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Darwin on Variation.

THE VARIATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS UNDER DOMESTICATION. By Charles Darwin. Second edition. New York: D. Appleton & Co., San Francisco: Payot, Upham & Co. 1876. 12 mo, in two volumes each; pp. 450.

The first edition of this book attracted great attention in the scientific world, and contributed much to give power to the Darwinian theory, which, notwithstanding all the attacks made upon it by theologians, is predominant among the scientists, and is gaining favor so rapidly that the next generation will probably put the enemy of Darwin with the enemy of Copernicus. This edition contains many new passages especially in the way of notes and explanations, but there is no important change or enlargement in the main ideas of the original work.

The chapter on Pangenesis—the theory that ovules, spermatozoa and pollen grains include many germs thrown off from each separate part of the growth—has been rewritten, and this is, perhaps, the most notable change in the book. Mr. Darwin makes some remarks on consanguineous marriages, and adopts the opinion that there is no satisfactory proof of any injurious influences on the offspring.