Academy,  1 (1869–70), 152–54.

[Review of The Philippine Islands and their Inhabitants, by Carl G Semper]

H W Bates

Genre:

Review

Publications reviewed:

Semper 1869

Subjects:

Disciplinarity, Physical Geography, Geology, Oceanography, Biogeography, Darwinism, Theory, Ethnology


    Review of Carl G Semper's 'observations in several branches of knowledge of general interest' (152–53). Particular attention is paid to 'the author's attempt to invalidate the theory of Mr. Darwin, which, as is well known, accounts for the formation of atolls and barrier reefs [...] by the supposition that the submarine foundation from which the reefs have grown has been gradually sinking, the atolls representing cases where the last peak of encircled land has disappeared beneath the waters'. However, Semper's observation of the formation of atolls in regions which are gradually rising 'cannot be admitted as an important objection to a theory which explains the wonderful phenomenon of countless atolls, without a single peak of elevated land, spread over a tract of ocean in the Pacific 4000 miles in length'. (153)



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