THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1883

HUMAN FACULTY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development. By Francis Galton, F.R.S. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1883.)

a consideration of "Character." So far as sex is concerned, "one notable peculiarity in the character of the woman is that she is capricious and coy, and has le-s straightforwardness than the man . . . and there can be little doubt as to the origin of the peculiarity. . . . The willy-nilly disposition of the female in matters of love is as apparent in the butterfly as in the man, and must have

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Galton has no competitor in regard to the variety and versatility of his researches. So various and versatile, indeed, have these researches been, that, with the exception of Hereditary Genius" and English Men of Science, their Nature and Nurture," we have become accustomed to regard them as disconnected pieces of work, which from time to time were thrown off like sparks from the flame of an active mind. But in the present volume he has collected in one series most of the investigations which he has separately published during the last ten years, and this collection when read in the light of a considerable amount of additional matter, clearly shows that the sundry investigations which were separately published were not separately conceived, but have throughout been united by the bond of a common object. This object, as the title of the book indicates, is that of inquiry into Human Faculty and its Development. And it is evident, when this fundamental note is supplied, that it serves to join not only the researches contained in the present volume, but also those of its above-named predecessors, into one harmony or design.

But although there is one harmony pervading this work, the changes of theme are so numerous that we shall not be able to touch upon them all, and must therefore restrict ourselves to considering the more important. The book begins with an essay on "Variety of Human Nature," as to features, bodily qualities, energy, sensitivity, special senses, &c. In the course of this chapter the leading results of the author's well-known investigations on composite portraiture are brought in, the audibility of high notes in different individuals, as well as in different species of animals, &c. Next there follows a chapter on "Anthropomorphic Registers," which is mainly directed to showing the desirability of keeping family records of the anthropometry of children until they are old enough to continue the records for themselves. To facilitate this process-which he deems to be one of much practical importance in view of all that is now known touching the potency of hereditary influences-Mr. Galton urges that anthropometric laboratories should be established where all the needful periodic portraiture and other observations on the life-history of children should be made and preserved on the payment of small fees by the parents. Without such systematic observation any one may pass through life without knowing that he presents so strongly marked a peculiarity as that of colour-blindness; while the benefit to the race, a few generations hence, of a large mass of statistics of such consecutive anthropometry of numerous families would probably be of the utmost value. Indeed this suggestion as to anthropometric laboratories may be taken as the foundation of Mr. Galton's proposed science of "eugenics," to a tracing of the main principles of which his work on "Human Faculty" is chiefly concerned.

After a chapter on Statistical Methods," we come to VOL. XXVIII.-No. 709

animal evolution down to the present time. It is the factor in the great theory of sexual selection that corresponds to the insistence and directness of the male. Coyness and caprice have in consequence become a heritage of the sex, together with a cohort of allied weaknesses and petty deceits, that men have come to think venial and even amiable in women, but which they would not tolerate among themselves."

The type of character which leads to criminality is next discussed, and is shown by statistics to be strongly inherited. After a few pages on the allied topic of insanity, Mr. Galton passes on to consider the gregarious and slavish instincts, where he shows from first-hand observations on wild or but partly domesticated animals the immense utility of these instincts. We ourselves inherit from our savage ancestry instincts of the same kind, and thus it is that the less intellectually developed among us are so prone to submit ourselves, like sheep, to the guidance of a leader, and even to the tyranny of a despot.

Passing on to intellectual differences, a long and interesting account is given of mental imagery, the main points of which are already known to the readers of NATURE. It is remarkable that men of science, and of hard thinking generally, are for the most part totally deficient in this faculty. The discussion of mental imagery naturally leads to the resemblance which Mr. Galton has previously pointed out between his composite photographs and general ideas; each alike are generic images," and in many matters of detail the analogy, or, as we should prefer to call it, the illustration, holds good.

Next we come to a chapter on Psychometric Experiments, which is devoted to an account of interesting experiments on the association of ideas. The influence of early association and sentiment is shown by these experiments, and by considerations drawn from them, to be much greater than is generally supposed.

