W. B. Scott — Variations and Mutations. 357 



Palaeontology has its manifest deficiencies, as well as the 

 other methods. Of these the most important is the well 

 known and oft commented on imperfection of the geological 

 record and another almost equally grave consists in the fact 

 that, except under the rarest and most favorable circumstances, 

 only the hard parts of an animal can be preserved in the fossil 

 state and very important structures and organs can only be 

 inferred from scanty data. In spite of these defects, the 

 method has certain preeminent advantages. It does not pro- 

 fess and never can hope to yield us the whole history of life, 

 but certain chapters in that history have been preserved with 

 wonderful completeness and fullness of detail. While it is 

 still impossible to avoid all preconceived ideas in the construc- 

 tion of phylogenies, there are, nevertheless, some series so 

 complete, so intimately connected, that no one doubts the real 

 relationships of their members to one another. These series, 

 which are fortunately in widely separated phyla (mammals, 

 cephalopods, brachiopods, Crustacea and echinoderms are the 

 most important in this connection) offer important evidence as 

 to the actual steps of organic descent, and consequently as to 

 the mode in which organic changes may be brought about. 

 They represent the literature by means of which the changes 

 of words have been traced from the ancient languages to the 

 modern and which have enabled etymologists to deduce the 

 laws of change and establish criteria by which derivations can 

 be thoroughly tested. 



Of late a new method of attacking the problems of morph- 

 ology has been suggested by Bateson,* viz : the study of varia- 

 tion. This book has hardly received from palaeontologists the 

 recognition which it deserves ; it is especially admirable for its 

 freedom from dogmatism, the perfect candor of spirit with 

 which it has been written and the keen criticism which 

 brushes away many of the obscuring cobwebs that have gath- 

 ered about zoological inquiry. The author recognizes the 

 deadlock which seems to threaten morphology as carried out 

 along its present lines and exposes the hollowness of the preva- 

 lent modes of " explaining " the facts of evolution by means 

 of the glib use of elaborate phrases, which too often serve as a 

 mere disguise for ignorance. These elastic terms may be so 

 manipulated as to " explain " anything and everything, but in 

 reality they explain nothing at all and only darken counsel by 

 diverting attention from the actual difficulty. Out of this 

 labyrinth of speculation and uncorrected facts, Bateson 

 believes that the best chance of escape lies in the study of 



* Materials for the Study of "Variation, treated with especial Regard to Dis- 

 continuity in the Origin of Species. London and New York, Macmillan & Co. 

 1894. 



