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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Animal Life : a First Book of Zoology. By D. S. Jordan, 

 Ph.D., &c., and V. L. Kellogg, M.S., &c. Henry Kimpton. 



Since the publication of Semper's ' Animal Life,' we know of 

 no book that has so surveyed the field of animal bionomics as 

 this volume. The standpoint of the authors, however, is very 

 different. Semper was outside the cult of Neo-Darwinism ; 

 Jordan and Kellogg will probably satisfy the canons of that 

 apparently now dominant school of thought. When the per- 

 plexed evolutionist, wearied and unsettled with the new theories 

 of advanced disciples, now and again goes back to the teaching 

 of the master, and reperuses that wonderful argument in the 

 ' Origin of Species,' he finds that Darwin records the facts and 

 seeks an explanation for them in the doctrine of " natural 

 selection." In the modern literature the method seems some- 

 what reversed, " natural selection " being taken as the fact, and 

 the details of animal life as its evidence. There may be little 

 intrinsic difference in the two positions, but the first requires 

 argument, whilst the second relies on evidence too little sub- 

 mitted to cross-examination. Throughout the volume we are 

 noticing this latter position is very pronounced, and we watch 

 the natural transition of theories into dogmas. 



The chapter on " Instinct and Reason " is one among the 

 many interesting subjects discussed in this suggestive book, and 

 here the argument enters the psychological arena. Our authors de- 

 fine instinct as " automatic obedience to the demands of external 

 conditions," and state that it " differs from other allied forms of 

 response to external conditions in being hereditary, continuous 

 from generation to generation." But though it is stated " this 

 sufficiently distinguishes it from reason," we are told that the 

 line between the two " cannot be sharply drawn." This rather 

 minimises the subsequent complaint that the " confusion of 

 highly perfected instinct with intellect is very common in popular 

 discussions." 



