NA TURE 



97 



THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1916. 



EARLY EMBRYOLOGY OF THE 

 WORKER BEE. 



Che Embryology of the Honey-Bee. By Dr. J. A. 

 Xelson. Pp. 282. (Princeton : University 

 Press; London : Oxford University Press, 1915.) 

 Price 8s. 6d. net. 



rHE author of this book describes himself 

 as Expert in Bee Culture Investig^ation, 

 Bureau of Entomolog'y, U.S. Department of Agri- 

 :ulture. From such an expert one would naturally 

 expect a book full of interesting- particulars about 

 Jie modifications of development in the bee in- 

 duced by the social habits of this insect and its 

 Tiethod of feeding its young. The reader who 

 entertains any such expectation will be severely 

 disappointed ; the book deals only with the early 

 development of the egg of the worker bee, and 

 carries the life-history only to the stage when the 

 bee escapes from the egg-shell and begins its life 

 as a grub inside a cell of the honeycomb. 



The book, therefore, is almost without signifi- 

 cance for the bee-culturist, but from the point of 

 view of the student of comparative embryology it 

 is a production of very great interest, and is to be 

 warmly commended. It comprises a most pains- 

 taking and detailed study of the processes of seg- 

 mentation and " formation of the layers " in the 

 bee's egg, followed by a full and satisfactory^ 

 description of the development of the ner\ous 

 system, of the respiratory system, muscles, heart, 

 genital organs, etc. It might, indeed, be regarded 

 as a first-class elementary text-book on insect 

 embryology were it not for the obvious fact that 

 the bee is not a very good choice as a type of 

 insect development. But the comparative embry- 

 ologist must often choose the types which he can 

 ^et, not those which he would prefer, and as the 

 first pre-requisite of sound embryology is to obtain 

 abundant material comprising stages separated by 

 very short intervals, it must be admitted the bee 

 offers a better opportunity of accomplishing this 

 end than many more primitive insects. The seg-- 

 mentation of the mesoderm is, however, much less 

 marked in the bee-embryo than in the lower types, 

 amd no vestiges of abdominal appendages appear 

 in the course of the development. 



On practically every point the author confirms 

 the conclusions arrived at bv Hirschler in his studv 

 of the development of the beetle Donacia, which 

 IS by far the most thorough and satisfactory inves- 

 tigation of the development of anv insect which 

 had appeared up to the date of its publication 



1909)- All our ideas on the earlv stages of insect 

 ;development had been thrown into confusion by 

 Heymons. This author asserted that in the higher 

 I'.nsect the endoderm, which in the lower types 

 l^orms the epithelium of the mid-gut, had totallv 



disappeared, and that in these higher tvpes this 

 !?pithehum was formed from two bands of cells of 

 pctodermic origin attached to the inner ends of the 

 jitomodaeum and proctodaeum respectivelv. These 

 NO. 2422, VOL. 97] 



conclusions of Heymons were frequently used to 

 discredit the doctrine of the fundamental import- 

 ance of the distinction between the germ-layers, 

 a doctrine which all recent and careful research 

 has tended to re-establish and extend. Hirschler 

 showed that Heymons had confounded an earlier 

 pair of invaginations of the outer cells into the 

 yolk, which can be compared to the process of 

 gastrulation in less yolky eggs, with a later and 

 totally distinct pair of similar invaginations which 

 give rise to the stomodaeum and proctodaeum. The 

 reader will find that Hirschler's statement receives 

 valuable and convincing confirmation in the volume 

 before us. 



The book is well illustrated, most of the figures 

 being interspersed with the text in the vicinity of 

 the portions to which they refer, whilst some plates 

 giving excellent representations of the whole egg 

 in various stages of development are collected at 

 the end. The book will prove to be an indispens- 

 able adjunct to every zoological library. 



E. W. M. 



SOCIOLOGY AS A SCIENCE. 



Outlines of Sociology. By Prof. F. W. Blackmar 

 and Prof. J. L. Gillin.' Pp. viii + 586. (New 

 Vork : The Macmillan Co. ; London : Macmillan 

 and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 85. 6d. net. 



1HE ancient academic problem of "free will" 

 is always with us ; the study of it is never 

 barren, for its meaning changes with the develop- 

 ment of society and of social intelligence. As 

 compared with the state of the problem in the 

 time of Hume, for example, the present-day aspect 

 of it is decidedly more clear and scientific. It 

 mav be put in Cooley's words: "no man really 

 acts independently of the influences of his 

 fellow men." "Everywhere," iso Profs. Black- 

 mar and Gillin put it, "there is a social 

 life, setting limitations and predominatingly 

 influencing individual action. In govern- 

 ment, in religion, in industry, in educa- 

 tion, in family association — in everything that 

 builds up modern life, men are co-oj>erating. 

 They work together, combine and organise for 

 specific purposes, so that no man lives to himself." 

 Sociology has often been derided as a pseudo- 

 science ; but in its early stages every science has 

 received the same contumelious treatment. 

 Chemistry was once alchemy ; astronomy was once 

 astrolc^y. But British, American, French, and 

 German thought has sealed the success, or at 

 least the usefulness,- of the youngest of the 

 sciences, which, after all, is one of the oldest ; 

 Plato's " Republic " is a sociological investigation. 

 And, a priori, if there is order in the process of 

 society-building; if "through it all runs a constant 

 purpose, a social trend ; if there are laws con- 

 trolling the movement of human society ; forces 

 in continual action impelling it forward in well- 

 defined lines " — then there is clearly a mass of 

 facts capable of classification, social phenomena 

 more or less frequently recurring, and movements 



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