1896.] Recent Literature. 471 



are accorded 6 pages, the White Ants, 44. On the whole we like the 

 retention of the almost Linnean system of classification, especially since 

 the systems which are proposed in its place are open to almost as many 

 objections as the older scheme ; the remarks made upon this point seem 

 to us especially appropriate. 



The illustrations, of which there are some 370, are all fresh and are 

 very well engraved. Some of them would, we think, look better in 

 " half-tone," especially those dealing with anatomical and develop- 

 mental points, but against this is the apparent inability of English 

 printers to get good results from such plates, (witness several transla- 

 tions from the German where these half-tone illustrations, beautifully 

 printed in the original, are extremely muddy). One more fault and 

 we are done. The price charged for the work seems to us much too 



W. Fraser Rae's biography of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, that re- 

 markable man " who could rival Congreve in comedy and Pitt and Fox 

 in eloquence " is announced by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. It is to be 

 in two volumes, and to include portraits and facsimile autographs of 

 Sheridan and his famous contemporaries. Interesting documents 

 written by the Prince of Wales, Sheridan, the Duke of Wellington, 

 and the Marquis of Wellesley will be made public for the first time. 

 The Introduction is by the Marquis of DufTerin and Av&, who is a great 

 grandson of Sheridan. 



Geological Biology. 1 — This treatise, in octavo form of 395 pages, 

 is a study of organisms and their time-relations. The general laws of 

 evolution are stated, and their formulation explained by detailed de- 

 scriptions of characteristic examples. The examples are, for the most 

 part, taken from the invertebrate forms. Mutability of species is illus- 

 trated by Spirifer strictus Martin, var. S. loganii Hall, the progressive 

 evolution of class, ordinal, subordinal, etc., characters, by 

 flavescens ; the modification of generic characters is shown by the life- 

 histories of Brachiopod families. The history of the Spirifers, a study 

 of Cephalopods, and the evolution of the suture lines of Ammonoids, 

 are each in turn used to demonstrate the fundamental laws of evolu- 

 tion. Throughout the book the author emphasizes the idea that these 

 laws are best understood by a study of fossil forms. 



The closing chapter sets forth the philosophy of evolution from the 

 author's point of view. Beginning with the statement that "Evolu- 

 the Geological History of Organ- 

 e, 1895. Henry Holt & Co. 



