July 30, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



155 



standpoint of the work give no excuse for even 

 the most careless reader to carry away the 

 notion that a deft manipulation of equations 

 will per se ever solve a biological problem. 

 On the whole the book is an interesting and 

 suggestive introduction to the general subject 

 of " mathematical biology." 



Raymond Pearl 



Archiv fiir Zellforschung. Herausgegeben 



von Dr. Eichard Goldschmidt, Miinchen. 



Leipzig, Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann. 



Cytology has grown so rapidly within the 

 last decade that it is already one of the im- 

 portant subdivisions of biology and the jour- 

 nals devoted to morphology and physiology 

 are no longer able to provide for the publica- 

 tion of the constantly increasing output of 

 research in this field. Furthermore in the 

 study of the cell, which is the ultimate inde- 

 pendent unit of all organic structure and 

 function, the subdivisions of biology into 

 botany and zoology, morphology and physiol- 

 ogy, have less value than in the study of less 

 general structures and functions ; in the study 

 of the cell all biological sciences come to a 

 focus, the cytologist is not, or at least should 

 not be, exclusively a zoologist, a botanist, a 

 morphologist or a physiologist, but all of 

 these combined. The scattering of cytological 

 literature through the journals of all of these 

 special sciences makes it much less accessible 

 to the student of the cell and tends to empha- 

 size distinctions which are here worse than 

 useless. Finally the problems of cytology are 

 of such general and fundamental interest that 

 they well deserve and should well support 

 special publications in this field. 



Almost twenty-five years ago the late Pro- 

 fessor Carnoy established the journal La Cel- 

 lule, which has ever since continued to be 

 published in beautiful and sumptions form; 

 from the first, however, it was devoted very 

 largely to the work of Carnoy and his pupils 

 and its raison d'etre was the propagation of 

 the views of a particular school. Of late 

 there has been very urgent and increasing 

 need of a general journal devoted exclusively 

 to cytology and representing no particular 



school or propaganda. Such a journal is the 

 Archiv fiir Zellforschung, edited by Dr. 

 Eichard Goldschmidt, of Munich, and pub- 

 lished by W. Engelmann, of Leipzig. The 

 first number of this journal appeared in Feb- 

 ruary, 1908, and the first volume, consisting 

 of four numbers, was completed in July of 

 the same year; a second volume has appeared 

 since then. Each volume consists of about 

 600 pages and 20 lithographic double-plates, 

 with numerous text figures. The Archiv re- 

 ceives and publishes contributions in the 

 German, French, English and Italian lan- 

 guages, supplies authors with 40 separata 

 gratis, and pays an honorarium of 40 Marks 

 per signature of sixteen pages for contribu- 

 tions of not more than four signaturas. In 

 paper, typography and illustrations the new 

 journal shows the usual German excellence, 

 while the character of the contributions is of 

 a very high order, as is indicated by the fol- 

 lowing lists of contents of the first volume: 

 Eichard Hertwig, " Ueber neue Probleme der 

 Zellenlehre " ; G. Tischler, " Zellstudien an 

 sterilen Bastardpflanzen " ; A. und K. E. 

 Schreiner, " Zur Spermienbildung der Myxi- 

 noiden " ; Eichard Goldschmidt, " Ueber das 

 Verhalten des Chromatins bei der Eireifung 

 und Befruchtung des Dicroccelium lanceatum; 

 Methodi Popoff, Experimentelle Zellstudien " ; 

 M. G. Sykes, " Nuclear Division in Funkia "; 

 J. Duesenberg, " Les divisions des Spermato- 

 cytes chez le Eat " ; Kristine Bonnevie, 

 " Chromosomenstudien " ; M. G. Sykes, " Note 

 on the Number of the Somatic Chromosomes 

 in Funhia "; Honore Lams, " Les divisions 

 des Spermatocytes chez la Fourmi (Catn- 

 ponotus herculaneus) "; Alfred Kiihn, "Die 

 Entwicklung der Keimzellen in der partheno- 

 genetischen Generationen der Cladoceren 

 Daphnia pulex "; Vladislav Euzicka, " Zur 

 Kentnis der Natur und Bedeutung des Plas- 

 tins " ; E. Fick, " Zur Konjugation der Chro- 

 mosomen " ; Friedr. Meves, " Es gibt keine 

 parallele Konjugation der Chromosomen!" E. 

 Goldschmidt, " 1st eine parallele Chromo- 

 somenkonjugation bewiesen?" 



The second volume is equally meritorious, 

 and the abundance of such excellent contribu- 



