AprIL 11, 1884.] 
are printed with general accuracy and _ neat- 
ness. The proceedings are given in full, to- 
gether with certain reports and papers read. 
Of the reports, the most important is that of 
Prof. W. A. Rogers, upon the standard microm- 
eter: it bears the stamp of that thoroughness 
and exactitude which characterize all Professor 
Rogers’s work. This standard is a platin-irid- 
ium bar prepared and authenticated by the 
U.S. bureau of weights and measures: it is 
very well ruled, and the error in each of the 
ten one-millimetre spaces has been carefully 
determined. The bar will be preserved by 
the society with due care, and proper copies 
prepared of it. 
The volume opens with President Albert 
MecCalla’s address, ‘ The verification of micro- 
scopic investigation’ which is followed by 
twenty-six papers. ‘These last are mostly by 
amateurs, and show it, for the most part, more 
plainly than is consonant with a high scien- 
tific value. There is, we believe, not more 
than a single communication which appears to 
be the result of a serious and prolonged research 
by an experienced investigator.. In fact, a 
society of so-called microscopists must neces- 
sarily be an association principally of amateurs, 
because the professional worker is not classi- 
fied according to the instrument he uses, but 
according to the subject he studies: the ama- 
teur studies, non multum, sed multa, and so 
may be a microscopist. Yet we find in the 
volume articles of interest and value. Among 
these, we may signalize Dr. Blackham’s very 
sensible article on the selection of objectives ; 
Dr. Holbrook’s, on the nerves of the kidney, 
in which the valuable method of making frozen 
sections of fresh tissues to be treated with gold 
is described ; and Mr. Belfield’s, on the detec- 
tion of lard-adulterations (if his results are con- 
firmed, they will be a valuable addition to the 
means of hygienic supervision). Dr. Cleven- 
ger’s article on the brain is fortunately given 
only in abstract. ‘The remaining essays are for 
the most part light: some betray a lack of ac- 
quaintance with scientific literature, and a few 
are treated kindly by being left uncriticised. 
The society is doing useful work ; and, as its 
activity and experience increase, we may hope 
for a constant elevation of its scientific stand- 
ards. We expect that the future volumes of 
its proceedings will contain a still larger pro- 
portion of valuable researches; but we think 
the society will achieve its highest utility if it 
constantly inculcates the importance of per- 
fected methods of work, and fosters and ex- 
tends technique, the sine qua non of progress 
in microscopy. 
SCIENCE. 
461 
DARWINISM. 
Darwinism stated by Darwin himself. Characteristic 
passages from the writings of Charles Darwin. 
Selected and arranged by NATHAN SHEPPARD. 
New York, Appleton, 1884. 164351 p. 12°. 
Charles Darwin und seine lehre. Aphorismen gesam- 
melt aus Darwin’s eigenen werke und den werk- 
en seiner vorgdnger und zeitgenossen. Leipzig, 
Thomas, 1884. 8+442p. 12°. 
Ir is rather remarkable that the idea of com- 
piling a series of extracts from the writings of 
Darwin should have occurred, after so long an 
interval, to an American and a German at the 
same moment. No large theory of the opera- 
tion of natural causes has ever had so brief a 
struggle for existence, or penetrated so rapidly 
and so deeply into the general mode of think- 
ing, as Darwinism; and if no great necessity 
has been felt hitherto for an abridgment of 
his works, it is because they are so admirably 
clear and of such absorbing interest, that the 
general reader has not had much trouble in 
getting through them all in the original form. 
Mr. Romanes, however, says that admirers of 
Mr. Darwin’s genius are frequently surprised 
at the ignorance of his work which is displayed 
by many persons who cannot be said to belong 
to the uncultured classes; and to those who 
have read nothing more than Mr. Romanes’ 
own excellent presentation of the scientific 
evidences of organic evolution, ‘ Darwinism as 
stated by Darwin himself’ will be just what is 
needed for their next stage of development. 
It gives extracts, of a page or two in length 
on the average, from all Darwin’s books. The 
order followed in the arrangement is not ex- 
clusively that of the books themselves, but is 
designed to present the reader with a connected 
view of Darwin’s researches on plants and 
worms ; on the development hypothesis in gen- 
eral, and its application to man in his physi- 
cal and moral aspect; and on the influence of 
natural and of sexual selection, and of geo- 
graphical distribution. The design of the com- 
piler is carried out with a reasonable degree of 
success. No scientific man, of course, who has 
any regard for his reputation, openly reads an 
abridgment ; but the general reader may well 
be thankful for this compilation, and the great- 
est physicist in the world is, after all, nothing 
more than a general reader in paleontology 
and the theory of groups. 
What strikes one most, on turning over these 
pages, is the smallness of the addition which 
has been made to the general development 
theory since the publication of Darwin’s two 
creat works. Little or nothing has been done 
to change the main line of argument, or even 
