The Zoologist/4th series, vol 1 (1897)/Issue 670/Notices of New Books
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
This is the second and revised edition of a valuable, widely noticed, and in some cases severely criticised book, of which the first edition appeared in 1895; and although the author, a man of the widest reading and acquaintance with his general subject, is not strictly a physical anthropologist, he has still supplied one of the best introductions to the study of Man that even modern zoologists can obtain. This revised edition is without those instances of lapsus calami which were pointed out when the work first appeared, references which the author doubtless welcomed, as he himself has written here and there in a freely controversial style.
Man's position in the animal kingdom is sought to be determined from the purely zoological standpoint. "That he is an animal, and as such must be related to other animals, is no discovery of modern science. Then the schoolmen defined him as animal rationale, a definition which the ethnologist may accept without hesitation as at least partly true. What modern science has done is to give precision and completeness to this definition, by fixing the place of Man as an animal in the class of mammals, and by separating him, mainly in virtue of his exclusive possession of articulate speech, from other animals to whom the reasoning faculty can scarcely be denied. Man will accordingly here be considered as a rational animal possessing the faculty of articulate speech." These sentences may be taken as Mr. Keane's prolegomena, and evolution is used as the argument throughout.
The book is divided into two Parts, "Fundamental Problems" and "The Primary Ethnical Groups." In the first the evidence for the antiquity of Man is very fully and ably treated, and a feature of great convenience to British zoologists is a descriptive list of the principal areas in Britain which palæolithic Man is known to have inhabited, with a reference to the animals whose remains are associated with his rude flint implements. Full of suggestion also are the comparisons between the faunas of the periods of palæolithic and neolithic culture.
In the chapters devoted to the "Specific unity" and the "Varietal diversity" of Man, the arguments used on these points by anthropologists are well worthy of consideration by general zoologists; and when we remember the very elastic use of the terms species and variety necessarily made by monographists and descriptive naturalists, we may somewhat incline to the dictum of our author, who writes:—"It is not always easy to draw the line between species and mere variety, more especially as to neither of these terms is any longer attached the idea of finality."
In the second division of his work Mr. Keane discusses the "main divisions of the Hominidæ, and, adopting Linné's original fourfold division, divides his subject under the following classification:—"Homo Æthiopicus," "Homo Mongolicus," "Homo Americanus," and "Homo Caucasius."[1]
In conclusion, we will advise the reader to bear in mind an excellent remark in the author's preface: "In a work of this nature, dealing with a multiplicity of subjects on all of which nobody can be supposed to have personal knowledge, it is not to be expected that the views advocated, or even the mere statements of facts, will be always accepted on the ipse dixit of the writer. Hence the necessity of constant reference to received authorities." These are abundantly quoted throughout, so fully indeed that a student who would with an open mind refer to and fully read the references given by Mr. Keane—either with approval or disapproval—could not fail to obtain a somewhat complete grasp of anthropology. And this we consider is the province of a good hand-book, not to dogmatise or inculcate a canon of scientific faith, but to present the whole subject to the enquirer, and not only guide him to the good roads, but mention also the jungle-paths where investigation is not always barren.
To adequately notice a book like this—a product of sustained thought and research—within the limits of our pages is impossible; to review such a work with critical examination is beyond the province of our Journal. We can only approach it here from the standpoint of zoology: a somewhat bare proceeding, perhaps as unsatisfactory to the author as irksome to the writer. In the first section, "Organic Evolution," Dr. Reid clearly defines his standpoint, and enunciates his axioms so that we may readily understand the method of his argument. He adheres to the theory of spontaneous generation, which he remarks "is popularly supposed to be quite exploded. What is exploded is that such highly organized beings as the Infusorians arose spontaneously." And with respect to organic evolution it is stated that, though "many proofs will incidentally be afforded" of its actuality, "it will be assumed that the truth of it is admitted."
A postulate to which considerable importance is attached, and one which bears no little reference to the whole argument, is "that every species must necessarily undergo retrogression, unless that retrogression be checked by selection." On the other hand, "it is possible by means of selection to bring about rapid and extensive, indeed unlimited retrogression." Thus we read: "The domesticated Dog is presumably descended from one or more of the different wild varieties, or from their relatives the Wolves. Now, considering the length of time Dogs have been domesticated, and the severity of the selection to which they have been subjected, our largest Dogs, the St. Bernards, Newfoundlands, Mastiffs, Boarhounds, do not very greatly exceed Wild Dogs or Wolves in size, nor do our most intelligent Dogs greatly surpass them in intelligence; but our smallest Dogs, some of them little bigger than Rats, are very much smaller, and some of our tame breeds are exceedingly stupid. Clearly, as regards Dogs, we have been able to produce little evolution, but great retrogression."
