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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



reader will find in them a presentation 

 not too technical or detailed. Professor 

 Loeb's lecture, for example, is for such 

 readers the best account yet given of his 

 experiments in artificial fertilization. 



The range and originality which 

 characterize these lectures are really 

 characteristic of the general work and 

 spirit of the Woods Holl Laboratory. 

 Few people realize the amount of re- 

 search work which is done there from 

 summer to summer. Yet last year 

 there were seventy-one investigators 

 there. Moreover, these represent a su- 

 perior ' selection from among the in- 

 structors and students of the various 

 colleges. 



It is a symptom of a healthy, vigor- 

 ous condition in biological science that 

 the best workers of the country are 

 glad to devote their vacation season to 

 research, and it is highly creditable to 

 the Woods Holl management that it 

 offers them such attractive facilities. 

 Similar summer laboratories are now 

 being established in other parts of the 

 country, and are to be reckoned with 

 as very important factors in the prog- 

 ress of biology. 



CYTOLOGY. 



It is a somewhat surprising fact that 

 among educated people of scientific 

 training there prevails generally the 

 greatest ignorance as to some of the 

 most important problems of biology. We 

 refer to those problems connected with 

 the structure and functions of the ani- 

 mal and plant cell. Men who can un- 

 derstand and appreciate recent discov- 

 eries in astronomy, physics, chemistry 

 and geology are usually wholly lost in 

 cytology. In fact, in general writing or 

 speech it is not safe to use this name 

 without at once defining it, since it is 

 commonly supposed to be a mispronun- 

 ciation or a stupid misspelling of 'psy- 

 chology,' while to most people nuclei, 

 chromosomes, centrosomes and mitotic 

 spindles are words without meaning, 

 signifying nothing. 



The reason for this is twofold: First, 

 cytology is one of the newest of the 



biological sciences and it has but re- 

 cently found its way into college curri- 

 cula, and second, there have been few 

 text-books or general works on this sub- 

 ject to which an intelligent layman 

 could turn for information. 



And yet, in spite of this fact, there are 

 few fields of scientific work possessing 

 more general interest than that of cy- 

 tology. At the present day the greatest 

 problems of biology are centered in the 

 cell. Assimilation, growth, metabolism, 

 reproduction, differentiation, inheritance 

 and variation — these are at bottom cel- 

 lular phenomena, the result of the struc- 

 ture and functions of cells. It is not 

 surprising, therefore, that "all the 

 searchlights of science have been turned 

 upon the cell," and that cell studies 

 during the past ten years have received 

 an amount of attention which is com- 

 parable only to that devoted to evolu- 

 tion under the stimulus of Darwin's 

 work. 



Professor Wilson's book on the cell,* 

 the second edition of which has just 

 appeared, is a work of more than ordi- 

 nary interest, not only to the biologist, 

 but to all persons who are interested in 

 the general advance of science. Al- 

 though there are several other good 

 text-books of cytology which have ap- 

 peared during the past five or six years, 

 Professor Wilson's book, in thorough- 

 ness of treatment, in philosophical in- 

 sight, in clearness and forcefulness of 

 style and in wealth and beauty of illus- 

 trations, easily surpasses them all. 



It is impossible in this brief note to 

 give any adequate summary of the vol- 

 ume or of the position of the author on 

 questions of general interest; the sub- 

 jects of the chapters, however, may 

 serve to give some idea as to the scope 

 of the work. After an introduction 

 which gives a brief historical sketch of 

 the cell theory and its relation to the 



: The Cell in Development and Inheritance. 

 Edmund B. Wilson. Second Edition Revised 

 and Enlarged. Columbia University Biologi- 

 cal Series IV. New York and London, The 

 Macmillan Co., 1900. Pp. xxi, 483 with 194 

 Figures in the Text. $3.50 



