602 
on the inheritance of acquired conditions in 
the higher animals in which it is claimed that, 
notwithstanding Weismann to the contrary, 
there is distinct evidence of the inheritance of 
such conditions. This evidence is found in 
Stockard’s experiments of breeding from alco- 
holized guinea-pigs. Here we are confronted 
by the resurrection of a time-worn discussion, 
which had its origin, to a large extent, in a 
failure to understand the meaning attached by 
Weismann and biologists in general to the 
terms “congenital” and “acquired.” A con- 
genital variation is for them one directly due 
to a modification of the constitution of the 
germ cell, while one that was acquired had 
its origin independently of the germ cell and 
could be supposed to affect it only secondarily 
and indefinitely, if at all. Stockard’s cases 
are manifestly examples of a direct intoxica- 
tion of the germ cells, whereby these were 
impaired, the impairment being passed on 
through successive generations, just as changes 
due to the environment may be transmitted 
through several generations of bacteria. 
These cases do not therefore bear on the ques- 
tion of the inheritance of acquired variations, 
using that expression in the Weismannian 
sense, but they do show most admirably the 
cumulative effects resulting from the conjuga- 
tion in successive generations of vitiated germ 
cells. 
Dr. Adami does not, however, direct all his 
energies towards the discomfiture of biologists. 
In the concluding chapters of the lectures he 
assumes a constructive réle and outlines a 
theory of variation and differentiation which 
is worthy of serious consideration. It assumes 
as the structural units of the cell the complex 
protein molecules, each with numerous lightly 
linked side-chains and capable, therefore, of 
ready modification under changed conditions. 
The details of the theory can not be dis- 
cussed here and those interested must be re- 
ferred to the lectures and other contributions 
in which Professor Adami elaborates them, 
considering in a suggestive manner the phe- 
nomena of enzyme and hormone action and of 
immunity in the light of this chemico-phys- 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Von. XLVIIT. No. 1250 
ical hypothesis. The theory can not yet be 
taken as more than a suggestion, but if it 
can serve to diagrammatize for us other com- 
plicated phenomena as clearly as it has those 
of fertilization at the hands of Lillie it will 
become a useful working hypothesis. f 
The second part of the book consists for the 
most part of earlier articles and addresses 
containing the substance of the ideas that 
have been worked up into the Croonian Lee- 
tures, but to these some additional chapters 
are added, one for instance on the myelins 
and potential fluid crystalline bodies of the 
organism, another on the dominance of the 
nucleus (both reprints of lectures delivered 
twelve years ago) and another on adaptation 
and inflammation. The third and concluding 
section of the volume is entitled “ Growth and 
Overgrowth” and is a collection of addresses 
and articles dealing with the causation, char- 
acteristics and classification of tumors. 
J. P. McM. 
SPECIAL ARTICLES 
STYLONICHIA IMPALED UPON A FUNGAL 
FILAMENT 
Tur following observations of the curious 
result of the overzealous feeding activities of 
a protozoon were made during July, 1918, 
while the writer was giving the summer session 
courses in zoology at the State University of 
New Jersey and Rutgers Scientifie School. 
The material which furnished the organisms 
here described was obtained from the spray 
filter bed of a sewage disposal plant near 
Dunellen, New Jersey. The particular sample 
of this material in which the organisms were 
observed had stood over night in a test-tube 
and, for examination, a small amount was 
transferred with a pipette from the surface 
of the fluid in the test-tube to an ordinary 
microscopic slide. At the first glance through 
the microscope the material was seen to be 
swarming with Stylonichia, propably S. vorax 
Stokes. Upon moving the slide about, a mass 
of zoogloeal material was observed and from 
it some slender branching filaments were pro- 
jecting into the surrounding fluid. 
