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BOOK REVIEWS 293

All in all, this should make an excellent text- For the teacher, the "tedious detail" book for elementarycourses in ,but is a storehouse of information. Darwin was for the high school teacher it will serve as an also an outstanding geologist, and his descrip- unusually up-to-date reference for the subject. tions of the natural features of the lands he visited are still among the best available. His and theory of the origin of coral atolls, long dis- THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE, , counted, was finally confirmed during the atom (Annotated and with an introduction by bomb tests on Eniwetok. Leonard Engel.) 524 pp., $1.45, Doubleday I think, however, that Darwin is at his best and Company, New York, 1962. when he discusses animals. His account of the It is a distinct honor to be asked to review mole rat (Spalacopus) of South America is one a book by a young man who was to become of the lucid series of observations and deduc- the world's greatest naturalist even though the tions which foreshadow The Origins of Spe- the first cies (see Tucotuco, p. 50). The mole rat al- honor comes 123 years after publica- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/25/4/293/19522/4440361.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 tion in 1839. I hardly think, however, that such though having eyes is usually found blinded by a classic needs a review. Here it is-524 pages its own burrowing activities. Darwin remarks, in a new edition, well-edited, well-printed, with ". . . it appears strange that any animal should a new and penetrating introduction, interesting possess an organ frequently subject to be in- illustrations, and all for the price of a double jured. Lamarckwould have been delighted with martini. I cannot, on the other hand, refrain this fact had he known it. . . ." The idea of from making some remarks about certain as- natural selection let the mole rat slip into its pects Qf this book which have intrigued me place in the story of those strange blind bur- over the years. rowing animals which Lamarck had tried to The Voyage is in part an account of the explain as the result of use and disuse. metamorphosis of a boy-a beetle-collecting, Some of the changes in viewpoint detectable somewhat dilletantish boy, who never seemed between the early portions of The Voyage and to be able to make up his mind-into a man of the later parts seem to me to throw an interest- great perception. The transition is concealed ing light on Darwin as the Victorian gentleman. because by the end of the voyage of the Beagle Early in the trip while staying at Botofogo the change was completed, and the account Bay in Rio de Janeiro he naively says, "In was edited with hindsight. Twenty years later England any person fond of the mind which whetted itself on the natural enjoys in his walks a great advantage,by always wonders of half a world aboard the Beagle was having something to attract his attention; but to produce the heavy prose which with agoniz- in these fertile climates, teeming with life, the ingly Anglo-Germanic thoroughness shattered attractions are so numerous, that he is scarcely the basis for a belief in special creation. Ac- able to walk at all." Or was he really pulling cording to his own account Darwin had al- the English leg? Later at Tahiti he remarks, ready convinced himself of the truth of organic "On the whole, it appears to me that the mo- evolution by the time he returned to England rality and religion of the inhabitantsare highly in 1836. He spent the next twenty years work- creditable. . . . In point of morality, the virtue ing on the evidence for evolution and his of the women, it has been often said, is most theory. William Jennings Bryan once referred open to exception. But before they are blamed to Darwin's theory as a guess. If it were a guess, too severely, it will be well distinctly to call to I wager that it was the most thoroughly thought mind the scenes described by CaptainCook and out and documented guess in human history. If Mr. Banks, in which the grandmothers and we allow a beginning for Darwin's work during mothers of the present race played a part. Those The Voyage, he spent at least 23 years in re- who are most severe, should consider how much search and might have spent more had it not of the morality of the women in Europe, is been for Wallace's serendipidousorigination of owing to the system early impressedby mothers the same theory in 1858. on their daughters,and how much in each indi- The Voyage in its day was a best seller. It vidual case to the precepts of religion. But it is still contains all of the elements we associate useless to argue against such reasoners;-I be- with "being on the list." Violence, mystery, sex, lieve that, disappointedin not finding the field sea voyages, mountaineering, the habits of of licentiousnessquite so open as formerly, they strange natives, and descriptions of strange credit to a which they lands are all here. Fortunately, however, Dar- will not give morality win did not forget to leave out the "tedious do not wish to practice, or to a religion which detail," and it is in this detail that the book still they undervalue, if not despise." lives for us. The plot, you will