BOOK REVIEWS 



The New Systematics 



The New Systematics, Edited by Julian Huxley. Pp. 583. Oxford. 1940. 

 $6.00. 



Since the first of the really important reorganizations of the 

 Linnaean "Natural System" during the early part of the nineteenth 

 century, there has been a rather fundamental argument among 

 taxonomists as to the function and scope of their profession. 

 Some have held — and it is today a common view — that the taxono- 

 mist should concern himself solely with the naming of specimens ; 

 that to be interested in the phylogeny of the organisms which they 

 represent was a harmless pastime to be indulged in only as a sort 

 of mental gymnastics. But even so, these same taxonomists always 

 welcomed a somewhat more inclusive appellation, that of System- 

 atist, thus admitting that they were making some conscious attempt 

 to organize the world's biota according to its relationships. The 

 various "systems" used by contemporary taxonomists attest the 

 lively controversies yet in progress concerning this matter of 

 phylogeny. 



With the rapid development of the fields of genetics and 

 cytology, particularly during the last three decades, it was hoped 

 that these closely related sciences would do much toward dis- 

 entangling the broader and more perplexing problems concerning 

 the phylogeny of organisms. But as yet these hopes have not been 

 realized. And this is nowhere more clearly emphasized than in 

 this volume on "The New Systematics" for repeatedly, and even 

 by the most optimistic of its various authors, it is shown that, so 

 far, we have real data only on what can be termed micro-evolution. 



The important thing, however, is not that we have not as yet 

 solved the larger problems of phylogeny, but that we now have 

 the means and techniques at hand for a study and analysis of the 

 unit upon which the systematist must put his most careful atten- 

 tion : the species. In his Foreword, Huxley admits that "the new 

 systematics is not yet in being: before it is born, the mass of new 

 facts and ideas which the last two or three decades have hurled 

 at us must be digested, correlated, and synthesized." After reading 



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