August 3, 190(3.] 



SCIENCE. 



147 



of the experiments which led up to and estab- 

 lished the epoch-making discovery of artificial 

 parthenogenesis. 



In lecture X., on heredity, the following 

 subjects are discussed: the hereditary effects 

 of the spermatozoon and eggs; Mendel's im- 

 portant experiments; the mutation theory of 

 de Vries; the determination of sex; the rela- 

 tion of egg structure to heredity; the observa- 

 tions and experiments of Driesch and E. B. 

 Wilson. It does not seem to Loeb ' that a 

 discussion as to the relative influence of proto- 

 plasm and nucleus upon heredity will prove 

 very fertile, but that it is necessary to transfer 

 this problem as soon as possible from the field 

 of histology to that of chemistry or physical 

 chemistry.' 



Lecture XI. is on regeneration. Here again 

 the author has done a good deal of original 

 investigation and in some parts, as on hetero- 

 morphosis and on the influence of the central 

 nervous system, Loeb has done pioneer work. 

 He discusses the subject from the point of 

 view of Sachs's hypothesis of the formation of 

 organs. Loeb here refers the reader to Mor- 

 gan's writings on regeneration. 



In his concluding remarks (lecture XII.) 

 Loeb says among other things : " There is, 

 therefore, no reason to predict that abiogenesis 

 is impossible, and I believe that it can only 

 help science if the younger investigators real- 

 ize that experimental abiogenesis is the goal 

 of biology. On the other hand, * * * it is 

 not sufficient for this pui^jose to make proteins 

 synthetically, or to produce in gelatine or 

 other colloidal material round granules which 

 have an external resemblance to living cells." 



It is a very interesting book which instructs 

 and at the same time stimulates the reader to 

 independent thinking. 



S. J. Meltzer. 



ROCKEFELLEE INSTITUTE. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

 The American Naturalist for July contains 

 but two articles, 'Adaptive Modifications of 

 Occipital Condyles in Mammalia,' by Charles 

 S. Mead, and 'Living and Fossil Species of 

 Comptonia,' by Edward W. Berry. The 

 former notes the general adaptations of the 



condyles to permit the movement of the head, 

 the special modifications for carnivorous hab- 

 its and the arrangement of the condyles in 

 different orders. The second paper is an at- 

 tempt to work out the relations of such forras 

 as may be referred to Comptonia, discusses 

 the succession of forms and includes descrip- 

 tions of the species admitted by the writer, 

 with their synonymy. 



The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 

 June has ' Some Notes on a recent Trip to 

 Greece and the Greek Islands,' by Eobert E. 

 Martin, an article on ' National Art Patriot- 

 ism,' dealing with the purchase of a ' Venus 

 and Cupid ' ascribed to Velasquez for £45,000, 

 secured for the National Gallery through the 

 National Art Collections Eund, and an ac- 

 count of the ' New Natural History Museum 

 for Salford.' The organization of the Amer- 

 ican Museum Association is noticed, and it 

 should be said that the Museums Association 

 of Great Britain cabled its best wishes for the 

 successful inauguration and future progress 

 of the sister society. There is a very consid- 

 erable instalment of the British Museums 

 Directory, which includes such national insti- 

 tutions as the British Museum, Victoria and 

 Albert Museum and others. 



The leading article in the Journal of Nerv- 

 ous and Mental Disease for July is a paper 

 by Dr. Waldemar Heinrich Groszmann on 

 'The Position of the Atypical Child.' Dr. 

 Groszmann defines his terms very carefully, 

 giving in tabular form a STU*vey of the entire 

 range of child variation. He emphasizes the 

 fact that the atypical condition is a transitive 

 one and tends to become permanent either in 

 the direction of abnormality or of some degree 

 of typicality. He fijids it impossible to edu- 

 cate successfully such children in the ordinary 

 public and private schools in conjunction with 

 home environment, and believes that the solu- 

 tion of the problem lies in the institution 

 where the environment can be controlled and 

 adapted to the end in view. Dr. Archibald 

 Church reports a case illustrating the neuritic 

 type of progressive muscular atrophy with a 

 marked heredity, and a second on syringo- 

 myelia with involvement of cranial nerves. 