One of the most interesting chapters in the book is that which next follows on the History of Twins. It will be remembered that the main fact elicited by this inquiry is that nature counts for much more than nurture; for it is shown that "instances exist of an apparently thorough similarity of nature, in which such difference of external circumstances as may be consistent with the ordinary conditions of the same social rank and country do not create dissimilarity. . . . The twins who closely resembled each other in childhood and early youth, and were reared under not very dissimilar conditions, either grow unlike through the development of natural characteristics which had lain dormant at first, or else they continue their lives, keeping time like two watches, hardly to be thrown out of accord except by some physical jar. . . . The effect of illness, as shown by these replies, is great, and well deserves further consideration. It appears that the constitution of youth is not so elastic as we are apt to think; but that an attack, say of scarlet fever, leaves a permanent

F

The essay which follows on the "Domestication of Animals" is not so interesting, because not so original, as the rest of the book; all its points are obvious to any one who has thought about the subject at all.

A consideration of the Possibilities of Theocratic Intervention next leads the way to a reappearance of the author's paper on the Objective Efficacy of Prayer. Here the logic is unexceptionable as far as it goes, but it is not such as to leave no loophole of escape for orthodox belief. The argument is that if prayer is of any avail in an objective sense, it ought to admit of being shown by the statistical method to be so. But, as the present writer pointed out nine years ago when considering this essay, the statistical method applied to such a case is of doubtful validity. To show this we may quote one paragraph from our previous criticism :

"What, then, is the whole state of the case? To illus trate it most fairly, we shall take the strongest of the examples supplied by Mr. Galton, viz. that of the Clergy. As Mr. Galton truly observes, in no other class are we so likely to obtain men of Prayer. Suppose, then, for the sake of calculation, that one-half of the clergy are sufficiently prayerful to admit of their petitions influencing the course of physical phenomena. Next, let us suppose that one-half of their successful petitions for physical benefits are offered on behalf of individuals other than themselves this is equivalent to reducing the number of the prayerful clergy to one-fourth. Here we ought to add that in whatever degree this section of successful prayers may influence the prayerless classes of the community, in that degree is the comparison still further vitiated. Neglecting this point, however, let us lastly suppose that one-half of the petitions for physical benefits offered on the petitioner's own behoof are answered by physical benefits of some other kind; . . . this is equivalent to reducing the original number to one-eighth. Now I do not think any of these suppositions are extravagant. Let us see the result of applying them to Mr. Galton's tables. According to these tables, the clergy as a class live, on an average, two years longer than men of any of the other classes quoted, notwithstanding we are repeatedly told that, as a class, they are the most poorly constitutioned of all. Now, neglecting the last-mentioned point, and also the fact that all clergymen do not pray for long lives; still, even on the above data, an average of two additional years over all the clergy allows, when concentrated into one-eighth of their number, an average of sixteen additional years of life to every pious divine. Of course this illustration is not adduced in order to prove that prayer has in this case been observably effectual. length of life enjoyed by the clergy may be conceded due to the cause assigned by Mr. Galton-viz. the repose of a country life—or to any other cause, without in any way affecting the present argument. All we are engaged in showing is that the statistical method is not a trustworthy instrument wherewith to gauge the physical efficacy of prayer; and the above illustration has been adduced to show that even if the petitions of the pious clergy for lengthened days were somewhat more effectual than those of Hezekiah, statistics would still be so far unable to take cognisance of the fact that the observable average increase of two years over the entire body of the clergy might reasonably be attributed to other causes. Yet length of days is perhaps the most conspicuous, and therefore the most easily tabulated, of all physical benefits for which it is possible to pray." 1

