WATTS’S LITERARY GUIDE: B E I N G A M O N T H L Y R E C O R D O F L I B E R A L A N D A D V A N C E D P U B L I C A T I O N S .

No. 72.]

NOVEM BER 15, 1891.

[Price One Penny.

N E W P U B L I C A T I O N S .

O U R L I B R A R Y S H E L V E S .

— :o:—

Messrs. Watts & Co. will issue early next month the first number o f a. new Individualist publication. It will be entitled “ The Liberty Annual,” and will be edited by Messrs. W. S. Crawshay and Frederick Millar. Among the contributors will be the Hon. Auberon Herbert, Wordsworth Donisthorpe, M.A. (who will treat of “ Liberty in Marriage ” from a bold and unorthodox standpoint), Mr. M. D. O ’Brien (editor o f Free L ife ) , E. Stanley Robertson, M.A., Mr. Amos Waters (whose subject will be “ Liberty in Literature and Art ”), Mr. G. J. Holyoakc (who will write on “ Liberty in Religion ”), and W. C. Crofts, M.A. The price o f the “ Annual ” will be sixpence.

Mr. A lfred T hompson, the author of “ Magic and Mystery,” has just written a pamphlet on “ Lessons o f Agnosticism” (id .) for the Propagandist Press Committee ; and Messrs. Watts & Co. announce that it is ready for publication.

T he new issue of “ The National Secular Society’s Almanack ” (6d.) will contain contributions from Mr. George Jacob Holyoake, Mr. G. W. Foote, Mr. Charles Watts, Mr. J. M. Wheeler, Mr. Touzeau Parris, Mr. Arthur B. Moss, Mr. George Standring, and others. The subject of Mr. Watts’s paper will be “ Charles Dickens a Secular Reformer.”

“ T he Agnostic Annual ” for next year being already nearly out of print, it has been decided to issue Professor Huxley’s paper in pamphlet form. The price will be threepence.

T he title of Mr. Arthur B. Moss’s next volume will be “ Christianity and Evolution.” It will be issued uniform with his “ The Bible and Evolution,” and may be expected some time in the new year.

Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. have just issued, under the title o f “ The Student’s Marx ” (2s. 6d.), an introduction to the study of Karl Marx’s “ Capital.” The writer is Dr. Edward Aveling, who is well known to the readers of Freethought journals.

A new and enlarged edition of Dr. Carus’s “ Fundamental Problems ” (6s.) is issued by Messrs. Longmans. There has been no material deviation from the first edition, and the additions consist mainly o f contributions which have appeared in the interval in the columns of the Open Court.

T he first number of a small journal, The Liberty o f Bequest Intellig encer, will be ready shortly. It will contain an address by Mr. George Jacob Holyoake, and much useful information bearing on the law of bequest in relation to Freethought. It is intended to issue the journal quarterly or oftener, as occasion may require.

Readers who have already become acquainted with the “ Contemporary Science Series ” will agree that it merits very high praise. For the sake of any who may not yet have come across these volumes we will take, as t)ie subject o f this month’s notice, Geddes and Thomson’s

“ evolution of sex”

(Walter Scott; 1889; 104 illustrations; 322 p p . ; 3s. 6d.). The work is written in a thoroughly practical and scientific manner. I t is a mass o f facts and reasonings, with just an admixture o f the sort of speculation which is, in reality, a search after new knowledge. While the authors have repressed technicalities as much as possible, their treatise cannot be regarded as a “ popular ’’ one. Some previous study of biology and microscopy is necessary to a clear understanding of the data upon which the conclusions are built. Yet the general method and language are not so far removed above the ken of the ordinary reader as to render it a painful task to follow the arguments through from beginning to end. Great assistance will be found in the woodcuts, and in the useful plan o f appending a summary to each chapter, wherein the leading ideas are concisely gathered up into a page or half-page of print. T o each summary is added a note giving information concerning relevant literature, so that the student can without trouble find his way farther afield. In addition to these bibliographical lists, the body of the text is interspersed with many serviceable references to the works of recognised authorities, whose general results are epitomised with skilful brevity and intelligent care.

Book I. is entitled “ Male and Female.” A review of the theory of “ sexual selection ” in the origin of species is preliminary to a consideration of the determination of sex in the individual organism. What are the factors which decide whether any given organism will develop into a male or into a female ? The authors observe, not without a hint o f humour, that “ at the beginning o f the last century the theories of sex were estimated at so many as five hundred, and they have gone on increasing.” The explanation here offered is founded on observations as to the effect of nutrition of parents, and the influence o f temperature and of the environment of the embryo. The generalisation is arrived at that anabolic conditions (i.e ., constructive changes o f living matter or protoplasm) favour the preponderance o f females, and that katabolic conditions (i.e ., destructive changes of protoplasm) tend to produce males. In other words, such conditions as deficient food, light, and moisture, from whatever causes, in the life of the parents, result in the birth of males ; and abundant and rich nutrition, light, etc., increase the probability o f female offspring. Book II. gives an analysis o f sex. After descriptions of essential and auxiliary organs in animals, from the protozoa upwards, and a discussion of hermaphroditism, the problems of embryology are approached. The ultimate sexual cells are traced and figured; the structure and action of the ovum and the spermatozoon are exposed. Then a large view of