October 21, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



201 



of the times, and eminently satisfactory ; and, if the book is referred 

 to half as frequently as it should he, our schoolhouses will be 

 healthier and better adapted to serve the purpose for which they 

 are erected. 



Aziimiih. A Treatise on this Subject. By Joseph Edgar 

 Craig. New York, Wiley. 4°. 



The determination of azimuth comes up as an important practi- 

 cal problem on board ship, in ascertaining the variation or deviation 

 of the compass, or on land in fixing a true meridian line, and it is 

 desirable that the necessary astronomical observations should be 

 made under conditions which give, at least theoretically, the most 

 accurate results attainable. Lieutenant-Commander Craig's book 

 is a mathematical study of the spherical triangle with respect to 

 the azimuth problem, supplementing the text-books, and he calls 

 attention to certain statements in the latter on some points refer- 

 ring to the most favorable conditions of observation, which he re- 

 gards as misleading. 



After devoting several pages to the elementary formula for the 

 solution of a spherical triangle, and the differential variations of its 

 parts, he considers the conditions of maximum and minimum errors, 

 and the most favorable and least favorable position of a heavenly 

 body for observation in a given latitude. Two-thirds of the text 

 are then taken up with an analysis of the equations to the loci of 

 maximum and minimum errors, and the book concludes with some 

 thirty plates illustrating these loci. 



The Ethical Import of Darwinism. By JACOB GouLD SCHUR- 

 MAN. New York. 



The excitement following the appearance of Darwin's works 

 rendered a fair criticism of their merit and import impossible. The 

 younger generation, who had been trained to some extent to think 

 by the methods of which Darwin forms a model, were ready for the 

 announcement, and were at once transformed into a body of enthu- 

 siastic followers. The older thinkers, and especially such as were 

 by their profession devoted to upholding a theory of the universe 

 established by tradition, and in entire opposition to the discoveries 

 of science, met the new theory with violent protestations of incon- 

 sistency with established beliefs, and denounced it as fraught with 

 danger to morality and the religious sentiment. It is only within a 

 few years that the smoke has been lifted off the battle-field, and 

 made it possible to calmly contemplate the justness and the out- 

 come of the battle. As has frequently happened before, it is found 

 that the party who asked, not " Is it true ?" but " What does it lead 

 to?" has been the loser. The general point of view of which 

 Darwinism is an expression, the ingenious and valuable explanations 

 which that master-hand collected, the healthy ferment penetrating 

 through all departments of knowledge that his writing brought 

 about, — all these have become the inalienable inheritance of man- 

 kind. Ofi the other hand, the majority of evolutionists will admit 

 that their doctrines have been regarded as solving certain vexed 

 problems of mankind which really remain as unsolved as ever ; and 

 the province and exclusiveness of the mechanism of development 

 which Darwin discovered have been likewise exaggerated. Recent 

 writers, such as Romanes, are acknowledging the former and sup- 

 plementing the latter. The one has been termed a ' pseudo-Dar- 

 winism,' and in addition to natural selection we speak of 'physio- 

 logical selection,' and so on. 



Professor Schurman's book gives every mark of having been 

 written in the latter half of this decade. There is no attempt to 

 dwarf or warp (much less ridicule) the evolutionary position : on 

 the contrary, its strictly scientific character is appreciated, and its 

 main tenets admirably sketched. Contrary to the usual method in 

 such discussions, the author has taken the trouble to find out what 

 Darwinism is. Nor do these negative virtues complete the list of 

 the merits of the book. The author practically illustrates, by a vig- 

 orous and intelligible style, his opinion that " there is no theory, or 

 criticism, or system (not even Kant's or Hegel's), that cannot be 

 clearly expressed in a language which in Locke's hands was strong 

 and homely, in Berkeley's rich and subtle, in Hume's easy, graceful, 

 and finished, and in all three alike plain, transparent, and unmistak- 

 able." Moreover, each chapter is devoted to the expression of a 

 real point without irrelevant matter or needless repetition. The 



several chapters form a logical train of argument, and the book is 

 thus worthy of the attention of the scientist. The unfortunate fact 

 that so many works in this field are strikingly deficient in all these 

 qualities makes it necessary to signalize the exceptional character 

 of this work. 



