23 



SUMMARY OF CIUUIENT RESEARCHES 



RELATING TO 



ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY 



(PKINCIPALLY INVERTEBRATA AND CRYPTOGAMIA), 



MICEOSCOPY, Etc.* 



ZOOLOGY. 



VERTEBRATA. 



a. Embryology, Evolution, Heredity, Reproduction, 

 and Allied Subjects. 



Transmission of Induced Eye Defects. — M. F. Guyer and E. A. 

 Smith {Journ. Exper. ZooL, 1920, 31, 171-223, 4 pis., 7 figs.). In 

 previous experiments pregnant rabbits and pregnant mice were treated 

 with fowl serum sensitized, respectively, to the crystalline- lens of the 

 rabbit and of the mouse. It was found that antenatal defects in the 

 lenses of the young could be secured in this way. Thus, in rabbits 

 treated during pregnancy with fowl serum sensitized to rabbit lens, 

 some of the young "showed eye defects, such as opacity of the lens and 

 partial or, less frequently, complete liquefaction of the lens. Similar 

 results Avere obtained with mice of the genus Peromyscus. The present 

 paper deals with more experiments on rabbits, and includes an account 

 of the transmission through successive generations of eye defects 

 originally induced in the rabbits l)y means of lens-sensitized fowl serum. 

 The defects in the eyes were mostly concerned with some sort of lique- 

 faction of the lens. 



A certain effect is produced which may be transmitted, even to the 

 sixth generation, without any subsequent treatment with the sensitized 

 sera. The modifications were extracted through the male line, thus 

 eliminating all possibility of the condition in later generations having 

 been due merely to placental transmission from the blood of affected 

 mothers. The authors feel that the evidence establishes a clear-cut 

 case of the inheritance of a specific modification produced by extrinsic 

 factors. • 



It is not entirely clear whether the result should be reckoned 

 primarily as an example of the inheritance of a somatic modification — 



* The Society does Hot hold itself responsible for the views of the authors 

 of the papers abstracted. The object of this part of the Journal is to present 

 a summary of the papers as actually ptiblished, and to describe and illustrate 

 Instruments, Apparatus, etc., which are either new or have not been previously 

 described in this country. 