We still, however, require more experimental facts, repetitions of such experiments, and with different species, before we can consider many of our conclusions absolutely unassailable. Thus Dr. Reid remarks:—"A young chick, for instance, emerges from the egg the possessor of a large amount of hereditary knowledge," and alludes to the brilliant researches on that matter by the late Douglas Spalding. With Dr. Reid we had all accepted the result of these researches as final; but now Prof. Lloyd Morgan has repeated the experiments, and shown that many of Mr. Spalding's conclusions are erroneous. It is only just to remark, however, that Dr. Reid had evidently no opportunity of consulting the then unpublished observations of Prof. Lloyd Morgan.
The second section is devoted to "The present evolution of Man." It is scarcely necessary to restate the common consensus of opinion that the evolution of Man, so far as general structure is concerned, has ceased, or, in other words, has arrived at an equilibrium with surrounding conditions. This is indeed so prevalent a conception, that by many of our best and most progressive thinkers the human evolution of the future is considered to lie purely in the domain of ethics. There is still, however, a physical arena where the struggle ensues, in which the survivors are not necessarily the strong in limb and mind alone, but "the strong against disease." To use the words of our author: "The present evolution of Man is therefore not mainly an evolution of physical or intellectual strength, as in his remote ancestry, but mainly an evolution against disease, and wherever men are crowded together, and can take disease from one another, or there are other unfavourable circumstances, especially against zymotic disease—that is, disease due to or produced by living micro-organisms."
Such diseases are not confined to Man alone, but are found to ravage other animals, and instances of such devastation will recur to the minds of most zoologists. In calling attention to this important factor, with the authority of personal experience and many gathered facts, Dr. Reid has undoubtedly introduced us to one of the neglected and by no means insignificant byways which intersect the broad road of evolution.
To once more sail the seas with Capt. Cook, and again discover islands which are now visited weekly by ocean liners; to reperuse in current literature a description of the manners and customs of native races who are now either improved off the face of the earth, or vulgarized by the veneer of an unreal civilization, we thought impossible. Cook's 'Voyages' are now principally consulted by the ethnologist, or by those readers of light and leisure who still care to study the makings of the Greater Britain. We therefore owe a debt of gratitude to Sir Joseph Hooker for having taken us back to the geographical discoveries of some hundred years ago by publishing the journals of Sir Joseph Banks, written when as naturalist he accompanied Capt. Cook in the 'Endeavour' voyage of 1768–71.
Banks belonged to those select few who combine an ardent love of science with ample pecuniary means, and he proved a true patron of natural history. Thus we are told that when he decided to avail himself of the opportunity of exploring the then unknown Pacific Ocean,—"at his own expense, stated by Ellis to be £10,000, he furnished all the stores needed to make complete collections in every branch of natural science, and engaged Dr. Solander, four draughtsmen or artists, and a staff of servants (or nine in all) to accompany him."
Most of the zoological observations recorded relate to animals which are very much better known now than then, but they are always interesting and sometimes almost fresh. Thus we learn that the Albatross devours Physaliæ, of which "an Albatross that I had shot discharged a large quantity, incredible as it may appear that an animal should feed upon this blubber, whose innumerable stings give a much more acute pain to a hand which touches them than nettles."
Although in those days the zoologist experienced the greatest surprises when these expeditions returned with their natural history collections, he had still to be regaled with some "traveller's tales." Thus, while at New Zealand and while drawing on shore, Mr. Sporing "saw a most strange bird fly over his head. He described it as being about as large as a Kite, and brown like one; his tail, however, was of so enormous a length, that he at first took it for a flock of small birds flying after him; he, who is a grave-thinking man, and is not at all given to telling wonderful stories, says he judged it to be yards in length."
The ethnological information is most valuable, and supplements the observations of Cook and Forster. It seems inseparable to some expeditions that native life must be sacrificed, but it is not condoned in these pages; in fact, we are inclined to take leave of Banks by quoting some reflections that bespeak the nature of his mind and heart. Some New Zealand natives had been killed, and his journal for that day concludes:—"Thus ended the most disagreeable day my life has yet seen; black be the mark for it, and heaven send that such may never return to embitter future reflection." The portraits of Banks and Solander, in the possession of the Royal and Linnean Societies, are admirably produced by photography in this volume.
If the ordinary traveller to a foreign land seeks a guidebook, or attempts by reading to obtain some idea of the salient features of the country he is about to visit, how much more necessary is it for the untrained zoologist to obtain at least a little information as to the animal life with which he hopes to become familiar. This, in a condensed form, is not at all common literature, and perhaps Tennent's 'Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon' is a type of the book to which we refer, an introduction not a monograph; a general sketch of a fauna from which may be gathered its principal peculiarities, and a glimpse obtained of what may be expected to accrue in one's own special studies and pursuits. Such an inception has apparently guided Mr. Aflalo to his task, and he has succeeded in producing a primer to the Zoology of Australia.
