many treatises written about it, after it had been fostered by Haeckel, Zittel and others, Mr. John Murray, who first believed in Bathybius, has shown to the satisfaction of Haeckel that Bathybius is really dead, and Huxley himself admits he was mistaken in his observations and experiments. But the cream of the joke appeared when M. Allman, at the opening of the British Association at Sheffield, spoke of the 'rôle of protoplasm in nature' and lauded the Bathybius as 'evidencing the most elementary condition in which it is possible to conceive living matter." It happened that Huxley, the parent of Bathybius, was in the audience, and, being an honourable man, and not wishing to leave the audience under a wrong impression, confessed to them that he did not know what it was, and that he absolutely suspended his judgment on the matter. The whole episode is an interesting chapter of modern scientific history and shows how men of the type of Allman, who refuse all credence to traditions consecrated by centuries under the pretext that human reason should bow only before things that one can submit to the control of a direct experience, yet base their infallible scientific faith on the experiments of another which have turned out altogether wrong, and instead of admitting the fact continue to promulgate a falsehood, because in their eyes si le Bathybius n' existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer.' When shall we have a Catholic scientific association of these countries? The want is real. We need men of the type of Dr. Windle and M. de Lapparent. We need popular scientific works that will appeal to a reading public that is easily led astray by pseudo-scientists. We need books like that under review, books animated by faith and a right intention, precise and accurate in all scientific details, written in a clear, fascinating style, and, above all, controlled by a truly philosophical mind and method. M. R. BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED America: A Catholic Review (November). U.S.A. The Rosary Magazine (November). Somerset, Ohio. The Catholic World (November). New York. The Austral Light (October). Melbourne. The Ave Maria (October). Notre Dame, Indiana. The Irish Monthly (November). Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. The Month (November). London: Longmans. Etudes (November). Paris: 12 Rue Oudinot (VII). Revue Pratique d'Apologétique (November). Paris: Beauchesne. The Lamp (October). Garrison, N.Y. Missionary Record of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (November). Dublin: O'Brien Bros., College Street. The Annals of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (November). Cork: Guy & Co. Our Boys (Christmas Number). Edited by the Christian Brothers. Dublin: Cahill & Co. The Homiletic Monthly (October). New York: Wagner. Solution of the Great Problem: Translated by E. Leahy from the French of the Abbé Delloue. New York: Pustet. Enlargements upon Meditations. By Rev. J. Rickaby, S.J. London: Herder. |
