SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES 



RELATING TO 



ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY 



(PRINCIPALLY INVERTEBRATA AND CRYPTOGAMIA), 



MICEOSCOPY, Etc.* 



ZOOLOGY. 



VERTEBRATA. 

 a. Embryology. t 



Evolution Theory.} — August Weismann's lectures on the evolution 

 theory have been translated from the second German edition (1904), 

 and supply what may be called a general text-book of organic evolution. 

 They represent the fruit of a life-time of observation and reflection, 

 a veteran's judicial summing up of his results, and certainly one of the 

 most important contributions to evolution literature since Darwin's 

 day. 



As the author's preface indicates, the salient features of his crowning 

 work are : (1) the illumination of the evolution process with a wealth of 

 fresh illustrations ; (2) the vindication of the " germ-plasm " concept as 

 a valuable working hypothesis ; (3) the final abandonment of any as- 

 sumption of transmissible acquired characters ; (4) a further analysis of 

 the nature and origin of variations ; and (5), above all, an extension of the 

 selection principle of Darwin and Wallace to its logical outcome in the 

 suggestive theory of germinal selection. 



Maturation and Fertilisation in the Axolotl.§ — J. W. JenMnson 

 gives a detailed account of these processes. His results, in the main, 

 corroborate the work of previous writers, although, with reference to the 

 origin of the cleavage centrosomes, he brings forward an account which 

 differs from that of Fick. This writer held that these bodies arose from 

 the sperm middle piece, while the present author states there is a stage 



* The Society are not intended to be denoted by the editorial " we," and they 

 do not hold themselves responsible for the views of the authors of the papers noted, 

 nor for any claim to novelty or otherwise made by them. The object of this part of 

 the Journal is to present a summary of the papers as actually published, and to 

 describe and illustrate Instruments, Apparatus, etc., which are either new or have 

 not been previously described in this country. 



t This Section includes not only papers relating to Embryology properly so called , 

 but also those dealing wi tli Evolution, Development, Reproduction, and allied subjects. 



X The Evolution Theory, by August Weismann, trans, by J. Arthur Thomson 

 and Margaret R. Thomson, i., xvi. and 41G pp., 95 figs, and 3 coloured plates ; ii.. 

 405 pp., 40 figs. London (Arnold), 1904. 



§ Quart. Jourii. Micr. Sci., xlviii. (1904) pp. 407-82 (5 pis.). 



