Kleinere Mitteilungen. 
Mendeldenkmal in Briinn. In Briinn wurde am 2. Oktober in Gegen- 
wart einer großen Zahl von Biologen aus Österreich, Deutschland, England, 
Frankreich, Italien, Schweden, Holland usw. ein würdiges Denkmal für 
Gregor Mendel enthüllt. B. 
Quatriéme Conference Internationale de Génétique. Gemäß den Be- 
schlüssen der 3. internationalen ,,Conference on Genetics“ zu London 1906 
findet der nächste Kongreß in Paris statt. Das Organisationskomitee hat 
soeben die Einladungen ergehen erlassen. Als Zeitpunkt sind die Tage vom 
18.—23. September 1911 gewählt worden. Sekretär des Organisations- 
kommitees, an den alle Korrespondenz zu richten ist, ist Herr Ph. L. 
de Vilmorin Paris 66 Rue Boissicre. B. 
Referate. 
Reid, G. Archdall, The laws of heredity. 8vo. pp. XII +548. London 1910. 
This large volume of over 500 pages contains a series of discursive 
essays on many topics, and the title gives very little clue to the nature 
and variety of the contents. The book would seem to fall into two parts; 
at any rate there is a distinct break between the first ten chapters and 
the last fifteen. After discussing the characters of living beings, the method 
of development and the method of Science, the author endeavours to present 
his point of view towards those aspects of biological enquiry which are 
usually included under the terms variation and heredity. According to 
him heredity is not, and cannot be an exact Science because when two 
germ-cells are united it is impossible to foresee the exact nature of the 
product. Having taken up this position it becomes necessary to dispose 
of the Mendelian conception of unit characters and segregation which in 
many cases has allready enabled the student of genetics to predict with 
certainty the results of crossing together different varieties of plants and 
animals. This he does by stating “that the inheritance of Mendelian 
“characters is of the same type as that of the sexual characters, and 
“therefore that, instead of segregation and gametic purity, what really 
“occurs is patency and latency’. But what it is that determines “patency 
and latency” is not considered. It is to be regretted that the author has 
