Whilst no doubt the various experiments on the fertilization of frogs' and other invertebrate oxus have indicated certain possibilities in regard. to artificial insemination and algo possibly octo-genesis, the author, in his suggestion that at the resent time it is feasible, with our knowledge of heredity, to go a tong way towards the mass' production of men of the innate qualities of Lenin, Newton, Leonardo, Pasteur, Beetho: ven, Omar Khayyom, Pushkin, Sun Yatisen and "Marx, seems to' have
present knowledge the only ce entirely forgot mat according facts In regard to inheritance is the practically nothing 1s known as to what steps should be taken to produce a genius or even to raise the general intellectual standard. fact, it is probable that the produetion' of a number of John L, Sul liven's or even Valentines, con summation the author views with horror, would be far more easy at the present urna, since there are rather more data in regard to. Inheritance of physical character ties, On the other hand, It is possibly true that if the author were permitted to indulge in the large number of breeding experiments which he considers necessary for the future regeneration of the world, a lot of valuable information would be obtained, "It appears quite Improbable, however, that he will ever have an' opportunity, and it must be admitted that the reviewer con-Siders that is constant quoting of Russian authorities is somewhat ile ogieal, as there' are' presumably capable scientists in other counties, even if they are a little conserva: tively minded, Indeed, the impression gained is that a ' decided impatience with sclentife methods and a desire to jump to conclusions permeates the book. As an example, one may quote his impatience in regard the limitation of the feeble-minded. 'Whilst undoubtedly' the mathematlcal arguments indicating that. progress will be. slow, cannot be con-troverred, and also that it will be gravely complicated by the recess sive appearance of fecble-minded-hess in normal families, it does. not appear scientific, to say' the Toast, 10 oppose a first slop in the right ale ection because it is a cautious one, Tu fact, one would imagine that the author' considers that the laws of inheritance of mental characters are far better elucidated than they are, However, the constant reference to "workers," presumably reference to those who work with their hands, perhaps lends a clue to the irritating character which is otherwise a stimulating and interesting book.—s.n..
Puexesue-Love Ie x. BIN, Jovets-Tereshchenko, BILIW. {nen}: PRD. Condon) Tule he. University of London Tutors} Glasses Committee and the Workers' Educational "Ascociation. "Allen Unwin, London. 67
The author in the early part of this: book states that "Having acfired documents an investigator has to read them. This is often not an easy task." With this the reviewer entirely agrees; he found. it well-igh impossible.
Tt wou appear that th'- book an investigation of an adolescent mind, and the astounding discovery is made that the adolescent tends to have friends amongst his comrades—friends in the ordinary sense of the word and in no pathological sense. 'A still more astounding discovery made that "occasionally" these friends opposite sex." To make
through pages and pages of a halt-this discovery It is necessary to ead baked diary, the reading of which often made more dificult by the enclosing in. brackets, squares lines of portions of the texts which have either been deleted or corrected in the original.
Emotional or Casual There are several verbatim annotations explaining where the boy concerned used a comma instead of full stop, where he used an name for one of his {rlends, all of which to the "trained" mind would appear to have a deep significance "in relation emotional state. It might alto be larist was a bit casual, but explanation is hardly profound enough, 'The writer of the diary states in art that he objects to exercise, of fond. of walking, and ts not} well with his' school work. It appears that If the author of the book had been able to undertake on the behalf of his subject a little old-fashioned medicine and. treatment and arrange for a little exercise, it ight not have been necessary" to analyse so completely the banalities of this document.
The book is fully indexed and, it interested, the reader can. look up pages in Which one of the characters:
described as Betty—-B—BN—and Doubtless these researches have! some value since the author Isa tuler in psychology and amongst other things, is associated with. the Workers' Educational. Association, which may perhaps explain a. cer~ {ain amount of what appears to be Mogical in the present day tendency of labour—vs.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.