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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS, 



Darivinism and Lamar deism, Old and New. By Frederick 

 Wollaston Hutton, F.R.S., &c. Duckworth & Co. 



Darwinism no longer flows an undivided stream into the 

 evolutionary ocean ; its banks are submerged and offshoots 

 abound, all ultimately reaching the same goal, but by different 

 channels. These reproduced lectures must be read by all who 

 try to keep in touch with the ever-increasing literature of this 

 engrossing subject. Mr. Hutton states that, " in 1887, when the 

 first of these lectures was given, Darwinism was a compact 

 body of doctrine, obscured only by the writings of certain 

 philosophers who imagined that natural selection was a cause of 

 variation." ... "In 1899 things are different. The confusion 

 alluded to has much increased. Conceptions totally irrelevant 

 to Darwinism have been fastened on it, and all kinds of miscon- 

 ceptions have grown up. Indeed, things have fared so badly 

 since Darwin's death, that I have seen it stated that his flock has 

 scattered, and that the great theory he so successfully reared is 

 in danger of falling to pieces." 



Mr. Hutton does not belong to the school of Wallace, which 

 enunciates the all-sufficiency of natural selection, but is a " Neo- 

 Darwinian," accepting Darwin's teaching, and supplementing 

 " the theory of natural selection with methods of isolation, which 

 had been either overlooked or had not been brought into suffi- 

 cient prominence by Mr. Darwin," thus more or less embracing 

 the views of Moritz, Wagner, and Romanes. He joins forces 

 with the pure Darwinians in his position as an opponent of the 

 teaching of the " Neo-Lamarckians." 



The reader will notice without surprise the recrudescence 

 of much pure teleology, which is now far from uncommon. Thus 

 we are told, " there are a number of elementary substances in the 

 world which appear to be of no use except to man ; for example, 



