The Zoologist/4th series, vol 3 (1899)/Issue 692/Notices of New Books
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
One of the most interesting, and certainly most suggestive addresses delivered at the recent meeting of the International Congress of Zoology at Cambridge, was that of Prof. Haeckel "On our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man." This has now been published in book form, as above; with many "additions and notes" by the Professor's old pupil, Dr. H. Gadow.
Man's place in Zoology is still, as Huxley described it, "the question of questions for mankind"; and if that remark was true in 1863, it is still more pressing to-day, when, as the author most truly observes: "At the end of the nineteenth century, the age of 'natural science,' the department of knowledge that has made most progress is zoology." The position of man in the animal world is now considered with calmness and discussed with urbanity. It was even quite recently, when brought into line with science, or discussed on an old and dear tradition, described, on one side, as "a tale told by an idiot," or, on the other, as a matter of "sound and fury signifying nothing." Both sides have come nearer to each other with further knowledge, and all who study the question now admit the evidence of an evolutionary plan. Whether that plan is simply the result of natural forces, or an evidence of a design beyond our cognition, is a question not for these pages.
We can only summarise Prof. Haeckel's views on this problem. He considers the celebrated fossil Pithecanthropus erectus, discovered recently by Dr. Dubois in Java, as a form which connected primitive man with the anthropoid apes, and as indeed the long-searched-for "missing link." That man was "known with cercertainty to have existed as an implement-using creature in the last Glacial epoch. His probable origin cannot, therefore, have been later than the beginning of the Plistocene. The place of origin was probably somewhere in Southern Asia."
In the evolution of man Prof. Haeckel is an advocate of the "heredity of acquired characters." In this he is in distinct antagonism with Weismann and his followers. That this is not the crime against Darwinism frequently advanced is to be gathered from the testimony of the Professor, who states that on the three occasions he visited Darwin "we discussed this fundamental question in complete harmony." The following observations seem incontestable. "If one denies with Weismann the heredity of acquired characters, then it becomes necessary to have recourse to purely mystical qualities of germ-plasm. I am of the opinion of Spencer, that in that case it would be better to accept a mysterious creation of all the various species as described in the Mosaic account."
Zoology has only fulfilled her mission in the discussion of this question. For a long time indeed will she foster the study of "man's place in nature." We are not concerned whether science ultimately solves the problem—absolute truth will probably be the ideal more than the goal of our enquiries; but we may rest assured that "the work done in the present century by Lamarck and Darwin will in all future times be considered one of the greatest conquests made by thinking man."
This is what we venture to designate as a real zoological publication, restricting its scope as purely scientific and technical. Dr. Willey made an expedition to the Pacific in search of the eggs of the Pearly Nautilus, an enterprise, in a biological sense, as much, or more, important than many other belauded expeditions. But science is not justified in all her children. This publication is devoted to the description and elucidation of the general collections made during this expedition, which, we read, "have no claim to completeness, since they were not part of my special object; but new facts relating to such forms as Nautilus, Peripatus, Amphioxus, Ctenoplana, Balanoglossus, &c, cannot fail to possess a peculiar interest."
The opening memoir is by Dr. Willey on a species of Peripatus which he obtained in the island of New Britain. One interesting fact is here brought out, that whereas formerly, and based on our then knowledge, it was a conclusion that the species of Peripatus could be arranged in three groups in accordance with their geographical ranges—viz. Neotropical, Australasian, and Ethiopian—the new species constitutes the type of a new group which may be designated Melanesian. The biological strength of this paper is beyond the aim of our pages; but it is not by new species that this journey will be alone remembered. Some animals were procured which, though known to science, were unrepresented in our National collection, such as the rare marine Snake Aipysurus annulatus, and Prof. Studer's Echinoderm Astropyga elastica. The work, as we announced in these pages (1898, p. 376), will comprise five or six parts; and the first and second have as yet only just reached our hands. Consequently, at present, a detailed review is impossible. Already a good staff of naturalists have commenced to contribute; and the names of Arthur Willey, Paul Mayer, G.A. Boulenger, K.J. Pocock, D. Sharp, Sydney J. Hickson, F. Jeffrey Bell, F.P. Bedford, Arthur E. Shipley, J. Stanley Gardiner, F.G. Beddard, and Isa L. Hiles are guarantees of special work by specialists. The work is beautifully illustrated.
The well-deserved success of the author's last work, 'With Nature and a Camera,' with its beautiful illustrations of animal life, has induced a wide-spread interest in the method of photographing glimpses of nature. In response to many enquiries, as we are told, the present book is intended to clear the way for the increasing number of those who wish rather to possess realistic photographs than the actual birds or nests. A "technical instructor" would, however, be a misnomer for this publication, for it contains a host of good zoological observations.
