NATURE 



44 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1918. 



BIOLOGY FROM AMERICA. 

 (1) The Organism as a Whole, from a Physico- 

 chemical Viewpoint. By Dr. Jacques Loeb. 

 Pp. x + 379. (New York and London: G. P. 

 Putnam's Sons, 1916.) Price 2.50 dollars. 

 <2) Organic Evolution. A Text-book. By Prof. 

 R. S. Lull. Pp. xviii + 729. (New York: 

 The Macmillan Co. ; London : Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd., 191 7.) Price 3 dollars. 

 <3) Biology. By Prof. Gary N. Calkins. Second 

 ^edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. viii + 255. 



(New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1917-) 

 (i) A BOOK by Dr. Jacques Loeb is always 

 ^ very welcome, for he bases new ideas 

 on new facts, and these are often surprising-. The 

 central idea of this book is not new — that organ- 

 isms are "chemical machines consisting chiefly of 

 colloidal material and possessing the peculiarity of 

 preserving and reproducing themselves "; but 

 many of the facts illustrating this definition are 

 new, and many of them are the rewards of the 

 author's own industry and ingenuity. 



What are the distinctive features of a living 

 creature from Dr. Loeb's point of view ? First, there 

 is the constant synthesis of specific material from 

 simple compounds of a non-specific character ; 

 secondly, there is the division of the cell when it 

 reaches a certain limit ; thirdly, there is the whole 

 business of fertilisation and subsequent develop- 

 ment. But when these features are carefully exam- 

 ined in the light of modern knowledge their apart- 

 ness from inanimate phenomena tends to disappear. 

 Is anything more specific than fertilisation, yet 

 ■ a strange spermatozoon may be got to enter an 

 inappropriate ovum if the surface conditions of 

 that ovum be modified by artificially altering the 

 cheinical concentration of the medium, and the 

 manifold ways of artificially launching a non- 

 fertilised ovum on the voyage of development are 

 well known. 



The generic characteristics of a type seem to 

 depend on the specificity of the proteids in the 

 ovum-cytoplasm ; and the unity of the organism in 

 development, and afterwards, depends on the uni- 

 fied organisation of the ovum-cytoplasm, which 

 contains the organism "in the rough." On this the 

 Mendelian factors or gen6s (probably hormones in 

 the nucleus) may impress varietal or stock char- 

 acters in the, course of development. Very in- 

 teresting is the author's suggestion that special 

 sex-determining chromosomes may hinder or 

 favour the formation of specific internal secretions 

 which have developmental potency, and, on the 

 other hand,' that an environmentally induced 

 change in these internal secretions might even 

 counteract the chromosomal sex-determination. It 

 |need scarcely be said that, according to Dr. Loeb, 

 there is nothing in instincts to remove them from 

 a mechanistic category; and we are likewise 

 assured that "the mere laws of chance are ade- 

 NO. 2';i9, VOL. 100] 



quate to account for the fact of the apparently pur- 

 poseful adaptations." 



Sometimes the author seems to us impetuous, as 

 in his acceptance, in spite of Prof. Castle's work, 

 for instance, of the conclusion that Darwin's small 

 fluctuating variations are not heritable. But 

 whether one agrees or not, the book is always 

 stimulating, and in the majority of cases the 

 author is ready with chapter and verse, i.e. with 

 facts and experiments, in support of his con- 

 tention. 



Perhaps the author is not responsible for the 

 statement on the wrapper that "Darwinism had 

 reached the conclusion that the harmonious char- 

 acter of the organism as well as its adaptation to 

 the environment was the result of chance," but he 

 is responsible for the erection of a "bogey" 

 vitalism, the overthrowing of which does not tax 

 his strength. In the genus vitalism there are 

 several species, some of which are already extinct, 

 while others are in process of elimination, but it 

 is not of the essence of methodological vitalism 

 to make an antithesis between the physico-chemical 

 and the vital, between materiality and mind. Dr. 

 Loeb considers the organism as the seat of a con- 

 catenated and correlated series of physico-chemical 

 operations. So do all biologists. But to methodo- 

 logical vitalists it seems that the physico-chemical 

 descriptions, invaluable as they are, do not ex- 

 haust the reality before us, do not adequately 

 describe the living, growing, developing, varying, 

 struggling, and sometimes companionable organ- 

 isms that we know. We do not speak of more 

 general grounds for finding it impossible to be- 

 lieve that from a physico-chemical viewpoint one 

 can ever envisage the organism as a whole. 



It is not perhaps of great importance, but we 

 mustdirect attention to the curious statement in the 

 preface that "the book is dedicated to that group 

 of freethinkers, including d'Alembert, Diderot j 

 Holbach, and Voltaire, who first dared to follow 

 the consequences of a mechanical science — incom- 

 plete as it then was — -to the rules of human con- 

 duct, and who thereby laid the foundation of that 

 spirit of tolerance, justice, and gentleness which 

 was the hope of our civilisation until it was buried 

 under the wave of homicidal emotion which has 

 I swept through the world." \\'ave of homicidal 

 j emotion, forsooth ! 



I (2) Prof. R. S. Lull has written a useful text- 

 book of organic evolution, compendious but clear, 

 and very generously illustrated. The introductory 

 ! part deals with what may be called the facts of 

 i life — the variety of types, their distribution irt 

 I time and space, their interrelations, and so on. 

 The treatment of the geological succession is 

 I particularly effective. The second part is entitled 

 I "The Mechanism [rather a question-begging 

 j term] of Evolution," and the treatment is broad- 

 ! minded and eclectic. The discussion of ortho- 

 : genesis and kinetogenesis is interesting, and the 

 ' balance of Nature is picturesquely illustrated. 

 I The author then passes to the evidences of evolu- 

 1 tion, and, after a brief discussion of recapitula- 



A A 



