14 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 100. 



Much has been written and published about this 

 natural bridge, since the appearance, a century ago, 

 of a description of it in the 'Travels of the Marquis 

 de Chastellux in North America in 1780-82;' but 

 there appears to be a lack of a complete description 

 of the bridge and its surroundings, which is readily- 

 available, and which would prove of special value to 

 the topographer and the geologist. 



HEREDITARY INTELLECT AND THE 

 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF 

 TALENTS. 



There is hardly any subject more fascinat- 

 ing to men of intellectual pursuits than that 

 of biography. Within the last few } T ears we 

 ma} r almost assert that the foundations have 

 been laid for a science of comparative biog- 

 raphy which promises to be not only interest- 

 ing as a branch of inquiry, but of practical 

 importance to all who are engaged in the edu- 

 cation of youth and the advancement of science. 

 The writings of Galton, Ribot, James, and 

 others, have shed a great deal of light upon the 

 influences which tend to produce intellectual 

 distinction ; and, if investigations of this kind 

 are far from being so comprehensive or so exact 

 as would be desirable, they are, to say the least, 

 suggestive and stimulating. To books of this 

 class belongs the treatise which is named above. 

 The volume is worth}' of a much more ex- 

 tended and critical review than we can now 

 give ; but, having received an early copy of 

 it, we bring it at once to the attention of our 

 readers. 



Eleven years ago Alphonse de Candolle, the 

 celebrated botanist, who succeeded to the chair 

 of his renowned father in the Academy at 

 Geneva, and to the place of a foreign member 

 of the French institute made vacant by the 

 death of Agassiz, published a history of the 

 modern sciences and of scientific men during 

 the last two centuries. The work has long 

 been out of print. Its venerable author, more 

 than seventy-eight years old, has now issued 

 a revised edition of this work, enlarged by 

 more than a hundred pages of new material. 

 Some portions of the original edition (par- 

 ticularly a defence of Darwin's theory of natu- 

 ral selection, which seemed to the author no 

 longer called for) have been omitted, and in 

 place thereof some new researches in respect 

 to heredit} 7 in the human species have been 

 introduced. By what he calls his new method, 



Histoire des sciences et des savants depuix deux siecles. 

 Par Alphonse de Candolle. Deuxierne edition, considerable- 

 merit augmentee. Geneve-Bale, Georg. 1885. 594 p. 8°. 



the author endeavors to distinguish in the facts 

 of birth those which come from heredity, and 

 those which are for the first time manifested 

 in a family, and which may be considered as 

 individual variations. These characteristics, 

 and those developed after birth hy exterior 

 influences, determine the adaptation of the 

 individual to the circumstances in which he is 

 found ; that is, to his environment. 



De Candolle has now carried his inquiry 

 be3 r ond the ranks of those who are commonly 

 called scientific men, — the students of mathe- 

 matical and natural sciences, — and has made 

 a study of those who are devoted to moral and 

 social sciences. 



It is not generally known how well he is fit- 

 ted for both these lines of investigation. His 

 career has been that of a botanist, but he 

 began life by the study of law ; twice he has 

 been a member of constitutional conventions, 

 and repeatedly of legislative bodies. We need 

 say no more to assure the reader that this new 

 edition of his history is. fresh, suggestive, and 

 instructive. If all its reasonings are not ac- 

 cepted, the student of comparative psychology 

 must be grateful for the light which it sheds 

 upon one of the most difficult, interesting, and 

 important inquiries which can be made in re- 

 spect to the intellect of man. 



His new method, as he terms it, is this, — 

 to select, without an}' preconceived notions, a 

 certain number of individuals whose personal 

 characteristics can be ascertained, and those 

 of their parents and grandparents. The 

 characteristics to be noticed are these : 1°, ex- 

 terior physique ; 2°, internal organs, so far as 

 they can be judged without autopsy; 3°, in- 

 stincts or native disposition ; and, 4°, intellec- 

 tual faculties. Having collected the facts, the 

 influence of heredit}' can be approximately as- 

 certained. The author first thought of stud}'- 

 ing the family of some sovereign, — Louis 

 XIV., Frederick the Great, or some one else 

 of whose ancestry there are abundant records ; 

 but he finally determined to study his own 

 family. Being seventy-eight years old, he 

 playfully says that he knows himself quite well. 

 Of his parents and grandparents, all of whom 

 lived to be more than sixty years old, he has 

 a good recollection, supplemented b}' letters, 

 memoirs, and portraits. He then noted in 

 his subject ' A ' sixt} 7 -four characteristics, of 

 which he found sixty- three in one or both his 

 parents . He extended his observation to thirty 

 other individuals belonging to sixteen families ; 

 and in the entire group of thirty-one persons 

 he was able to enumerate 1,032 characteristics 

 of which he was able to state their presence or 



