1878.1 
Notices of Books. 
101 
oxygen, or perhaps rather ozone, in considerable abundance. It 
may thus play an important part in burning up organic pollutions 
introduced into streams and water-courses, and in preventing — 
as Dr. Geisler has shown — the development of the lower forms 
of animal and vegetable life. 
In an account of the controversy on Archebiosis, taken from 
the “ British Medical Journal,” we notice that the name of Dr. 
Bastian has been twice misprinted as Dr. Bartian. 
Prof. Cope’s theory of Evolution is noticed, but scarcely ex- 
plained with the needful clearness. He considers that Darwin’s 
doCtrine of Natural Selection “ has a secondary position in rela- 
tion to the origin of variation which Lamarck saw but did not 
account for, and which Darwin has to assume in order to have 
materiais from which a ‘ natural selection ’ can be made.” The 
author takes a very just view of the influence of Cuvier, which 
retarded the progress of philosophical zoology for at least half a 
century. Prof. Cope, in his “ Origin of Genera” and “ Method 
of Creation,” points out that the most nearly related animal forms 
present a relation of repression and advance, or a permanent 
embryonic and adult type, leaving no doubt that the one is 
descended from the other. This relation was termed exact 
parallelism. It was also shown that if the embryonic form were 
the parent, the advanced descendant was produced by an 
increased rate of growth, which phenomenon was called accele- 
ration ; but that if the embryonic were the offspring, then its 
failure to attain to the condition of its parent is due to the 
supervention of a slower rate of growth : to this phenomenon 
the term retardation is applied. Inexact parallelism is the result 
of unequal acceleration or retardation. Additions appear either 
as exact repetitions of pre-existent parts or as modified repeti- 
tions , the former resulting in simple, the latter in more complex, 
organisations. 
We can, however, no further multiply extracts from this inte- 
resting volume, which everyone connected with scientific pursuits 
ought to read for himself. 
Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South 
Wales , for the Year 1875. Edited by A, Liversidge. 
Sydney : Richards. 
To the scientific societies of the Colonies we look naturally and 
mainly for a very important class of investigations which they 
alone can furnish. We expedt full accounts of the local fauna 
and flora, as well as of the palaeontology, geology, and mineral- 
ogy of their respective regions. Nor are we altogether disap- 
pointed. The present volume contains a most interesting paper 
