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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Colour in Nature, a Study in Biology, By Marion J. Newbigin, 

 D.Sq. (Lond.). John Murray. 



The colours of plants and animals, or rather their super- 

 ficial colourations, have always attracted naturalists, generally 

 exciting admiration, and sometimes provoking enquiry. In 

 earlier days problems of this description were disposed of by the 

 invocation of teleology, or the doctrine of design, which afforded 

 no explanation, and simply demonstrated an unknown quantity. 

 The Darwinian epoch introduced what may be called the Utili- 

 tarian Theory, by which animal colouration was controlled by 

 " natural selection " for useful purposes in the struggle for 

 existence. In each case design is implied, but in the one it is 

 more or less a theological conception, while in the other it is 

 represented as a natural factor. The result is that teleology has 

 died a natural death, while the Utilitarian Theory has become 

 rampant. The " simple primrose " which was " nothing more " 

 to the amiable teleologist, has developed into the mighty Banian 

 tree by the aid of current theory. We had almost forgotten that 

 colour represented a physical or chemical process, in our estima- 

 tion of its adaptive and protective nature. 



The purpose of Miss Newbigin's book may be said to bring 

 back the subject of colouration in nature to a technical treat- 

 ment; to remove it from the domain of pure theory ; to glance at 

 it throughout the vegetable and animal kingdoms ; and to describe 

 its essence without either attempting to explain its purpose, 

 or accepting some other very feasible and popular explanations 

 now current. The differences between pigmental and structural 

 colours are fully explained, and those colours classified. In the 

 first, as is well known, haemoglobin and chlorophyll play their 

 great parts, while pigments, " which are definitely waste products, 

 or are produced by the modification of waste products," are now 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. III., January, 1899. d 



