828 The American Naturalist. [September, 
trustees shall be to see that the investments are good, and that the ex- 
penses shall not exceed the income. 
THE Last volume of the reports of the Challenger Expedition has 
been published, and English biologists are reviewing the work. 
late number of our esteemed contemporary “ Natural Science,” con- 
sists mainly of a symposium on the results obtained, and the editors 
congratulate their countrymen on the successful conduct and complet- 
ion of the enterprise. We join in their congratulations; for English- 
men may well be proud of their work; and Carpenter as its projector, 
and Moseley and Murray as its managers, will ever be held in esteem 
by naturalists the world over. By the way our contemporary in 
another number shows that there is eruptive matter in some of its edi- 
torial substrata. It comes to the surface in some strong language 
anent of a short communication by Dr. Patton to the NATURALIST. 
Perhaps the irate editor is not familiar with all the circumstances of the 
case. Neither are we. 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
From the Greeks to Darwin.’'—In a volume of 260 pages 
Professor Osborn presents the salient points in the history of the 
growth of the evolution idea in the European mind. Beginning with 
the Greek philosophers, the author discusses their conceptions and 
gives a résumé of the legacy of the Greeks to later evolution. Then 
follows an account of the contributions of the theologians of the Mid- 
dle Ages, and of the natural philosophers from Bacon to Schelling. 
Due credit is given both to the speculative evolutionists, of whom Oken 
is a type, and to the great naturalists of the eighteenth century who laid 
the real foundations of the modern evolution idea. Several pages are 
1 From the Greeks to Darwin. An Outline of the Development of the Evolu- 
tion Idea. By Henry Fairfield Osborn. New York, 1894. Macmillan and Co. 
