520 



SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. XXXIV. No. 877 



ress essentially through the subordination of 

 individual struggle and development to spe- 

 cies-maintaining ends." 



All these changes and others, in fact the most 

 important of floral variations, the big lifts dis- 

 tinctive for the evolution of orders, are thus seen 

 no longer as indefinite, and hence dependent on 

 external selection for their guidance; but, on the 

 contrary, as parallel and definite, since determined 

 through the continued checking of the vegetative 

 process by the reproductive, and thus pressed along 

 parallel and definite grooves of progressive change. 

 But if this be so, the importance we have been 

 taught by Darwin to assign to natural selection 

 becomes greatly changed — from selecting accu- 

 mulating supposed indefinite variations, to that 

 mainly of retarding definite ones, after their maxi- 

 mum utility has been independently reached! 



Despite, or perhaps because of, the clarify- 

 ing definitions of vitalism given us by Pro- 

 fessors Love joy, Eitter and others, I am now 

 come to a point where I do not know at all 

 what vitalism means. I once had at least a 

 personal meaning for the word. But as I 

 note the references to Driesch and Bergson in 

 this book of Professors Geddes and Thomson 

 and then read their chapter— Geddes and 

 Thomson's chapter — on " The Evolution Proc- 

 ess Once More Eeinterpreted," and see that 

 natural selection is for them the work " of 

 Siva, not of Brahma," I am going hereafter 

 to think of them as vitalists! To such a 

 misunderstanding of vitalism and vitalists 

 can one come through persistent reading about 

 things and persons thus catalogued! 



But let no one avoid this excellent little 

 book about evolution because of fear of taint 

 from vitalism. Probably no one else will find 

 any vitalism in it; the authors perhaps least 

 of all! V. L. K 



Stanfoed University, Cal. 



British and Foreign Building Stones. A 

 Descriptive Catalogue of the Specimens in 

 the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. By 

 John "Watson. 



Tinder the above caption Mr. John Watson 

 has published a compact little volume of 483 

 pages descriptive of a collection of building 

 stones prepared by him and installed in the 



Sedgwick Museum of Cambridge, England. 

 The collection comprises upwards of eleven 

 hundred specimens prepared in the form of 

 4i inch cubes " the sides of which are dressed 

 in the usual style adopted for the purposes 

 for which the stone is generally used in the 

 region from which the specimen comes." 

 Each specimen is accompanied by a label 

 giving the commercial name of the stone, its 

 stratigraphical position, name and locality of 

 the quarry and name and address of the 

 owner. The individual labels state the color, 

 average chemical composition, weight per 

 cubic foot, and crushing strength so far as 

 data are available. 



Two hundred and forty-four pages of the 

 catalogue are, however, given up to descrip- 

 tive matter in which the stones are taken up 

 according to their geological distribution, and 

 it is this portion which will be of greatest 

 value to those not having immediate access to 

 the collection. 



The collection is arranged according to the 

 geological horizons, with the exception of the 

 igneous rocks, which are divided into plutonic 

 and volcanic. The portion of the work rela- 

 ting to the rocks of Great Britain contains 

 much interesting historical matter and ob- 

 servations relative to the weathering of the 

 rocks. 



No illustrations are attempted, but there is 

 a very full index and it is evident that a great 

 deal of discrimination has been made in get- 

 ting together the collection as well as in com- 

 piling the book which deserves the name of 

 " handbook " rather than simply " descriptive 

 catalogue." 



George P. Merrill 



TEE ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTB0PET8- 

 ICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 The twelfth annual meeting of the Astronomical 

 and Astrophysieal Society of America was held in 

 the Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, Canada, on 

 August 23, 24 and 25, 1911. In opening the first 

 session. President E. C. Pickering called attention 

 to the fact that this was the first meeting of the 

 society held outside of the United States. Welcome 

 to Ottawa was extended to the society by Dr. W. 



