147 



the improvement of the drug products by cultural conditions. 

 Approximately 190 species are now cultivated in the United 

 States while 178 species are growing wild, and in addition to this 

 number probably 50 or 75 species from Europe and other 

 countries might be profitably cultivated. 



Part II. — Pharmacognosy — dealing with crude drugs and 

 powdered drugs and food, consists of extended and greatly im- 

 proved presentations of the same subjects as in the older edition. 

 The attention attracted to this part of the work and especially 

 the elaboration of keys for the identification of the crude and 

 powdered drugs has already been noticed in Torreya, It need 

 only be added that the treatment has been greatly improved by 

 the addition of numerous illustrations, and, in the chapter on drugs 

 and foods, drawings and descriptions of the histological elements 

 and contents of over 200 foods, spices, and drugs are given. 



The work closes with a chapter on the various classes of 

 reagents and on the technique involved in sectioning and mounting 

 of specimens. Carlton C. Curtis. 



Cook's Aspects of Kinetic Evolution * 



The method by which the present order of things in the uni- 

 verse has been brought about is a problem whose solution has 

 challenged the philosophically inclined from the time of the early 

 Greeks and earlier to the present day. Among the various 

 hypotheses that have been proposed may be mentioned the 

 following : 



I. Special creation. God made things ; i. e., we do not know 

 how the present order came about. The question is not a proper 

 one for scientific inquiry. (Cuvier, Agassiz.) 



II. Evolution. The present order came about as the result of 

 a series of gradual changes. The changes by which the present 

 order of living things resulted constitute organic evolution. 

 Theories of organic evolution have been mther static, regarding 

 the organism as changing only when acted upon from without ; 

 or kinetic, regarding the organism as changing spontaneously. 



*Cook, O. F. Aspects of Kinetic Evolution. Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci. 8 : 197- 

 403. 1907. Washington, D. C. Published by the Academy. 



