BIOLOGY

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21418, 9 March 1935, Page 17

BIOLOGY

for JKvrr.vnmn. JJy Sir .1. Arthur ■ Thanisn'n. .T. M. Dent mid Sisns L!d. Two vols.. IfSiJ pp. 115/- enmptetc.) These delightful volumes are Thomson's magnum opus but he does not write Ihe preface. His manuscript, was practically finished, and the illustrations, a host of excellent drawings by a fine artist, were ready when he died and all biologists and .laymen interested in biology felt that they had lost a dear friend. The Jong labour done — it was an enormous task undertaken he would have said with free and happy pen that life is supremely vvondei'ful and a mystery worthy ol Ihe galaxies that produced it. With dignity and well-restrained emotion he would have written down his last linely-wrought words of praise and adoration. For (he earth to Thomson was like a cathedral and all its creatures were living souls. The fine sensitive face thai, looks out from Hie beautiful photograph in the frontispiece shows the adorer and the kn'er. No one else could write that, preface.

The work itself is unique among books on biology in .scope, treatment, and arrangement. From the protista to man a bircl's-eye view of the whole of living nature, animal and vegetable, is presented. One thing is fitted in with another; there are no harsh gaps. And characteristically, while consecutive demonstration of the elan vital and purpose fulfilling activities of living organisms runs on, front time to lime there are sudden slowings and the private life of the liver fluke, the courtship of spiders, the nesting of birds, or some such fascinating mailer is given in magnified and sharp detail. Yet 1 hose things never break the thread but cause the argument to unfold with fresh force, clarity, and persuasion. And as for details, if anyone wishes to know why open wafer fish are silvery and others not, here it is; or in what respects rabbits differ from hares, or how quickly ants can run, or what load they can carry, or what altitudes birds fly to, or why donkeys eat thistles—here it is with thousands besides. Not only is "Biology for Everyman" Ihs biology book for everyman, but it is so for every boy and girl and every woman too. Aldine House seems to have made it a labour of love to print and bind and index the volumes just as it should b'j done.