SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES 



RELATING TO 



ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY 



(PRINCIPALLY* INVERTEBRAT A AND CRYPTOGAM^), 



MICKOSCOPY, Etc.* 



ZOOLOGY. 



VESTEBRATA. 

 «. Embryology, t 



Text-book of Heredity. J — J. Arthur Thomson has supplied au 

 introduction to the study of heredity, which gives prominence to the 

 modern results which have been reached by the microscopic study of the 

 germ-cells, by the application of statistical methods, and by experiment. 

 The chapters are as follow : — Heredity and inheritance, defined and 

 illustrated ; the physical basis of inheritance ; heredity and variation ; 

 common modes of inheritance : reversion and allied phenomena ; 

 telegony and other disputed questions ; the transmission of acquired 

 characters ; heredity and disease ; the statistical study of inheritance ; 

 the experimental study of inheritance ; the history of theories of heredity 

 and inheritance : heredity and development : heredity and sex ; social 

 aspects of biological results. There is a copious bibliography of fifty 

 pages and a useful subject-index to the bibliography. 



Transmission of Coercively Acquired Reproductive Adaptations. § 

 P. Kammerer has made very interesting and important experiments with 

 Salamanders. In Salamandra maculosa high up the mountains the 

 viviparous condition obtains. The animal produces numerous (up to 

 72) larvae, 25-30 mm. in length, with four legs and short gills. In 

 warmer conditions the ovo-viviparous condition obtains. The animal 

 lays large eggs which hatch in a few minutes into larvae similar to those 

 produced viviparously, but a little smaller (23-25 mm.). The larvae and 



* 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 pub- 

 lished, 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 with Evolution, Development, Reproduction, and 

 allied subjects. 



X Heredity. London : Murray ; New York : Putmans, 1908, xvi. and G05 pp., 

 49 figs, (some coloured). 



§ Arch. f. Entwickel., xxv. (1907) pp. 7-51 (1 pi.). 



