NA TURE 



61 



THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1909. 



REGENERATION. 

 ExperimciUal-Zoologie. Part ii., Regeneration : Eine 

 Zusammenfassung der durch Versuche ermittelten 

 Gesetzmassigkeiten tierischer Wieder-erzeutjung. 

 By Dr. Hans Przibram. Pp. viii + 338; 16 plates. 

 (Leipzie; and Vienna : Franz Deuticke, 1909.) Price 

 14 marks. 



THE second part of Dr. Hans Przibram's " Experi- 

 mental Zoology " has so far only been published 

 in German, but it is to be hoped that an English 

 translation will follow tin due course. It will be a 

 matter for regret if the efforts of the Cambridge 

 University Press to provide English-speaking biologists 

 with standard editions of works which are otherwise 

 accessible only in a foreign language do not receive 

 sufficient support to justify their continuance. The 

 present volume, which is very considerably larger than 

 the first (reviewed in Nature, March 4, p. 2), deals 

 with the secondary aftergrowth of lost parts, embracing 

 the phenorhena of morphallaxis and deformation. 

 The allied subject of grafting, which finds a place in 

 Prof. Morgan's work on " Regeneration," published 

 eight years ago, is not systematically dealt with, but it 

 may well be that this is reserved for special treatment 

 in the final volume on function. The subject-matter of 

 the part now under notice is divided into eight 

 chapters, dealing successively with the different groups 

 of the animal kingdom, from the Protozoa to the 

 Vertebrata. To these is added a general summary, 

 containing an account of the general laws which 

 govern the regenerative processes and their develop- 

 ment in phylogeny. There are sixteen coloured plates, 

 which are bound at the end of the volume, but these 

 are so overcrowded with figures as to tend towards 

 confusion, and the execution is not good. The work is 

 adapted for purposes of reference rather than for con- 

 tinuous reading, and is furnished with an extensive 

 bibliography, in which few ortiissions are to be 

 detected. 



In dealing with the power of compensatory hyper- 

 trophy possessed by the generative glands, the author 

 alludes to the fact that although unilateral castration 

 is said to promote an increased growth on the part of 

 the remaining testis, the number of spermatozoa found 

 in the semen is very appreciably diminished, at least 

 according to Lohde's observations. These state- 

 ments, however, are not necessarily conflicting, since 

 Ancel and Bouin and others have shown that in all 

 probability the interstitial cells of the organs, and not 



: the spermatogenetic tissue, are responsible for the 

 normal testicular influence which is exerted upon the 

 secondary sexual characters and the organism as a 

 whole; and so it may perhaps be, in general, that it is 

 the interstitial rather than the seminiferous portion 

 of the testis which undergoes hypertrophy after one- 



I sided castration. Moreover, the time which Lohde 

 allowed to elapse after extirpating the sin^e testis 



^ was probably too short to admit of definite conclusions 



', being drawn regarding the power of compensation 

 possessed by the remaining testis. Dr. Przibram 

 NO. 2072, VOL. 81] 



notes the occurrence of thyroid regeneration following 

 the partial removal of that organ, but he omits to state 

 that in certain cases the parathyroids are capable of 

 regenerating tissue containing colloid substance, aiid 

 so resembling, if not identical with, normal thyroid 

 tissue. Neither does he mention that in rabbits and 

 other animals which can survive thyroidectomy the 

 function of the thyroid appears to be taken over by 

 the pituitary, in which the cells of the pars intermedia 

 show an increased activity, as manifested especially by 

 a greater secretion of colloid. Both these processes 

 are probably to be regarded as instances of functional 

 restitution in allied organs of the body. 



The regeneration of the uterine mucosa after par- 

 turition and menstruation is afluded to, but there is 

 no reference to Heape"s papers, which deal more fully 

 than any others with the nature of the post-menstrilal 

 recuperative processes. Futhermore, there are certain 

 omissions in the literature dealing with teratological 

 science. Nevertheless, the work, as it stands, contains 

 by far the inost comprehensive account of the subject 

 of regeneration that has as yet been written, and, as 

 such, it constitutes an important addition to the litera- 

 ture of experimental zoology. 



Francis H. A. Marshall. 



A NATURALIST JN TASMANIA. 

 A Naturalist in Tasmania. By G. Smith. Pp. 151. 

 (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1909.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 



T.-VSMANI.^ is the smallest of the Australian 

 States, and its scientific interest is out of all 

 proportion to its size, while its magnificent scenery, 

 picturesque lakes, rugged mountains, noble forests, 

 and its combination of vegetation of tropical luxuri- 

 ance with a temperate summer climate will always 

 make it one of the most attractive of Australian 

 tourist resorts. The State has still a small and scat- 

 tered population ; internal communication and railway 

 construction are e.xceptionally difficult, so, though it 

 was the second in date of Australian colonies, much 

 of the island is still very imperfectly known. 



Mr. Geofi'rey Smith, of New College, Oxford, 

 made an expedition to Tasmania in 1907-8, 

 aided by a British Association grant, in order to 

 investigate the primitive shrimps inhabiting its lakes. 

 The short volume gives a charmingly written narra- 

 tive of his journey, and it is illustrated by some of 

 Beattie's beautiful photographs and excellent draw- 

 ings of some Tasmanian animals, such as that of the 

 Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus), by Mr. Goodchild. 

 It is accompanied by a geological sketch-map based 

 on Johnston's. 



Mr. Geoffrey Smith is enthusiastic over the beauty 

 of Tasmanian scenery. He deals especially with the 

 districts near Hobart and around the Great Lake on 

 the Central Plateau. He gives a short note on the 

 aborigines, with illustrations both of their heads and 

 skulls. On the vexed question as to the relation of 

 the Tasmanians, he is emphatic (p. 28) that— 



"Whether the Tasmanian race ever inhabited the 

 mainland of Australia or not, it is certain that neither 

 in their phvsica! characters nor in their culture have 

 they anything to do with the Australian blacks, whose 



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