456 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XL 



others suffers from an astonishing obscurity of style and unskilful 

 presentation. The trail of the German "Pedagogik" is over it all. 



In the chapter on method the place of imagination in science 

 teaching is discussed; "children, primary teachers and poets" are 

 encouraged to use a certain amount of license. It is amusing in view 

 of recent controversies to see Mr. Burroughs figure as an example of 

 the imaginative school of nature students. 



There is a very full list of books which serve as an aid in science 

 teaching. 



R. H. 



EVOLUTION 



Lotsy's Theories of Descent.^ — This book is a series of twenty-one 

 lectures delivered to students at the University of Leyden and designed 

 "to awaken a desire for the investigation of questions relating to 

 theories of descent." This aim it is well adapted to fulfil. The 

 scope of the book is wide, and the discussions, while necessarily not 

 exhaustive, never fail to be stimulating and to give the reader a view 

 in perspective of a large part of the field of evolutionary thought 

 and investigation. This is true in particular of the newer aspects of 

 evolution, concerning which most of all a l)()ok of this sort was needed. 



Lectures 1 and 2 are introductory in character. In them are dis- 



everything, the beginning of the universe bciiiii' (|iiiic Ixyond its 

 sphere. The relation of science to religion is dix n^^cd inid the 

 absence of any real conflict between the two i> shown: the uhiniate 

 questions of being and of coiiscioiisncss arc t'Diiiid lo ix- Ixyoiid solution 

 either by science or by rchii'idii. Lccimv :; dctis with the origin of 

 the earth, the newly discoxci-cd tnin^iinit.irKMi nt one element into 



'Lotsy, J I' 

 sichtigumj d> ■ ' 



1906. 8vo, xii v ;is i i)p.. pis. 



