(1)Selectionsprinzip und Probleme der Artbildung: ein Handbuch des Darwinismus (2) Die Lehre Darwins in ihren letzten Folgen

Abstract

(1) PROF. L. PLATE'S “Selektionsprinzip” has been so much expanded in its third edition that it deserves to be called “a handbook of Darwinism.” It is a careful and thoughtful text-book by a thorough-going Darwinian, who is at the same time a believer in the transmission of acquired characters. In the first chapter he considers the objections to Datwirrism. These may be relatively unimportant, e.g. that Darwinism does not account for the origin of variations, that artificial and natural selection are not really analogous, that the struggle for existence is not selective. But there are other objections which are more essential, e.g. that minute changes cannot have selective value, that the process of natural selection cannot be seen occurring, that the theory of selection starts from the fortuitous. It is useful to have a modern Darwinian's answers to these and other attacks on his faith, and it is much to be desired that those who rush into print with anti-Darwinian books and essays would read a work like Plate's, especially if they will not read Darwin.

(1) Selectionsprinzip und Probleme der Artbildung: ein Handbuch des Darwinismus.

By Prof. Ludwig Plate. Dritte, sehr vermehrte Auflage. Pp. viii+493; 60 figs. (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1908.) Price 12 marks.

(2) Die Lehre Darwins in ihren letzten Folgen.

By Max Steiner. Beiträge zu einem systematischen Ausbau des Naturalismus. Pp. vii+244. (Berlin: Ernst Hofmann and Co., 1908.) Price 3 marks.