BOOK REVIEWS. 



255 



"The Theory of Evolution in the Light of Facts." By Karl 

 Frank, S.J. Translated from the German by C. T. Druery. 8vo., 

 241 pp., with 48 illustrations. (Kegan Paul, London, 1913.) 5s. net. 



It is pleasant to read a book on Evolution by a Roman Catholic, 

 and to find "Nihil obstat, Josephus YVentker, Censor Librorum," 

 printed on the flyleaf ! 



The book has four sections : — General (Palaeontological) Bases of 

 the Theory of Evolution. The author has compiled a fair series of 

 facts from authors on Palaeontology showing the sequence, and dealing 

 with questions involved, summing up the Results of Palaeontological 

 Research into the Evolution of Organic Life. 



Section II. enters " The Explanatory Domain of the Hypothesis of 

 Evolution," but refrains from recognizing it as an established fact. The 

 author rightly says we cannot suppose how life can come from non- 

 life ; the greatest stumbling-block is the origin of Directivity in all 

 organic beings by which purposeful structures are evolved. The 

 author also shows the impossibility of spontaneous generation, aban- 

 doned by nearly all scientists at the present day. In the third section 

 an account is given of Evolutionary Hypotheses, dealing with Lamarck 

 and Darwin. He says that Darwin denied the " Self-adaptation " 

 of Lamarck ; but this is a mistake. It is totally wanting in " Dar- 

 winism " — that is, the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection ; 

 but it is the basis of Darwin's alternative explanation of Evolution ; 

 but the author adds " Neo-Lamarckism ... is a terrible mixture of 

 assumptions and postulates without any comprehensible basis at all." 

 As a matter of fact it is no theory, but absolute fact, because solely based 

 on induction and experiment, without any assumptions whatever. 



The author gives no sign of being a working or practical naturalist 

 himself, and therefore has fallen into the usual mistake of endeavouring 

 to criticize other writers without the practical familiarity with nature 

 necessary for so doing. He concludes : " Theories of evolution 

 will remain, since everything points to the fact that there was and 

 is an evolution of the organic world." But " neither was life acquired 

 by the organisms themselves nor were the evolutional tendencies ; 

 both were received from another source — from the Creator." 



" Problems of Life and Reproduction." By Dr. Marcus Hartog. 

 8vo., 362 pp. (Murray, London, 1913.) js. 6d. net. 



This interesting work consists of a number of separately published 

 essays, dealing with Problems of Reproduction, and of Heredity ; of 

 the " Xew Force " Mitokinetism ; Fertilisation ; the Transmission of 

 Acquired Characters ; Mechanism and Life, &c. In each case the 

 author deals with his subjects exhaustively, and the illustrations, such 

 as to explain " Mitokinetism," are very good. With regard to this 

 "new force," the author shows that certain phenomena in cell- 

 division mimic electric procedures ; but the reader must study 



