Evolution of To-Day: A Summary of the Theory of Evolution as held by Scientists at the Present Time, and an Account of the Progress made by the Discussions and Investigations of a Quarter of a Century. By H. W. Conn, Ph. D., Instructor of Biology at Wesleyan University. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 342. Price $1.75.
The greater evolution of ideas precipitated with such unparalleled rapidity during the lat generation by the promulgation of the sceneral doctrine of evolution and the wide-spread interest in the subject which has followed have brought us, as was inevitable, to a stage of popular literature upon the question which shows plenty of signs that it is no longer the scientific world that is chiefly addressed. The number of those who think themselves competent to explain evolution to ordinary people is largely increasing, but, while their efforts are undoubtedly commendable, it must be admitted that much of their work is inferior and unsatisfactory. The subject itself is extensive, complex, and unsettled, and it requires a good deal of sound information, careful habits of thinking, and excellent scientific judgment, so to present it as not to convey to uninstructed minds about as much error as truth.
The present volume, although not without merit, belongs nevertheless to this unsatisfactory class of books upon evolution. In the first place, the title is mischievously misleading. It would lead us to expect a discussion of the subject in its full breadth and latest developments and applications; whereas it is confined, we might almost say, strictly to one branch of the subject—organic evolution; and the book might much better be named a treatise on Darwinism than an exposition of the evolution of to-day. While dealing with the details of biological development, Dr. Conn writes with tolerable clearness; but when he tries to expound the fundamental conceptions of his volume, as presented in its title, he writes neither clearly nor correctly, and betrays considerable confusion of mind over the larger relations of his subject. In his introduction, Dr. Conn says: "Evolution is not Darwinism. We have now reached the conclusion as to what is now ordinarily meant by evolution" (derivation of species by descent, Ed.), "and such was Darwin's understanding of the term. But it must not be confounded with Darwinism. Evolution is simply a theory as to the method by which species have been introduced into the world, entirely independent of any idea as to the causes which have brought about their introduction. Darwinism is evolution, but it is more than this; it is at the same time an attempt at an explanation of the causes of evolution." Again, he says, "Darwinism proper, then, is not evolution, but its explanation."
Now, these views are probably original with Dr. Conn; at any rate, we have never met them before, and they are certainly far from representing the "evolution of today." Evolution, as now most generally held, is a law of Nature—a law of transformation by which phenomena undergo changes, passing from one form to another, by which the past has given rise to the present, and the present determines the future through the agencies of the natural world. Evolution is a phase of the order of Nature of great comprehensiveness, or it is nothing; it has its large divisions, of which organic evolution is one. Mr. Darwin devoted himself to the study of one of the elements or factors of organic evolution—the origin of species by means of natural selection. To define evolution as excluding the study of causes, and then to define Darwinism as a study of causes, or as explanation of evolution, is simply absurd. As a matter of science, evolution is essentially, and indeed solely, a problem of forces and causes, and Mr. Darwin did what he could to trace them out in the line of his special work; but he never made even an attempt to study the theory of evolution as a general law of Nature, to analyze, formulate, or reduce it to scientific expression.
The Sun. By Amédée Guillemin. Translated from the French, by A. L. Phipson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 297. Price, $1.
This book forms one of a series termed "The Illustrated Library of Wonders," of which Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons are now publishing a new and revised edition. Inviting his readers to join him in a little trip of the imagination—a trifle of some
