43° 



THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY 



theory of evolution we happen at the time 

 to be enamored of, it would seem the part 

 of wisdom to be cautious in our handling 

 of the other fellow's computations. 



EMERGENT EVOLUTION AND THE 

 SOCIAL. 



By William Morton Wheeler. 



Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd. 

 zs. 6d. 3f x 6; 57 London 



EMERGENT EVOLUTION AND THE 

 DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETIES. 

 By William Morton Wheeler. 



W. W. Morton and Co., Inc. 

 $1.00 4I x 6f; 80 NeivYork 



These are the English and American 

 editions respectively of a notable little 

 book, which begins with Professor 

 Wheeler's address given before the Inter- 

 national Congress of Philosophy. The 

 main idea is that when previously sepa- 

 rate, distinct, and self-contained things 

 combine together, the "whole" which 

 emerges is usually something quite differ- 

 ent from the mere sum of the things which 

 combine to make it. For example, a per- 

 son with the most extensive knowledge 

 conceivable about hydrogen and oxygen 

 alone could not possibly have predicted in 

 advance of the trial that the result of 

 combining two parts of the former gas 

 with one of the latter would be that 

 remarkable and useful substance, water, 

 which is not a gas at all but a liquid — an 

 obviously different kind of thing. Water, 

 in short, is an emergent, something new 

 and different. So also is a colony of ants, 

 or bees, or the Republican National 

 Committee. What such groups do, as 

 wholes, is often or always quite different 

 from what could be predicted by mere 

 summation of the separate behaviors of 

 their individual members. 

 The most important emergent levels in 



the course of evolution are usually listed 

 in ascending order as space-time, matter, 

 life, mind, and deity. Professor Wheeler 

 thinks, in view of the "profuse and un- 

 abated emergence of idiots, morons, luna- 

 tics, criminals, and parasites in our midst," 

 the prospect of the emergence of deity 

 is "about as imminent as the Greek 

 Kalends." He elaborates with great 

 plausibility the idea that an important 

 emergent level next in ascending order 

 above mind is the social. Societies he 

 regards as super-organisms. They be- 

 have in purposeful ways as wholes. 



Not only is this brilliant little book 

 valuable on account of its contribution to 

 the theory of society, but it also gives a 

 clearer picture to the general reader of the 

 content and significance of the whole 

 doctrine of emergent evolution than any 

 other book of anything like the same 

 brevity that has yet appeared. 



THE SPECIES PROBLEM. An Intro- 

 duction to the Study of Evolutionary Divergence 

 in Natural Populations. 



By G. C. Rob son. Oliver and Boyd 



15 shillings net Edinburgh 



5 | x 8|; vii + z8 3 

 An extremely interesting and valuable 

 discussion of evolution written by a 

 systematist and field naturalist. Of late 

 years it has been chiefly the laboratory 

 geneticist and the paleontologist who 

 have discussed the subject, and it is there- 

 fore refreshing to hear talk about the 

 origin of species by one whose professional 

 business it is to deal with them at first 

 hand on a large scale. The first chapter 

 is devoted to a discussion of the various 

 criteria which have been used to distin- 

 guish species. It is shown that none of 

 these is completely satisfactory, and that 

 the different ones fail to coincide com- 

 pletely in the results to which they lead. 



