The Analysis of Racial Descent in Animals

Abstract

IT would be a most fascinating task to trace the evolution of modern methods of dealing with the problems of life. Differentiation has taken place so extraordinarily quickly. The time is long past when one man can attempt to grapple with the whole problem. Not only so, but the time seems to be past when one man can even be interested in the whole problem. Evolutionists may be broadly classified into those to whom the problem of evolution is the problem of the origin of species and those to whom it is the problem of adaptation. The key-note of de Vries's “Mutationstheorie” is the solution of the problem of species; we even go so far as to say that this is the achievement of de Vries's work. The logical conclusion, the complete working out of the theory of natural selection, is reached in Dr. Archdall Reid's “Principles of Heredity.” The interest of the two authors is entirely different. De Vries's interest is in the origin of species, Dr. Reid's in natural selection. Darwin's interest was in both; if we look no further than the title of his chief work we can see this—“On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.”

The Analysis of Racial Descent in Animals.

By T. H. Montgomery jun. Pp. xi + 311. (New York: Henry Holt and Company; London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.) Price 10s. 6d. net.