Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/27

 9* s. vii. jA2t. 5, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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1 Henry VIII,' the term is applied in contempt to VVolsey, because he was the son of a

butcher :

I wonder

That such a keech [as Wolsey] can with his very bulk Take up the rays o' the beneticial sun And keep it from the earth.

William Toone, in his * Etymological Dic- tionary,' says that a fat man in the North is called keech-belly :

Thou whoreson obscene j greasy tallow keech. ' King Henry IV.

EVERAKD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

' WEDDED ' (9 th S. vi. 209, 334). It is difficult to think that your correspondent CHINA is serious in the suggestion that the man is biting the woman's finger. I have heard of a courageous Australian who wrote direct to the late Lord Leighton, putting to him the same question as CHINA has asked, and who got for a reply that the theory of the " bite " was wholly due to the lively fancy of Mr. Punch. ALEX. LEEPER.

Trinity College, University of Melbourne.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o. Problems of Evolution. By F. W. Headley. (Duck- worth & Co. )

MB. HEADLEY has written a book of great interest

which seems a good deal more lucid than many

attempts of the sort to deal with natural selection

He wages war against the Lamarckians, and adopts

with differences, Weismann's theory of the germ

plasm. Compromise between these two schools o

investigation, which is pronounced impossible, we

believe to be the right line to take. Here, at any

rate, Mr. Headley seems to us unfair to the neo

Lamarckians; but the matter is so intricate, anc

the difficulties on both sides so great, that they

cannot be conveniently discussed in the course of a

review. No theory of evolution is yet, we hold

satisfactory that is, sufficient to explain the date

with which we are confronted in the habits an<

growth of plants and animals. Meanwhile free

inquiry is assured, and may well be fostered by a

book like this, which is, we must add, well enough

illustrated to give some idea of the early stages o

life. Of more general interest, and a good dea

less difficult for the lay reader to understand, i

the section of the book which deals with problem

of human evolution. Here the author says mud

with which we, after some study of the subject

are in full agreement, and says it with a clearnes

of exposition unfortunately not common in men o

science. A strong race results from a struggle wit!

hard physical conditions ; the fighters are the fittest

and all advanced civilizations lead to a growth o

luxury and an enervation of the majority of indi

viduals, which must result in a fall before a body o

poorer men who have to work harder to earn

ving. The only power which makes up for the nfeebled remnants of natural selection in a highly ivilized body is "ultra-rational" religion. But lie toleration which religion necessitates does both ood and harm to a nation considered physically, /len alone have, unlike animals, the privilege of oing wrong, and they make unsuitable unions ithout immediate punishment. The weaklings which result are not exposed by Spartan mothers, ' ut preserved by humane doctors. On the other and, "Conscience is the tribal self," as is well xplained here, and its office is to save a nation rom disintegration by advocating altruism. But f in religion morality is included (and here we are dealing with religion as understood by anthro- )ologists), the system of taboo, which Mr. Headley ably discusses, must also be so classed, as he con- cludes. Taboo supports the rights of marriage and >f property that is, of monogamy. And such a lystem is often unfair to women, as Euripides said ong ago. The point whether, women being admit- as monogamy implies is not unnatural, might be
 * edly much more numerous than men, such a taboo
 * airly advanced by an Eastern mind, but could

never be considered in the West. Mr. Headley does not touch on it here.

We are unable to acquiesce in the statement that alcohol, on the whole, "tends to maintain the physical strength of a nation, and at the same time tielps to develope the" moral qualities on which civilization depends." The merit of alcohol as a miller of the unfittest has been often advanced. To this Mr. Headley adds that individuals who are able to resist it, or drink without getting drunk, reach a higher standard than they could possibly attain if such temptation was not put before them. But this advantage is not to be set against the numbers ruined by excessive indulgence ; and this is the more true because the poorer classes have, we believe, the largest families, and also drink the most. It is they who largely recruit the nation with hardy children, and have no qualms as to insufficient incomes.

Nor can we share the author's optimistic belief that " Europeans have not cut off any stock that showed promise of a noble development." The process of black yielding to white may be inevitable, but the reasons for the invasion of savages appear to many minds pretty evidently as desire for gain. We do recognize a large amount of feeling against such appropriations of territory ; indeed, the widely expressed view that such aggressive peoples are a divinely appointed scourge seems specially adapted to meet this protest against extermination of the darker peoples. Mr. Headley concludes his most stimulating volume by a study of the causes and results of conservatism in China.

A Genealogical and Historical Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage, &c. By Sir Bernard Burke. Edited by Ashworth P. Burke. (Harrison &Sons.)

As the first issue for the twentieth century, Burke'a ' Peerage ' for 19lll the most indispensable of all works of the class to the genealogist, the historian, and the man of the world contains an introduction of special interest and value. This is naturally the work of the editor, under whose zealous and loyal direction the book has been much simplified. In itself the past year has been "phenomenally" event- ful. Proofs of the havoc for which war is partly responsible meet us on every hand, Amonq; the