680 



As a matter of fact the phrase "conjugation of the Protophyta", 

 which Prof. Mac Millan quotes in inverted commas on p. 440, as 

 tliough he had taken it from my work, occurs nowhere in the paper 

 of which he treats. 



What then is the value to be attached to paragraph 1 of his 

 criticism ? 



The criticisms contained in paragraph 3 have, I venture to sub- 

 mit, as little to justify them. Again, by taking a passage out of its 

 context. Prof. Mac Millan has read into it a meaning and application 

 which we (Murray and myself) never dreamt of. 



On p. 241 we wrote "The Protozoan stage might be improved 

 upon by the one generation or the other, or by both. The conjugating 

 generation may have become Metazoan, or the spore-producing one, 



or both together may have undergone the higher evolution In 



plants the amplification of the zygote stage has given rise to the 

 sporophyte, which is sharply separated oft" from the sexual generation 

 or gametophyte by a one-celled stage (the spore) and a reducing 

 division. The whole of the cells of the gametophyte must be looked 

 upon as morphologically equivalent, some becoming difi"erentiated as 

 vegetative organs by sterility, others retaining the primitive character 

 of becoming conjugating gametes ^)." 



The latter sentence only is cited by Prof. Mac Millan, and, 

 with it as a text, he proceeds to demolish what he erroneously sup- 

 poses to be our argument, and gives a list of lowly organised plants 



1) In his article on "Befruchtung" (Ergebnisse der Anat. etc., Bd. I, 

 p. 434) BovEBi writes : — "Und so wird man auch einen beson- 

 deren Gegensatz zwischen der chromatischen Substanz 

 der Sexualzellen und jener aller somatischen Zellen des 

 Körpers annehmen müssen, in der Weise, daß man in den Ge- 

 schlechtszellen im Vergleich zu den somatischen Zellen ein indiflferentes 

 Kernplasma (Keimplasma Weismann's) zu erwarten hätte. Dieser Gegen- 

 satz wird naturgemäß sehr gering sein bei den niedersten vielzelligen 

 Organismen und desgleichen bei den meisten Pflanzen, wo einzelne Ge- 

 webstücke, ja oft einzelne Zellen im Stande sind, den ganzen Organismus 

 zu regeneriren, er wird größer sein bei den höheren Tieren; ganz fehlen 

 aber wird er nie"; etc. 



As it well known Boveei has also demonstrated the sterilization of 

 somatic cells in Ascaris. 



Although his conclusions, as cited above and in other passages not 

 here quoted, are expressed in terms different to those employed by Mubkay 

 and myself, we are inclined to read them as signifying those views about 

 sterilization of somatic cells which we also have stated. If this be so, 

 the priority is Bovert's, and this we gladly acknowledge. 