Professor Schurman holds that ' evolution ' is a strictly scientific 

 hypothesis warranted by facts, and is to be accepted, whether for 

 the sake of argument or as a real belief, by all who seek to deter- 

 mine its ethical import. He denies that the system of utilitarian 

 hedonism which Darwin and Darwinists have attached to the 

 theory is at all a legitimate inference from that theory, and regards 

 it as accidental, and due to the fact that these men were raised in 

 this school of ethics. Darwinism is to him consistent with any 

 theory of ethics, and does not favor one above another. As long as 

 evolution simply explains the method of development, and not the 

 fact that there is something to develop, a further philosophic theory 

 is made necessary. In the second place, the author holds that the 

 attempt of Darwin himself, as of his followers, to account for the 

 existence of a moral sense, is deficient, and does not make unne- 

 cessary the assumption of an omnipotent and authoritative 'ought.' 



To the reviewer's mind, this argument is open to the following 

 criticism. In the first place, the ' ethical import of Darwinism ' that 

 we to-day are interested in is not that here discussed, but consists 

 in very practical and momentous questions : ' How does heredity 

 ' affect responsibility ? ' ' What does evolution show to be the best 

 method of treating criminal's.''' It is in this field of practical ethics, 

 formerly neglected or dogmatically passed upon, that the spirit of 

 evolutionary research has and will radically modify our views and 

 practices. Second, the author fails to recognize that the kind of 

 chance with which evolution deals is synonymous with 'something 

 that needs no explanation.' If I hazard the guess that a die I am 

 about to throw will fall on ' six,' and it really does so, I say it is 

 ' chance,' and thereby mean that it needs no further explanation. The 

 fact that this 'chance' may have momentous consequences does 

 not change its character. That there is a strong temptation to be 

 dissatisfied with this casual answer will be readily admitted, and it 

 is this temptation to which the author has yielded in a portion of 

 his criticism. Finally, the fact that the followers of Darwin tend 

 to take a view of life easily distinguishable from that of those who 

 oppose him, is itself significant of the ethical import of Darwinism. 

 It may be true that it is a priori as possible to be a Darwinist and 

 at the same time an adherent of any one of a half-dozen schools of 

 ethics ; but, as a matter of fact, ethics takes its character quite as 

 much from the relative order and dignity of the several virtues lead- 

 ing to the sicntmum bonum as from the view of the summum bonum 

 itself. 



It would be unjust to close this notice without calling attention 

 to the plea for a science of historical ethics, and the contribution to 

 it, by way of criticism, of current theories of 'family development,' 

 to which the last chapter is devoted. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



A VOLUME of great interest to the meteorologists of the country 

 has recently been issued by the National Academy of Sciences, con- 

 taining the first chapter of a revision, by Prof. Elias Loomis, of his 

 numerous ' Contributions to Meteorology,' or studies based on the 

 daily weather-maps of the Signal Service during the last thirteen 

 years. These contributions in their original form, as presented to 

 the National Academy and published semi-annually in the American 

 Journal of Science, considered one topic after another in sequence, 

 determined by convenience rather than by system, and therefore 

 were greatly in need of orderly revision for use by the many students 

 who must make frequent reference to them. Translations and ab- 

 stracts of the originals have appeared in France, England, and Italy; 

 and a serviceable review and discussion of the results gained have 

 recently been prepared by Mr. H. H. Clayton for the Anierica?t 

 Meteorological Journal; but a revision by the author of the papers 

 himself has naturally an interest and a value of its own. Professor 

 Loomis has performed a threefold service in this work, — first, in 

 utilizing the weather-maps to an extent not approached by any one 

 else in the country ; again, in now systematizing the results gained ; 

 and, most of all, in developing his method of simple, inductive in- 



