Barnacles in Nature and in Myth

Abstract

THIS is a very delightful book, scholarly and whimsical, but it recalls just a little a reviewer's remark on a distinguished philosopher's “Secret of Hegel,” that whether the author had understood the secret or not, the practical certainty was that he had kept it to himself; for after reading Mr. Heron-Allen's book we remain puzzled by the barnacle's secret—we mean, of course, its pseudo-secret, namely, its connexion with a goose. The real secret of the barnacle was solved by Dr. J. Vaughan Thompson in 1830 and 1835 in his famous researches, which showed what barnacles actually are and how they develop. On this point all zoologists are agreed; the puzzle is to explain how barnacles got mixed up for centuries with barnacle geese. We had expected that Mr. Heron-Allen's ingenious mind and sleuth scholarship would have cleared the mist away. The book is extraordinarily learned, and though we confess we never heard of most of the authorities he quotes, we suppose they are all right. The learning is certainly anything but dull, for even the foot-notes, mercifully relegated to fifty pages at the end, have an undeniable sparkle. There is also a generous sprinkling of interesting illustrations, some as quaint as quaint could be.

Barnacles in Nature and in Myth.

By Edward Heron-Allen. Pp. xv+180+8 plates. (London: Oxford University Press, 1928.) 15s. net.