SOME NEW BOOKS. 



An Examination of Weismannism. By George John Romanes, M.A., LL.D., 

 F.R.S. Pp. 221. London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1893. Price 6s. 



This book presents many of the characters of book-making. It has 

 been written piece by piece — one section of it being intended for the 

 second part of " Darwin and after Darwin," unfortunately delayed by 

 Dr. Romanes' illness; another part consists of additions and modifica- 

 tions suggested by recent publications of Dr. Weismann ; one appendix 

 is a reprint of some controversy in the Contemporary Review, and an 

 excellent portrait of Dr. Weismann has been put at the beginning 

 that readers may know the features of the gentleman who is being 

 criticised. There is in the book, therefore, the precise difficulty 

 which Dr. Romanes complains of with regard to the writings of 

 Professor Weismann. Inconsistencies, additions, and emendations 

 make it very difficult to understand the exact views of Dr. Romanes. 

 Thus in the preface the non-inheritance of acquired characters (the 

 discussion of which is postponed to another volume) is said to be the 

 " fundamental postulate upon which Weismann has reared his 

 elaborate system of theories " : on page 49 the fundamental postulate 

 is stated to be the continuity and stability of germ-plasm. On 

 page 77, while admitting that influence of a first sire upon children 

 to a second might be reconcilable with absolute continuity of the 

 germ-plasm by supposing the germ-plasm in the spermatozoa to 

 penetrate an unripe ovum, he holds that an analogous phenomenon in 

 plants goes to exclude that hypothesis and most definitely to substan- 

 tiate the hypothesis that the spermatic element must exercise some 

 influence on the somatic-tissues of the female, which in turn act upon 

 the ovum. In the second appendix he attacks Herbert Spencer for 

 precisely this second view, and strongly supports the first. 



These, however, are mere accidental blemishes, and Dr. Romanes' 

 general attitude can be observed. This general attitude apparently 

 was determined by the question of acquired characters. As is well- 

 known, when observations on the Hydrozoa led Weismann to the 

 conception of a continuity of germ-substance from generation to 

 generation, he raised the question as to how acquired characters could 

 affect the germ-plasm at all. The controversy that arose turned upon 

 the interpretation of facts, and most will agree that the controversy 

 has contracted since it began. At first, the opponents of Weismann 

 said that there was an overwhelming amount of evidence in favour of 

 the general inheritance of acquired characters. Against that view 

 Weismann and others urged that the germ-plasm was stable : 

 unaffected by somatic changes. Now, at least, Dr. Romanes and 

 others freely write that acquired characters are much less veritable 

 than are congenital characters, and a large number of cases, formerly 

 insisted upon, have been abandoned. On the other hand, Professor 



