NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 239 



Insects ' (1875), ' Ants, Bees, and Wasps ' (1882), and especially with 

 reference to the last subject rightfully and at once obtained the 

 verdict of being an original, patient, and reliable observer. To the 

 ordinary reader he will be remembered as opening the discussion — 

 now some years ago — on the " Hundred Best Books," and by the 

 industrial toilers as the introducer of two welcome and beneficial 

 Acts of Parliament — the Bank Holiday (1871) and the Shop Hours 

 Acts (1886 and 1904). 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Problems of Life and Reproduction. By Marcus Hartog, M.A., 

 D.Sc, &c. John Murray. 



Many readers will wish that Dr. Hartog had not been pre- 

 vented from following his original aim in this publication, which 

 he tells us, was to produce " A general treatise on Beproduction, 

 suited to the layman interested in biological questions, and 

 without any technical preparation for their study." He has, 

 however, been compelled to alter his plan, and has reissued a 

 collection of essays previously published at different times and 

 in various journals, but these have been in some cases re- 

 modelled, and all have been brought up to date. 



Of these, the two that will probably be read with most avidity 

 are " The Transmission of Acquired Characters," and " The 

 Biological Writings of Samuel Butler." The first is combative 

 to the views of Weismann and the " Neo-Darwinians," and is 

 in a sense frankly " Neo-Lamarckian." It is very vigorously 

 written, and will well repay the attention of representatives of 

 either school of thought. Dr. Hartog fully admits that judges 

 on this question differ. " From Alfred Russel Wallace, Ray 

 Lankester, Thiselton Dyer, and Archdall Reid, we turn to Charles 

 Darwin, George Romanes, Sydney Vines, Francis Darwin, K. 

 Goebel, Wilhelm Roux, Oscar Hertwig, Yves Delage," and he 

 claims that if a verdict has to be pronounced at this moment it 

 must be " in favour of Lamarckian transmission as a factor in 

 variation and evolution." We think, however, that no twelve 



