28 



NA TURE 



[May io, 1900 



Basques of to-day are more pure than the Spanish ; but 

 they originally came from Spain. Althouj^h the Basque 

 face is extraordinarily narrow, the head is broad ; but this 

 is not due to a mixture with the Alpine race, as the 

 Basque head is essentially dolichocephalic, the breadth 

 occurring pretty far forwards near the temples. We 

 have here, in fact, an example of a local modification (a 

 sub-species of the Mediterranean stock) evolved by long- 

 continued and complete isolation, in-and-in breeding 

 primarily engendered by peculiarity of language, and 

 perhaps intensified by artificial selection. 



After having analysed the various European groups, 

 Dr. Ripley devotes a couple of chapters to European 

 origins and others to social problems, such as environ- 

 ment versus race, acclimatisation, and urban selection ; 

 in the latter he discusses the tendency to long-headedness, 

 shortness of stature and brunetness that characterises 

 most large towns. 



Dr. Ripley has presented us with a very valuable and 

 most interesting study of the origins and physical char- 

 acteristics of various European peoples, which is as in- 

 dispensable to students of history and sociology as it is 

 to anthropologists. The clearness with which he states 

 and illustrateshis facts leaves nothing to be desired^ and 

 we offer him our congratulations on having coped so 

 successfully with an intricate problem, and on having 

 brought his laborious researches to such a satisfactory 

 conclusion. 



The book is handsomely "got up," and is sumptuously 

 illustrated. There are 222 carefully- selected portrait 

 types, and 86 maps and diagrams. The selection of the 

 portraits could have been no easy task, and the con- 

 struction of the distributional maps must have entailed 

 an infinitude of labour. The volume concludes with a 

 bibliography on the anthropology and ethnology of 

 Europe, which is as appalling as it is invaluable. 



A. C. Haddon. 



A REVISION OF CERTAIN CELL PROBLEMS. 

 Histologische Beitrdge, Heft VI. : Ueber Reaukttons- 



iheilung, Spindeldildung, Centrosome7i und Cilien- 



bildner im Pflazenreich. Von E. Strasburger, 0.6. 



Professor an der Universitat Bonn. Pp. xx -f 224. 



Mit. vier litho. Tafeln. (Jena : Gustav Fischer, 



1900.) 



IT is with no small degree of pleasure that we have 

 perused this, the latest, addition to the five series 

 of " Histologische Beitrage," by Prof. Strasburger. The 

 new volume, like some of its predecessors, deals almost 

 exclusively with cell problems, and anything which its 

 author may have to say on such matters must always 

 command special respect. Breadth of treatment and 

 open-mindedness, no less than thoroughness, have al- 

 ways characterised the work of this great investigator, 

 and perhaps few who are not familiarly acquainted with 

 the cell literature up to the early seventies can realise 

 the extent to which our modern knowledge of cytological 

 phenomena is indebted to the pioneer researches of the 

 author of "Zellbildung und Zelltheilung." 



In the volume before us, amongst other topics, the 

 whole subject of what are now familiarly known as 

 "Reduction-divisions" is treated afresh, and emphasis is 

 NO 1593. VOL. 62] 



laid on the need for a wider basis of comparison before 

 we can return a satisfactory answer to the question as to 

 whether the reduction is only quantitative., or whether 

 as Weismann and his followers have supposed, it is 

 qualitative also. 



The majority of English and German botanical 

 cytologists have decided in favour of the former view, and 

 the researches of Flemming, Brauer, Meves and others 

 on the animal side have shown that the opposite view is, 

 at least, not always tenable. The case of the Salamander 

 especially appears to be impossible of interpretation from 

 the standpoint of the " Qualitative " hypothesis, and now 

 Strasburger shows that the vitally important feature in 

 the Salamander mitosis, viz. the longitudinal fission of 

 the retreating chromosomes during the diaster stage of 

 the first reduction division, is closely paralleled by the 

 behaviour of the nucleus in the pollen mother cells of 

 Tradescantia. Such a discovery is of the highest value 

 as supporting the evidence already accumulated in favour 

 of the merely quantitative character of these mitoses. 

 The explanation which Strasburger gives of the structure 

 of the ordinary V-shaped chromosome in the first re- 

 duction diaster will not, perhaps, gain general acceptance 

 till it has been tested afresh. He believes that the 

 original rod-shaped chromosome, divided longitudinally 

 in two planes cutting each other at right angles, first 

 splits completely mto two daughter-chromosomes upon 

 the spindle, and then that each of them opens out along 

 the second plane of cleavage, only cohering at one end 

 thus giving rise to the V-shaped chromosomes of the 

 diaster. During the second division, the latter finish their 

 longitudinal fission by complete separation of the limbs 

 at the apex of the V, and thus what would appear to be 

 a transverse fission proves to be merely the finish of 

 a longitudinal splitting incepted at a much earlier 

 period. 



The author also discusses the nature of the causes 

 which have brought about the difference of sex, and dis- 

 misses the "hunger" and autophagy hypothesis of 

 Dangeard, which is, perhaps, a rather crude form of the 

 less tangible but familiar theories of rejuvenescence. The 

 view is supported that one important factor lies in the 

 comparative absence of kinoplasm from the female, and 

 of trophoplasm from the male, gamete. But it may, per- 

 haps, be questioned whether the study of the evolution 

 of sex in such forms as the green alga; does not favour 

 the conclusion that such a difference is a result rather 

 than a cause of sex-difference. 1 



Incidentally, the view recently advocated by Nemec, 

 that the reproductive mitoses, in their early multipolar 

 character, contrast with the universally bipolar vegetative 

 divisions, is shown to be without foundation. Multi- 

 polar spindles occur both in pollen mother cells and in 

 those of the root apex in Vicia., and the present writer 

 has also observed them in the apical meristem of 

 Equisetunt. 



The frequent connection of spindle fibres with extra- 

 nuclear nucleoli is admitted, and is utilised to support 

 the contention that these enigmatical bodies stand in a 

 close relation to the kinoplasm which they are regarded 

 as "activating." Many of the bodies which have, by 

 different writers, been described as centrosomes are cer- 

 tainly nothing else than these escaped nucleoli, and in 



