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In one respect this is a curious book. Its full title is: "Erasmus Darwin: by Ernest Krause. Translated from the German by W. S. Dallas. With a Preliminary Notice by Charles Darwin." Now, the "Preliminary Notice" occupies 130 pages, while the part contributed by Mr. Krause takes up 86 pages. We might suggest as a more appropriate title:

"A Preliminary Notice of Erasmus Darwin. With an Appendix by Ernest Krause."

Erasmus Darwin was the grandfather of Charles Darwin. He was born in 1731, and died in 1802; was both poet and philosopher, and author of "Zoonomia," "Botanic Garden," "Temple of Nature," "Loves of the Plants," and others; was a Radical in politics, and appears to have been on the side of the American Colonists in their war for indence, for in a letter to Wedgwood in 1782 he said:

"I hope Dr. Franklin will live to see peace, - to see America recline under her own vine and fig-tree, turning her swords into plowshares," etc.

His biography has been written before, and was published in 1804. The chief interest of the present volume is in the portion contributed by Mr. Krause, in which he notes the same tendencies in the grandfather that subsequently found so great development in the grandson.

"In him we find the same indefatigable spirit of research, and almost the same biological tendency, as in his grandson; and we might, not without justice, assert that the latter has succeeded to an intellectual inheritance and carried out a program sketched forth and left behind by his grandfather. Almost every single work of the younger Darwin may be paralleled by at least a chapter in the works of his ancestor; the mystery of heredity, adaptation, the protective arrangements of animals and plants, sexual selection, insectivorous plants, and the analysis of the emotions and sociological impulses, - nay, even the studies on infants,- are to be found already discussed in the writing of the elder Darwin."

The present volume contains some material which was not accessible to the former writers,- Dr. Darwin's letters, commonplace book, short published notices, etc.,- all of which is contained in the preliminary notice. The contribution of Dr. Krause was in the original entitled "Contribution to the History of the Descent Theory,"- with which it connected Dr. Darwin by quotations from his works. Dr. Darwin was twice married, and it is a singular commentary on the state of English society at the time that, during the interval between the two marriages, he became the father of two illegitimate daughters, who were brought up with his own; and that his practice as a physician was in no manner injured by his evident immorality.

(Life of Erasmus Darwin. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1 vol. Price $1.25)