' is is shown by the distinction he 

 makes between occasion and the true, actu- 

 ating cause." But he may be excused on the 

 ground that the discovery of the difference of 

 these terms, and of the fact that what he calls 

 occasion, is no true cause, is not his : it is a 

 perpetuation or repetition of a blunder com- 

 mitted first by Weismann," and by von Graff,^ 

 in making a distinction between Bedingung 

 and Ursache, or condition and cause. 



' C. H. Merriam, Science, February 16, 1906, 

 p. 244. 



" Ueber Keimvariation' in Biolog. Oentralblatt, 

 18, 1898, p. 139 ff. 



^° Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., 1906, p. 305. 



" ' Ueber Germinalseleetion,' 1896, p. 48, foot- 

 note 2. 



^ ' Zoology since Darwin ' in Ann. Rep. Smiths. 

 Inst., 1896, p. 486. 



Indeed, it is too bad that this discovery of 

 Dr. Cook, that the occasion (or condition) is 

 no actuating cause, can not stand in the face 

 of philosophical criticism. Por, if the occa- 

 sion of Dr. Cook is the same thing that is 

 called causa efficiens (actuating cause") by 

 people trained in logic, then, of course, ex- 

 ternal influences must he admitted as the 

 causes efficientes of variation. 



A. E. Ortmann. 



C'AENEQiE Museum, Pittsburg, Pa. 

 April 2, 1906. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OP GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS. 



To the Editor of Science: The letter on 

 page 545 of Science for April 6, 1906, from 

 Junius Henderson, of Boulder, Colo., relates 

 to a subject that has always had a personal 

 interest for me. I can never forget the ad- 

 vantages that I myself derived from the gen- 

 erosity of a father who enabled me to begin 

 the accumulation of a scientific library. 

 Equally advantageous have been the gratui- 

 tous publications of the government, and the 

 comparatively cheap publications of scientific 

 societies, as contrasted with the very high 

 prices charged by many publishing firms for 

 strictly technical scientific documents. It is 

 to the best interests of our national gov- 

 ernment, our state governments and our en- 

 dowed universities that they should, in every- 

 way possible, stimulate the publication and 

 distribution of researches that, taken collect- 

 ively, mark the steady progress of man in 

 wresting her secrets from nature. 



Perhaps to an equal degree is it the duty 

 of the citizens, so far as is any way practi- 

 cable, to stimulate the establishment of scien- 

 tific and technical libraries in localities where 

 they may be accessible to large numbers of 

 students. The increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge should not be left to the Smith- 

 sonian alone, or to the government, or to the 

 university as an organization, but has become 

 the duty of each individual scholar. Many 

 men have considerable collections of valuable 

 books that they should make accessible to stu- 

 dents, rather than keep them locked up on 

 their own shelves. I know of severrl who are 



