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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Problems of Life and Reproduction. By Marcus Hartog, 

 M.A., D.Sc., F.L.S. 8 x 5J in. ; xx -f 362 pages ; one 

 plate, 41 figures in the text, and three diagrams. London : 

 John Murray, 1912. Price 7s. 6d. net. 



In taking up this book one cannot avoid a feeling of regret 

 that the author was unable to carry out his original intention of 

 writing a general treatise on Reproduction suited to the layman 

 interested in biological questions. By his researches the author 

 would have been well fitted for such a task. As it is, the book 

 consists of a series of papers on debatable subjects in Biology 

 gathered from various scientific journals and reviews, and ranging 

 in date from 1892 to 1910. They have been revised in part in 

 the light of more recent research, and brought up to date. 



There is much to interest the microscopist, and to one who is 

 not already acquainted with them in their original form they may 

 be recommended. The earlier papers deal with the problems 

 of reproduction as presented in the Protista conjugation and 

 rejuvenescence and the beginnings of sexual reproduction or 

 syngamy. The paper on Fertilisation contains a large number 

 of interesting facts gathered together ; here the author puts 

 forward the idea that it is the linin and not the chromatin 

 (which only serves a purely mechanical function) which is the 

 real transmitter of inherited properties. This idea is more 

 fully developed in Chapter 1Y. on " Mitokinetism " a new 

 force which the author brings to our aid in explaining the 

 mechanics of the mitotic process of nuclear division. Other 

 chapters deal with heredity and the inheritance of acquired 

 characters and Mechanism and Life. 



There are a number of illustrations and a coloured plate; a 

 full index is provided. 



