292 



NATURE 



[May 22, 1913 



HEREDITY AND RELATED STUDIES. 



(1) Vererbungsichre. Mit besonderer Beriick- 

 sichtigung des Menschen, fur Studierende, 

 Aerzte und Zuchter. By Dr. Ludwig Plate. 

 Pp. xii + 519 + 3 plates. (Leipzig: W. Engel- 

 inann, 1913-) Price 18 marks. 



(2) Genetics: An Introduction to the Study of 

 Heredity. By Prof. H. E. Walter. Pp. xiv + 

 272. (New York: The Macmillan Company; 

 London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1913-) Price 

 65. 6d. net. 



(3) The Fitness of the Environment : An Inquiry 

 into the Biological Significance of the Properties 

 of Matter. By Prof. L. J. Henderson. Pp. 

 xv + 317. (New York: The Macmillan Com- 

 pany; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1913.) 

 Price 6s. 6d. net. 



(4) Moderne Probleme der Biologie. Prof. C. S. 

 Minot. Pp. vii+in. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 

 1913.) Price 3 marks. 



(5) Vortrage iiber Deszendenstheorie. By August 

 Weismann. Dritte umgearbeitete Auflage. 

 Erster Band and Zweiter Band. Pp. xiv+342 

 + vii + 354 + 3 plates. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 

 1913.) Price 13 marks. 



(0 "T)ROF PLATE'S excellent book gives a 

 IT clear and comprehensive account of the 

 present state of the study of heredity. The author 

 is already known as an experimental investigator 

 on the genetics of coat colour in mice, and as a 

 student of heredity in man. Moreover, as the 

 volume shows, he has a wide knowledge of the 

 literature. The chief feature of the book, in which 

 it differs most from works of a kindred nature, is 

 the amount of space allotted to human heredity. 

 Nearly one-fifth of the book is devoted to this 

 subject, and most cases of which anything is 

 known in man come in for review. It is cer- 

 tainly the best general account of this side yet 

 written, and for this reason, if for no other, 

 should be of special value to students of eugenics 

 and to medical men. We notice that the author 

 still adheres to the ingenious theory which he put 

 forward some two years ago to account for the 

 peculiar phenomena of inheritance in cases such 

 as colour-blindness and haemophilia, where the un- 

 affected females transmit the affection to their 

 sons. The theory is largely based upon the un- 

 usual proportions of the sexes in certain matings 

 among such families. Lenz, however, has re- 

 cently suggested that these proportions are due to 

 the way in which the material is necessarily 

 selected, and that Plate's explanation is probably 

 incorrect. The volume is attractively and clearly 

 written, and is well illustrated with more than 170 

 figures and three coloured plates. 

 >:o. 2273, vol. 91] 



(2) Prof. Walter states explicitly in his intro- 

 duction that he is not engaged in research in the 

 subject of which he treats. The book professes to 

 be but a summary which may be useful in college 

 courses, and of interest to the general reader, nor 

 does the author aim at more than "out of the 

 jargon of many tongues to raise a single voice 

 which shall attempt to tell the tale of heredity." 

 As a tale to be told the book cannot be judged a 

 success. It gives one the impression of lecture 

 notes carefully taken and displayed under appro- 

 priate labels. ' There is a little about much, and 

 on the whole the information given is sound 

 second-hand. The only attempt at originality is 

 to be found in some of the diagrams. It is always 

 refreshing to get away from the hackneyed stock, 

 but we cannot help feeling that in some cases the 

 author has got a little too far away. Fig. 2 is 

 intended to illustrate the continuity of protoplasm, 

 but it inevitably challenges comparison with a 

 Cubist picture. Fig. 31, "a diagram to illustrate 

 various ideas about species," calls to mind what 

 is occasionally to be seen in an elementary 

 student's notebook naively labelled "Amoeba," 

 while fig. 45 looks like the plan of a theatre 

 auditorium somehow disarticulated. But perhaps 

 it is ungrateful to criticise originality, and the 

 book will doubtless be found of use by the student 

 who wishes to "get up" the subject for examina- 

 tion in the shortest time. 



(3) The genesis of this volume is explained in 

 the opening sentences of the preface. 



"Darwinian fitness is compounded of a mutual 

 relationship between the organism and the en- 

 vironment. Of this, fitness of the environment is 

 quite as essential a component as the fitness which 

 arises in the process of organic evolution ; and in 

 fundamental characteristics the actual environ- 

 ment is the fittest possible abode of life. Such is 

 the thesis which the present volume seeks to 

 establish." 



Rather on the lines of the old Bridgewater 

 treatises, which he has evidently studied, the 

 author proceeds to argue that the more recent 

 discoveries in the realms of physics and chemistry 

 all confirm the idea that from the inorganic side 

 this is the fittest of all possible worlds to form an 

 environment for living matter. Water in respect 

 to all its many properties is the fittest of fluids 

 to exist in the quantities that it does, and in the 

 author's opinion it would be to introduce a serious 

 element of unfitness were it replaced, for example, 

 by liquid ammonia. Carbon dioxide also shows 

 itself 



"in its physico-chemical traits variously fitted 

 for the organic mechanism. Less various, to be 

 sure, and less obvious than those of water,_ such 

 fitnesses as it does possess are quite as genuine." 



