378 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Dec 



beside the special periodicals devoted to the subject, and 

 have covered an untold area of the costliest plates. The 

 early specialization of a large number of the younger work- 

 ers in this line has led to the publication of many articles 

 on the subject utterly devoid of literary form, filled with 

 local and personal terms, uselessly recounting- technique, 

 and giving- the most merciless repetition of details of ob- 

 servation with no attempt to summarize the results,or give 

 the general significance of the phenomena described: mak- 

 ing the preparation of such a work as the book under dis- 

 cussion doubly necessary. 



Then again the time seems at hand when the cytologist 

 may be fairly asked to interpret to his botanical brethren 

 the vast amount of detail accumulated in the last decade 

 by his method of research. So far as the general discus- 

 sions of recent date may be taken as a reply to this perti- 

 nent inquiry, the summary of well-grounded facts and es- 

 tablished theory shows a very small residum of actual pro- 

 gress. Thus one of the most prominent cytologists in 

 America has taken occasion to say, in a recent review of 

 knowledge of the cell, "And yet if we take account of the 

 actual knowledge gained, we cannot repress a certain sense 

 of disappointment, partly that microscopical research 

 should have fallen so far short of giving the insight for 

 which he had hoped, but still more because of the failure 

 of the best observers to reach any unanimity in the inter- 

 pretation of what is actually visible under the microscope. 

 * * * I would like at the outset to express the opinion that, 

 if we except certain highly specialized structures,the hope 

 of finding in visible protoplasmic structure any approach 

 to an understanding of its physiological activity is growing 

 more, instead of less remote, and is giving way to a con- 

 viction that the way of progress lies rather in an appeal to 

 to the ultra-microscopical protoplasmic organization, and to 

 the chemical processes through which this is expressed." 

 (E. B. Wilson, in Science, p. 34, July 15, 1899). 



The chief value of the book consists in its collection of 

 methods used, and facilitates the ready selection of those 

 which give promise of results in new methods of attack. 



