Janvary 4, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



23 



history of a theoi-y which not only exphiiut; 

 the origin of lifo-fornis, but lias transformed 

 the methods of the historian, placed phil- 

 osophy on a higher plane, and immeasurably 

 widened our views of nature and of the 

 Infinite Power working in and through the 

 universe. A. 8. Packard. 



Bkowit Univee.^itv. 



Materiah for the Studijof Vaviatlon. — WiLLiAjr 

 Bateson. — London and New York, Mae- 

 millan & Co., 1894. xv -r 597 $6.50. 



Over thirtj- years ago Mr. Darwin out- 

 lined the gi-eat problems for investigation 

 in natural history, and, one after another, 

 these lines of investigation have been 

 studied bj' naturalists. Embryology, pale- 

 ontologj- and systematic classification early 

 attracted the attention of many naturalists, 

 and these branches of investigation have 

 been very thoroughly studied in the last 

 quarter of a century. Geogi-aphical distri- 

 bution was made a special subject of re- 

 search bj- Mr. Wallace and others. These 

 various lines of studj', while, of course, 

 they have not been exhausted, have cer- 

 tainly been studied to such an extent that 

 most of the valuable lessons which they 

 teach have been learned. In recent years 

 also another factor of the evolution problem, 

 namely, that of heredity, has been the 

 subject of eager research by various natursi^l- 

 ists. It is somewhat strange that the 

 problem of variation has been so universally 

 neglected except l)y Darwin's AnimaU and 

 Plants. It is upon variations in animals 

 that the whole of the theories of Darwin and 

 all evolutionary doctrines are based, but 

 while the last thirty years has seen much 

 speculation as to variations, both concern- 

 ing their causes and distribution, while 

 many illustrative instances have been ac- 

 cumulated, while nearly all the modern 

 theories of evolution are based directly 

 upon certain conceptions of variation, there 

 has been no systematic attempt to study 



this I'undanicntal problem. Sjieculative 

 zoology has always a greater attractiveness 

 to most minds than the more laborious and 

 less entertaining work of collecting facts. 

 The last twenty-fivQ yeai-s has seen an 

 abundance of publications upon evolution 

 from theoretical grounds, and while varia- 

 tions themselves have been discussed on 

 both sides of tlie Atlantic, tliese discussions 

 have been almost universally based upon a 

 few stock illustrations, and must be recog- 

 nized as without any proper foundation in 

 facts. Natural science is certainly indebted 

 to Mr. Batesun for having taken up at last 

 this branch of research which lies at the 

 ^•ery foundation of the origin of species. 

 Mr. Bateson"s liook has a very modest title, 

 and the author simplj* claims to have 

 brought together materials out of which a 

 theory of the oi-igin of species may in the 

 future be built. But this is the only 

 systematic attempt j^et made to study valua- 

 tions themselves. The present volume is 

 only the first instalment, and we are prom- 

 ised more in the future. A book of nearly 

 (iOO pages, filled with numerous illustrations, 

 describing in more or less detail variations 

 of all kinds, in all types of animals, will 

 certainly find its way into the library of 

 every naturalist who has any interest in 

 speculative thought. 



A review of this character is hardly a 

 fitting place to discuss the subjects pre- 

 sented in this work. In reading over its 

 pages there are. however, three or four 

 striking conclusions of so much general 

 theoretical im])()rtanco that they may be 

 selected as the teachings of this first volume. 

 Most prominent am(mg them stands the 

 deduction of the author that variations are 

 discontinuous. It is the theory of Darwin, 

 and, in general, of his followers, that .species 

 were produced by natural selection acting 

 u])on slight continuous variations. The 

 diiliculties of this thought were ])lain to 

 Mr. Darwin, and have liecome more plain 