And what a wonderful fauna it is! As Wallace has well remarked, "Australia stands alone." It is not more remarkable in the marsupials it so abundantly possesses, than equally distinguished by its complete poverty in many well-known forms. "Who, for instance, is there but must feel surprise at the absence of Monkeys and Woodpeckers from its vast forests; or at the presence there, and there only, of the Platypus among the lower mammals, the Lories among birds, the double-breathing Ceratodus among fish."
The mammals, which number "not much over one hundred and fifty," are treated somewhat fully, with a list of species given at the end of each chapter. It is quite exasperating, in these days of vanished animal life, to find that the Platypus may be approaching extinction. Although "it is of the few indigenous animals not eaten by the natives," its skin has become a commodity with the furriers, though "thirty or forty of the animals must die to make even a small rug." "The Platypus is thus becoming lamentably scarce, and many a beautiful stream in Victoria and Tasmania, where whilom it rooted up the larvæ or engulfed the floating gnat, knows it no longer."
The birds have a very strong individuality; of some six or seven hundred species, some five hundred, "in round numbers, are found nowhere else." Like the Platypus, the Lyre-bird "is indeed doomed to extinction, and is already very scarce in the settled districts." Not much difficulty is experienced in tracing a cause. "Not long since, for example, two enterprising brothers employed a number of men to shoot the luckless male birds, in which, after some practice, they were unfortunately so successful, that five hundred dozen of the beautiful tails were reported to have reached Sydney in the course of a few weeks." This much persecuted bird lays but one egg each season.
Reptiles and Batrachians have received shorter treatment, but contribute many interesting records and facts, while the fishes of Australia receive more ample treatment. "The most striking characters of Australian sea-fish are their rainbow hues, projecting teeth, and a tendency to throw out spinous growths that make their safe handling a matter of some difficulty."
Our author was so fortunate as to witness a combat between the Thresher Alopecias and a Whale. "The best combat of this nature that I ever witnessed was off Moreton Island. We steamed so near, indeed, as to distinguish, with the aid of the glass, the long upper lobe of the Threshers' tails, as two of those unflagging belligerents were falling on their ponderous enemy; so near as to plainly hear (so marvellously are sounds carried over the water) the resounding blows and the feeble and ever feebler snorting of the succumbing Whale, which would have doubtless sounded out of harm's way but for the forbidding blade of some watchful Saw-fish which had made common cause with the assassins. How long the unequal combat had lasted before our arrival I am unable to say; but the end soon came, a commotion around the now motionless leviathan plainly indicating that the victors, assisted, perchance, by other Sharks, were already sampling the blubber."
There are many illustrations, and those of Australian fishes are particularly useful.
This massive volume of 1240 pages is but Part I. of a colossal undertaking, and we are promised an atlas, containing anatomical figures and illustrations of many of the more important species on the completion of the second volume. In this instalment no less than 522 genera and 1627 species are described, and the publication forms No. 47 of the 'Bulletin of the United States National Museum.'
From the geographical limits of the fauna studied, it will be evident that the work will somewhat anticipate the description and enumeration of Pisces in the 'Biologia Centrali Americana' of Godman and Salvin, though of course it covers a far wider area, and apart from its special value to ichthyologists is a welcome addition to the zoological library, affording a handy and trustworthy book of reference as to the distribution of nearctic and of many neotropical fishes.
The text is naturally of a more or less technical description, though there are some passages which have the charm of narrative. Thus, in dealing with the family Percidæ, of which the great majority of the species treated belong to the subfamily Etheostomatinæ (the Darters), "all the species of which group are American," and in considering the relation of the Darters to the Perches, the authors have quoted Prof. Stephen A. Forbes. According to this authority:—"Given a supply of certain kinds of food nearly inaccessible to the ordinary fish, it is to be expected that some fishes would become especially fitted for its utilization. Thus the Etheostomatinæ as a group are explained in a word by the hypothesis of the progressive adaptation of the young of certain Percidæ to a peculiar place of refuge and a peculiarly situated food supply. Perhaps we may without violence call these the mountaineers among fishes. Forced from the populous and fertile valleys of the river-beds and lake-bottoms, they have taken refuge from their enemies in the rocky highlands, where the free waters play in ceaseless torrents, and there they have wrested from stubborn nature a meagre living. Although diminished in size by their constant struggle with the elements, they have developed an activity and hardihood, a vigour of life, and a glow of high colour almost unknown among the easier livers of the lower lands.... Notwithstanding their trivial size, they do not seem to be dwarfed so much as concentrated fishes."
A pleasant feature in this volume is its dedication "To the memory of those ichthyologists of the past who have studied American fishes in America, in token of the only reward they asked—a grateful remembrance of their work." There follow forty-eight names in this roll-call, commencing with Georg Marcgraf, 1610–1644, and concluding with Marshall McDonald, 1836–1895.