The greater

are trustworthy," the book begins to draw towards its final object, which is virtually that of marking out the lines of what may appropriately be called a new religion. We have of late had so many manufactures of this kind that the market is somewhat glutted, and therefore it is very doubtful how far this new supply will meet with an appropriate demand; but we can safely recommend Mr. Galton's wares to all who deal in such commodities as the best which have hitherto been turned out. They are the best because the materials of their composition are honesty and common sense, without admixture with folly or metaphor. He says: "We may not unreasonably profess faith in a common and mysterious whole, and of the laborious advance, under many restrictions, of that infinitely small part of it which falls under our observation, but which is in itself enormously large, and behind which lies the awful mystery of all existence." Having, then, this faith in the seen, and observing that, whatever the far-off divine event may be to which the whole creation moves, the whole creation is certainly moving in an upward course of evolution, Mr. intelligence which should enable him, not merely to know these things, but to do them. He ought to "awake to a fuller knowledge of his relatively great position," and begin to regard it as his high prerogative to cooperate with the unknown Worker in promoting the great work. He may infer the course that evolution is bound to pursue, and might therefore "devote his modicum of power, intelligence, and kindly feeling to render its future progress less slow and painful. Man has already furthered evolution very considerably, half unconsciously and for his own personal advantages; but he has not yet risen to the conviction that it is his religious duty to do so deliberately and systematically."

Galton submits that man has now reached a level of

Several directions in which such assistance might be yielded are pointed out in the concluding pages of the book, especially in the way of "eugenics"; and there can be no question that, if the idea of promoting evolution could become generally, or even largely, invested with a feeling of obligation, the prospects of the race would be greatly brightened. The most important field of human activity under such circumstances would obviously be that of improving the race by selection, and Mr. Galton throws out several well considered suggestions as to the way in which this might be done without violating so precious a product of evolution as the moral sense, or seriously interfering in any other particular with the ordinary usages of civilised life.

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We have said enough to show that in respect of its matter Human Faculty" is an unusually interesting work; but we should not do it justice were we to conclude this brief notice without alluding also to its manner or style. There is a strand of humour woven through the serious texture of the whole, which, together with the ingenious cast of thought and the ingenuous cast of feeling, affords a most pleasing and instructive study, unconsciously presented, of the nature and nurture of an English man of science. GEORGE J. ROMANES

against this application of the statistical method are given. [I may observe that this essay was written on a thesis which was set by the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, and I still think that, upon its given basis of Christian belief. all the more important of its arguments jhold, both as regards prayer and miracles.-G. J. R.]

THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN Contributions to the Physical History of the British Isles; with a Dissertation on the Origin of Western Europe and of the Atlantic Ocean. Illustrated by 27 Coloured Maps. By Edward Hull, F.R.S., &c. (London: Stanford, 1882.)

IF

F Geology may be correctly described as a history of the earth, then a geologist is in the first place and essentially a historian. His function is to trace back the gradual growth of the world, organic as well as inorganic, and to show through what successive stages the present conditions of geography and of life have been reached. His materials, like those of the historian of human progress, become fewer and less reliable in proportion to their antiquity. More and more as he pilots his way into the records of the remoter past is he driven to piece together their evidence with conjecture, until at last evidence of every kind fails him, and he is reduced to mere speculation. There is undoubtedly a strong temptation to minds of a particular order to indulge in wide excursions into the unknown realms of primeval cosmogony. The fewer the facts that may serve as guideposts the greater the scope for the fancy. So long as the picture does not appear to outrage our established conceptions of physical law its enthusiastic limner considers himself within the safe limits of fact or, at least, of legitimate inference. He does not stop to consider whether his restoration may not in itself be flagrantly improbable, or whether enough may not be already known on the subject to show that it is quite untenable. In this way much harm has been done to the progress of sound geology.

The attempt to restore former aspects of the globe, or at least of different areas of its surface, may be made with fair measure of success up to a certain point. As the geologist goes beyond that point he leans more and more on conjecture. It is very desirable, for his own sake as well as for that of the subject, that the actual data on which he proceeds should be definitely stated. His readers ought to know exactly where ascertained fact ends and restoration begins. Yet he may be so convinced of the truth of his restoration that, until challenged to set down in definite form the amount of evidence actually at his command, he may honestly have come to regard some of his deductions as well-established truths. He cannot, however, be too careful to draw a clear and sharp line between what he knows and what he infers, when it is his object to write geological history.

