344 



NATURE 



[July 3, 1919 



The Peace Conference Atlas. A Series of Maps 

 to Illustrate Boundary and Other Questions 

 under Consideration at the Peace Conference, 

 1919. Maps 24. (Lx>ndon : Edward Stanford, 

 Ltd., n.d.) Price 55. 

 This small atlas is not designed specially to illus- 

 trate the Peace Treaties, but rather the problems 

 which faced the Peace Conference. It should 

 prove useful in studying the vexed problems of 

 European racial and national boundaries. The 

 maps are black and white, with the boundaries, 

 as in 1914, in red, and a red wash used in many 

 cases to indicate areas of speech. Presumably 

 the dividing line is taken at a bare majority, but 

 this is not stated, and in any case we fear that 

 such simplification of Eastern European problems 

 as these clear-cut maps suggest is outside the 

 scope of practical statesmanship. In comparing 

 the maps showing Italian speech and the boun- 

 daries of Yugo-Slavia we note some discrepancies, 

 but on the whole the maps are carefully prepared 

 and well printed. The larger scale maps deal 

 chiefly with Eastern Europe, but the late African 

 and Pacific possessions of Germany are not 

 omitted. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.] 



Dr. Kammerer's Testimony to the inheritance of 

 Acquired Characters. 



Prof. MacBride's letter in Nature for May 22 last 

 calls for some statement from me. When, in 1910, I 

 was engaged in writing those chapters of my book, 

 "Problems of Genetics" (1913), which deal with the 

 effects of changed conditions in producing genetic 

 variation, I endeavoured to form an opinion as to the 

 validity of the cases usually claimed in recent years 

 as having given positive results. I had no difficulty 

 in showing that nearly all this evidence is un- 

 substantial. The copious and astonishing observations 

 said to have been witnessed by Prof. Tower, of 

 Chicago University, and by Dr. Kammerer, of the 

 Vienna Versuchsanstalt, naturally called for excep- 

 tionally careful examination. The results of both 

 these authors had been very widely accepted, and had 

 begun to pass current in the text-books. In the case 

 of Prof. Tower's paper, as I demonstrated in mv 

 book, close textual criticism revealed features which 

 suggested that implicit confidence should be postponed 

 pending confirmation — a conclusion to which I had 

 already come when, on a visit to Chicago in 1907, 

 I had seen illustrative specimens which Prof. Tower 

 was good enough to show me. Prof. Tower's results 

 are still quoted {e.g. by Babcock and Clausen in their 

 recent text-book, 1918), but we have for some years 

 awaited fresh light on the facts or any explanation of 

 the difficulties to which I directed attention. 



In the case of Dr. Kammerer's statements, most 

 were plainly incapable of ready verification. The 

 instance of Alytes was the most favourable for this 

 purpose, inasmuch as the males with the horny pads, 

 said to have been prodviced in response to changed 

 NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 



conditions, could be easily preserved. So, no doubt, 

 might the Salamanders, of which the "satfcsom 

 bekannte " history, as Prof. Baur calls it, has been pub- 

 lished in numerous German periodicals ; but there was 

 this difference : that whereas Salamanders corresponding 

 with Dr. Kammerer's several patterns can be had from 

 the dealers, students of the Batrachia are, I under- 

 stand, agreed that Alytes with Brunftschwielen does 

 not exist in Nature. I therefore wrote from Cam- 

 bridge (July 17, 1910) to Dr. Kammerer asking for 

 the loan of a demonstrative specimen, promising to 

 examine it with every care and to return it in due 

 course. He replied in English (July 22) that he was 

 on a holiday, continuing: "As soon as I shall be 

 returned to my usual work — two congresses and a 

 journey to Munich are still between — I will send to 

 }ou any objects you may need for your book and 

 have interest for, with the greatest pleasure ! I hope 

 that it will not be too late then for using them in 

 the chapter, ' Effects of External Conditions,' of your 

 future book. 



" I am not quite sure whether I killed already speci- 

 mens of Alytes with ' Brunftschwielen ' or am pos- 

 sessing only living males of this (F4) generation. 



" But 1 do not doubt that also other objects are 

 well fitted to show easily the effect of conditions and 

 their inheritance. Especially my new experiments on 

 influence of soil, etc., upon colours (not yet pub- 

 lished, except some preliminary notes; for instance, in 

 the Verh. Deut. Naturforscher u. Aerzte, Salzburg, 

 1909) are much more favourable for that purpose than 

 the instinct variations, in spite of their morphological 

 consequences. 



" I have also promised {i.e. Dr. Przibram has in my 

 name) to Mr. Doncaster to spare him a series of tad- 

 poles with alterations, etc., for your museum; and 

 it is my intention to fulfil this promise, together 

 with that given to you in my present letter during 

 the beginning of this autumn." Nevertheless, neither 

 I nor the Cambridge Museum (as Dr. Doncaster tells 

 me) ever received any of ^^he promised material. 



Later in the summer of 1910 I unexpectedly was 

 able to attend the Mendelfeicr at Briinn, and was for 

 some time lin Vienna, having the privilege of being 

 the guest of my old friend Dr. Przibram. I was 

 manv times at the Versuchsanstalt, and inquired in 

 vain for the Alytes. On one occasion especially, about 

 October 3 or 4, I was there in company with Profs. 

 E. Baur, Lotsy, Nilsson-Ehle, Dr. Hagedoorn, and 

 the late M. Ph. de Vilmorin. Those who survive of 

 that party will remember that, on conferring together, 

 we all shared the same feeling of doubt. After seeing 

 what Dr. Kammerer showed us we were entirely 

 unconvinced, and in particular it seemed to us inex- 

 plicable that, if Alytes "had existed with Brunftschwielen 

 in July, one specimen of so great a curiosity should 

 not have been preserved, if only for exhibition with 

 the Salamanders at Dr. Kammerer's numerous lec- 

 tures. I may add that I expressed my doubts cate- 

 gorically to Dr. Przibram, the head of the Anstalt, 

 but I am glad to think that, though he defended 

 Dr. Kammerer, our cordial intercourse continued un- 

 broken up to the time of the war. Few, I imagine, 

 will now consider that, on the evidence available, my 

 scepticism was not justified. (For an elaborate and 

 destructive criticism of Dr. Kammerer's statements, 

 see Boulenger, G. A., Ann. and Mag., August, 1917, 

 p. 173). 



After reading Dr. Kammerer's new paper I agree 

 with Prof. MacBride that a fresh inquiry is desirable. 

 The two photographs, Taf. x.. Figs, i and 2, which 

 he accepts as proof of Dr. Kammerer's observation, 

 present some very curious features, and I feel rnuch 

 curiosity concerning them. It is, of course, on Fig. 2 