Mr. Kearton has a fair word to say for London Cats. "I have recently seen it stated that the birds of London and its suburbs have decreased because of the Cats and increased population. Whilst recognising the folly of hating a dumb animal merely because it carries into operation an inherited liking for one particular kind of food, I must frankly confess that I do not love Cats; and it will be well to bear this avowal in mind whilst reading the following account of my experiences. This year I have known of the following species of birds having nests and eggs within five hundred yards of a Greater London farmhouse, boasting an army of no less than five adult Cats:—Pheasant, Partridge, Carrion-Crow, Missel-Thrush, Song-Thrush, Blackbird, Starling, House-Sparrow, Hedge-Sparrow, Robin, Wren, Barn-Swallow, House-Martin, Chaffinch, Lark, Whinchat, Red-backed Shrike, Yellowhammer, Moorhen, Lapwing, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Kestrel, Turtle-Dove, Whitethroat." Of course the retort is obvious, that these farm Cats were presumably well fed and housed, and that the worst feline marauders are those houseless and starving brutes which, ill alike for themselves and the birds, haunt the crowded abodes of man.
The author also gives his experience on a question now being discussed in these pages as to the nesting habits of the Moorhen. He states that during his residence in the neighbourhood of Elstree, owing to the depredations of Carrion Crows, "I do not think I can call to mind one instance of a Moorhen succeeding in hatching off her first clutch of eggs. The species has to depend for its perpetuation on the growth of reeds and rushes, which the old birds bend over their nests and thus hide their eggs."
The illustrations, as in Mr. Kearton's previous books, are again very charming: photography more than illustrates—it reveals—nature. No longer are her secrets to be pourtrayed by the imaginative artist; we have now reached the stage of actual representation. In time the traveller must illustrate his books by the aid of the camera, or not at all.
In 1897 ('Zoologist,' p. 178) we drew attention in these pages to the first part of this great publication. Part II. has now appeared in the shape of another massive volume, bringing up the pagination to a total of 2183, the number of genera described to 798, while the described species are now no fewer than 2510.
In reading the descriptions of the gorgeous and bizarre colouration of many of these fishes, one cannot but feel that some of our speculations as to the meaning and service of animal colouration will have to be qualified by much apparently different piscatory evidence. How suggestive is the following account of the young of the Garabaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus), which are of a dusky scarlet, with intensely bright blue markings. "These brilliant little fishes inhabit only large, deep rocky pools, hiding under the seaweed of ledges, and frequently swimming out into the open water of the pool. They are accompanied by the adult, the usual uniform scarlet colour of which appears a distinct lustreless yellow in the water." The fish is common on the coast of California.
This is one of the monographs of the United States Geological Survey, and forms vol. xxx. of that series. As the author remarks: "To the biologist the suggestion of silicified Medusæ is a violent attack upon his previous conceptions of such organisms, and the possibilities of their preservation as fossils in any other manner than as faint impressions on fine limestone, sandstone, or shale." They, however, occur in a silicified condition, and have been found to belong to the Jurassic, Permian, and Cambrian faunas. Their mode of occurrence in the Middle Cambrian of Alabama "suggests at once the habit of living on a muddy bottom in great numbers." This monograph not only describes the American remains, but also those of the Jurassic lithographic limestones of Solenhofen, the Permian fossils of Saxony, and those belonging to the Cambrian age in Northern Europe and Bohemia. With the usual ample, we might almost say lavish, manner with which these American governmental publications are issued, this volume is embellished with no fewer than forty-seven plates.
This volume consists of a reprint of pen-and-ink sketches of British birds, with short descriptive notes, contributed by the author weekly during the last ten years to the 'Newcastle Weekly Chronicle.' From an introduction, written by Mr. Charles Dixon, we learn that the author from his childhood has been a lover of bird-life: "And this seems only natural, for he is the son of Robert Duncan, the Newcastle taxidermist, and was consequently brought up in an ornithological atmosphere, and in a house where the family talk was almost invariably about birds."
Consequently this is neither what may be called exactly a work of science, nor a book of reference. It is, however, a publication which in its lengthy serial form must have drawn many of the ardent Newcastle politicians who read the 'Newcastle Weekly Chronicle' away from the views of both Joseph Cowen and John Morley to a more peaceful study of bird-life.
It is a book that many will buy who have never heard of Howard Saunders or his 'Manual,' and therefore will reach a reading public to whom more scientific ornithology is a stranger.
The work has been revised by Mr. Dixon, and is a real standard of skill and industry combined with a true love of nature.