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unwise in such a book-but the facts and the difficulties on both sides are clearly and concisely stated, leaving the reader, unconfused by subtlety of language and illustration, to judge for himself.

"Distribution in Space" is a charming chapter; that on "Distribution in Time" of necessity fails. It is impossible to epitomise palæontology in a dozen pages. We detect throughout the book what some biologists will deem an egregious error, viz. the reiterated assertion that plants can only build up their protoplasm in sunlight. Most experimenters on lowly forms of life, with Pasteur at their head, affirm that fungi have been produced in sealed flasks placed in absolute darkness. As there is, however, much yet to be learned on this subject, it was probably wise to treat it as not proven. We heartily commend this book to the student who desires to lay a broad foundation for biological knowledge, and to the general reader who wishes to possess a more accurate acquaintance with biological facts than polemic articles in quasi-scientific periodicals will afford.

An Exposition of Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin. By C. R. Bree, M.D., F.Z.S., &c. &c. Longmans, Green and Co. London. 1872.

We have read this book with remarkable interest and equal regret. Its author possesses knowledge and ability that might with immense profit have been exercised on his theme; but he has allowed inaccuracies of statement and exposition to blurr its pages which, we regret to believe, will entirely nullify its influence. The habitnot of Mr. Darwin-but of the majority of his disciples, is to jeer an opponent out of court, by a parade of such flaws as this book exhibits, pronouncing him incompetent to criticise on the score of ignorance. The most elaborate arguments and the most efficient array of facts are thus triumphantly discarded, and forbidden a hearing, because their authors have been unguarded in a few statements or inaccurate in elucidation. The object of Dr. Bree's book is one with which we entirely sympathise; its general efficiency we warmly commend; but in the interests of truth we deplore the errors on the one hand, and the declamation on the other, to which he has committed himself. A blunder simply intolerable in an author attempting to expose the fallacies of Darwin is found on the very first page in the book. It is a diagram; and purports to present graphically the descent of man on the theory of Darwin. We reach the marsupials correctly, depicted in the diagram by a kangaroo; then we have a blank for the "implacental progenitor of placental mammals;" then follows "man's ancient ancestor, with cocked ears and tail, prehensile feet, both sexes bearded and hirsute, males with great canine teeth;" after which comes the lemur, the simiadæ, and the catarrhine or Old World monkeys! Now any careful reader of The Descent of Man must detect instantly the inexcusable error this involves; for Mr. Darwin's hypothetical ancestor of man is placed by him after the

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catarrhine monkeys. On the second page Dr. Bree says that Mr. St. George Mivart has proved that natural selection "has not a basis of truth," whereas that author aimed simply at showing that natural selection was incompetent to accomplish what Mr. Darwin claimed for it. More than once our author declares that Dr. Hooker asserted, in his address to the British Association at Norwich, that " every philosophical naturalist" had accepted the doctrine; and pages are devoted to the contradiction of this. Whereas, in fact, the word "almost" was inserted by Hooker before "every," which entirely alters the phrase. Herbert Spencer is, at least on two occasions, wholly misunderstood; and in endeavouring to elucidate Darwin's views as to "mimicry," he makes it appear that the insects were supposed to have the power to change themselves when they discovered that protection would result from resemblance to another form.

There are many more similar mistakes: they are none of them absolutely serious save the first, and perhaps the last we have referred to; but they condemn the book; they paralyse its mission. And this is deeply to be deplored; for it abounds in brilliant reasoning and striking fact. Some trenchant arguments are employed to show the utter unlikeness existing between the physical and vital forces. The attempt to assimilate the production of an organism to the crystal building power of the inanimate world is admirably dealt with; and as a preparation for the discussion of natural selection, evolution as expounded by Herbert Spencer is elaborately examined. And here one of the characteristic blunders of the book vitiates a whole chapter of reasoning. Discussing the "Integration of Matter," as enunciated by Herbert Spencer, Dr. Bree quotes as follows:"Every mass, from a grain of sand to a planet, radiates heat to other masses, and absorbs heat radiated by other masses; and in so far as it does the one it becomes integrated, while in so far as it does the other it becomes disintegrated." On this quotation Dr. Bree remarks: "Integration of matter, therefore, is the absorption of heat! And heat... is tremulous motion '-therefore, integration of matter is the absorption of motion."

