September 28, 1893] 



NATURE 



015 



Octrine is put by Prof. Sachs is specially applicable to 

 iants, in which the continuity of the germ-plasm can 

 nly be traced through the embryonic substance of the 

 Towing points. 



I This collection, containing what are probably the most 

 nportant contributions of our time to the physiology of 

 Iants, is in itselfamarvellous record of scientific activity. 

 !s Prof. Sachs is still engaged in physiological research, 

 le may hope that a later edition of the work will contain 

 lany further invaluable additions to our knowledge. 



D. H. S. 



i 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



English Lagoons. By P. H. Emerson. (London : 

 David Xutt, 1S93.) 



T another book about the Norfolk Broads, or, as the 

 athor prefers to call them, the " English Lagoons." One 

 ci hardly credit that anything fresh could be said on 

 ■veil-worn subject, but Mr. Emerson's book differs 

 all that have gone before in being a continuous nar- 

 r^ive of a twelve months' sojourn on the Broads in his 

 I^asure wherry, the .Maid of the Mist, and presents 

 tjus a graphic picture of these waters under their winter 

 aoect as well as under a summer sky. Much that he has 

 \'itten, more particularly his e.xcellent descriptions of the 

 jjculiar scenery of this remarkable admixture of land 

 ajd water in mid-winter, is highly interesting. The atmo- 

 saeric effects under various conditions of storm and sun- 

 s^ne, by moonlight and at early dawn, display a keen 

 aistic perception, but the incidents as a rule are trivial 

 1 tlie extreme in fact, and the constant use of the ver- 

 ar becomes tiring— whole chapters {e.g. Chapter xxi. 

 pages) might have been well omitted. 

 >m a naturalist's point of view the reader cannot 

 ' 'oe pleased with the kindly spirit which pervades the 

 tbe evident delight which the author took in his 

 ;red friends, and his disgust for the wanton destruc- 

 which is too frequently committed by thoughtless 

 ■rs to these delightful retreats, but having said this 

 ^\ confess we are rather puzzled by Mr. Emerson's 

 o(iithology. On page 216, for instance, he mentions 

 etching a pair of desert wheatears on Palling Sand Hills ; 

 Sfely he cannot have met with Saxicola deserti in 

 l^irfolk. Scarcely less astonishing is the mention of a 

 i^ie-headed wagtail's nest, and the appearance of the 

 w.ite wagtail on several occasions. The present writer 

 hi known the Broads for forty years, but has never had 

 t : trood fortune to meet with .Motacillaflava or .M. alba, 

 of which are excessively rare in Norfolk, and 

 ibly only occasionally appear as passing spring 

 nts. Many of the observations on birds are interest- 

 ijut the following passage is hardly in good taste, 

 peaking of Surlingham Broad, "which the late Mr. 

 Sivenson, the local naturalist, loved," Mr. Emerson 

 nues, " But this piece of water is to me dull and 

 ess, but then Mr. Stevenson did not know shadows 

 mu reflections, nor, I suspect, beauties from common- 

 pces. As a naturalist, moreover, he was not to be 

 cjnpared to the late Mr. Booth, a true lover of birds and 

 oputdoor life. But in Norfolk every native goose is a 

 -■'"..' Mr. Stevenson's reputation as an ornithologist 

 ' well established to need any defence from my pen, 

 .,. 1 can say without hesitation that the best general 

 djicnption of the Broad district ever written is to be 

 fi nd in the introduction to his " Birds of Norfolk," and 

 hi chapters descriptive of a summer's night and a sum- 

 rir's day on the very Broad which Mr. Emerson con- 

 fers so uninteresting, show not only his wonderful 

 Ewers of observation but his keen perception of the 



NO. 1248, VOL. 48I 



beauty and poetry of nature ; even so familiar a bird as 

 the redbreast is invested with fresh interest after reading 

 his charming chapter on this pert little friend of man. 



T. S. 



The Mechanics of Architecture. By E. Wyndham Tarn, 



M.A. (Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1S92.) 

 The modern architect is beginning to perceive that he 

 has allowed the engineer to cover the ground with 

 monstrosities because his immediate predecessors con- 

 sidered that any scientific knowledge would spoil the 

 artistic faculty, regardless of the great architects of the 

 past. Sir Christopher Wren, Leonardo da Vinci, and the 

 designers of our cathedrals. 



The theories which the author discusses, as of Pillars, 

 Roofs, Arches, Domes, and Spires, Buttresses and Foun- 

 dations, are illustrated by numerical applications to well- 

 chosen existing examples ; so that thearchitect will there- 

 by acquire confidence in the formulas, and not lay him- 

 self open to disaster in consequence of a mathematical 

 misprint. 



Graphical constructions are freely employed, which 

 recommend themselves to the draughtsman, who thinks 

 better on his drawing-board than in symbols and 

 formulas. G. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



\_7 he Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex* 

 pressed 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.l 



Telegony. 



This is a term which Prof. Weismann has recently coined to 

 designate a class of phenomena which have thus far been pretty 

 generally accepted as of unquestionable occurrence in mammals, 

 if not also in birds. I refer to the alleged influence of a pre- 

 vious sire on the progeny of a subsequent one by the same 

 mother. The most notorious instance of this alleged fact is 

 that of Lord Morton's Arabian chestnut mare, which had her 

 first foal to a quagga. Subsequently she produced two colts by 

 a black Arabian horse. These were both partially dun-ccloured, 

 and striped on the legs more plainly than the real hybrid had 

 been. One of the colts was also striped on the neck and some 

 other parts of the body ; lastly, the mane in both resembled 

 that of the quagga, being short, stiff, and upright. Darwin, 

 from whom this description is taken, records an almost exactly 

 parallel case, on the authority of Mr. James Weir. He also 

 gives a number of references to other cases, not only in horses, 

 but likewise in sheep, swine, dogs, &c. Within the last twelve- 

 month another seemingly unmistakable case of the same thing 

 took place in the Zoological Gardens, and is recorded by Mr. 

 Tegetmeier in one of the December numbers of the Field. Here 

 the first foal was a hybrid between two species of ass, and the 

 second by a male of the same species as the mother. Not a 

 few further apparently well-authenticated instances might be 

 mentioned, but these are enough for present purposes. Indeed, 

 most breeders and fanciers are so persuaded of the truth of 

 " telegony " as to deem a pedigree animal seriously deteriorated 

 in value if she has been covered by an inferior male, while 

 in Darwin's opinion " there can be no doubt " as to the fact of 

 this influence of a previous sire being occasionally exhibited in 

 mammals, although he expresses himself as doubtful with regard 

 to it in the case of birds. 



Prof. Weismann, however, has recently challenged the facts. 

 He has also given his explanation of them, supposing them to 

 be facts. Theiefore I will consider these two pomts separately. 



Several years ago I undertook an experimental inquiry upon 

 the subject with dogs, which yielded negative results. I then 

 obtained an introduction to Mr. Everct Millais, in order to 

 profit by his large experience and scientific interest in all matters 

 pertaining to dog-hreetling. He suggested that the question 

 ought to be put in the jOLirnals of fanciers in this country, and 

 also in America, for the purpose of raising discussions upon it. 

 This was done, with the result of letting loose floods of letter; to 