One of the most attractive branches of this history is that which deals with the gradual growth of a country or continent. Many interesting and important memoirs on this subject have appeared, more especially in England, where it has long been a favourite study. Sketch-maps have been published indicating in a somewhat vague way what the authors believe to have been the probable distribution of sea and land at former geological periods. Among those who by their original researches have contributed materials towards the restoration of ancient geographical conditions in Britain, Prof. Hull, the Director of the Irish Geological Survey, deserves honourable mention. His papers upon the changes that occurred during Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic times, and upon the south-eastward attenuation of the Jurassic series in this

country are well known to geologists. He has now, however, attempted a much more ambitious task than any one has yet ventured upon in this department of science. He has published a series of maps representing what he conceives to have been the successive geographical phases through which the region of the British Islands has passed from the earliest geological times. Without discussing the question whether the information at the disposal of geologists is yet sufficiently ample and precise to warrant an attempt of this kind, one may at least demand that every care should have been taken to show precisely what is actually known fact and what is inference. But Mr. Hull gives us scanty guidance in this respect. There is not one of his restorations that does not prompt the question on what grounds its details have been put together. The position of former areas of sea is usually sufficiently definable, but it is by no means so easy to say what was land, and still more difficult to assign even the most conjectural outlines to the shores. The author doubtless thinks his geographical boundaries vague enough; we are inclined to regard them as a good deal more definite than the actual evidence in many cases warrants. To take as an illustration his map of Britain during the Upper Silurian and what he terms the "Devono-Silurian" periods; we should like to know on what grounds he makes Wales, the Lake Country, the north-west of Ireland, and much of the Highlands of Scotland elevated land at that time. The evidence, so far as we are aware, is rather in favour of these areas having been under the Upper Silurian sea; at least we know of no proof that they formed high lands, even after the plication and metamorphism he refers to. Nor is there any information as to why the author marks the area from the mouth of the Humber to the middle of Norfolk as part of his continental land. He mixes up in a curiously unintelligible way his "Devono-Silurian" and Lower and Middle Devonian formations, some of the estuaries or lacustrine areas being placed with the older group of strata, others with the younger, in accordance with certain theoretical ideas which he has already published.

According to Prof. Hull's maps, most of the high grounds of Britain have been elevated dry land since the Lower Silurian period. No one, however, who has seriously studied how the land is continuously denuded, can believe this representation to be even approximately true. Our mountains must have been many times, and probably for long intervals, under water. Even if no large amount of sedimentary material were laid down upon them, their submergence would at least protect them from the degradation which would otherwise have worn them down. How does Prof. Hull know that Ireland, which was almost if not entirely under water during the Carboniferous period, did not remain more or less in the same condition through several succeeding ages? The presence of Permian and Triassic deposits in the north-east of the island shows that considerable denudation of the Carboniferous rocks had taken place there before these red strata were laid down. But surely it is rather a large inference from these slender data that all the rest of the country was land, with high grounds where we see them still. How can he tell that Ireland was not entirely submerged beneath the Jurassic sea? Had it not been

for the protecting sheets of basalt in Antrim, probably no fragment of Lias or Oolite would now have been left in the island. Prof. Hull submerges his country a little more in the Cretaceous period, but still keeps the high grounds as islands. Can he produce any evidence that they were so? Has he sounded the Cretaceous Ocean about which he is so precise? The denudation of Ireland has been unquestionably enormous, but had the country been above water as long as the Director of its Geological Survey imagines, we fear that every geological formation would have been worn off its surface down to the very platform of its fundamental or Laurentian gneiss. In fact the continued survival of the country above water could only have been maintained by repeated uplifts that in some measure at least compensated for its superficial degradation.

