NOVEMBEE 20, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



763 



her work, yet that work in itself reveals a per- 

 sonality which must have influenced Romanes' 

 career profoundly, contributing to his develop- 

 ment and to that joyous note to which his life 

 seemed attuned until the last years of desperate 

 illness. 



Romanes was born at Kingston, Canada, May 

 20, 1848, and died May 23, 1894. His life, 

 however, belongs wholly to England. His 

 boyhood afforded little opportunity for develop- 

 ment, and brought no revelation of his ability, 

 nor was it until he entered Cambridge Univer- 

 sity that his strength began to show, being 

 called forth largely by the influence of the dis- 

 tinguished physiologist, Michael Foster. While 

 at Cambridge he read for the first time Dar- 

 win's works, which became the lastingly domi- 

 nant influence of his life. Darwin's theory 

 satisfied at once his appreciation of scientific 

 exactitude and his love of broad philosophic 

 problems. The great naturalist formed a close 

 and touching friendship with his young and 

 eager disciple. Their correspondence fills much 

 of the first third of the volume. It continued 

 until Darwin's death. It is most interesting, 

 not only to naturalists, but also from its revela- 

 tions of character. 



Romanes' life was that of a student and with 

 no very striking external events. His biog- 

 raphy, therefore, has no element of adventure, 

 but shows us the role of one who was active in 

 shaping biological opinion on some of the most 

 momentous questions of the time, pangenesis, 

 the inheritance of acquired characters, the 

 origin of instinct and the evolution of mind. 

 His publications show the man's intellectual 

 magnitude ; his biography shows the enthu- 

 siasm, the whole-hearted devotion to truth, the 

 generous love of fair play and hatred of per- 

 sonal controversy, which marked him as a 

 character apart. 



When Darwin's Life and Letters were pub- 

 lished, the fact that he gi-adually lost his in- 

 terest in poetry and art made so profound an 

 impression that many began asking whether 

 science made life so barren. It is therefore re- 

 markable that Darwin's foremost disciple 

 in England should have been distinguished 

 by an almost passionate love of both music 

 and poetry, and have also had a deep relig- 



ious instinct. The story of his religious con- 

 victions is most significant. In 1873 he won the 

 Burney prize essay on ' Christian Prayer and 

 General Laws,' and only three years later issued 

 his agnostic book, ' A Candid Examination of 

 Theism.' "It is an able piece of work," says 

 the editor, ' ' and is marked throughout by a 

 lofty spirit, a profound sadness and a belief 

 (which years after he criticised sharply) in the 

 exclusive light of the scientific method in the 

 Court of Reason." His last work, published 

 posthumously, was * Thoughts on Religion,' the 

 outward expression of the inner change by 

 which he returned to Christian faith. 



Romanes had also the poetic faculty, and 

 some of his sonnets are striking. His personal 

 ties were numerous, varied and close, as was 

 natural to a man of so many endowments and 

 of a sympathetic temperament. It is singular 

 to note that he cared comparatively little about 

 painting or the beauties of nature. 



The material for the biography is rich in sci- 

 entific interest and still richer in personal human 

 interest, for Romanes himself was rich in gifts. 

 We are grateful to his wife for so presenting 

 the material that many who did not know him 

 can learn to appreciate him and gain encourage- 

 ment from his example of industry, sincerity 

 and fortitude. C. S. Minot. 



On Certain Problems of Vertebrate Development. 



John Beard. Jena, Gustav Fischer. 1896. 



8vo. 



This pamphlet of 77 pages is published to se- 

 cure attention to the author's theory of animal 

 development. He has claimed, in previous 

 publications, that each individual begins with 

 one generation sexually produced, which pro- 

 duces another genration asexually, the second 

 generation becoming the adult animal. So far 

 as has yet appeared, this theory rests upon the 

 author's observation tliat the epidermis con- 

 tributes, in early embryonic stages, to the pro- 

 duction of nerve cells. The transformations of 

 these cells he has not followed; hence, he con- 

 cludes, they have disappeared or are transient; 

 hence the whole embryo is a transient structure 

 and, therefore, represents a separate generation. 

 It may be questioned whether a failure to study 

 the fate of certain cells in an embryo is a suf- 



