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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Heredity. By J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., &c. John Murray. 

 (Second Edition.) 



The problem of heredity is not confined to the sciences of 

 botany and zoology, and cannot be separated from a human 

 factor of the highest importance with which most men are con- 

 versant. Hath not the evolutionary potter power over the clay ? 

 and is the iniquity of the father visited upon the children unto 

 the third and fourth generation ? The question of the hereditary 

 transmission of ideas and experience is approached in different 

 methods by the biologist and psychologist, while are not ideas 

 and experience in most cases acquired characters ? 



This book, the second edition of which now appears, has 

 already gained a consensus of opinion as being the best and 

 most complete publication on the subject. It refers to all the 

 best work and investigations that have been done or made at 

 home and abroad, and is biological in treatment and purview. 

 The reader is soon familiar with the steady progress of Mendelism 

 in evolutionary conceptions, and, as Professor Thomson clearly 

 states : — " Now, there is no need to hamper the Evolution Theory 

 by restricting selection to minute variations. We know that 

 sports, mutations, or discontinuous variations are frequent, and 

 that they are remarkably stable in their hereditary transmission. 

 We know also that many domestic races have, as a matter of 

 fact, arisen by sudden mutation." This view strengthens the 

 value of the Darwinian theory by restricting its operations, and 

 disposes of a superfluous value sometimes enunciated as "the 

 all-sufficiency of natural selection." Many inheritances are of 

 doubtful value, many are more than valueless. In human 

 psychology we see the baser qualities more frequently trans- 

 mitted, and in human biology dangerous tendencies an un- 

 welcome inheritance ; genius a " sport " scarcely transmitted 

 beyond the second generation. 



Prof. Thomson's volume is brought in this edition thoroughly 

 up to date, and it will puzzle the reader to find any responsible 



