November 19, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



493 



one feels the text might really have been dis- 

 pensed with entirely. 



!N"evertheles8 there are six and on.e half 

 pages of text, three of which, however, are 

 occupied by a philosophical discussion of 

 " What plant life is," the nature of " Sports," 

 and " Animal life in relation to plant life." 

 The relation of these introductory remarks to 

 the laws that follow is not clear; they never- 

 theless contain contributions to the subject of 

 evolution which are novel, and their inclusion 

 was presumably considered justified on their 

 own merits. We learn first that plant life is 

 a chemical process for catching the sign's rays 

 and depositing them on the earth in the form 

 of carbon. As with mortal souls, however, 

 the abode of carbon on the earth is but transi- 

 tory; "some day fire is set to it," whereupon 

 it disappears from the earth as gas and only 

 ashes remain. 



Early plants floated in moisture in a sexless 

 state, but they finally succeed in getting roots 

 into the soil, climbed out of the marshes and 

 developed sex, and so rose to the stage of seed 

 production. Until they got their toes into 

 terra firma evolution was slow, but that ad- 

 vantage once gained they " developed faster — 

 from grasses to shrubs, from shrubs to bushes 

 and from bushes to trees I " Animals also play 

 an important role in the cosmos, for we are 

 told : 



If it were not for the existence of animal life 

 the leaves, bark and general residue of vegetation 

 would, in a period of twenty-five years or there- 

 abouts, cover the ground to such a height that no 

 new vegetation could spring up and plant life 

 would annihilate itself, there being no decay. 



About three and one half pages are left for 

 the " laws," which are illustrated by diagrams 

 relating to relative size of flower or fruit or 

 other character of the plants to be crossed. 

 There are three possibilities: (1) The male 

 (pollen) parent may be smaller than the 

 female (ovule) parent, (2) they may be of the 

 same size, or (3) the male parent may be the 

 larger of the two. The first is the " declining 

 way " of breeding, for the offspring from such 

 crosses will be smaller even than the male 

 parent. The second is the " enlarging way," 



for when the parents are of the same size the 

 ofispring will be twice as large as their parents. 

 Not all of them will reach this maximum size, 

 we learn to our disappointment, but on the 

 average only 12 in 100. This may be brought 

 up to 40 per cent., nevertheless, in later gen- 

 erations. Finally, the third way is less im- 

 portant, for under these conditions the off- 

 spring are said to exceed the male parent only 

 slightly in size. 



Fortunately the benefits of these laws are 

 not limited to plants but may be applied in 

 animal breeding as well, as " exemplified by 

 chickens." Here the process is admittedly 

 complicated by the fact of " the sexes being 

 in different individuals," necessitating a back- 

 cross of the progeny with their male parent, 

 but the result is well worth the extra trouble, 

 for " of the offspring from this second fertili- 

 zation about one third are double the size of 

 the original parents." This may be a de- 

 sirable economic result so far, but one shud- 

 ders to think what may happen if the method 

 should be taken up by unthinking persons and 

 pushed to the limits of geometric progression. 

 The author truly says that " few people at the 

 present time realize the immensity of this 

 discovery to mankind." He himself modestly 

 admits that it is "equal to the discovery of 

 electricity, if not greater." And any one may 

 take advantage of it by ptu-chasing the book- 

 let for the sum of five dollars — as indicated 

 by another rubber stamp. 



A book of this character would scarcely be 

 deserving of so much attention if it were not 

 for the fact that it is likely to be taken 

 seriously by a great many people. There is 

 just enough of fact in some of the statements 

 to make the conclusions seem plausible to one 

 not familiar with genetic interpretations. For 

 example, it is stated that in attempting to 

 derive new colors, a white flower should be 

 used as the pollen parent. Every geneticist 

 knows that white flowers may carry a great 

 variety of genes for color which can find 

 expression only when a cross is made which 

 brings in an activator for them. Similarly, 

 some of the facts stated in relation to size 

 inheritance may be true in the instances 



