REVIEWS. 
181 
GEOLOGIC LAWS.* 
W E do not doubt that Professor Yon Cotta has given a capital account 
of the development-law of the earth in his “ Geologie der Gegenwart”,. 
but we think the translator has failed in his efforts to put the matter before 
the English public. We are certainly far behind the French in lucidity of 
expression, but we are infinitely before the Germans in that particular, and 
therefore a translation should be something more than a literal rendering 
of the peculiar phrases of the original tongue. Yet the present work is. 
hardly anything more than such a verbatim translation, and is in fact a work 
more difficult to read than the original. The person who translated the 
“ Wie Gehen sie ” into “ITow go they ? ” would doubtless have nothing to 
blame himself in the sense of literalness of rendering ; but he surely would 
not be commended as a translator. And though we do not assume for a 
moment that Mr. Noel has gone so far as this, we simply urge it as an 
example. Take the following sentences, for instance: “In the organic 
realm, summation of results has not only given new single forms, agreeing 
with the ever-increasing manifoldness in the conditions of their existence,, 
but also, in some of them, an ascending organisation.” Again : “ Even, 
atmospheric currents, and with these climatical circumstances, are also 
partially thereby conditioned.” And, “It is plain that in this way mani- 
foldness of formation was exceedingly increased, and to a certain extent 
likewise summation applies to the results of these processes.” These sen- 
tences prove how incompetent was the writer for the task he took in hand. 
Of the little book itself we have nothing but commendation to offer. It is 
a thoughtful sketch of the history of the globe, from the time when its. 
materials first gave up their nebulous form to its condition at the present day* 
SCIENTIFIC AND GENERAL ESSAYS.t 
S IR HENRY HOLLAND was a man of whom the profession to which 
he belonged — that of medicine — must feel a conscious pride. And this 
not only for the curative ability which he undoubtedly possessed, but for 
the manner in which he departed from mere medical pursuits and endea- 
voured, by a series of travels over almost every part of the civilised globe,, 
to take in all that science, in the widest sense of the word, was attempting 
to do. And in saying this we are giving him, even when in his prime, the 
highest praise that it is possible to urge in his behalf. On the other hand, 
we must with equal force admit that he owed a great deal of his success- 
as a thinker to the people among whom he lived and moved in society. 
And it must be confessed that even as a thinker he was far from being 
*“ The Development-law of the Earth.” By Professor B. Yon Cotta* 
Translated by R. R. Noel. Williams & Norgate, 1875. 
f “ Fragmentary Papers on Science and other Subjects.” By the late 
Sir Henry Holland, Bart. Edited by his Son, the Rev. F. J. Holland.. 
London : Longmans, 1875. 
