AuGusT 26, 1915] 
NATURE 
697 

rency. This cannot lead to symbiogenesis, but 
must lead to pathogenesis.’’ 
The author is on firmer ground when he illus- 
trates the widespread occurrence of interrelations 
linking organisms to organisms in mutual de- 
pendence and influence. Symbiogenesis is defined 
(by no means clearly) as “the mutual production 
and symbiotic utilisation of biological values by 
the united and correlated efforts of organisms of 
all descriptions,’’ and the author’s thesis is that 
this principle underlies “all creative life, all pro- 
gressive evolution.” 
It seems to us a defensible proposition that 
there has been throughout organic evolution a 
complexifying of interrelations in the web of life. 
For a recognition of this truth we have to thank 
Darwin more than anyone else; therefore while we 
agree with Mr. Reinheimer that the struggle for 
existence includes much more than internecine 
competition, we deprecate the clumsiness (or 
worse) of a sentence like this (p. 399) : 
““We may likewise excuse Darwin for making 
a sweeping metaphor do (substitute) service pend- 
ing the lack of systematic study and knowledge 
concerning the fundamentally important co-opera- 
tive (symbiotic) factors which, indeed, he had not 
entirely overlooked, though insufficiently appre- 
ciated.”’ 
On page 401 we notice that the name of a 
naturalist “of world-fame” is three times mis- 
printed. 

BOOKS ON COTTON PRODUCTION. 
(1) The World’s Cotton Crops. By Prof. J. A. 
Todd. Pp. xiii+460. (London: A. and C. 
Blackwalide rons.) VPricesiossmet. 
(2) The Development and Properties of Raw 
Cotton. By W. Lawrence Balls. Pp. xii+ 
221. (London: A. and C. Black, Ltd., 1915.) 
Price 5s. net. 
W ITHIN the past few years numerous books 
and technical reports have appeared on 
the subject of cotton. The latest contributions are 
the two volumes before us, and both authors ob- 
tained their practical inspiration direct from the 
cotton fields of Egypt. 
(1) Prof. Todd furnishes a review of the past 
history and present-day world’s supply, on the 
basis of the trade statistics of all cotton-producing 
countries. It should prove invaluable alike to 
merchant and planter. It is fully illustrated with 
views of the cotton fields, the methods of trans- 
port, as well as numerous local incidents of in- 
terest in planting life. It moreover furnishes a 
series of ten maps to show the countries of pro- 
duction, the cotton areas of each being indicated 
NO. 2391, VOL. 95| 

! useless duplicates of easier names.” 

by patches of vivid green. We would venture the 
suggestion that in addition to denoting the locali- 
ties of recent expansion it would have been of 
advantage had some system of shading been pur- 
sued to indicate relative importance. For 
example, the first map, which shows the Indiana 
localities, gives the valley of Assam coloured as 
fully and deeply as are Berar or Gujarat; all three 
might therefore be assumed to be equally 
important. So, again, while Prof. Todd gives 
the cotton areas of the United States of America 
as (approximately) 354, India 244, and Egypt 74 
million acres, the immense size of the green patch 
in the States conveys the impression of its being 
relatively larger than it is. It would have been a 
good plan, moreover, to have given numbers to 
the maps and to have shown these on the outside. 
In a like way we admit that trade names had to 
be given in a work of this nature, such as 
“Oomra-Wattee” (the modern Amraoti), but it 
would have facilitated reference had the ortho- 
graphy of the maps (Amraouati), at least, also ap- 
peared in the text. 
An appendix affords what would seem to be full 
statistics (not always, we presume, easy to pro- 
cure), and here brought into convenient form. A 
complete index has been given—a very necessary 
feature of a work of reference. The volume may 
be commended to persons in want of a book that 
deals briefly with every aspect of the commerce 
and agriculture of the world’s cotton crop. 
(2) Mr. Lawrence Balls’s work furnishes the 
conclusions arrived at during an endeavour to 
improve the Egyptian cotton staple. If we differ 
from him in certain particulars we fully recognise 
the value of his labours. As a student of biology 
Mr. Balls has rendered a useful service, his con- 
tributions to the cytology and physiology of the 
cotton plant being welcome and of considerable 
importance. But in another branch of his studies 
he seems to have laboured under a delusion. It 
was unfortunate that the great urgency for re- 
search into the growth of the plant justified, in 
his mind, the setting on one side the results and 
evidences of systematic botany. He thus may be 
spoken of as having attempted to organise re- 
search on the exclusive basis of old pedigree 
selection and peripatetic Mendelian cross-breed- 
ing of undetermined stocks. In other words, he 
assumes that every investigator must deal with 
existing stocks and procure from these pure 
strains, but make little or no effort to derive new 
strains from internal or external sources. 
As illustrative of Mr. Balls’s disregard for the 
opinions of systematists it may be pointed out 
that he characterises scientific names as ‘“ merely 
“ Hindu- 
