REVIEWS. 
511 
NATURE AND THE GENETIC RECORD.* 
I T often happens that when men of shallow minds have pursued some 
special branch of study for a great, number of years they become 
veritable monomaniacs, and so far from having expanded their mental 
faculties, they have so contracted them that what they understood in the 
beginning they find a perfect mystery toward the close of their careers. 
Our novelists have not been remiss in pointing out this tendency to mental 
degeneration, and we have Mr. Scattergood and the venerable parent of Mr. 
Midshipman Easy as memorable instances of this cerebral derangement. 
We have been led to express the above opinion from a careful perusal of 
the work before us. Imprimis , be it understood we do not for a moment 
desire it to be supposed that we think the author non compos mentis. Of 
him personally we are as ignorant as of that individual supposed to take 
lip his abode in our nearest planet. But we must frankly declare that after 
reading his book through from cover to cover, we consider it to be the 
wildest specimen of sane composition ever yet produced. What the aim 
of the book is we know not. The drift of it we find a similar difficulty 
in discovering. That we may not be accused of prejudice, we now submit 
a few quotations to the notice of our readers » 
“ Sono-magneto-electricity shows us the how mid why of absorbent or non - 
cohesive static relations attaining to the undulant requirements of sound, and 
to the reflectant repulsive energy of rigidly constricted silence .” . . . “ In the 
vegetable , spiral power or heat is the predominant ; therefore there is ever a 
oneness of crystalline axis or tendency thereto .” . . . “ Superior to all the work 
which man can do, is the simple act of belief in so far as it relates to himself 
in particular, because it appears to be a free will, act and offering, because it 
evades the selfish mono-central force of death-rigidity, whilst it harmonizes a 
composite aggregation capable of sentient exercise throughout all eternity .” 
It surprises us to see Messrs. Longman’s names upon the title-page of 
this extraordinary effusion. 
HOMES WITHOUT HANDS.f 
M R. WOOD is clearly not tired of compiling popular natural history 
works. Here we have a new one coming out in monthly parts. 
The subject is more original than those usually selected by this popular 
writer, and from the style in which the work is being executed by the 
publisher, we have little doubt of its success. Parts I. and II. include a 
description of the habits of the various burrowing mammalia, such for 
example as the mole, Arctic fox , weasel, white bear, porcupine ant-eater. 
* “ Natural Phenomena i The Genetic Record and the Sciences 
harmoniously arranged and compared.’* By Alexander McDonald. 
London : Longman & Co. 1 863. 
t “ Homes without Hands.” By the Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S. 
London : Longman & Co. 1864. Parts I. and II. 
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