290 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1051 



forward so rapidly that important researches 

 of the past four or five years are not found 

 included in it. This defect, however, as inti- 

 mated above, may be regarded as compen- 

 sated for by the comprehensive and historical 

 sweep which characterizes Luoiani's survey of 

 the subject. W. B. Cannon 



The Wonder of Life. By J. Arthur Thom- 

 son. New York, Henry Holt and Company. 

 1914. 



Once more we are indebted to Professor 

 Thomson for a semipopular work on biology, 

 this time with contents of a very miscellaneous 

 character, better to reflect the varied aspects 

 of living nature. We have, in fact, a biolog- 

 ical (mainly zoological) scrap-book, full of 

 interesting matters gleaned from more or less 

 recent literature, carefully selected and di- 

 gested for our benefit. All this is loosely 

 thrown together under several general head- 

 ings, " The Drama of Life," " The Haunts of 

 Life," " The Insurgence of Life," " The Ways 

 of Life," " The Web of Life," " The Cycle of 

 Life " and " The Wonder of Life," with more 

 than 300 separate minor topics. Each chapter 

 is headed by a selection from the aphorisms of 

 Goethe, as translated by Huxley. The book is 

 admirably adapted for "supplementary read- 

 ing " in a course on biology or zoology, or it 

 might itself be made the basis of a seminar 

 course. Its great value lies in its wide scope 

 and breadth of view, with every emphasis on 

 vital phenomena rather than on morphological 

 details or classification. It is addressed, how- 

 ever, to an educated public, and even in places 

 presupposes more zoological knowledge than 

 most of us can boast. For example, on page 

 105 we are pulled up short by the startling 

 announcement that " no one expects to find a 

 Crustacean like Byotrephes longimanus in a 

 pond." It is probably true that very few have 

 ever approached a pond with any such expec- 

 tation ! Doubtless it is good for us, however, 

 to bump now and again into things we do not 

 understand, merely to diminish that conceit 

 which too readily develops after reading dis- 

 cussions so lucid as those of Professor Thom- 

 son. 



The specialist will here and there find things 

 not quite up to date, or stated without suffi- 

 cient reference to diverse points of view, but 

 the general impression gained is that the work 

 is admirably done, and that in all probability 

 no other naturalist could have done it better, 

 if so well. The illustrations, including many 

 colored plates, are pleasing and instructive, but 

 not up to the standard of the text. Some are 

 really bad, as Fig. 81, a colored plate of leaf- 

 insects (Phyllium). The coloring of the 

 foliage, to correspond with the insects, is un- 

 natural and without any adequate basis; while 

 the insects are dravm from mounted speci- 

 mens with the legs spread in the conventional 

 way, without any reference to the plant on 

 which they are supposed to be resting! The 

 most ridiculous object is the young one, shown 

 as resting on a nearly upright branch, with 

 its legs waving wildly in the air. The whole 

 thing is certainly, as it stands, a piece of 

 " nature-faking." Fig. 39, representing young 

 spiders, shows some of them with the head and 

 thorax separate, like an insect. 



There is a passage on page 595, beginning 

 the discussion of the Transmissibility of Ac- 

 quired Characters, which indicates that such 

 transmission is perfectly easy in unicellular 

 animals, which simply divide into two. Jen- 

 nings has well shown the fallacy of this naive 

 conception, and it seems surprising that Pro- 

 fessor Thomson should oifer it, not merely as 

 an idea, but as a well-knovm fact. 



t. d. a. cockerell 



Univeesity of Colorado 



SPECIAL ABTICLES 



MICRODISSECTION STUDIES ON THE GERM CELL^ 



This paper records a continuation of the ob- 

 servations published recently^ in Science on 

 the male germ cells of the grasshopper, 

 Disosteira Carolina^ and of the cockroach, 

 Periplaneta Americana. The cells were iso- 



1 Slightly modified from a paper read before 

 the American Society of Zoologists, Philadelphia, 

 December 29, 1914. 



2 Robert Chambers, Jr., ' ' Some Physical Prop- 

 erties of the Cell Nucleus," Science, N. S., XL., 

 p. 824, 1914. 



