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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Darwinism and the Problems of Life. By Conrad Guenther, 

 Ph.D., &c. Translated from the Third Edition by Joseph 

 McCabb. A. Owen & Co. 



This book should be read by all who wish to keep abreast of 

 evolutionary literature ; it advocates what has been called " the 

 all-sufficiency of natural selection," but carries Darwinism into 

 ethics, and makes it a dominant factor in the " social contract." 

 The author, however, makes fair admissions, such as " Hence 

 those who accept the theory of evolution are not at all compelled 

 to subscribe to the theory of selection ; in fact, there are many 

 evolutionists who reject it." This is not always understood, and 

 there are many, again, who recognize selection as a factor, or the 

 dominant factor, but not the sole factor in evolution. The 

 method of the work is to dispense as far as possible with referring 

 to authorities, or giving biological references, but rather, as one 

 may say, to treat the whole subject cle novo, and to deal with 

 animal life direct. This has its advantages in not bewildering 

 an ordinary reader with constant references to a literature he 

 will neither have the time to consult nor the knowledge to grasp; 

 on the other hand, it sometimes produces the appearance of 

 personal dogmatism in statements that without authority are at 

 least bald. Thus, in discussing the effect of "isolation," and 

 dealing with fishes that may have passed into waters not usually 

 connected with rivers, and which would be cut off when the 

 rivers fell once more, Mr. Guenther remarks : — " Selection had 

 another effect in their new home. In the hot season most of the 

 water dried up, and this was the occasion of the conversion of 

 the swimming-bladder into lungs." Now, surmising that death 

 was an equally probable concomitant of these conditions, such a 

 conversion of bladder into lungs, which must on evolutionary 

 principles be admitted, is not well advanced by such an illustra- 

 tion, nor is the biological metamorphosis understandable by 



