388 



NATURE 



[September 15, 1923 



child ot an <iii])l(i' 1 

 against ]iitl(:(nt: 



basin;,' c.i' !i < i;ip \\ <)n li ' 



salaries pan! \^\ lum. .Xmhc ui !!;. 

 COntrarV' l<. rut^rmi al |>rinn|i|r-- ; ll.^ 

 aimed (lircctK- at (iiiaiuit\ )ii-,itail (it i|iialil\. I'Kiiii 

 the psycho-social aspect and a consideration (W tla 

 statistics of insanity and suicide Dr. Piij)il!aiit fmds 

 in the War confirmatory evidence of t!a nt 



effect of heredity over environment. W.u iL.^i un 

 marri.ii;es is discussi'd hy l)r. (i. .S( IiitiIht. IU- 

 regards the niixid marriages of French women with 

 men of other Alhcd nationalities as a probable benefit 

 to the French nation. Ilr luj^es the establislmuni 

 of a medical examination before marriage that shall 

 be compulsory but carry no legal sanction. 



The volume closes with an address on some zoological 

 aspects of eugenics delivered by M. Lucien Cuenot 

 at the second National Congress of Eugenics in 1921. 

 Starting from the Mendelian conception of unit factors 

 susceptible of mutations which appear as somatic 

 changes, he discusses the position of Alendelists with 

 reference to the heredity of acquired characters and 

 the origin of adaptations. On the first question the 

 author retains an open mind in the light of Guyer 

 and Smith's experiments on the inheritance of acquired 

 eye defect in rabbits. He puts the case well for 

 preadaptation — i.e. the surroundings as a consequence 

 of the structures with which the animal is born and 

 not vice versa — and reviews the difficulties of inter- 

 pretation of the mechanical perfection of certain 

 structures in relation to their apparently small utility. 

 Such difficulties lead him to feel that there is some- 

 thing wanting in the conception of evolution, some 

 general law that has still to be discovered. 



A collection such as this, which treats the subject 

 from so many points of view, can do no more than 

 touch the surface, but it is well adapted to fulfil its 

 aim of giving the French-speaking public an idea of 

 the object and extent of the science of eugenics as 

 defined by Galton. 



The Animal Parasites of Man. 



Animal Parasites and Human Disease. By Dr. Asa C. 

 Chandler. Second edition, revised. Pp. xiii + 572. 

 (New York : J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : 

 Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1922.) 22s. net. 



IT is unfortunate that animal parasitologv^, the 

 youngest branch of preventive medicine, is still 

 regarded by many people as a field of knowledge 

 that is of little moment outside tropical and sub- 

 tropical regions. Everybody acknowledges the direct 

 connexion with man's welfare of the parasites dealt 

 with in the sister science of bacteriology ; but the 



NO. 281 I, VOL. 112] 



i'hs and arthropods, which 

 aich human .sufTcrinu. are 

 ' he gcncrati • < d. 



iV^Kian of temperate , :., ii< s 

 ■•> have quite a suDerfiu.d lix.u- 

 ledge of this In iicsc 



parasites, win* li an- < i<u< ir,i> <: ■] 



diseases and niorhirl <(indi'in- , 



1>| -d and in ahi;' :.ave 



lui n inoKcd for. There are many jjopuiar Dooks on 

 the animal parasites of eronomir importance, but 

 remarkably few on those dth. 



ft is admittedly vcr\' difli' ui: to wrnt- an attrai':-, e 

 book, ui p{)[)uiar lan^iuaLif, on any scientific subj' ■ • . 

 and when the book deals with such objects as tape- 

 worms, fleas, and lire, the general reader is apt to put 

 it aside with a laiiit feeling of disgust. Bttt among 

 these and other such despised ci my 



the hfe histories of which are of in .• n m < :. i. and 

 on account of the practical importance of their relations 

 to man, they should claim the attention of all. 



Dr. Chandler describes his book as a compilation, 

 but it is more than that : the subject is presented in 

 a fresh and interesting manner, and the book shows 

 evidence of much care and skill in the selection of its 

 contents. The information ,<:i\en has been brought 

 thoroughly up-to-date, and all recent work of any 

 importance is referred to. A sufficient account is 

 given of the spirochaetes, which the author considers 

 to be " on the vague unsettled border-line between 

 bacteria and protozoa." Many, perhaps, would be 

 inclined to adopt a more critical attitude towards the 

 phenomenon of "granule shedding" in these organisms. 

 The subject of the prevention of syphilis is discussed 

 in a broad and logical spirit. The leishmania bodies, 

 trypanosomes, intestinal flagellates, and amoebae are 

 well described, and there are short accounts of the 

 diseases to which thc\ ui\c rise. The author seems 

 to accept without demur the parasite recently described 

 by Kofoid and Swezy. and named by them Council- 

 mania lafleiiri. The parasitology of malaria is 

 adequately dealt with, and the Rickettsia organisms 

 are alluded to. The life histor\- of the liver fluke is 

 told at length, and illustrations and descriptions are 

 given of the other trematodes which occur as human 

 parasites. The " worms " are all figured, and the 

 salient points of their bionomics mentioned. Ten 

 pages are de\oted to Trichinella spiralis, and about 

 as many to the various species of Filaria. The rest 

 of the book, about two hundred pages, is concerned 

 with the arthropoda. The entomological section is 

 particularly good, and contains an excellent account 

 of the habits and distribution of those insects which 

 are harmful to man. 