In discussing embryology in relation to development, the author insists that "there is a real and significant difference in the embryo of man as compared with brutes from the earliest moment of its structural existence," and instances the position of the arches which develope on the notochord,—the neural arch or vertebral column being backward in man and upward in brutes; and the hamial arch or chest bones being forward in man and downward in brutes. Dr. Bree "rejects in toto the potentially endowed protoplasm, or the meteoric mass and the evolution of species," and insists with great vigour on special creations as a philosophical necessity; reminding the reader that the matter does not hinge upon whether this or that mode of origin comports best with the notions of certain philosophers, but which is supported by the greatest number of facts. On the question

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of specific variability there are some excellent facts and clear reasonings; all proving that whatever variation in nature may do, it is utterly incompetent to effect the issues insisted on by "natural selection." An excellent chapter follows on the Causes and Amount of Variability, and the "selection" of this artificially in "breeding." He urges that no deviations in form are congenital or hereditary, and gives the foot of the Chinese women as a proof; which, although it has been cramped for thousands of years, is yet at birth as normal as an European's. Dr. Bree objects to Mr. Darwin's argument respecting mans similitude to brutes as manifested in his liability receive from the lower animals and to communicate to them certain diseases." The author contends that whilst hydrophobia and glanders may be communicated to man, there is no instance of the brute receiving disease from man. The slight point projecting from the inner margin of the helix of the human ear- -pointed out by Woolner, and declared by Darwin to be an instance of reversion indicating our descent from a pointed eared ancestor, Dr. Bree declares to be a "myth "-he having failed wholly in discovering it. We have observed it in two instances in the same family; but in one there were three points and in another two; indicating of course by the same reasoning an ancestor whose ears had more points than one! In seeking to account for the development of language, Mr. Darwin says that the sounds uttered by birds have a close analogy to language, for all the members of the same species utter the same emotional cries; but although song-birds sing by instinct, yet the actual song is learnt from the parents. Dr. Bree points out that in the great majority of cases it is only during incubation that the male sings; the young, in fact, rarely hear their father's notes. Besides, the hedge sparrow or the reed warbler, who often hatch the cuckoo's eggs, can scarcely teach the young cuckoo its call note. On Instinct, Reason, and the Moral Sense there is a good chapter; and some really excellent passages and illustrations are given in the discussion of Sexual Selection. The views of each of the prominent supporters of Mr. Darwin are elaborately reviewed, and the partial surrender of Owen, and the absolute acceptance of the doctrine of evolution by Lyell, are freely considered. Then the "line of descent" marked out for man by Darwin is critically analysed, and the true relations of the several groups considered with much comprehensiveness and skill. And yet it is in the mal-arrangement of this series that the most serious error of the book is found. There are some excellent chapters on Teleology, containing beautiful proofs of design; and the book closes with an essentially orthodox chapter on "Evolution and Theology."

We have read this book with a pleasure which has greatly increased our regret that it is marred by such serious errors; and we can only hope that a second edition may be shortly called for in which their correction will be effected.

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Town Geology. By the Rev. Charles Kingsley, F.L.S., F.G.S., Canon of Chester. London: Strahan and Co. 1872.

THIS is a very pleasant book. Canon Kingsley has never written seven more interesting chapters. They are in his most agreeable style, and on that branch of natural science which has ever been his favourite. To the student of geology we commend this as a book that will at once incite him in his labours and disclose to him the meaning of his studies; and to the general reader, unconcerned with the "record of the rocks," and even careless of science altogether, we commend it as a literary treasure-sparkling with humour, abounding with apt and beautiful illustration, evincing a thorough grasp of geological science, and presenting us with the very poetry of nature.

