BOOK REVIEWS Theory

NATURE. VOL. 2 J 5. SEPTEMBER 23. l 967 1417

development, indirectly and contrary to his anticipation or wishes an essential contributor to the origin of The Origin of Species. Although admittedly less important, the later letters cover matters less widely familiar. Still addressed with somewhat reticent affection, Henslow here becomes one of the many colleagues from whom Darwin sought the facts he was building into the fabric of evolutionary BOOK REVIEWS theory. There is, for instance, an amusing sequence of letters in which Darwin is trying with evident difficulty to draw out Henslow on the closeness of alliance of species within genera without revealing that those data would bear on Darwin's still unpublished views on the origin of species. Another quite charming sequence of letters reveals that Henslow had organized a sort of posse of MASTER AND PUPIL young girls who collected botanical specimens, especially seeds, for Darwin. Darwin, anxious to be generous but not Darwin and Henslow profligate, was dubious as to whether he should reward The Growth of an Idea. Letters 1831-1860 edited by the maidens with 3d or 6d for each packet of seeds. That Nora Barlow. Pp. xii+251+8 plates. (London: John particular incident was connected with an abortive Murray, 1967.) 35s. net attempt to determine whether Azorean species also found THE Reverend Professor John Stevens Henslow, professor in the neighbourhood of Hitcham were particularly apt first of mineralogy and then of botany at the University for overseas dispersal. of Cambridge and later Rector of Hitcham, was "one As with Lady Barlow's previous books, or indeed all chief means of giving[Darwin]a taste for NaturalHistory", that has to do with Darwin, there are innumerable nuggets as Darwin hastened to state in the first version of the work of news or reminders. As just one more example, it is usually known as The Voyage of the Beagle. Henslow was pointed out that part, at least, of Loren Eiseley's supposed the mentor who furthered and fixed Darwin's true voca evidence that Darwin plagiarized Edward Blyth is tion for the natural sciences while Darwin was a Cambridge incorrect. Although Lady Barlow is too courteous to say undergraduate nominally preparing for the ministry. It so, Eiseley could have detected the fallacy before he was also Henslow who recommended Darwin for the published his claim. position of naturalist on the surveying ship Beagle on her In sum, this is an excellent addition to Darwiniana, and voyage around the world and thus set him in the way of we are again indebted to its compiler and editor. discovering evolution. Further, it was Henslow who G. G. SIMPSON counselled Darwin as to collecting and observing on that voyage and Henslow who received the collections which were sent back, who advised Darwin as to their condition and who preserved them for subsequent study. After the ALL THE FISH IN BRITAIN voyage, and as Darwin became an established scientist in his own right, the relationship between the two men British Freshwater Fishes changed, but friendship continued and Henslow was for Factors Affecting their Distribution. By MargarPt E. Darwin "my dear old Master" until his death in 1861, Varley. Pp. 148 (22 plates). (London: Fishing News twenty-one years before Darwin's. (Henslow was the (Books), Ltd., 1967.) 31s. 6d. elder by thirteen years.) THIS book is one of a series providing a permanent record Those facts have been known in outline to Darwin's of annual lectures maintained by a bequest of the late many biographers, and the most significant passages in Frank Buckland. Dr Varley gave the three lectures for Darwin's !otters of 1831-1837 to Henslow were already 1963 in Glasgow, Leeds and Nottingham, and each lecture included in the basic or, one might say, the official Life has been divided into two chapters in the book. It is and Letters (1887) by Charles Darwin's son Francis. Only concerned entirely with the factors affecting the disti·ibu now, however, do we have the full text of all the known tion of the British freshwater fishes. letters for that period when Henslow was a dominant There is a short introduction which serves to inform the factor in Darwin's life, one might almost say in loco reader that the lectures sponsored by the Buckland parentis as concerns influence on the beginning of his career. Foundation are required "to pay all possible attention to Now, too, we can follow tho less intimate but more equal the subject of Economic Fish Culture". Dr Varley then friendship throughDarwin'sletters to Henslow from 1838 to observes that the real value of most of our freshwater 1860, only one previously published in full and few in part. fishes is recreational. She indicates the number of anglers We owe this to the continuing efforts of Darwin's grand in the British Isles, and their division into "game" and daughter, Nora Barlow, who had already produced "coarse" fishermen, although this division is now becoming Charles Darwin's Diary of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle less distinct. After a short account of the two approaches (1933), Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle (1945), to angling, the remainder of the introduction gives a The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882 with resume of the zoological status of our freshwater fishes, Original Omissions Restored (1958), and Darwin's Ornitho while Table 1 shows their systematic positions. logical Notes (1963). As in those works, Lady Barlow has In the first chapter the origin of the British freshwater again been a meticulous editor, contributing an introduc fish fauna is discussed. It is noted that the present tion that sets the Darwin-Henslow relationship in the distribution of animals depends on the range of tolerance framework of their lives; footnotes identifying other of each species and also on its past history. Thus, the people who are named and clarifying obscure points; a relationship of the British Isles to continental Europe brief bibliography of the most relevant works; six useful before and after the Ice Age is described, and related to the appendices and a good index. subsequent colonization of our fresh waters by fish. The Even if this book contained nothing new, it would chapter concludes with an appropriate warning about the attract interest and merit thanks for extracting, uniting, dangers of importing species new to our fauna without and so clarifying source materials on tho interaction of the very careful thought. The author states that carp intro two men involved. The addition of detail in the first part, duced into South Africa and North America have done a until 1837, is considerable, and the whole highlights the great deal of damage to the native fish fauna because of fact that Henslow was indeed a crucial factor in Darwin's their habit of stirring up the bottom mud.