The chapters accompanying the maps furnish the reader with some of the information he requires to be able to estimate the extent of the data on which the restorations have been constructed. But they do not give him nearly enough of it. Some of their statements moreover will provoke criticis n not less than the maps themselves. The author asserts, for instance, as if it were an established fact, that what he regards as the "essentially oceanic" conditions under which the Chalk was formed

prevail from Ireland to the shores of the Caspian, and from Belgium to North Africa. We can hardly suppose him to be ignorant of the fact that the Chalk is but a local development of calcareous matter confined to the western art of the European area. Yet the author not only spreads the Chalk across most of Europe and into Africa and Asia, but proceeds to infer from this asserted extension that "according to all the laws of terrestrial mechanics" the site of much of the North Atlantic must have been then dry land. In other words, he first infers a wide deep ocean, and then creates a continent to keep it company.

One of the chapters, with the sounding title of "The Genesis of the North Atlantic Ocean," will be read with amazement by those who have watched the progress of recent research on this question. The author begins it by the following oracular announcement: "I date the genesis of the North Atlantic Ocean, properly so called, from the close of the Carboniferous period; and, consequently, from the same period, that of the British Isles and Western Europe." One is disposed at once to ask what may be his 'exquisite reason" for this extraordinary statement, and he frankly volunteers it. It appears to be somewhat as follows:-The Carboniferous rocks of Western Europe were much disturbed at the close of the Carboniferous period, being thrown into east-and-west ridges. Similar movements took place over the eastern States of North America, the direction of the ridges being there more nearly north and south. It may be concluded, therefore,

that the formation of the basin of the Atlantic Ocean formed part of these terrestrial movements !

In his Preface the author tells us how he had long entertained the idea of preparing such a series of maps as he has now published, and how he was deterred by the cost of publication. At last, in what we venture to think was an evil hour for his reputation, the Royal Dublin Society generously agreed to bear the expense. The maps were therefore prepared and published in the

Society's Transactions, and a fresh impression has been printed off from the plates for the volume just issued. Fortune would have been kinder to one whose long services entitled him to gentle treatment at her hands had she induced him still to keep his restorations in the privacy of his own portfolio, at least for some years to come, or, if they must be published, had she insisted on greater accuracy in the statement of what is known and greater precision in the expression of what is conjectured.

OUR BOOK SHELF

Die Verwandlungen der Tiere. Von Dr. Otto Taschenberg, Privat-dozent in Halle. Pp. 268, with 88 Illustrations. Small 8vo. (Leipzig: G. Freytag, 1882.) THIS forms the seventh volume of the series known as "Das Wissen der Gegenwart," the object of which is to give, in an attractive and popular form an outline of the "science of the day." Metamorphosis and development are always interesting subjects, and we are of opinion that Dr. Taschenberg has contrived to place them before his readers in a specially clear manner by choosing a few types in each class of the animal kingdom upon which to dilate, leaving the blanks to be filled in by more advanced students than those for whose instruction this elementary treatise is intended. The author goes in this manner through the entire animal kingdom, and so far as we can see he is well posted up in most of the latest discoveries and theories bearing upon his subject; we miss, however, any allusion to the disputed position of Limulus, although the metamorphoses of that remarkable animal are not entirely overlooked. A work such as this is naturally to a large extent a compilation, and in all such works the good or bad influence exercised depends upon the acumen of the author in his choice of subjects and authorities. In the present instance our author seems usually to have consulted the best and most modern authorities. The numerous illustrations are mostly very good; some of them are superlatively so. In these, as in the text, various works have been laid under contribution; and probably to no work is the author under greater obligation than the text-book on embryology by the lamented F. M. Balfour, but due acknowledgment is always made.

The concluding chapter is devoted to a sketch of the "evolution of species," in which, in a few pages, the author has contrived to give succinct historical information, winding up with a definition of "protoplasm," in connection with which a German translation from wellknown English lines is given, and perhaps the definition was so modelled as to fit the lines. We reproduce them, just to show what latitude may be allowable in translation:

"Der grosse Casar tot und Lehm geworden

Verstopft ein Loch wohl vor dem rauhen Norden.

