EEVIEWS. 
289 
that its importance in this particular can hardly he overrated, or else he would 
not have given us so large a volume as that the E-ay Society has just issued. 
But we are disposed to join issue with him in this proposition, in so far as 
the word teratology is applied to the study merely of the characters of monster 
forms. We are disposed to think — and in doing so we merely follow Wolff', 
whom Dr. Masters so much admires — that the whole solution of problems in 
vegetable morphology is to be sought in the careful study of development. 
If the processes of evolution be watched in abnormal as well as normal 
structures, doubtless much light will be thrown on the comparative anatomy 
of plants. But till this is done we despair of any useful results. The book 
before us is a most comprehensive accumulation of teratological facts, well 
arranged, but, — and we hope Dr. Masters will excuse our expressing an 
opinion somewhat strongly on the point, — the question of the development of 
monstrosities has not been at all sufficiently dealt with by our author, and for 
this reason we think his otherwise most valuable labours lose much of their 
importance. 
As old students of the Schleiden School, we confess our disappointment at 
finding how summarily the author disposes of the relation of axial to foliar 
parts in the development of plants, for — we may be behind the age in think- 
ing so — we do imagine that there is more in this distinction, as a secondary 
step in evolution, than Dr. Masters seems willing to admit. Still the work 
before us is an able treatise, remarkably well written and amply illustrated, 
and must for many years be considered as the book of reference par excellence. 
FOE DAEWIN.* 
S OME of the shallow dinner-table ” savants who summarily condemn Mr 
Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection as being opposed to reason, should 
be induced to take up this book of Muller’s and just look at it. We do not 
suppose they would understand it, but a glance at it might convince them of 
their utter incapacity to form a judgment on a subject so vast, and concern- 
ing which such an amount of intricate testimony has been advanced. In 
the work before us a well-known and distinguished naturalist takes up a 
portion of one class of the whole animal kingdom — Crustacea — and gives us 
the fruit of a number of patient and painstaking observations on structure and 
development. His object in commencing his researches was to put Mr. 
Darwin’s views to an extremely severe test. He carried out his intention, 
and he shows that under the Darwinian explanation all difficulties vanished, 
and that without it it was quite impossible to understand the relation of 
certain forms to others. Perhaps the most complex and confusing pursuit 
in the whole range of zoology is the study of the development of Crustacea, 
it presents us with so many apparent irregularities and so much complexity. 
But Herr Muller has given us a minute account of the evolution of nearly all 
* Facts and Arguments for Darwin.” By Fritz Miiller, with Additions 
by the Author. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S. 
London: John Murray, 1869. 
u 2 