This brochure pertains to the atmosphere of ornithological polemics. It is "a consideration of Herr Gätke's views," but it is scarcely an approval of any of them. The work criticised is the well-known 'Die Vogelwarte Helgoland,' of which an English translation appeared in 1895, and was, as Mr. Whitlock correctly remarks, "hailed with universal welcome."
However, science is democratic, and though Herr Gätke—whose death we now deplore—was, from his knowledge and opportunities, an authority of no mean order on his subject, there is no reason why Mr. Whitlock should not hold a brief in opposition. This he has done, and replied in a very trenchant manner to most of the views of Gätke; in fact, he almost traverses in detail the whole of that observer's work. The verdict must of course rest with those ornithologists who study the evidence on both sides, and though some of Mr. Whitlock's contentions seem to carry conviction, they are still so numerous that the old adage involuntarily arises, quod nimis probat nihil probat.
The unostentatious and excellent work done by Miss Ormerod in the domain of economic entomology is to be found in that lady's Annual Reports of Observations, of which the twentieth, for the year 1896, is now before us. The cui bono? so frequently addressed to entomologists finds a sufficient answer in these Reports, and they bring us back to the well-known, but perhaps now too little read, pages of Kirby and Spence.
"The year 1896, like its predecessor, showed presence of many kinds of agricultural insect infestations, including in these crop, orchard, and forest pests; also infestations to live stock, and to Deer, though not in any instance to the extent of any one special attack being seriously prevalent over the whole of our island."
We find a good illustration and account of the "Red-bearded Bot Fly, Cephenomyia rufibarbis, which infests, in its larval condition, the nostrils and throat and mouth parts of the Red Deer. The authoress, quoting Dr. Brauer, states:—"The method of attack is for the flies to lay their small living maggots, in the early or middle part of the summer, at the opening of the nostrils of the Red Deer, up which they work, adhering by their mouth-hooks, until they reach the throat of the Deer, where they may still be found in February."... "The exit of the maggots takes place from early in March until April, through the nose or mouth of their hosts." That this attack is prejudicial is evident by the fact that "if a Deer is attacked by many flies, soon, one after the other, its nose bleeds, and the mucous skin becomes very much inflamed. When the larval growth is nearly complete,—that is, at the third stage,—the maggots are to be found in the cavity of the mouth, or at the palate, the Eustachian tube, and other localities, as parts of the tongue and gullet." It is doubtful whether this attack is really new in our country, or whether its discovery is now due to the increased attention given to entomological research. Another "Deer Forest Fly," Lipoptema cervi, of which males and females are to be found in wingless condition on the Red and the Roe Deer, has been found by Mr. Dugald Campbell (Strathconan Forest, Muir of Ord) "to be very troublesome to those employed in flaying Deer in winter, by reason of their creeping rapidly about the clothes and into the hair of the workers, and being very difficult to dislodge." To the Deer themselves, however, this insect's presence is of no great consequence.
Perhaps to the readers of 'The Zoologist' these extracts may prove most interesting, and we do not refer to the larger portion of the Report devoted to the insect ravages on our vegetable crops. In conclusion, we can not only recommend its perusal to all who are interested in the details of our country life, but also advise them to communicate with Miss Ormerod as to any insect infestations with which they may become specially acquainted.
The first part of Section Aves, in the great descriptive Zoological Encyclopædia, has reached our hands, and is written by Mr. Ernst Hartert, of the Tring Museum. The importance of this work, and the way in which it will be probably consulted, quoted, and followed in the future, must not be underrated. Its proposed aim is nothing less than a synoptical description of the described forms of animal life. It is, perhaps, too much to expect that the publication will be accepted as a finality in classification, but at least it will rank as a zoological fin de siècle.
The work is written wholly in German, and will thus prove a trial to many English zoologists, though the smattering of a language sufficient to read a zoological description is not very difficult to acquire. We English are bad linguists, and prefer translations where possible; but we are not alone, for even Strauss not only praised Schlegel's translations of Shakspeare and Calderon, but wrote: "We Germans can read in translations all that has been produced since nearly three thousand years, from the Ganges to the Tagus." It is possible, however, that some future linguistic latitude may be allowed, as among the list of promised contributors we notice the names of both English and French naturalists.
However, this feature will not remove the necessity of every working zoologist consulting at least the parts which relate to his own special studies.
- ↑ It is at least worthy of remark, that in two contemporaneous standard works, both bearing the imprimatur of Cambridge, and written by writers so diverse in thought as Mr. Keane and Dr. Sharp, and on animals so widely separated as Man and Insects, a reversion to the system of Linnaeus should in each case have been more or less followed.