244 



NATURE 



[January i i, 1900 



recommend a little book by M. Andr^ Broca, " La Tele- 

 graphie sans Fils," which has lately been published. 

 Within the compass of two hundred small pages of large 

 print will here be found, first, a description of simple 

 telegraphic apparatus ; then a number of chapters which, 

 with the help of hydraulic analogy, serve in an effective 

 and remarkable manner to introduce the electromagnetic 

 theory of light ; and, lastly, a good account of the action 

 of the vertical-wire transmitter and of the most recent 

 work on coherers. 



M. Broca succeeds in giving in simple scientific 

 language, and without the help of mathematical analysis, 

 an explanation of many abstruse points, such as the flow 

 of electric currents in submarine cables and of electric 

 waves along wires. 



The vertical wire, according to him, emits an electric 

 disturbance having an axis of symmetry, the wire itself; 

 and a wave having this quality distributes its energy 

 mostly in a plane perpendicular to the axis, a horizontal 

 plane in this case, the energy diminishing with the square 

 of the cosine of the angle from the vertical axis. It is 

 to this concentration of energy in a horizontal plane that 

 the vertical wire owes its success as a transmitter, but 

 real concentration of messages transmitted by this means 

 is not to be expected. (The employment of two or more 

 wires inclined at different angles in the same vertical 

 plane, but not necessarily close together, might possibly, 

 we think, furnish by the intersection of two or more 

 planes of greatest action, a line of reinforced action — a 

 kind of imperfectly directed message which might be 

 received by an arrangement similar to the transmitter.) 



An appendix gives in a few pages the mathematical 

 theory of the propagation of waves along a conductor. 



M. Broca's little book is a valuable addition to the fast 

 accumulating literature of wireless telegraphy, and we 

 shall be glad to see an English translation. 



D. K. M. 



WORK AND THOUGHT AT WOOD'S HOLL, 

 U.S.A. 



Biological Lectures from the Marine Biological Labora- 

 tory, Woods Holl, Massachusetts, 1898. Pp. 343. 

 (Boston : Ginn and Co , 1899.) 



THIS volume, like its predecessors, is the jomt pro- 

 duction of several of the leading biologists of the 

 United States, indicative to a certain extent of the 

 trend of thought and investigation in their midst, and, 

 like its predecessors, it teams with interest and sug- 

 gestiveness. Of the sixteen lectures reported, the 

 majority are by well-known authors, and the book is 

 remarkable for the extent to which it deals with questions 

 of a cytological and psychological nature, in contradis- 

 tinction to those of a more strictly morphological, such 

 as we are accustomed to associate with a marine labora- 

 tory. Not that the latter have been neglected 1 for a 

 remarkable essay by A. D. Mead, on the " Cell Origin of 

 the Frototroch," which would seem to justify once more 

 the bilief in the ancestral nature of the Trochophore 

 larv.i, is a thorough-going piece of sea-side work. The 

 subjeit of "Cell-Lineage and Ancestral Reminiscence," 

 in the hands of Prof. E. B. Wilson, yields fresh support 

 for the theory that homologies only gradually arise 

 \0. 1576, VOL. 61] 



during development, and that "the ultimate coui 

 of appeal lies in the fate of the cells " ; and in a pre 

 liminary account of some investigations into the " Struc- 

 ture of Protoplasm " the same author is led to conclude 

 with von Kolliker, basing his observations of the Echi^ 

 noderm egg, that " no universal or even general formula* 

 for protoplasmic structure can be given, and that the.i 

 foam-structure of Biitschli is in certain cases at least ot'\ 

 secondary origin." j 



In the course of his work he has done a great service in ! 

 pointing out that so-called "granules" are often really- 

 liquid in nature, and in emphasising the extent to which ' 

 error has hitherto asisen from the general tendency to \ 

 regard these as solid bodies. ! 



Among the more recondite problems dealt with are ] 

 "Adaptation in Cleavage " of the Egg, "Protoplasmic] 

 Movement as a Factor of Differentiation," " Equal and \ 

 Unequal Cleavage in Annelids," and " The Relation of the j 

 Axis of the Embryo to the First Cleavage Plane." In the ] 

 hands of Messrs. F. R. Lillie, E. G. Conklin, A. L. \ 

 Treadwell and Miss C. M. Clapp, both the practical and * 

 philosophic aspects of these and cognate subjects receive j 

 adequate consideration. The whole series of essays are [ 

 well worth' reading, and except that the Filose Phe- : 

 nomenon has not come under observation, the present 

 moot poiJits in embryology have been for the most part ', 

 boldly attacked. Interest amounting to curiosity at- • 

 taches to the description by Mr. Lillie in Unio of what, ' 

 following Conklin, he terms provisionally a " sphere- '\ 

 substance," said to be "derived entirely from the inner '■. 

 sphere of. the second maturation-spindle," and to his 1 

 allegation, which seems to us none too clear, that it z 

 "moves and elongates so as to mark out a definite hori- i 

 zontal plane in the egg, and that the first cleavage-spindle \ 

 places itself in conformity with this predetermined ar- • 

 rangement." \ 



More sensational, and to our thinking less sound, is a \ 

 lecture by T. H. Montgomery, jun., on some " Observ- ! 

 ations on Various Nucleolar Structures in the Cell." Like 1 

 that on " The Heredity of the Marking in Fish Embryos " '\ 

 (J. Loeb), and on " Injury " to the Lower Animals as con- j 

 cerning " Pain Sensations " (W. W. Norman), this appears > 

 to us premature, and the authors would have done well i 

 had they given both their observations and reflections ' 

 fuller consideration. An essay on " Some Problems of ; 

 Regeneration," by T. H. Morgan, is noteworthy, for the \ 

 fact that its author emphasises the degree to which it is 1 

 now becoming evident in the progress of biology, that, as ^ 

 we attempt "to reduce living phenomena to simpler j 

 terms," we sooner or later "meet with a factor that ; 

 defies further physical analysis," with the refrain that \ 

 " we gain nothing by calling it a vital force, unless we I 

 can define what we mean by vitality." ■ 



In a lecture on the " Elimination of the Unfit," Dr. i 

 H. C. Bumpus deals in an analytical form with the | 

 effects of a severe storm on the Introduced Sparrow, and \ 

 his observations at least serve to remind us that we are ; 

 perhaps not sufficiently on the alert for evidence of ; 

 processes in organic evolution obtainable from the study ' 

 of passing events. Dr. W. M. Wheeler, in an interestitig | 

 essay on "The Theoria Generationis " of Wolff, justly con- 

 troverts some adverse criticism by Sachs, and establishes 

 Wolff's position as a pioneer among praeformationists — 