find, palls very Leonard Engel is to be commended on the quickly on one. excellent notes throughout the book and on 294 THEAMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER the introduction. I was particularly gratified to the picture does not agree with the labels on find that S. Adler, an expert in tropical diseases, the picture. Frank Zeller has recently diagnosed Darwin's illness after his Department of return to England as due to Chagas' disease, Indiana University caused by an organism similar to that causing Physics sleeping sickness, but transmitted by triatomid bugs. Darwin recounts his night-long attack by PHYSICS IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL, American In- stitute of Physics Handbook, 136 pp., $1.50, the "great black bug of the Pampas" (Triatoma McGraw-HillBook Company,Inc., New York, infestans), a known transmitter of Chagas' 1960. disease. This encounter, says Leonard, could well have been the cause of the forty years of This is the type of publication which biology by the English teachers are anxiously awaiting for their sub- invalidism usually attributed it that this physicians to hypochondria since they could ject; however, must be pointed out booklet has a great deal of value for science

find little wrong with him. Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/25/4/293/19522/4440361.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 teachers regardless of their subject specialty. There are many hours of pleasant reading in As can be noted, the booklet was written for The Voyage, but it is a book to be read in use of physics teachers, administrators, and small portions and savored, not to be gulped school board members. It is a carefully thought down as required reading. I place the present out summary of the best practices in physics edition on my bookshelf with pleasant anticipa- teaching and how they may be applied to in- tion of future adventures. dividual school situations. The format of the Frank N. Young booklet starts with emphasizingthe subject mat- Department of Zoology ter of physics, the type of students, the teacher Indiana University and his training, the physics courses, the labora- GLOSSARY OF GENETICS, AND OTHER BIOLOGICAL tory, books and films, facilities, and methods of TERMS, Russell B. Clapper, 200 pp., $3.95, recognizing high quality instruction. The last Vantage Press, New York, 1960. chapter is obviously of great use for science While emphasizing terms used in genetics, teachers regardless of their subject. Also, there there are a number of technical biological terms are useful appendices in the booklet. defined. No illustrationsare used. A list of errata All in all, this is a most useful booklet, and meets the reader when the book is opened, but it remains a real model for similar work which many are minor errors. The biological terms should be done for the other sciences. It is a used reflect the author's background in plant handy booklet to put in the hands of school ad- pathology. A handy little book. ministrators, parents, and school board mem- bers. Would that the biology teacher had one of similar high quality. WILLIAM HARVEY, TRAILBLAZER OF SCIENTIFIC , Rebecca B. Marcus,127 Pp., $2.95, NATURAL AREAS FOR CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS, Franklin Watts, Inc., New York 22, 1962. Verna Johnston, 32 pp., Conservation Edu- This is an interesting little book that was cation Section, State Department of Conser- written primarily for the high school student, vation, Sacramento 14, California, 1962. but even though written on this level would be This 1962 edition is a revision of an earlier worthwhile reading for college science majors. publication, Natural Areas for Schools, by the The reason for this is that the author from the same author. As the change in title suggests, the very first chapter impresses us with that quality discussionof samples of naturalareas for schools of William Harvey that every should is increasinglylimited in this revision. However, have-that of some scepticism for authority and the chapter titles are identical in both. dogma. This is shown in describing Harvey's In chapter IV, "How to Get and Use Natural approach to science in general and the circula- Areas for School Activities," the newer edition tory system in particular. A most important lists examples of such areas as found only in point made by the author is that Harvey was California; whereas four other states, rather not sceptical just for scepticism's sake, but that widely distributed, are included in the earlier -his doubts were brought about and rein- one. However, the general means for obtaining forced by his own observationsand experiments. natural areas for schools can be applied to any The careful unfolding of the steps leading to portion of the country. The implication is that his conclusions regarding the role of the California is making rapid strides in the pro- and the fact of circulation of the are in- curement and development of school natural terestingly presented both by word and illustra- areas and thus more local cases are cited. tions. The drawing illustratingthe circulationof The bibliography, which is quite extensive, the blood (p. 75) is confusing in that the key to remains identical in the newer edition to that