JASIARY 4, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



21 



The latter treatise and the Ehctrmty and 

 Magnetigm of Maxwell have stimulatetl a 

 wonderful activity in the study of mechani- 

 eal ideas ; and, as a result, a number of higli- 

 elass elementary books on pure mechanics 

 have appeared during the past decade. The 

 work of Professor Ziwet is one of the best of 

 this class. It is up to date and distinctively 

 in touch with the j)rogressive spirit of the 

 age. In accordance with the modern order 

 of presentation. Part I. is devoted to kine- 

 matics, Part II. to statics as a special case 

 of dynamics, and Part III. to kinetics. No 

 one acquainted with the magnitude of theo- 

 retical mechanics would expect to find a 

 complete treatise even in the space of 600 

 octavo pages. It goes without saying, in 

 fact, that he who would now do battle in 

 the fields of mechanics should be armed 

 with a battery of treatises. But it must be 

 admitted that tlie work of Professor Ziwet 

 covers the ground exceedingly well, giving 

 a fairly good idea of nearly everj- important 

 principle and process trom the composition 

 of vectors to the kinetics of variable systems. 

 The mode of treatment, though distinctly 

 analytical, is tempered by the introduction 

 of geometrical illustrations and analogues 

 where they serve to give clearness and fixity 

 of ideas. A noteworthy feature of the work 

 is the lai-ge number of references to the 

 literature of the science. These references 

 alone make the work one of the best that 

 can fall into the hands of the enterprising 

 student. The typography and press work 

 are worthy of the distinguished publishers 

 under whose auspices the volumes appear. 

 A few misprints and a few inaccuracies of 

 expression are visible in the work ; but 

 these are inevitable in a first edition of such 

 a treatise. A speedy demand for a second 

 edition will, we hope, enable the author not 

 only to remove these trifling defects, but 

 also to add an index, which will much 

 enhance the value of fhe work for purposes 

 of reference. R. S. W. 



From the Greeks to Danrin. — An oiitllue of 

 the development of the evolution idea. — By 

 Hexky Fairfikld Osbokn. — Columbia 

 University Biological Series 1. — New 

 York and London, Macmillan «S: Co., 

 1894. Pp. 259. 82.00. 

 This is a timely book. For it is time 

 that both tlie special student and the gen- 

 eral i)ublic should know that the doctrine 

 of evolution has cropped out on the surface 

 of human thought trom the period of the 

 Greek philosophers, and that it did not 

 originate with Darwin, and that natural 

 selection is not a synonym of evolution. 



The author divides his work into six 

 sections, entitled respectively : The antici- 

 pation and interpretation of nature ; Among 

 the Greeks ; The theologians and natural 

 philosophers ; The evolutionists of the 

 eighteenth century ; From Lamarck to St. 

 Hilaire ; Darwin. 



It is clearly shown that evolution has 

 reached its present completeness as a result 

 of a slow growth during the past twenty- 

 four centuries, and that Darwin owes more 

 to the Greeks than has been hitherto recog- 

 nized bj- any of us. The Greek philoso- 

 phers in biologj', as in geologj-, anticipated, 

 at least in some slight degree, modern 

 scientific philosophy. The doctrine of con- 

 tinuity in the organic and inorganic world, 

 anticipations of the monistic philoso- 

 phy, and of the evolution of life, were 

 taught by Thales and Anaximander, while 

 Aristotle spoke of some of the factors of 

 transformation, and even clearly stated the 

 principle of the survival of the fittest, 

 though he afterwards rejected it. 



The father of evolution was Empedocles, 

 who believed in spontane(ms generation, 

 that plants came first, that animal life long 

 after budded forth from the plants, and in 

 his poetry Oslioru finds the germ of the the- 

 ory of the survival of the fittest or of 

 natural selection. Democritus perceived 

 the principle of adaptation of single organs 



