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REVIEWS 



Macfarlane's the Causes and Course of'OrKanic'.Evolutlon'*' 



This is an unusual book in several particulars, and notably in 

 its wide scope, covering ncarh' the entire field of exolution on 

 the earth, from "Ether and Energy in the evolution of matter" 

 (Chapter I) to such topics as "Morals as a factor in organic 

 evolution and their biological origin" (Chapter XXIII), "Re- 

 ligion as a factor in human evolution " (Chapters XXIV-XXVI), 

 "Human organization in relation to environment" (Chapter 

 XXIX), and "Probable future advances in human evolution" 

 (Chapter XXX). Chapters I to VIII deal with the evolution 

 of energy and of matter, inorganic and organic ; Chapter IX with 

 the idea and term (first elaborated and used by this author) of 

 "Proenvironment"; Chapters XI-XIII with "The evolution 

 of plants"; Chapters XIV-XVIII with "The evolution of 

 animals"; and Chapters XIX-XXX with the evolution of man 

 and questions closely connected therewith in the realms, not 

 only of the physical, but of the intellectual, moral, religious, and 

 social. 



It is unusual to find a recent book dealing with the evolution 

 of plant and animal forms, and having only 28 illustrations; 

 and equally unusual to find a book of such pretensions as this 

 one disregarding, or considering only briefly or incidental^, some 

 of the working hypotheses that loom largest in contemporary 

 research and in recent scientific periodicals and other publi- 

 cations — such hypotheses as, for example, the mutation theory 

 and Mendelism, and the recent work in genetics, and eugenics. 

 This is in harmony, however, with what appears to be the author's 

 attitude toward some of this later work. For example, noting 

 that Mendel and "nearly all of his followers have treated of 

 naked eye appearances" to the neglect of cytological details, 

 and referring to his own well known study of "unisexual and 

 bisexual heredity" (1883), where "there is no dominance or 

 recessiveness shown," he "considers that most of the cases of 



* Macfarlane, John Muirhead. The causes and course of organic evolution. 

 A study in bioenergetics. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1918. Pp. i-ix -|- 875. 

 28 figs., three colored plates, and one uncolored. S4.00. 