The object of the book is to awaken a desire in younger minds for the study of natural science. The several chapters originally took the form of lectures to the young men of Chester, and to this, perhaps, may be attributed the delightful ease which distinguishes them. They are not lessons in geology after the common fashion; but they exhibit the processes of reasoning and induction by which the scientific geologist reaches his conclusions; and the whole has special reference to the United Kingdom, thus giving the reader a most accurate and delightful view of the various causes that have operated through past epochs in bringing about the present geological phenomena of his native land.

The Preface is a vigorous essay on the importance of science as a means of education, and in his own pleasant way Mr. Kingsley shows it to be the shortest path to "freedom, equality, and brotherhood." There can be no more worthy brotherhood than that which made Hugh Miller, the Cromarty stonemason, and Michael Faraday, the bookbinder's boy, the friends and companions of the noblest and most gifted on earth. There can be no equality truer than that which science gives. It cannot be learned by paying able teachers. Whoever would be a master must teach himself; "and if the poor man is not the rich man's equal in those qualities, it must be his own fault, not his purse's. Many shops have I seen about the world in which fools could buy articles more or less helpful to them; but never saw I yet an observation shop, nor a common-sense shop either."

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Canon Kingsley is a uniformitarian in geology, and begins with "The Soil of the Field," which opens up the whole question of recent deposits. "The Pebbles in the Streets Ideals with boulders and glacial action. "The Stones in the Wall" furnish a delightful chapter on rock formations and fossils. "The Coals in the Fire" is the heading of a capital description of the carboniferous period. "The Lime in the Mortar " leads the way to cretaceous formations and coral reefs, and "The Slates on the Roof" acquaints us with those wonderful deposits, the Laurentian, the Cambrian, and the Silurian.

VOL. XXXIX. NO. LXXVII.

The volume is beautifully printed, tastefully bound, and dedicated to the Chester Natural History Society.

The Fairfield Orchids. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Species and Varieties grown by James Brooke and Co., Fairfield Nurseries. With Chapters upon the History, &c., of these Plants. London: Bradbury, Evans, and Co.

THIS little work is avowedly a trade catalogue; but it presents some advantages over the Manuals of Williams and Appleby. It is not only more picturesque in its general treatment of the subjectindeed, rather too much so in many places-but it has attached to the description of each species a reference to some published figure of the plant. It is, further, more scientific than the Manual of Williams, inasmuch as it carefully distinguishes between such orchids as appear to be distinct species and those which, though honoured with high-sounding names, are but varieties of well-known forms. Dealers discover some variety with a spot more or less than usual upon its petals; they give it a grand name, and send it out to the world at a high figure as a new species. This is not honest, and we are glad to see that Messrs. Brooke and Co. have endeavoured to avoid the error. At the same time we must complain of the insufficiency of the practical directions for the treatment of these plants. Experienced growers do not need what are given, and they are insufficient for young beginners. The book speaks too generally of the specific requirements of orchids in reference to soils, potting, &c. A good manual, giving to young florists minute directions as to the details of the treatment best adapted to each species of orchid, is yet a desideratum.

Thoughts for the Times. By the Rev. H. R. Haweis, M.A. London: H. S. King and Co.

We cannot admit that these are, in any wholesome, worthy sense, "Thoughts for the Times." Not that we are captious about the title of the book. It is, in a sense, appropriate enough, for the thoughts are, undoubtedly, the present day thoughts of some people, thoughts that we can only hope a wiser to-morrow will have left behind. Mr. Haweis, a London clergyman of considerable popularity, is one of the outriders of the Broad Church party, and his pace must, we imagine, sometimes amuse and sometimes alarm the older and quieter members of that party. He is of opinion that " we are in the midst of one of those great transition periods which came upon the world about the time of Christ, or again about the time of the Reformation," and he sees, "not without anxiety, yet with a firm faith in the future, how the old things are passing away, whilst all things are becoming new." Though "not without anxiety," as he says, Mr. Haweis is yet very

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