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ANALYSES OF BOOKS. 
The Human Species. By A. de Quatrefages. Second Edition. 
London : C. Kegan Paul and Co. 
We must admit having deferred to a somewhat late point of time 
our survey of this important work, of which the excellent English 
version before us is now in the second edition. The primary 
idea of the author is to prove that all the beings commonly known 
as men belong to one and the same species, which was originally 
localised in a relatively very limited space, from which it has 
spread out over the whole globe by means of successive migra- 
tions. But the work has other and subsidiary objeCts, which, 
without any departure from the courtesy of criticism, we may 
characterise as belonging to the official school of French biology 
rather than to that which has established itself in the rest of 
Europe and in America. M. de Quatrefages is a disciple of 
Cuvier; he upholds the real existence of species, and conse 
quently their permanence ; he attacks the doCtrine of Evolution ; 
he denies the existence of permanently fruitful hybrids ; he 
maintains a distinction between man and the lower animals, 
not merely of degree, but of kind. Thus in many of the most 
important points of theoretical biology he belongs to the first, 
quarter of the present century. He admits, however, that man 
has existed upon the earth longer than is laid down by current 
traditions. 
In the introductory chapter M. Quatrefages declares himself a 
vitalist. He does not accept the view — now becoming increas- 
ingly current — that the peculiar phenomena of living beings can 
be accounted for by mere physical and chemical considerations. 
His idea of life is “ no more the archeus of Van Helmont than 
the vital principle of Barthez,” but a name given to the “ unknown 
cause which produces filiation, birth, and death.” Here we are 
with him in so far forth that, pending adtual proof of the pro- 
duction of organic phenomena by what are called inorganic 
agencies, we must pronounce it perfectly legitimate to speak of 
life as a distindt force. But we must here recognise a distindt 
breach in the principle of continuity. Until it has been distinctly 
demonstrated that the phenomena of the animal and vegetal 
worlds can in their entirety be explained by physical or 
chemical laws, we must admit that Nature has here done some- 
thing per saltum. The author’s views on this subject may be 
summed up in the statement that he ascribes the phenomena of 
the vegetable world to the “ aCtion of three forces— gravitation, 
vol, in. (third series). 3 c 