O dass d e Erde, der die Welt gebebt,
Vor Wind und Wetter eine Wand verklebt."

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return. or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No notice is taken of anonymous communications. [The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even of communications containing interesting and novel facts.] Natural Selection and Natural Theology

I AM very glad to find from Prof. Asa Gray's last communication (NATURE, vol. xxviii. p. 78) that the result of our "amicable discussion" has been that of coming to an agreement on all

points save one, which, as he truly observes, is "seemingly capable of settlement by scientific inquiry." This point simply is as to whether variation in plants and animals is promiscuous (not "lawless ") or is restricted to beneficial lines.

Now with reference to this point, I observed in my first letter (NATURE, vol. xxvii. p. 362) that if variation is promiscuous it is only the favourable variations that are able to survive, and hence the sole ground of entertaining natural selection as an agency in the process of evolution; but that, on the other hand, if it could be shown that variations always take place exclusively in the directions required for a development of the adaptations, so as to leave no room for the operation of natural selection, then the evidence of design as deduced from the theory of evolution would become comparable with that evidence as deduced from the theory of special creation. But I also pointed out that "the burden of proof lies with the natural theologian to show that there has been some such intelligent guidance of the variations, not with the evolutionist to show cause why there may not have been such guidance." And now I understand Prof. Gray accepts this as a correct statement of the case, observing in his last letter that, if variation is promiscuous, "then no doubt the theory of natural selection may be the substitute of the theory of special design,' so as to efface that evidence of underlying intelligence which innumerable and otherwise inexplicable adaptations of means to ends in nature was thought to furnish. If it is not so, then the substitute utterly fails."

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It is most satisfactory to me that the issue bas thus been clearly reduced to a simple matter of scientific observation, and I may add that I am much interested to find that a naturalist of such high standing as Prof. Gray still holds to the view that, "so far as observation extends, it does not warrant the supposi tion of omnifarious and aimless variation." Of course, if I had not believed in "aimless variation" as of universal occurrence in organic nature, I should never have supposed that the theory of evolution by natural selection could in any way touch the theory of special design; but finding that my fundamental belief in this matter is still open to question by so esteemed an authority as Prof. Gray, and observing that we are here upon the ground of a purely scientific question, I should like to say a few words in justification of this belief.

No one has attended to the subject of variation with a tenth part of the care that was bestowed upon it by Mr. Darwin, and no one has been gifted with a better judgment in matters of this kind. I shall therefore restrict myself to giving a brief outline of his matured opinion upon the subject.

"As

Everywhere he speaks of variation as promiscuous or aimless, but never as "lawless, ," and only under a carefully guarded meaning as accidental. That is to say, he has no doubt that every variation is due to causes, though not of a teleological kind. Of these causes he regards changes of environment as highly important; but nevertheles he is inclined to lay less weight on these "than on a tendency to vary due to causes of which we are quite ignorant."1 But with reference to variations not taking place exclusively in beneficial lines he says: man has domesticated so many animals and plants belonging to widely different classes, and as he certainly did not choose with prophetic instinct those species which would vary most, we may infer that all natural species, if exposed to analogous conditions, would, on an average, vary to the same degree. . . . We have abundant evidence of the constant occurrence under nature of slight individual differences of the most diversified kinds; and we are thus led to conclude that species have generally originated by the natural selection of extremely light differences; . although each modification must have its own exciting cause, and though each is subjected to law, yet we can so rarely trace the precise relation between cause and effect, that we are tempted to speak of variations as if they arose spontaneously. We may even call them accidental, but this must be only in the sense in which we say that a fragment of rock dropped from a height owes its shape to accident. . . If an architect were to rear a noble and commodious edifice without the use of cut stone, by selecting from the fragments at the base of a precipice wedgeformed stones for his arches, elongated stones for his lintels, and flat stones for his roof, we should admire his skill and regard him as the paramount power. Now the fragments of stone, though indispensable to the architect, bear to the edifice the same relation which the fluctuaring variations of organic beings bear to the varied and admirable structures ultimately acquired by their modified descendants. . . . The shape of the fragments at the Origin of Species," 6th edition, p. 107.

