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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
decidedly the weight of the evidence from palaeontology in opposition to 
the theory of evolution has always been greatly exaggerated. So far from 
there being an absence of transitional forms among fossils, every palaeonto- 
logist knows that their constant occurrence is one of his greatest plagues ; 
and there is little doubt that by tracing any group of forms with the 
requisite exactitude through a series of successive deposits, the most con- 
vincing proof, short of absolute demonstration, of the interdependence of the 
successive so-called species might be obtained. So far as geographical dis- 
tribution is concerned, the doctrine of the origin of species by descent with 
modification vs the only one that furnishes us with any rational explanation 
of the facts observed ; and the numerous examples of species differing but 
slightly from each other in neighbouring but isolated situations, such as 
the beetles described by Mr. Wollaston from the Cape Yerde Islands, which 
he himself, although strongly anti-evolutionist, could not believe to have 
been the products of separate creations, many aquatic animals in Alpine 
lakes, and the freshwater representatives of marine types, with many others, 
seem to demonstrate, so far as observation can do it, the derivative nature 
of the varied forms of life. 
ARNOTT’S ELEMENTS OF PHYSICS.* 
T HIS may be called the first posthumous edition of the well known work 
of Hr. Amott. A man who in his lifetime gave considerable sums of 
money for the advancement of Natural Philosophy, and made a present to 
the public of his valuable inventions by refusing to patent them, was un- 
doubtedly one who took great interest in Physics ; yet he approached the 
subject, as we may say, as an outsider, coming to it from the point of view 
of a medical man. There are decided advantages in a book written by such 
an author, as likely to contain more of the practical bearings of the subject 
than one prepared by a professed physicist ; and possibly, as in this case, 
to range over a wider field as included in the subject. There are few works 
on the elements of physics which border so closely on physiology as this 
does in the part devoted to animal mechanics, hydraulics, and pneumatics. 
At the same time, however, that the public generally will find here what 
they want, to the professed student it would be of little use. For him its 
range is too wide, rendering necessary a too fragmentary outline of each 
subject; and it is written with too little accuracy for his purpose. It is 
indeed rather a singular spectacle to see a book on physics written by a 
medical man, and edited by a Professor of Logic and an eminent Toxico- 
logist. The editors have had the assistance of Mr. Cook, formerly Assistant- 
Professor of Natural Philosophy at Aberdeen, in the revision and adaptation 
of the work ; and to him is probably due the presence of several valuable 
* “Amott’s Elements of Physics or Natural Philosophy.” Seventh 
Edition. Edited by A. Bain, LL.D., and A. S. Taylor, M.H., F.R.S. Small 
8vo. London : Longmans. 1876. 
