OCTOBEE 23, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



621 



tures, etc., wliich result from change. Le Conte 

 gives a general outline of processes under his 

 first heading. Dynamical Geology, but reserves 

 much of their amplification to be introduced 

 under Structural Geology in explanation of the 

 principal products of change, namely, rocks, 

 rock structures and mountains. 



A few subjects are developed by the presen- 

 tation and discussion of alternative theories, 

 and these serve the important end of illustra- 

 ting the method of scientific progress. Others 

 are not carried beyond the safe ground of es- 

 tablished result, and yet others are confessedly 

 treated from the personal standpoint of the 

 author, who supports his views by argument. 

 For the professional and critical reader the 

 passages last mentioned are doubtless the least 

 convincing and satisfactory of the treatise, but 

 they strengthen it in another way by exhibiting 

 the author in his proper character as an able 

 investigator and original thinker. Moreover, 

 the literary style, which, albeit, is ever lucid 

 a,nd direct, often assumes the characteristics of 

 a spoken address, so that the reader is dis- 

 tinctly conscious of the writer's individuality. 



Only five years have elapsed since the last 

 revision of the book, and the amount of change 

 now introduced is not large, though enough to 

 require a complete resetting of type. Perhaps 

 it is best expressed by saying that in a total of 

 one thousand figures sixty are new. Among 

 the subjects amplified are earthquakes, igneous 

 rocks, geologic climates, trilobites and Mesozoic 

 and Cenozoic vertebrates. The Cambrian is 

 given higher taxonomic rank than before, but 

 the Algonkian is not recognized. 



It is, of course, easy to pick flaws, for the 

 broadest investigator and most scholarly stu- 

 dent is not omniscient. Our author tells us 

 that tideless waters are essential to the produc- 

 tion of deltas, and the flux and reflux of tides 

 to the creation of estuaries. Even Chesapeake 

 Bay and the fiords of Norway are ascribed to 

 tidal action, and the function of submergence 

 in the origination of estuaries is almost ignored. 

 Not only is the old view retained, that gneiss 

 is a stage in the making of granite, and that 

 the Archean consists essentially of metamor- 

 phosed sediments ; but no mention even is made 

 of the view prevalent among modern investiga- 



tors, that gneiss is usually altered granite, and 

 that the Archean complex consists largely of 

 altered igneous rocks. The student of moun- 

 tain dynamics could wish that the author's 

 hypothetic explanation of the Basin ranges were 

 stated with less confidence ; the physiographer 

 that crude sketches by early explorers of the 

 Grand Canyon of the Colorado and the Mau- 

 vaises Terres were replaced by more realistic 

 drawings ; and the biologist that a more modern 

 classification of living forms were employed. 



But these and other blemishes may freely be 

 forgiven to a book that sets forth the broad 

 generalizations and fundamental principles of 

 its particular science in orderly and attractive 

 form, and at the same time illustrates and em- 

 bodies the true and essential spirit of all science. 



G. K. Gilbert. 



The History of Mankind. By Prof. Friedrich 

 Eatzel. Translated from the second Ger- 

 man edition by A. J. Butler, M. A. With 

 introduction by E. B. Tylor, D. C. L., with 

 colored plates, maps and illustrations. Vol. 

 I. pp. 468. London and New York, Mac- 

 millan&Co. 1896. Price, $4.00. 

 Prof. Eatzel, of Leipzig, has achieved a well- 

 earned reputation as a writer and teacher of 

 geography in its relation to man and human 

 culture. His chief work, ' V51kerkunde,' ap- 

 peared in 1885, and some years later a second 

 edition was called for, of which the above is a 

 translation. It is a book intended for the gen- 

 eral public rather than the scientific student, 

 and in that respect will prove less satisfactory 

 to the latter than, for instance. Prof. Waltz's 

 ' Anthropologic. ' Eatzel does not give refer- 

 ences to authorities for his statements, thus 

 avoiding notes and the discussion of small 

 points, but leaving his reader without an aid 

 to further researches. His style is clear and 

 pleasant, and the translator has, as a rule, done 

 his part of the task cleverly, and given an easy 

 English rendering to the original. The illustra- 

 tions are abundant, accurate and well printed, 

 and aid materially in bringing the descriptions 

 home to the mind. 



This first volume includes two 'Books,' one 

 on the principles of Ethnography and the 

 second on ' The American- Pacific Group of 