base of our precipice may be called accidental, but this is not strictly correct; for the shape of each depends on a long sequence of events, all obeying natural laws; but in regard to the use to which the fragments may be put, their shape may be strictly said to be accidental. Can it be reasonably maintained that the Creator intentionally ordered, if we use the word in any ordinary sense, that certain fragments of rock should assume certain shapes, so that the builder might erect his edifice? If the various laws which have determined the shape of each fragment were not predetermined for the builder's sake, can it be maintained with any greater probability that He specially ordained for the sake of the breeder each of the innumerable variations in our domestic animals and plants ;-many of these variations being of no service to man, and not beneficial, far more often injurious, to the creatures themselves? Did He ordain that the crop and tail-feathers of the pigeon should vary in order that the fancier might make his grotesque pouter and fantail breeds? Did He cause the fra ne and mental qualities of the dog to vary in order that a breed might be formed of indomitable ferocity, with jaws fitted to pin down the bull for man's brutal sport? But if we give up the principle in one case, if we do not admit that the variations of the primeval dog were intentionally guided in order that the greyhound, for instance, that perfect image of symmetry and vigour, might be formed, -n -no shadow of reason can be assigned for the belief that variations, alike in nature and the result of the same general laws, which have been the groundwork through natural selection of the formation of the most perfectly adapted animals in the world, man included, were intentionally and specially designed. However much we may wish it, we can hardly follow Prof. Asa Gray in his belief that variation has been led along certain beneficial lines,' like a stream along definite and useful lines of irrigation.'

If this

I could give a number of other quotations to the same general effect from the writings of Mr. Darwin, but I think these are enough to show, as I have said, that if there is any evidence of variations being determined in special and beneficial lines, it now lies with the teleologist to adduce such evidence. could be done it would be a matter of immense importance, both from a scientific and a speculative point of view, seeing that on the scientific side it would be subversive of the whole theory of natural selection, and on the speculative side would therefore leave us where we were before the publication of the "Origin of Species." But at present the whole weight of such scientific evidence as we have appears to me unquestionably opposed to Prof. Gray's state uent that, so far as observation extends, it does not warrant the supposition of omnifarious and aimless variation." GEORGE J. ROMANES

Carson Footprints

IN NA URE (vo!. xxvii. p. 578) which I have just seen, the Duke of Argyll calls your attention to the so-called human footprints uncovered in the prison yard at Carson, Nevada. I have carefully examined these tracks, and read a paper on the subject before the California Academy of Science, August 27, 1882. Unfortunately the Proceedings of the Academy have not yet been published, though copies of the several papers on this subject have been printed and privately distributed. Perhaps a brief account of these tracks will be interesting to your readers.

The nearly horizontal strata in which they occur consist of beds of sandstone with thin layers of fine shale. The track layer, which is one of these latter, has been uncovered over an are of nearly two acres, and forms the floor of the prison yard, while the stone removed has been used to build the prison. In the course of the excavation a number of fossils have been found, among which the most important are the jaws and teeth of an elephant, probably E. Americanus, and two species of horse, Equus Pacificus and occidentalis; some freshwater shells, all of recent species, have also been found. The age of the deposit seems to be that of the "Equus beds" of American geologists, which by some are put in the uppermost Pliocene, and by others in the lowest Quaternary. It is probably a transition between the two.

The whole surface of the shale exposed in the prison yard is literally covered with tracks of many kinds, but the mud was so soft when the tracks were made that the nature of many of them can only be guessed. Some were probably those of a horse; some probably of a wolf; some certainly of a deer; I "Variations of Animals and Plants under Domestication." Secon edition, vol. ii. pp. 401-2, 410, 416, 426-8.