( 226 ) 
[April, 
ANALYSES OF BOOKS, 
Der Darwinismus und seine Consequenzen in wissenscliaftlicher 
und socialer Beziehung .* By Dr. Eugen Dreher. Halle : 
C. E. M. Pfeffer. 
We have here a thoughtful and elaborate investigation of the 
scientific and social consequences of Darwinism, or, as we 
should say, Evolutionism. The author, an adherent and admirer 
of Darwin, writes not as a specialist, but as a philosopher. 
Whilst fully recognising the importance of the “ Docftrine of 
Descent,” in Zoology, Botany, Palaeontology, Geology, &c., he 
takes'a wider view. He asks what light the researches of our 
Great Master have thrown upon the problem of life, and upon 
the Monistic and Dualistic interpretations of the universe ? He 
shows the fertility of Evolutionism as regards the development 
of the so-called moral sciences, of ethics, aesthetics, and the yet 
rudimentary discipline to which Comte gave the name of Soci- 
ology. In this direction comparatively little has been done. 
With the exception of Mr. Herbert Spencer, of Mr. S. Tolver 
Preston, and Mr. F. Ram, the bulk of the writers in this country 
who have touched at all upon the ethical and social bearings of 
Evolutionism have contented themselves with representing it as 
tending to overturn the distinction between right and wrong, and 
generally to dissolve the very bonds of human society. Even in 
Germany it is painful to find that similar misconceptions exist. 
No less an authority than Prof. Virchow has sought to connect 
the unpleasant phenomenon known in Germany as “ Social 
Democracy ” with the rise and progress of the New Natural 
History. 
Dr. Dreher, in his Introduction and in his first chapter, gives 
a clear, but necessarily concise, summary of the life-task of 
Darwin, of his forerunners, — among whom he singularly omits 
the great Oken, — and of his opponents. Among the latter he 
does not forget the “ Brot gelehrten,” — trade-scientists, — the 
savants of centralising Academies and Departments, who from 
motives' readily understood rarely fail to oppose any discovery of 
capital moment. 
The author notes the importance of Haeckel’s biogenetic law, 
according to which the individual in its embryotic career passes 
through what may be called a foreshortened series of the stages 
through which the species has travelled in its evolution. 
* Darwinism and its Consequences in their Scientific and Social Relation, 
