230 
Analyses of Books. 
[April, 
characters, the brain of the mias from that of man is confessedly 
“the anatomist’s difficulty.” But if every faculty is located in 
an especial portion of the brain, and if certain faculties present 
in man are wanting in the ape, then it follows that certain regions 
of the brain must be wanting in the latter, and the anatomist 
could not fail to be struck with the difference. Further, benevo- 
lence and even conscientiousness are clearly to be traced in the 
actions of the higher brutes. Hence we may legitimately look 
with an eye of suspicion upon an alleged science which takes 
such grounds. 
The spiritual fa:ulties in man — i.e. } clairvoyance — are next 
adduced as a gift which cannot be accounted for by the aCtion of 
Natural Selection. We do not, be it known, presume to refer 
these phenomena to “ Dominant Ideas,” but surely they are 
still too much matter of dispute to be brought forward on such 
an occasion. 
Of much more value are the considerations urged under the 
head “ Persistency of Type.” If organic forms are the results of 
casual variation, weeded out by natural selection, the question 
may surely be asked why they are confined within so limited a 
range ? It has often been pointed out as unexplained that no 
vertebrate animal has more than two pairs of limbs. But the 
author here hazards some remarks which we can scarcely call 
judicious. He asks, “Among reptiles, why not the first indica- 
tions, at least of a transformation of the fore feet to wings and 
the appearance of feathers ?” Need we remind him of the 
pterodaCtyle and the archaeopteryx, both of which he figures in 
this very work ? Again it is said — “ Why not some indications 
of hands to take the place of the hoofed feet of horses and 
cattle ?” Because in that group development has been moving 
in the very opposite direction, as he himself shows in figures 
taken from Marsh. “A pair of eyes at the back of the head 
and a pair of arms to correspond ” would involve fundamental 
alterations in the entire skeleton. Where would the shoulder- 
blades and the muscles for the extra pair of arms be fixed ? 
Should such ever appear they would scarcely begin with “ buds 
behind the shoulders of some babies.” “A telescopic eye” 
would in most spheres of life be useless, or rather harmful to its 
possessor. 
The remarks on language we cannot accept, and we regret to 
find him using the worn-out phrase “ dumb animals.” Brutes 
have developed languages, and we have no right to term them 
dumb because such languages are to us unintelligible. 
An important idea, which the author presents more than once 
under varied forms, is this : — “ The tree never advances beyond 
its fruit, and I believe the tree of life fruited when man appeared.” 
If Mr. Denton is herein correCt the task of Evolution is ended, 
and we need not wonder if no new forms can be detected in the 
aCt of making their appearance. 
