Abstract
THIS is an interesting book, written, like nearly all French scientific books, in transparently clear style. It assumes, however, that the reader has a fair knowledge of zoology, so that it hardly appeals to the reading world in general. It is intended rather for those who have made some study of comparative anatomy, and who wish for light on the various theories of evolution. In France Darwinism has not had the triumphant progress that it has had in England and, still more, in Germany. Even evolution, quite apart from the specially Darwinian interpretation of it, has been very slowly accepted, so that the earlier part of M. Giard's book deals with controversies that for us have long been buried. The second chapter, which originally appeared as an article in the Revue scientifique in 1874, discusses at length the question whether the ascidians are really near allies of the vertebrates. A figure of the larva of a typical ascidian is given, but it would have been well to give also a figure of Appendicularia, in which the notochord persists in the adult. Throughout, the book would have gained by being more amply illustrated. The chapter on ascidians combats von Baer's now exploded theory of them, perhaps at rather unnecessary length. But the author has deliberately adopted the plan of reprinting his essays written during the last quarter of the nineteenth century so that the reader may appreciate the difficulties against which the evolutionist has had to contend.
Controverses Transformistes.
By Alfred Giard. Pp. viii+178. (Paris: C. Naud, 1904.) Price 7 francs.
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H., F. Controverses Transformistes . Nature 70, 123 (1904). https://doi.org/10.1038/070123a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/070123a0