30 



NATURE 



[September io, 1914 



"In pursuance of this scheme the Commercial 

 Intelligence Branch of the Board of Trade {73 

 Basinghall Street, E.G.) are issuing- to manufac- 

 turers and merchants, trade associations and 

 chambers of commerce, monographs giving infor- 

 mation with regard to possible foreign and Colo- 

 nial developments in certain important trades car- 

 ried on by them or in their respective districts. 

 The trades dealt vidth in the first series of mono- 

 graphs are cutlery, iron and steel wire, hollow- 

 ware (enamelled or tinned), woollen and worsted 

 piece goods, and cotton hosiery (stockings and 

 socks)." 



To those who have followed the German "cul- 

 ture " for the last thirty or forty years it is well 

 known that the fostering of their industries in that 

 country by technical instruction in all forms has 

 been increasing, and it will be found that our 

 manufacturers will have the greatest difficulty in 

 carrying out the Government's intention precisely 

 in those branches of industry in which technical 

 instruction of the most advanced kind, with accom- 

 panying research, has been most lacking in 

 Britain. 



For some time before the war a committee of 

 the British Science Guild was preparing a state- 

 ment showing the disadvantages under which the 

 optical trades suffer in this country, and we are 

 glad to see that the President of the Board of 

 Trade has now appointed a committee "to consider 

 and advise as to the best means of obtaining for 

 the use of British industry sufficient supplies of 

 chemical products, colours, and dye-stuffs of kinds 

 hitherto largely imported from countries with 

 which we are at present at war." Of this Com- 

 mittee Lord Haldane is chairman, and Dr. Beilby 

 and Profs. Meldola and Perkin are among the 

 members. 



Let us hope that these and other similar efforts 

 will be fruitful of result. Let us increase our 

 "culture," not as part of a settled plan for the 

 detriment of other countries, but as a serious 

 endeavour to advance our own Empire and modern 

 civilisation generally with all that it brings 

 with it. 



BIOLOGY OF THE SEX- AND BLOOD- 

 CELLS. 



(i) Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilisation. 

 By Jacques Loeb. Originally translated from 

 the German by W. O. Redman King. 

 Supplemented and revised by the Author. 

 Pp. X + 306. (Chicago : University of Chicago 

 Press ; London : Cambridge University Press, 

 n.d.) Price 105. net. 



(2) The Biology of the Blood-cells. With a 

 NO. 2341, VOL. 94I 



Glossary of Haematological Terms. By Dr. 



O. C. Gruner. Pp. xii + 392 + plates. (Bristol: 



John Wright and Sons, Ltd., 1913-) Price 



215. net. 

 (i) '^p'HE development of the female cell or 

 J_ egg without fertilisation by the male 

 cell or sperm — parthenogenesis — ^has been known 

 to occur among the plant lice, or aphides, since 

 the eighteenth century, but the artificial produc- 

 tion of a similar phenomenon — artificial partheno- 

 genesis — is essentially an accomplishment of the 

 closing decades of the nineteenth century. This 

 book gives an excellent and fascinating summary 

 of the considerable amount of experimental work 

 which has now been performed on this subject. 

 Artificial parthenogenesis has been principally 

 carried out with the eggs of sea-urchins, but the 

 same kind of results have also been obtained with 

 those of starfish, annelid worms and molluscs, 

 and also with frogs and toads. Although there 

 is usually considerable mortality among the 

 artificially fertilised forms during the earlier 

 periods of development, Delage has reared two 

 parthenogenetic larvae of the sea-urchin during 

 sixteen months to a stage of sexual maturity, and 

 Loeb and Bancroft raised tadpoles, and even a 

 young frog with eggs in the sex-glands, from 

 artificially fertilised frogs' eggs ! 



Commencing with some general remarks on 

 the morphology of development, the influences of 

 oxidation and of membrane formation on the de- 

 velopment of the fertilised egg are considered. 

 Apparently oxygen is necessary for development, 

 and all observations point to the conclusion that 

 the processes determining or underlying nuclear 

 division depend upon oxidation. While a certain 

 amount of oxidation proceeds in the unfertilised 

 egg (and ultimately leads to its disintegration and 

 death), the essential effect of the entrance of the 

 sperm seems to be an acceleration, it may be tq 

 six-fold, of the oxidation processes, and if fer- 

 tilised eggs be deprived of all oxygen no nucleai 

 or cell division occurs ; other reactions, such as 

 hydrolyses, also doubtless take place. Anothei 

 result of fertilisation is the immediate formation 

 of a membrane, the fertilisation membrane, whicl 

 surrounds the egg, after which the chemical pro 

 cesses that underlie development ensue. 



The earlier successful attempts to induce arti 

 ficially the development of sea-urchin eggs wen 

 obtained by the use of hypertonic sea-wate 

 (100 c.c. sea water + 2 grams sodium chloride) 

 The eggs are first soaked in the hypertonic solu 

 tion for 2-4 hours, and are then returned t 

 ordinary sea-water; if allowed to remain in th 



