June 25, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



995 



Lamarckism, with natural selection as 'a second- 

 ary agent,' and as such it differs widely from 

 the hypothesis with which Professor Mark 

 Baldwin is concerned. 



C. Lloyd Morgan. 

 University College, Bristol, Eng. 



SCIENTIFIC LITER A TUBE. 



A Treatise on Bochs, Rock- Weathering and Soils. 



By George P. Merrill. New York, The 



Macmillan Company. 1897. Pp. 411. 25 



pis., 42 figs, in text. $4.00. 



Professor Merrill is already known to the 

 public as the author of ' Stones for Building 

 and Decoration,' of a guide to the geological 

 collections of the United States National Mu- 

 seum, and to geologists as well by his valuable 

 contributions to the subject of rock- weathering- 

 The present work is a resume of his own inves- 

 tigations of rock disintegration and decomposi- 

 tion rounded out by an abstract of the litera- 

 ture of the subject. The book is a welcome ad- 

 dition to the already numerous aids to the study 

 of rocks. It is particularly important in its 

 bearing upon the sedimentary rocks and the 

 soils which have not as yet received the careful 

 examination which has been bestowed upon the 

 igneous rocks. 



The author's plan is in its outlines simple 

 and logical. The igneous rocks are treated as 

 what may be termed original rocks, from which 

 all others are derived. Following them is a 

 description of the metamorphic, vein and clas- 

 tic rocks. After this is given the manner of 

 disintegration and decomposition of these rocks. 

 In general, the text follows a natural cycle of 

 change in those rocks which are exposed to the 

 direct action of the atmosphere and surface 

 processes. 



Unfortunately, the details of the plan have 

 led to much repetition of subject-matter, which 

 might have been avoided by a little attention. 

 This duplication is particularly brought to mind 

 by the similarity of the phrase when it appears. 

 Thus we read in regard to slaty cleavage : 



P. 155. In such cases the bedding is not in- 

 frequently indicated by the dark bands or ' rib- 

 bons ' which are so evident on a split surface. 



Again : 



P. 171. In such cases the true bedding plane 

 is often determined only by the dark bands, or 

 ribbons, by which the split slates are traversed. 



Eskers and kames are described on p. 290 

 and again on p. 356 in essentially the same 

 words. 



Some terms are used before they are ex- 

 plained, as, e. g., metamorphism, in the intro- 

 ductory chapter. This is particularly notice- 

 able in the notes upon the occurrence of minerals 

 and from the pedagogical standpoint is a defect 

 in the book. Furthermore, it is redundant and 

 unnecessary, since the information is given again 

 in its proper place in the chapter on rocks. 



A few passages in the text are so clearly am- 

 biguous as to be explained only on the ground 

 of careless proof-reading. Thus, on p. 108, 

 there is the meaningless statement concerning 

 the manganese oxides, "which, though wide in 

 in their distribution, are found in such abun- 

 dance as to constitute rock masses in compara- 

 tive rarity." 



Again, on p. 36, we read of concretions 

 "which may not so closely simulate animal 

 forms as to be very misleading." Often for not 

 in this sentence would bring the statement into 

 the realm of the understanding. More blind 

 yet is the statement on p. 236 that " oligoclase 

 always gave way before the oligoclase." 



There are several other slips which one may 

 expect to find in a first edition, as, on p. 64, the 

 phrase 'apparently evident,' and on p. 292, 

 "where the included debris is deposited on 

 melting," the context shows that we should 

 read 'on the melting of the ice ;' on page 163 

 we find Eozoon Canadenses for Eozoon Canadense, 

 elsewhere correctly given. 



On p. 393 the reference to the ' common 

 earthworm ' is sufficiently clear without the 

 parenthetical phrase, ' the angleworm of the 

 New England disciples of Izaak Walton,' ten 

 words of undisguised padding. 



The statement on p. 356 regarding the Rhone 

 would lead a student unfamiliar with the course 

 of that river to suppose it was a subglacial 

 stream, like the Yahtse in Alaska perhaps, 

 whereas only its uppermost torrential portion 

 occupies this relation to the ice. But the En- 

 glish of a scientific book is perhaps something 

 aside from its real self. Happily there is less 



